Seven Keys to Effective Brand Journalism

Posted on March 21, 2013 by Michael Carney
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In 2013 expect to see more and more of Brand Journalism, an approach that smart communicators have long adopted (even if they were not using this particular buzzword).

blotto Seven Keys to Effective Brand Journalism

So what really is Brand Journalism? Patrick Barrett of Simpatico PR defines the label as:

“an approach to content creation based on the principles of journalism. In other words it means a brand or corporate entity adopting the skills and mind-set that any journalist is taught at college and hones during their career: independence, objectivity, clarity, speed, thrift of language, etc.”

Not Rocket Science then. Simply create brand-related stories that real people will read.

The idea seems obvious enough; and yet too many press releases fail this most basic test. Just head to PR Newswire or Business Wire and read for yourself the latest releases.

Be warned that far too many start with headlines such as (actual example):

“[Name Withheld for Compassionate Reasons] Announces Successful Deployment of Innovative [Widget] Acquisition System for Research Consortium”.

Unfortunately, after such a promising start the releases tend to head defiantly downhill:

“The [Brand Name]™ represents an innovative monitoring solution that offers the flexibility of temporary [widget] deployment, with the performance and cost benefit of long-term monitoring systems.”

Compelling stuff? Perhaps not.

Brand Journalism, you’d probably think, belongs in the hands of public relations and communications professionals; and you’d usually be correct, at least in terms of the execution and implementation of messages that embody the new discipline.

And yet, even so, marketers and management have a significant role to play when it comes to identifying appropriate stories to be given the Brand Journalism treatment – and in briefing the PR and Comms teams accordingly.

That role: to identify the stories that will really matter to your customers and prospects and then to identify the seven elements that will make each story relevant, interesting and engaging to your constituents.

Those seven keys, most of which will be very familiar to you: Who, What, When, Where, Why, How and So What.

  • · Who: The best stories are about people. We’re not interested in dealing with faceless corporations; Apple earned its reputation in part thanks to the idiosyncratic Steve Jobs, Amazon is personified by the enthusiasm of Jeff Bezos, without Sir Richard Branson Virgin would be just another business.
  • · What: Don’t fall into the classic trap of the product creator. Too many are proudly focused on the product’s features — we used to call that approach “the view from the factory out”, although that description may be a little archaic given that so many factories are now located far, far away. Focus instead on the product’s benefits, a customer-centric perspective instead. Don’t tell us that your product “provides a mature and established solution for ARRIS to effectively process and support many independent profile streams to support multiscreen in the home” (again, alas, an actual quote from a press release). Tell us exactly what your product will do for us, the potential purchasers.
  • · When: Get your messages out well in advance (taking note of editorial deadlines). Identify your target audience’s key influencers and opinion leaders and ensure that they have your news in time to ‘break’ it for their followers. Nobody wants to share stale news.
  • · Where: It’s a global world (doh!). News broken today in Wellington can be in Wellington, Florida at the speed of a tweet. Don’t expect that you can trial anything in a tiny test market and not be noticed by your competitors. Conversely, if your products are much-sought-after by global audiences, go wide fast with your distribution. As movie, music and TV producers in particular have discovered (to their fiscal detriment), if consumers really, really want your products and you haven’t provided legitimate local access, they will quickly make their own arrangements.
  • · Why: It’s fantastic (sure) to hear that you’ve signed an agreement to “distribute next generation power generators throughout Canada and the Bakken Oil Fields”. But why is this happening (apart from the obvious reason of making your shareholders happy)? We humans like some context in our news items, please.
  • · How: There are those of us who like the big picture, the story and the romance and the flowery words – and those who want just the facts, ma’am. Once you’ve painted the broad tapestry, spend a little time spelling out the details for the detail-oriented who love specifications.
  • · So What: If you want your stories to resonate with your audience, this seventh secret is perhaps the most important: tell the readers what’s in it for them. Why should they care that you are constructing “a 2,154 kilowatt solar array on the southwest edge” of your property? We’re all tuned to WIIFM and if you want us to pay attention, give us a quick (and useful) payoff.

