My Favourite LinkedIn Functions

My Favourite LinkedIn Functions

Introduction

Although I’ve been promoting digital marketing services for a number of years, it’s only recently that I’ve started really promoting these on LinkedIn. This is because I was only doing digital marketing on a  part-time basis whilst I did interim work and I was using LinkedIn to connect with recruiters and interim client contacts.

I’m now using LinkedIn to promote my digital marketing services and thought I’d share the functions that I have found most useful. I am only using the free version of LinkedIn, so there may be richer functionality and even better functions in the paid version, but I’m not able to comment on them at the moment.

LinkedIn Analytics

LinkedIn Analytics

I’ve always been a fan of tracking your numbers, so being able to look at analytics on LinkedIn really appeals to me. As you can see from the picture, analytics are available from the home screen on the desktop version of LinkedIn. They are also available on the mobile app.

Analytics are mainly focused on profile views and post impressions. Profile views is quite limited in the free version but there is a lot available to look at and play with in the post impressions area. Well worth looking at on a regular basis.

Conversations Happening Now

LinkedIn Conversations Happening Now

I have included this function as it existed at the time I ran the workshop that this post is based on, but this function has since disappeared from my profile.

This is a section in the Post Impressions section of the analytics and shows you three posts from others that are currently performing well and are relevant to your business, encouraging you to wither interact with them or repost them with comments. This is a good way to boost your engagement and create a post if you’re struggling for an idea.

You need creator mode turned on for this. There is something similar in this section if you don’t have creator mode turned on too.

Notification Button

LinkedIn Notification Button

If you look at somebody’s profile on LinkedIn, you will see a little bell icon. If you turn this on, LinkedIn will notify you that when they have posted something. There are a couple of levels to this, you can either select being notified for all posts or just their top posts.

There are a number of uses for this.

If you want to learn from somebody who is already an expert in their field, then being notified of their posts is a sign you can learn something new.

If you want to support a friend, colleague or client, you can turn this on and then support their posts by adding comments and engaging with it (LinkedIn’s analytical term for likes, etc).

Recommendations

LinkedIn Recommendations

Another powerful function available from the profile page is the “request a recommendation” function, which allows you to request a recommendation from somebody. The main people you should be targeting are people who you have done work for where you know you’ve delivered a good service to them. The really good thing about this is that you get to review what they’ve written before you post it to your profile, so if you don’t like it you don’t have to share it.

You can also be proactive and give somebody a recommendation. It’s on the same drop down menu from the more button on their profile.

The LinkedIn Social Selling Index (SSI)

LinkedIn Social Selling Index

The 5th function to share here isn’t available from within LinkedIn, as it’s part of LinkedIn Sales Navigator, but it is free.

The SSI is LinkedIn’s gamification of your activity and is a score out of 100. The score is based on 4 main sections and you get a score out of 25 on each section.

The 4 sections are:

  • Establish your professional brand;
  • Find the right people;
  • Engage with insights; and
  • Build relationships.

As you can see from the picture, I need to build on my “Find the right people” score.

It does give some high level comparisons with others in your industry and in your network and as you can see I’m not doing too badly in comparison with them.

LinkedIn Profile QR Code

LinkedIn Profile QR Code

The final function I’m sharing here is only available on the mobile app and that is the profile QR code. This is a great way to get people to connect with you when you meet them face-to-face at business events, expo’s and networking meetings.

To get to the QR code for your profile open the LinkedIn mobile app, click into the search bar at the top of the screen. Then s little symbol will appear in the right hand side of the search bar on the next screen. Click on this and a QR code will appear. IF anybody then scans that with their mobile phone they will be taken to your profile and will be able to follow you and ask you to connect.

Final Thoughts

I’ve found using these functions has really improved my usability and visibility on LinkedIn and I’ve barely scratched the surface of the functions available. I hope you have found this useful and you go away and try them all out.

What do I do with my video now?

What do I do with my video now?


Video is great for promoting your business, but once you’ve made the decision to get one or more videos produced and you’ve been given the video files, what should you do with them?
The obvious answers are put it on your website and share it on all your social media channels – but how do you do all those things?

