Digital Marketing Guide for Authors & Online Entrepreneurs | Denise Wakeman

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LinkedIn Visibility Strategies for Entrepreneurs | Adventures in Visibility with Viveka von Rosen

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“Your business’s LinkedIn profile is your launchpad for success. It is the foundation on which your marketing strategy is built, making it one of the most important tools in your arsenal.”

Viveka von Rosen, LinkedIn Expert

In the “green room” with Viveka von Rosen before the show starts.

Viveka von Rosen is one of the top LinkedIn Experts and my go-to gal for all things LinkedIn. She’s passionate about using and showing others how to optimally use LinkedIn. Viveka’s positive, fun-loving style makes it easy to learn and implement her LinkedIn strategies.  In this adventure we explore visibility tactics you, as an entrepreneur can implement to get better results as well as get some behind-the-scenes insights on how LinkedIn is evolving. [Read more…]

9 Ways To Make LinkedIn More Social

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Everyone has their favorite Social Media Channel. If you’d measure the fame of each, LinkedIn would probably lose this popularity contest. It’s has the reputation of being the “Chamber of Commerce” among the social networks. I often hear “LinkedIn is boring” or “There’s nothing social about LinkedIn”.

Well, I think people who say that, simply don’t use LinkedIn to it’s fullest potential. LinkedIn is the ideal platform for service based entrepreneurs, as long as they know a few rules and make the LinkedIn experience a social one.

9 ways to make your networking on LinkedIn more social

1. Your summary shouldn’t read like a CV: it starts with your summary. I still see many LinkedIn summaries which read like a resume. “Sarah Santacroce is a small business marketing mentor. She helps entrepreneurs… “ Forget that. Own your LinkedIn profile ! Treat it like your “About” page on your website. Use the first person: “I am a small business marketing mentor”.

2. Add some personal info at the bottom of your summary: If you feel comfortable with it, add a few lines of personal information. It makes you more personal & approachable. Here’s what I have on mine:

3. Add a video: you can even add a little welcome video which will play automatically, welcoming visitors to your profile & telling them in a few sentences what you do. Unfortunately there is no option to play it only on demand – it automatically starts playing when people visit your profile. I learned this from the one and only Lewis Howes. Read his article on how to do this.

4. Always personalize your invitations: LinkedIn is kind enough to offer default messages when you invite someone to connect. Thank you, but no thank you. Never, ever use those standard messages. They mean “I don’t care, I don’t even take 30 seconds to personalize this invitation”. So next time, take the time, explain how you’ve met & why you’d like to connect. Not only is there a higher chance that your invitation is accepted, but you will also be remembered more easily.

5. Take initiative: when people send you default invitations, decide whether this person is of value to your network. If yes, then accept their invitation but take initiative & reach out to them. Say something like “Hi Peter, I gladly accept your invitation to connect. Out of curiosity, where did you come across my profile? I look forward to being in touch. Best wishes – Sarah” This way, you establish a first contact & are not only a number in the other person’s network, but a real connection. If you’re not sure which requests to accept, read about My LinkedIn Connection Strategy. 

6. Comment on people’s status updates: when you see a status update you find interesting, comment on it. Use people’s first names, thank them for sharing or share their update with your network. It’s a Win-Win: their post gets more visibility because your comment shows up in your network – and your profile gets more visibility because it shows up next to their comment on their network.

7. Reach out to people who viewed your profile: on your home page you have a little box that tells you who’s viewed your LinkedIn profile. Reach out to them, tell them that you have seen that they had a look at your profile & that you had a look at theirs & then invite them to connect. Most of the time people were just too shy to invite you but happily accept your invitation. 

8. Add the Amazon Reading list application: if you read a lot, why not share with your network which books you enjoyed most. The Amazon Reading list application is ideal for that. Of course if you have published your own books, don’t forget to add those!

9. Be a connector on LinkedIn. If you know two people who should know each other, introduce them. You can simply send out a message, via LinkedIn, to both of them. “Jane, meet Joe. Joe, meet Jane” and then explain why you are connecting the two. This will always pay back in the long run, but for now you are simply doing a good thing that maybe will help two people…

Now it’s your turn. Which other ways do you use to make the LinkedIn experience more social? I’d love to hear about them in the comments below.

