Posts Tagged ‘social’

After a mind-blowing October and November, I’m finally getting back to the Series on how to leverage Linkedin from an enterprise perspective. However, technically-speaking, the last post for ICMG was really along the same conversation. A popular post in terms of views, that post amplified the specific activities for a typical professional to influence and impact their professional environment. Yes, Online Reputation Management (ORM) and Organizational Voice (OV) are both REALLY BIG deals.

Speaking on eWOM at World Usability Day - funny image!

You can look at this enterprise topic from multiple angles. Two angles for sure are:

1. How do we as Clients, Partners, and Fans engage WITH the Brands we do business with?
2. How do we as Brands earn, foster, and build engagement FROM our Clients, Partners, and Fans?

I’d like to shine the light on the latter. Restated, what specific activities can we as the enterprise do to earn engagement and interaction from our Clients, Partners, and Fans, specifically within the Linkedin environment. And how will these efforts payoff in measurable ROI.

A note to readers. If I may be quite direct, as I’ve been saying for the last three years, “Lurking is Lame”. I’ll go further than that now – it’s quite unacceptable to consume only, never Comment, never Share, never add value. Here’s the thing: If you’re going to take the time to absorb content, and if you find it helpful, don’t you see how just walking away without contributing is a bit off? It would be like attending in person a session that someone put effort in to develop, and that you paid for in either time or money, finding value in it, and then simply walking out without even taking the time to acknowledge, stop and thank the speaker, perhaps grab a business card for follow-up, or asking a question or making a comment during the session. So please consider some sort of action – do something with the content you consume. At a bare minimum, if you like the post, Share it. It only takes a few minutes to add value. Make a habit of it. (Btw, that adds to YOUR ORM and OV, right???)

First, what does it mean to “earn” engagement FROM our Clients, Partners, and Fans? I’ll use the analogy of the conference again. Suppose you are a new member of an association and you go to the first couple association meetings. At those meetings, you (and probably your boss) are so excited to be in the presence of all these new, targeted prospects, and driving so hard to justify the expense, that you go up to everyone you meet, introduce yourself, and immediately launch into a pitch about your products and services. So for two meetings in a row, you done nothing but “sell”. No listening to what others do, no volunteering to help the association in some way through your talents, no fostering conversations at the breakfast tables, instead “just sell baby”. Obviously an extreme example (though not really, I’ve seen this recently as I’m sure you have as well), but you get the point. If this were the case, would you reasonably expect anyone in the association to give you any positive props or mentions at any point at all? Probably not.

Now contrast that with the flip side. All you do is listen and volunteer and never mention exactly what you do. So everyone ‘Likes’ you but no one has any idea why you’re there or what you do. Also an extreme example on the other end of the spectrum. Also not appropriate.

Relative to the concept of ‘earned media’, the holy grail lies somewhere in between. That’s the goal, that’s the target. How do we do enough selling/marketing so that people know what we do and we stay top-of-mind for that function (and rank high in search along the way), but we also listen, help, and add value along the way? And what is that balance? I’ve heard it said that you can think of it in terms of a 10:1 ratio – 10 acts of added value for every 1 act of selling.

It’s critically important to understand this point. Earned media is/will be an essential element in the near future of sales and marketing.

What does “Earned Media” look like inside of Linkedin? Here are the spots to look for earned media and mentions. Once you understand the locations, and then combine that with the a for-mentioned concept of sales-versus-valueadd, you’ll quickly get the point. Again these are all Linkedin spots:

1. Company Page Recommendations
2. Company Page Status Updates
3. Individual Recommendations
4. Individual Status Updates
5. Group Mentions
6. Answers Mentions
7. Company Buzz Mentions
8. Twitter-integration Mentions
9. Of course, Employee Mentions
10. Employee Activities

These are a few of the hot spots. If you know any others, please Comment.

So what to you do with these and where does earned media come into play?

Company Page Recommendations:

Obvious caveat: The brand must do a great job in adding value and servicing its clients. “Astroturfing”, or getting your brother-in-law to say something nice about you in spite of poor service, inflated prices, etc., will be discovered and exposed, and will further exacerbate the original problems. Trust that.