Posting your video on your website

When you put your video on your website, don’t make the mistake of loading the video file to your website, as your website hosting platform won’t be optimised for streaming video, so your video won’t play very well when people visit your website.

Video Hosting Platforms

YOuTube LogoThe two most well-known video hosting platforms are YouTube and Vimeo, which both allow you to set up free accounts or channels. There are other video hosting platforms, such as Wistia, but these charge for their services.
I tend to use YouTube, because it is the second most used search engine on the internet, is owned by Google and you can link your Google Analytics for your website with your YouTube channel so you can get all your Google performance metrics in one place.

Once you have put your video on your hosting platform, you need to embed the video onto your website. It’s fairly easy to do this, on YouTube you click on the share button, go to the Embed tab, copy the line of HTML code that is shown and then copy this into your web page at the place you want to embed it on your web page. Note that there are some options available to you when you create the embed code, including video size, so choose the settings that you want.

When you embed the video on your web page, think about where you want the video to appear. In general, it is best to put the video as near to the top of your web page as possible, as you want website visitors to watch it and they are more likely to do this if they see it at the top of the page.

Posting your video on Social Media

Social Media Logos Montage - Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn - Pinterest - InstagramAlthough it is possible to share your video from YouTube, it is better to post the video natively onto the social media channels you are looking to share it on, as the algorithms they use for deciding whether to share your post with others all favour video hosted locally over video links. Loading videos locally onto each social media platform will also give you access to post insights. Facebook in particular provides some very detailed insights to how your video is being watched and there is a second level of detail provided about the audience once the video has been viewed 100 times.
Uploading video works the same across all the platforms, but they do have some nuances that you need to be aware of.

facebook logoFacebook

When you load a video onto Facebook, the system will select 10 thumbnail images from the video and you can choose which you want to use. You can also load a custom thumbnail if you don’t like any of the options available to you.
Facebook also has a very good tool for adding captions to videos and as over 90% of video views are made with the sound off, it is advisable to add captions if your video doesn’t have captions already. It is possible to export the captions file to reuse elsewhere, should you wish.

Twitter LogoTwitter

Twitter is fussier about the video files you can load. It only allows you to load .mp4 and .mov formats and the video files must be less than 512 Mb in size.

Instagram LogoInstagram

Instagram will only let you load videos that are less than 1-minute-long and you can only load files from your mobile device – there isn’t a facility to load a video from a desktop browser.

linkedin logoLinkedIn

LinkedIn is currently rolling out a facility to load videos natively, but this is only available from the mobile client.

What to do with your social media posts

Once you have your video on your social media platform, there are things you can do to increase their exposure. On Facebook you can share your post into relevant groups. On Twitter you can get people to like and/or retweet your posts and similarly you can do this on Instagram. Follow this link on more ideas for sharing content.


Rob Osborne of Red Knight SolutionsIf you need more help or advice on what to do with your posts, please call me or leave a message and I will be happy to pass on my advice. If you are looking to get videos produced, let me know by calling the Red Knight Solutions offices on 02392 265725.

 

 

Why you need a digital marketing strategy

Why you need a digital marketing strategy

It is really important to have a digital marketing strategy and at Red Knight Solutions we have developed a 6 step process for developing a successful digital marketing strategy. We will work with you to help you develop and implement yours.

The 6 steps are:

  1. Know WHAT you are promoting;
  2. Know WHO your target audience is;
  3. Know HOW to engage with them digitally;
  4. Develop a detailed plan showing WHEN you will be doing things;
  5. Take regular Action, following your plan;
  6. Measure the outcomes

The most common mistake companies make is to start doing digital marketing, often just trying to copy the latest trend, without developing a detailed picture of what they are promoting and who they are promoting it to. The outcome is normally an expensive disappointment.

Know what you are promoting

Build up a detailed picture of the product or service you are looking to promote digitally. This should include a detailed description of what the product or service is, what problems it solves, the benefits gained from the people using it, how much it costs to produce, how much you can afford to spend on marketing it, profit margins that you are generating, whether there are any associated products you can upsell, whether these are likely to be one-off or repeat purchases.

 Who you are marketing to

The detailed picture should include age, gender, existing or new customers, location, what their needs, wants and fears are, how they are likely to want to be approached, what their likely budgets are going to be and whether they are business customers or consumers.

