Use the Status Update box on your LinkedIn Company Page to keep followers up to date with your new products, services, events, members of staff etc.  To activate the Status Update box follow these steps:

From your Company Page click Admin Tools and then click Edit

Click the option that says ‘Designated Users Only’, then in the Manage Admins box start typing the name of the person will will be managing it.

Click Publish.

The Status Update box will then appear for you to type in and add links to.

For news and updates from me visit my LinkedIn Company Page and click the follow button

A 

is for Autoresponder

If you’ve ever signed up for a discount coupon, free report or ebook download on a Facebook Page or a website you would have entered your email address into an ‘opt-in’ form.  This means that you give permission for that company to send you further emails.  The emails you receive after you’ve downloaded the free report are a way for that company to start building a better relationship with you.  They might send you more free information, ask you if you enjoyed the report or if you have any questions about it.  Eventually the company will email you details of products or services they think you will be interested in buying in the hope that by this time you’ve grown to know, like and trust in them and what they do.

This series of emails you receive have likely been set up in advance and are called Autoresponders which means that every time someone enters their email address into the opt-in form those details are put into a database list on email marketing software such as Aweber or Mailchimp.  This then triggers the autoresponders.  The emails you recieve will have an unsubscribe button at the bottom for you to click on if you want to stop receiving them.

The company who set the autoresponders up are able to see which people on their list are opening each email and what links within the email they are clicking on.  This enable the company to tweak their subject line or email content if they find not many people are taking action.  The opt-in form and autoresponder are excellent social media marketing tools to help a company build a list of people interested in their product or service and they work best with an initial compelling free offer.

Next week - B is for Blogging

I had this revelation recently after my daughter’s ‘Northern Lights’ predicament.  We live in the North East of England and she’d read something on Facebook that you could see the Northern Lights really well from Whitley Bay.  She passed her driving test about 2 years ago and has her own car so her and her boyfriend decided to go and take a look.  I rang her about an hour later to ask if she could see them – her reply was ‘No, I’m in North Shields’.  Puzzled by this I asked her why she was in North Shields when she’d heard they could be seen in Whitley Bay!?  Her answer:  I don’t know how to get to Whitley Bay but I know how to get to North Shields!!!

How do I tie that in with social media marketing you might ask

My point is this:  My daughter knew how to drive, she understood what pedals to push, she could read the dials that told her what speed she was doing and she could recite the highway code, she even knew where she wanted to go … but without planning how to get there, what roads to take, she didn’t reach her intended destination and unfortunately didn’t achieve her objective of seeing the Northern Lights.

In social media marketing the tools you use are like the car – you need to know how to use Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, YouTube etc. to be able to drive them, you need to know what features are available to help you.  Just like setting off on a journey in a car you need to start with an objective in mind – where are you going (why are you using social media)? Just like a journey you need to plan how you’re going to get there - what you’re going to do to help you acheive the objectives you set at the start.

In social media marketing you need to address the 3 key areas -

WHY you’re using social media in the first place, what are your objectives?

HOW to use the social media tools that are the best fit for you

and WHAT are you going to say once you’re on there – what is your content plan?

If you forget about one of them then you’ll end up like my daughter – disappointed that you didn’t see the Northern Lights!

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Find out where your customers are and what they’re talking about with a social media monitoring platform.

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If one of your social media objectives is lead generation here are 5 tips to help you:

1. LinkedIn:  Join some groups – comment on existing discussions and start your own discussions.  Notifications are sent to group members when a comment is made or a discussion is started which means if your group has 1000 members in it you have the potential to make yourself known to all of them.  Connect with the people involved in the discussion, you’ve obviously got something in common – they could be a prospective customer or someone you could collaborate with.
2. LinkedIn:  Use the Answers section.  Thousands of people ask questions on LinkedIn every day.  Take a look at the category you have expertise in and try and answer 2 or 3 questions a week – you’ll soon become the go-to person for that subject.  Connect with the person asking the question, see if you can help them with anything else.
3. Twitter:  Customise your Twitter background to include a call to action – direct people to a free report that can be downloaded from your website in exchange for their email address.  Create a Twitter background for free at www.twitbacks.com.
4. Twitter:  Create tweets that have a link to your blog posts.  Make sure your blog page has an email capture form.  People are more likely to give you their details if you can give them a compelling free offer in exchange!
5. Facebook:  Create a Welcome Page that includes an email capture form – again use your compelling free offer – add a short video introducing yourself and explain exactly what they’re going to get.

If you found these tips useful you can get 365 more!  My new Ebook ’365 Social Media Tips‘ is available for download now!