Sample Linkedin Product Recommendation on a Company Page (click to enlarge)

Once you have the Company profile in place on Linkedin, be sure to add the tabs that allow you to feature your products and/or services. At that point, in these early days of Linkedin, it’s a simple matter of asking some of your Clients, Partners, and Fans to hit the page and make a Comment. Here’s a great example from HubSpot. Notice the inherent Linkedin functionality associated with the Recommendation and how it reinforces the relevance and influence of the Recommendation. Notice also that there is a Share button on the page. Did you know that brand advocates are 83% more likely to Share a page, all the more so when they’ve engaged with the content in some way, put their personal virtual fingerprints on the page? Do you see how these things work together to create earned media and viral marketing? (see more stories on this here)

Company Page Status Updates:

We all know that personal Status Updates (aka Shares on your Linkedin Homepage newsfeed) have the potential of being seen by your network. Going further, most know that if your network Likes or Comments on something YOU shared, THEIR network has the potential of seeing it and sharing it – and so on. (I saw one guy who posted a bet he made with his boss that his boss would give him $1 for every Like and Comment he got on a post about the utility of Linkedin. At that point, the guy had the usual couple hundred Connections. Well, his update went viral inside Linkedin. I’m not sure I remember exactly what I last saw or where it sits today, but after a few weeks the guy’s boss owed him SEVERAL THOUSAND bucks.)

As with personal, the same functionality applies to Company Status Updates. The Status Updates are obviously not earned media, but Likes, Comments, and Shares of those updates are. When the Status Updates appear in Followers Newsfeeds, if people are fans of the brand and appreciate the content of the item, there’s a good chance they will Likes, Comments, and/or Shares, especially if they’ve advanced in their Social maturity beyond the previously mentioned lurking stage. Those actions then become the earned media, the holy grail of Social Media Marketing. Nuf said.

Well, that’s all I have time for at this point. I’ll continue the dialog on the finer points of the other seven items next time.

Meantime, I’m greatly looking forward to ICMG first week of February, PIMA the next week, perhaps the ACT Conference, perhaps SWSX in March, and a VERY exclusive Enterprise Social Tech day-long Boot Camp for C-level insurance executives, also in March in Charlotte – a busy Q1.

Again, please Like, Comment, and Share. Let’s see if I can earn some media myself! Thanks in advance. Merry Christmas!!! Emmanuel.

ICMG, an insurance industry association I’ve been involved in since 2004 (thanks to John Kertis), asked me to write up a little something about Linkedin that might be helpful to the membership, and by extension, the organization. (These Comments also seem to be relevant to any industry association, Linkedin Group, and/or professional.)

Fall 2011 on Clairhaven

Frequently I’ve heard and seen the following Comments about Linkedin and Social Technologies….

“I don’t really know that much about it. I’m accepting connection requests, but that’s about it. Who has the time for all that anyway…”

“I’ve joined a couple industry groups, but to be candid, I’m not really participating. I’m barely keeping up with regular email, let alone social networking…”

“I’ve got a profile in there, but I can’t remember my password…”

“I really don’t get the whole Social Networking thing. When I need to speak with someone, I just pick up the phone and call them. If they’re interested, they’ll call me back…”

“I doubt people ever search for me online. Why would they do that, anyway?”

“Social networking is for people that sell to individuals, not businesses. Insurance AGENTS should be using that stuff, but not me. I sell to company executives and they don’t use Linkedin and all that…”

“It’s impossible to keep up with all that Social stuff. As soon as I’ve got something at least somewhat figured out, they go and change it on me…”

“My company blocks access to Social sites like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Linkedin is open, but people frown on it when you update your profile or status. People think you’re looking for a new job…”

“Look Mike, I can see why YOU want everyone to use all these Social things because you’re in that business. But… I’m a deal-maker… OR I run an insurance agency… OR I’m selling services to insurance marketing executives… OR I work in the Senior market… OR I recruit, train, and support 1000s of agents…. I don’t have time for Social Networking. Plus the people I work with aren’t using it or even asking about it. So it’s a waste of time for me. I’ve got a job to do and numbers to hit…”

On the surface, these are all legit Comments, no doubt about it. However, we all know the common euphemisms that apply to Comments such as these. I won’t take the time to restate the common and standard responses, such as “Well, if ‘everyone else’ is jumping off a cliff, does that make it right?” Instead, let me point out some statistics and other data-points that might lead the reader to decide to take a different path, more forward-looking and though-leader’ish.