Know how to engage with them digitally

Now you have your detailed pictures of your product and customers you can consider all the options available to you for digital marketing. You need to consider which are the best social media options to reach your target market and how best to use more traditional web tools.

Develop a detailed plan

Your plan should detail how you are going to use each of the digital marketing options, when you are going to use them, how you are going to use them and who is going to be doing these for you. You should also include details of budgets available, as although some digital marketing options are free, others will need to be paid for.

Take Action

This may appear to go against the advice this article is laying out, but it is important to take action, quickly once you have your plan laid out.  One of the slogans that Facebook use in their offices is “Break things – Fast”, which is good … provided you fix them fast too.

Measure your success

Make use of all the available digital marketing tools to keep an eye on your digital marketing campaign. Use Google Analytics to see how visitors to your website are increasing and what they are doing, use the analytical tools available on social media platforms to measure the effects of your social media activities and other tools to track your progress up the Search Engine rankings.

Do more of what is working well, do less or even stop doing things that aren’t working and don’t be afraid of trying new things either, as digital marketing is evolving all the time.


Help with your strategy

Although it sounds simple to develop and implement a digital marketing strategy, there is a lot of expert knowledge required to do it right. If you would like to know more about the services we offer to help you develop and implement a strategy, call us on 02392 265725, e-mail us at enquries@redknightsolutions.co.uk or fill in the form below:

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Business owners – don’t be frustrated by Facebook. 5 ways to boost your post.

Business owners – don’t be frustrated by Facebook. 5 ways to boost your post.

Are you a business owner who is frustrated by the impact of your posts on your Facebook business page? Despite working hard to gain lots of likes for your page, Facebook is hardly showing your posts to any of your followers – statistics show that often less than 1% of people who have liked your page will see your post.

If this sounds familiar, despair no longer, here are 5 tips to follow that will see your post reach increase dramatically.

Facebook loves Video.

Video is the number 1 way to boost your posts, as Facebook loves video and its algorithm is heavily weighted to extend the reach of posts that feature video. If you really want your post to reach its maximum potential use Facebook Live for the video feed, as Facebook is really promoting Facebook live.

If you’re not comfortable using Facebook live then produce a video, but load it onto Facebook if possible rather than hosting it on YouTube or any other video hosting platform, as Facebook does favour hosted video. If you are producing a video, it is also a good idea to include captions on the video or produce the video in such a way that it communicates its message without sound, as a high proportion of the people that will see your video on Facebook will do so with the sounds off.

A further benefit of having the video hosted on Facebook is the detailed analytics that Facebook provides you with.

Goals On Monitor - boosted reach for Facebook PostInclude a picture when you post on Facebook.

If you are unable or unwilling to include a video, include one or more photographs with your post. Facebook likes seeing photos with posts and it is also more eye catching in timelines that Facebook does add your post to.

If you can post several pictures that relate to a post, then you should use these to create a slideshow. There are facilities for doing this in Facebook or you could you a tool like Animoto or ripl. Facebook will treat a slideshow you have created as a video.

Encourage Interactions with your post.

Facebook Like and ShareIf people are reacting to your post, the Facebook algorithm will give your post a boost. There are three types of interaction you should try to encourage, sharing, commenting and liking. They all have an impact.

Sharing your post.

You can extend the reach of your Facebook post by sharing your business page post into any groups you are a member of where your post will be of interest. You should also share your post on your timeline.

facebook emotionsWhen sharing your post, you should include a comment that encourages interaction from group members – shares and comments seem to have the biggest impact on posts, but likes have influence too.

If you employ staff, you should encourage them to interact with your post and share it. If you know other business owners, then you should consider asking them to share your post too, with a reciprocal offer of sharing their posts too.

Page Settings

There are numerous business page settings that affect where and how your post will appear on Facebook, most notably your preferred page audience. Use these to let Facebook know who your target audience is and your posts are more likely to appear on the timeline of people who match this description. There are options available to help with selection across the 150 odd attributes that Facebook holds about its users.