About the Author

Sarah Santacroce helps small business owners and coaches to find their place in today’s online world, increase their visibility & brand awareness. To find out more about her go to http://www.simplicityadmins.ch/about.

Facebook Continues to Dominate as Social Network of Choice

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In a recent poll I asked you to vote on the primary social network you use for your business, where you spend most of your time for business (not personal). I limited it to the top five: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and YouTube. As you can see in the results below, Facebook beat the others by two to one.

Interesting to me was that Twitter and LinkedIn were tied. Google+ got only 2 votes which isn't too surprising since it's a very young network and no one voted for YouTube. That tells me most people use YouTube either 1) not at all or 2) as a secondary site for boosting visibiltiy and traffic. When I asked a similar question in 2010, Twitter came in second with LinkedIn well behind. So it appears LinkedIn is gaining ground as an important site for businesses to be using for their networking.

Of course there is nothing scientific about this poll. Asking one question doesn't provide a full picture of who and how businesses in my network are using these sites. The next questioni is: does your business cater primarily to other businesses (B to B) or to consumers (B to C)?

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What’s the Primary Social Networking Site You Use for Your Business? [poll]

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Every now and then I like to take your pulse and find out where you stand with using social networking sites for your business. It's been awhile since I asked so I figured it's time for another poll.

The last time I asked (in 2008!), I included blogs, Flickr and MySpace. At the time, blogs edged out Facebook by a few percent. In May 2010, I posed the hypothetical question: if you could only use one social networking site, which one would it be….Facebook beat Twitter and LinkedIn.

This time, I'm most interested in social networking sites, not blogs. The landscape has changed a bit and now includes Google+. While there are hundreds of niche social networking sites, I'm interested in knowing which of the "big 5" you're using to promote and build your business.

Please select the PRIMARY social networking site you use for your business. I realize you most likely use multiple sites, however, I'm curious where you spend most of your energy to attract and connect with clients and prospects, as well as promote your business.

I would love to hear your thoughts on why you use one site over another or if you have changed your focus from one site to another and why. Please post your comments below.

Me? I find myself gravitating from Facebook to LinkedIn more and more. I've found the level of business-related conversation and traffic back to my blog, better since starting a group on LinkedIn. Many of my colleagues feel the depth of connection is better on Google+, though the jury is still out for me since very few people in my community have migrated over there yet. 

I look forward to your response!

Are Your Social Networks Getting Out of Control?

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With the introduction of Google Plus to the social networking mix, how are you managing your social networking? 

If you want to maintain a viable presence on a Facebook page, on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and now Google+, where do you spend your energy and how do you decide what to post where?

I've been pondering this question for a few days. Mari Smith asked her G+ followers and I have posed the question to my Online Visibility Boost Group on LinkedIn.

While there are tools to help with posting content (I use Hootsuite), I think the bigger question is WHAT type of content do you post on each site? I've been on Google+ for about a week now and I've noticed lots of videos and pictures along with prolific article sharing and tons of commenting. As expected, a lot of the content is about Google+ and the 10+ million users are tech savvy, early adopters. There's also quite a bit of personal conversation going on. The cool thing about Google+ is how granular you can segment your contacts and choose very specifically who will see what.

If you are new to Google+ and want a good getting started overview, check out this article on Social Media Examiner. If you're already using G+ and would like to connect with me there, please add me to a Circle. If you would like a G+ invite, post your request in the comments and I'll send you one.

Right before Google+ launched, I started a LinkedIn group for entrepreneurs interested in boosting their online visibility. I'd been contemplating this for a while as I've become increasingly frustrated with Facebook and their complex algorithms which make it so difficult to get your content seen by your "likers". I've been pleasantly surprised by how fast the group has grown (315 members in just 2 weeks) and active discussions going on every day. So far the group is not spammy is generally focused on members sharing content and tips about their businesses so we can help each other get more visibility.

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