A few data-points about Social Networks in general:

65% of Adult Americans that use the Internet use Social Networks
http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Social-Networking-Sites.aspx

93% of Americans believe that a company should have a presence on social media sites and 85 percent believe that these companies should use these services to interact with consumers.
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/study_social_media_presence.php

The top age group, by volume, that uses Social, is 35-44; second is 45-54.
http://derekshowerman.com/2011/07/07/age-demographics-for-social-media-usage/

Retirees age 65 and older are the fastest-growing group of social networking site users.
http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/planning-to-retire/2011/08/30/retirees-fastest-growing-users-of-social-networks

Social network use among Internet users 50 years old and older has nearly doubled to 42% over the past year.
http://mashable.com/2011/04/06/baby-boomers-digital-media/

A few data-points about Linkedin in general:

In June 2011, LinkedIn had 33.9 million unique visitors, up 63 percent from a year earlier. (1)
As of March 2011 the service had 44 million users in the US and 56 million outside. (1)
LinkedIn members are on pace to do more than four billion searches on LinkedIn in 2011. (2)
The average American has 634 ties in their overall network and technology users have bigger overall networks. (3)
(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linkedin
(2) http://blog.linkedin.com/
(3) http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Technology-and-social-networks/Part-3/SNS-users.aspx

Lastly, a few data-points about the ICMG Group on Linkedin specifically:

Just like the Annual Meeting itself, it’s a big network and growing, but also includes non-members who are participants in the industry.

ICMG Linkedin Group has 450+ Members and growing daily.

Going further, many of the Group Members have over 500 Connections on Linkedin themselves. Most have at least 150+ Connections. If a study were done, it would not be surprising to find that the average ICMG’er on Linkedin is connected to over 100 insurance industry professionals and colleagues – and all these numbers are in growth mode right now.

The Group activity is meaningful.

Up significantly in 2011, Group Discussions have been used for announcements like new insurance products and distribution partners/channels, links to relevant articles on topics like health insurance and PPACA, and Q&A on different challenges and solutions native to our business and industry.

So as an industry participant, “What’s in it for me?” you may ask.

Think about it. If you post something in the ICMG Linkedin Group, 450 people in your industry have the chance of seeing it. If you post something INTERESTING in the ICMG Linkedin Group and 10 people make a Comment, add 10×100 or 1000 MORE potential industry views of your Announcement, Comment or Question. And what is the cost? Time.

What about research? Need a warm introduction to a potential strategic partner? Need to do some research on someone before starting a relationship? Looking for a service provider in your network? By connecting with industry colleagues and participating within industry discussions, can you see how both sides of this coin can be satisfied?

Others:

1. Never make a cold call again.
2. Never start a strategic relationship without great information about the prospect or the company.
3. Always go into meetings prepared with current information on the topic and the people.
4. Communicate with your target audience in a relevant manner for free.
5. Constantly increase your IQ on a variety of topics.
6. Shorten your sales cycles.
7. Draw your clients into your information stream, increase exit barriers and competitive advantage, and cross-sell new products and solutions.
8. Understand the inherent accountability to peak performance and trust that Social Networks build and reinforce.
9. The list goes on and on and on…

Are these helpful pieces of information that might change your mind about the environment? If so, you might then ask, “OK, Mike. I see what you’re saying here. What should I do to take advantage of all this opportunity?”

First, get in there and update your profile – completely. Manage your property. If you want to see a good example of all the parts and pieces, arrangement, keywords, applications, and so forth, feel free to browse my profile. I’ve done a LOT of research – every single element is done for a specific reason. Use me. Pay attention to the details – they each have a purpose. Above all, make sure your profile is connected to your professional email address. The general concept in play is “Online Reputation Management.” Nuf said.