Facebook Boost Post ButtonBoosting your post

If all else fails, you can consider boosting your post. If you decide that you want to boost your post, don’t press the boost post button, but got into the ads manager to boost the post. This is because Facebook advertising manager lets you choose what the purpose of boosting your post is and if you look closely at the options available, boosting your post doesn’t necessarily achieve the outcome you would expect it to.


Rob Osborne of Red Knight SolutionsHelping you with Facebook

If you would like help with your Facebook marketing or any other aspects of your digital marketing, call Red Knight Solutions on 02392 265725 or e-mail us at enquiries@redknightsolutions.co.uk  to find out more about how we can help your business thrive online.

 

 

 

Don’t be terrified of Twitter

Don’t be terrified of Twitter

Rob Osborne of Red Knight SolutionsI hadn’t really warmed to Twitter until recently. Yes, I tweeted some content and followed people who followed me, but I wasn’t really focusing on Twitter as a social media channel for promoting Red Knight Solutions and my following was fairly small.

However, I was asked to do a session on Twitter at an Elite Digital Mastermind group recently so in preparation for that session I have been working on my Twitter presence and have been pleasantly surprised to see my Twitter follower count jump from 400 to over 515 in a week, which is a rise of over 25%, so I thought I’d share some details of what I have been doing so you can consider doing it too.

Changing my use of Twitter

crowdfire logoThe first change in practice I’ve made is Tweeting to people who follow me as I follow them back, rather than just pressing the follow button and leaving it at that. I had already used Crowdfire to send a message to each person as they followed me, but I now I type a quick thank you tweet to them. I’m spending quite a lot of time on trains at the moment so I normally do this whilst travelling – mobile signal permitting, of course.

Social Jukebox LogoI’ve also started using Social Jukebox to set up regular tweets. This comes with a jukebox full of quotes which I have left running and a jukebox that I am using to quote links to my site and other relevant digital marketing material – a link to this blog will be added very soon. I have also done some tweaking to the quotes jukebox, creating pictures for some of the quotes and adding them to the quotes in the jukebox and this will be an ongoing activity as I quite like the idea. I have also added some additional quotes from other sources – my next challenge is to make some quotes of my own that I think are worthy of sharing.

I am continuing to also tweet interesting and relevant links from digital marketing articles I find and have become more conscious of ensuring that I include Twitter as one of the places to share information, whereas before I mainly focused on Facebook.

These actions mean that the number of tweets I am making has increased considerably, which has also lead to more interaction with my followers.

Twitter LogoAlong with increased activity on Twitter, I have spent some time updating some of the company profile. I have updated the profile picture to use our new logo and I have also updated the header photo to include a picture of me. One thing I learnt when updating the profile picture was to ensure that you have the minimum height and width to 400 pixels. I was getting very frustrated initially as the logo picture I was using was 400 pixels wide but not that high and Twitter kept shrinking it. Once I set the background to be 400 x 400 pixels it all worked fine.

Learning Twitter the hard way

It’s not all been plain sailing though, as I experimented with linking Twitter to my personal Facebook page and on through to the Red Knight Solutions Facebook page  and for a few days I was getting regular posts on my Facebook page from Tweet Jukebox. The good news was that some my friends had conversations about some of the quotes that were posted, but it didn’t feel right to me so I have turned that feature off.

Twitter Tools

A really useful tool within Twitter that I have just learnt about is the creation and use of lists. One of my biggest frustrations with Twitter has been that as the number of people you follow and who follow you grows, your timeline becomes really noisy. However, if you create lists of people you are really looking to keep a close eye on, such as clients, potential clients or major influencers in your field, you can use them to see just those you are interested in. This allows you to start using the tools on Twitter, such as likes, retweets and quoting tweets, focusing on those you have added to your lists.

I have mentioned a number of tools I have started using and the world of Twitter seems to have an abundance of tools and add-ons that you can use to make your Twitter experience better. Whilst doing research about Twitter tools I did come across this blog which lists over 90 useful Twitter tools. Please feel free to research them further and if you find any of them are useful please let me know.


Rob Osborne of Red Knight SolutionsIf you would like help getting more out of Twitter or any other social media channel please get in contact with Red Knight Solutions by calling 02392 265725 and we would be happy to help you develop your digital marketing strategy and ensure it is making good use of Twitter.