Daily Activities
5 Minutes: Update your status with something useful. Reply to any Comments as quickly as possible.
10 Minutes: Scan your network’s status updates. (Here’s the thing: Build the Shares newsfeed section into a powerful part of your river of information.)
As you scan, by all means, Like and Comment on other Shares, as appropriate, remembering that your network will then see the updates that you Comment on and Like. Try not to read-only, instead add value with insights and promotion of content.
5-10 Minutes: Open and scan the Group email blasts as they come in. At least look at the subject and author.

No time to add 20-30 minutes a day to your schedule? Look for something to cut.

Weekly
5 minutes: Look at the network Recommendations on the Home page Network updates. Float your mouse over unfamiliar names that have recommended influential people in your network or vice-versa. Are these potential business partners?
10-30 minutes: Try to make a few Comments in a few Groups to add value and build influence.
If you haven’t already, look at the member list and send Connection requests to people you know. Send warm introduction requests to people you want to know.

No time to add 15-30 minutes, perhaps an hour a week to your schedule? Use down time in between things – JUST NOT WHEN YOU ARE DRIVING, PLEASE.

Monthly
10 Minutes: Update your profile with any material changes to your job, interests, awards, etc.
30-60 minutes: Make/Ask for 3-4 Recommendations for/from current clients wrt projects, etc.

No time to add a half-hour to an hour a month to your schedule? Make time – get up earlier or do it while eating breakfast. (Do you really need to watch one more game/show/movie with undivided attention?)

Two final comments:

All boat rise with the tide.
Don’t get left behind.

Good luck. Happy to help. Please Comment and Share. I wanna know. Thanks.

First, let me just say that it’s very irritating that Linkedin has a policy on its Company Pages that you can only administer a company page if you use an email address that uses an extension of the company name – so no Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, etc. extensions, like me. Why? Not sure, but it’s pretty stupid considering how companies are starting to pursue different email strategies like corporate Gmail….

Promoting a company, brand or organization on Linkedin has three primary components:

I. Company activities
II. Employee Activities, especially leaders and stakeholders
III. Clients, Partners, and Fan Activities

I. The question becomes, “What are the specific things that can and should be done by the company to promote the company and recruit top talent?” No doubt, specific strategies will vary by company size, industry, business goals, etc.. A strategic assessment that connects the business objective with the Social Technology tool is a prudent next step. Let us therefore limit the discussion to the B2B context (assuming

Almost a perfect shot!

that B2C is more focused on Facebook marketing and not Linkedin), and further refine to mid-market companies. Let’s further say that the actual person running the company Linkedin page is in Marketing and is following a tightly organized Content Calendar, looking to drive sales and business development opportunities.

The Company activities on Linkedin focus around the Company Page. The Company Page has many outbound promotional opportunities, most of which are under-utilized by the vast majority of companies. So if you don’t know about this stuff, don’t feel bad. Circa the Fall of 2011, the following list will likely serve as a checklist of engagement points, the tactical elements, the allowable functions. HOW to use these tools – what to say, when to say it, what to ask, how to respond, etc., etc. – this is where the art of viral marketing, crowdsourcing, rating, and many of the Social Technologies concepts come into play. I’m begging you: DON’T WING IT. Think “driving a high-end Harley with little or no motorcycle training” – good chance you’ll wind up in the hospital – or worse, right?

The Top 10 Elements:

0.   Put up your Logo!

1. Follow us – gaining Followers on Linkedin is the door-opener to connectivity within the Linkedin ecosystem
2. Careers Tab – every time you add a new Job, you get picked up on several Linkedin feeds, most notably your Followers
3. Overview Tab – remember that you are serving multiple audiences here
4. Products and/or Services Tab – outstanding place to focus your efforts. Recommendations here can be a huge opportunity and significant marketing events. See HubSpot’s Linkedin Company Page, click the Products Tab, and note the Recommendations.
5. Share an Update – again, like Job postings, these will appear on Follower newsfeeds
6. In the News – great widget to add richness to the profile to further leverage media mentions
7. Recent Tweets – probably one of the most useful functions on the page, this can lead to follows on Twitter as well, potential retweets, click-throughs to your site, etc. Course you need to know how to leverage Twitter, as well.
8. Recent Blog Posts – Absolutely! HubSpot’s Linkedin Company Page is a good example of both Twitter and Blog integration. Scroll about half-way down. Multi-channel marketing.
9. Like and Comment on Status Updates- encourage employees and fans to engage in the company Updates (#5) so that the Updates have a chance to spread virally to the corresponding networks of Linkedin Connections and beyond.
10. Slideshare and Video – add video to both the Career and Products/Services Tabs

Some more activities the Company can do:

Employee recognition – run an employee of the quarter contest, preferably with as much employee ownership as possible so it’s a big deal, then announce in Status Updates, have the employee list that under employee awards, figure out a way to loop-in the related clients, etc. etc. etc. Always tie recognition to the clients served.

Relay current client Recommendations that are given to employees and the company. Client engagement is the whole point. So if there are major touch points like Recommendations of Products and Services and/or employees, broadcast those very generally, right? And should we return the favor? Absolutely. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.

What do you think? What else have you seen? Please Comment below. Don’t just take – ya gotta give, too.

Next week: II. Employee Activities, especially leaders and stakeholders

Following week: III. Clients, Partners, and Fan Activities

Is this helpful? Need help with a strategy for the What, When, Where, How, Who? Please comment, share, and/or reach out to WebWisedom.

Thanks…

A few questions asked by my network… Appreciate the questions – all good. And a couple recent pictures to add color.

Golfing at The Johnny Cup, Cleveland

1. What are the best techniques to deploy to get your personal/business appearance in search results higher?
2. How to promote your business more on Linkedin.
3. How to use LinkedIn for job postings.
4. What should I be doing to stay engaged with the contacts I have on Linked In when there is no pressing business need to do so?
5. Ideas on how others are using LI to expand their network and more about what’s possible with forming and participating in various discussion groups.
6. What companies do you know of that have set the bar for making really great use of their corporate pages to attract potential employees and promote their business?
7. How often do people take time to update/tweak their profiles?
8. If you have updated your profile, is there something specific you can point to that immediately made a difference in how often your profile was returned in search results or how often you were contacted by recruiters?

Following is my best attempt to shed light and add value. But like with most things, the more POV’s we can get on the subject, the better. So perhaps add your and then ask your network to take a look and add their thoughts as well. There’s a lot too it, so I’ll tackle these questions one at a time.

#1 Appearance in Search Results

Now just to be clear, this question relates to the stats you see on your home page (or on this page http://www.linkedin.com/wvmx/profile). Appearance in search results is different than Views. Views include actual visits to your profile – so someone clicked on your name and hit your profile. “Appearance in search results” relates to how often your profile is returned in a Linkedin search made by someone else. But the real question relates to the all-important word “higher”. So if there’s a list of 421 people that fit the search criteria, how do you get on page one or two, just like Google search results, right?

To understand the question, you really have to understand Linkedin Advanced Search. Take a look at the Advanced Search form, from top to bottom. The Boolean (AND OR etc.) fields are at the top. Second, notice the search “filters” in the middle. Lastly, look at the “Sort by” choices at the bottom.

Finding Dad/Grandpa, Vietnam Memorial Wall, Akron

Now I will say that I searched high and low on the Linkedin site for information on search ranking. As is no surprise, there is NO mention of exactly how the Linkedin Search results page returns results. It seems a closely held piece of information – understandable; kind of the secret sauce.

So how would your profile show up higher in search results? To a certain extent, it seems out of your hands; dependent on the filters and sort-by choices a searcher makes. But to get on the list to begin with, it would seem important to do the following things. Consider this list as table-stakes – things to do to get invited to the dance and show up in someone’s search results:

• Keywords in Headlines and Titles
• Connections with as many people as possible (legit connections, unless they are LION’s)
• Keywords in other areas, especially Interests, Skills, and Groups & Associations
• Keyword matches the Industry selected in the individual job profiles
• Obviously, your profile has to fit the other Boolean criteria as well (location, etc.)
• Numbers of Recommendations
• Group involvement

Now to the question of Search Rank. Again, it depends on the searchers choices in the “Sort by” field. Since the default is “Relevance”, it would seem to make sense to pay particular attention to that concept. So how do they define relevance? Intuitively, one would think it would be based on the following:

1. keyword density across the Profile (relevance)
2. number of Connections (influence/importance)
3. number of Recommendations (positive influence, also to the keywords, though less-so)
4. number of mutual connections (relationship)
5. number and activity within keyword-related Groups (relevance, influence, relationship), especially shared Groups

With this in mind, what are some of the critical must-have’s/must-do’s with your profile relative to appearing in search results?

1. Add keywords everywhere, but especially in the high profile areas listed above.
2. Focus on Recommendations, especially from people you do business with (versus employees and associates)
3. Connect with as many people as you feel comfortable with. My recommendation? If you were to meet someone at a job, industry or social event and they have some relevance to your job, career, or interests, connect with them.
4. Join and be active with Groups that have relevance to your job, career, or interest. How active? Up to you – how fast you think and type, how visible you want to be, how much influence you want to develop. Time is scarce, but do something. Know that, depending on your activity broadcast settings at the time, Comments in Groups also show up in your activity list to your 1st level connections. So Group comments can also keep your profile fresh.
5. All this applies to Linkedin Answers as well, though I freely admit to not getting engaged in that element yet.
6. You might also consider paying the $25/month to become more of a player in the space as well. We’ll get to where the value is in that in future posts – and there IS value, depending of course on what you are are trying to accomplish.

That’s it for now. Please Comment. Thanks in advance.

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Top Sources:

http://www.slideshare.net/vferraro/increase-visibility-on-linked-in-presentation-updated-3-7-2010

http://www.youtube.com/LinkedIn

http://twitter.com/#!/linkedin

http://searchengineland.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-linkedin-today-how-to-optimize-your-presence-on-it

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Next: Company pages, Promotion, and Recruiting

What do YOU want to know? REALLY.

A bit of background: I remember when I first started using Linkedin in 2007. It was shortly before the PIMA meeting in Cancun, Feb. 2008. It sticks in my mind because I spoke to many people about Linkedin at the meeting. I remember that the predominant reaction around the industry and with my network at large was a natural sense of skepticism. Some companies were a little more intentional, blocking Linkedin on their servers as part of a broader approach to Social Technologies. Many people brushed Linkedin off as a waste of time for the gainfully employed, useful only for job seekers and recruiters. In fact, some of these attitudes still persist four years later. I heard this comment just this month at the PIMA conference at the Broadmoor by one of the speakers. “I don’t really use Linkedin – I’m not job-seeking…”

Fast forward to today and the prevailing sentiment seems to be, “I’m on it, get lots of invitations to connect, some from people I don’t really know, most I accept, but I don’t really know what to do with it. I’m in a few Groups but don’t really check-in very often. Should I upgrade to the Premium version???…”

In the meantime since 2008, I have migrated from an e-commerce sales guy to an independent Social Tech consultant, facilitator, and speaker, primarily focused on the insurance vertical, with secondary emphases on coaching sales organization on how to leverage Linkedin and Twitter. I also am building a line of business helping Cleveland-based companies, across industries, with Social Media Marketing strategies and tactics.

All that to say, as a part of my profession, I’m paid to know more about this stuff than the average professional. I also use it continuously for my own marketing and sales efforts.

Thus I thought it might be useful to share some of my learnings and help move our collective use of Linkedin to the next level. How? Let’s “crowdsource” both the questions and answers.

What’s in it for you to participate?

1. First and foremost, learning. The more you engage, think, and write on the topic, the more knowledge transfer happens.
2. Second, you can Share the discussion with your network – and thereby help them as well.

Part One: What do you want to know?

Think about your business objectives. What are you trying to accomplish professionally today? Really.

A suggestion: Before you look at the other questions in the Comments, think of your own top 1-3 questions. Then add your questions to the list, regardless of whether someone else already asked about your issues. That way we’ll get a great list, including redundancies indicating added importance to those topics.

Above all, please don’t LURK – add value.

Oh yeah, it may be tempting, but please perhaps check yourself from answering the questions in this round. I’d like to curate the questions and then open up the flood gates for answers in Part 2 – a little more organized approach from the left-brain side of things.

Thanks in advance for participating. Ask a question in the Comments below (and perhaps subscribe to the blog or the Comments), then copy the link, post it on Linkedin or Twitter, and ask your network to ask a question as well. Let’s crowdsource this. I know you’ll be pleased with the results.

Thanks again.