Brand Journalism – Brickbats & Bouquets

Brand Journalism, of course, is not without its critics, especially amongst some supporters of the fourth estate who bemoan the sorry state of journalism as a shill for commercial interests.

A very early critic, Hamilton Holt (then managing editor of The Independent), lamented the intrusion of business interests in his essay, “Commercialism and Journalism”.

In the essay, published in 1909, editor Holt quoted an unnamed New York journalist who wrote:

There is no such thing in America as an independent press. I am paid for keeping honest opinions out of the paper I am connected with. If I should allow honest opinions to be printed in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation, like Othello’s, would be gone.

The business of a New York journalist is to distort the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the foot of Mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. We are the tools or vassals of the rich men behind the scenes. Our time, our talents, our lives, our possibilities, are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes.

A bit harsh, in our humble opinion. Forbes, on the other hand, takes a more recent and more positive view, concluding that Brand Journalism in general, and its own BrandVoice offering in particular, is actually good for the news business:

It helps make a wide array of credible information easily accessible and fosters connections between journalists, consumers and marketers. It’s part of our effort to build a sustainable model for advertising-supported journalism that will benefit all participants — editors and reporters included.

We doubt that even Hamilton Holt, despite his unhappiness over the methods, would disagree with this intention as a worthy and mutually beneficial goal for Brand Journalism to deliver.

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More than one-third of all visits to Trade Me now from mobiles

Posted on February 20, 2013 by Michael Carney
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Hot off the press, from the Trade Me Group Ltd’s half-year financial results for the six months to 31 December 2012, some amazing stats about mobile device usage:

iphone front More than one third of all visits to Trade Me now from mobiles

More than one-third of all visits to Trade Me are from a mobile device, a proportion that has doubled over the past year.

Android activity has grown particularly strongly and in January 2013 it delivered half the number of sessions to Trade Me as Apple’s iOS devices.

If there was any doubt about the growing importance of mobile in New Zealand, consider it dispelled.

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Facebook launches Social Search Engine

Posted on January 16, 2013 by Michael Carney
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In the finest “keep them guessing” tradition of the late Steve Jobs, Facebook had the tech journalist community buzzing over a mystery press conference scheduled for this morning. Speculation was rife: would the social giant launch a new mobile phone, perhaps, or had it acquired another key player in its ongoing battle for digital supremacy?

Now the wondering is over: Facebook’s big announcement is Graph Search, a Social Search Engine.

Finally! Facebook’s existing search engine is, frankly, not up to the rigours of searching through the trillions of entries of a billion members.

So what do we know about Graph Search so far, what makes it different to Google and what are the implications for marketers?

The first and most important point is that this is not web search, it’s social search. It’s designed to help Facebook members meaningfully sort through content that has been shared with them.

The second key point is that Graph Search is still in Beta release – Facebook is inviting users to sign up for early trials, but it’s only rolling out to a small number (in the hundreds or thousands) at first.

And the third key point is that Graph Search is the method by which Facebook intends to harness the social potential of its members’ accumulated postings (which has BIG implications for marketers).

Powered by Social Proof

For example: you want to go out for dinner tonight. What was the name of that Mexican restaurant your friend Janice loved? Now, instead of scrolling through screeds of Facebook posts — or giving up and phoning/texting Janice — you can use Graph Search to find Mexican restaurants in Wellington. Your results will include listings of restaurants that your friends who have checked in to or Liked.

You can quickly see the implications for marketers. Social Proof suddenly becomes not merely optional but essential — if your restaurant isn’t on Facebook, it won’t be caught in the Graph Search results so won’t even be part of the choice set.

The launch focused on four use cases for Graph Search: people, photos, places and interests.

Forbes, amongst many others, live-blogged these examples as they were announced by Mark Zuckerberg and the Facebook team:

Searching people: By typing in “friends of friends who are single men in San Francisco and who are from India” in the search box, the search engine highlights those search terms and brings up a list of eligible bachelors for matchmaking purposes.

Searching photos: You can type “photos of my friends taken in Paris” or “photos of my friends taken in national parks.” The searches bring up big tiled photos of the photos in that category. Or you can just search for “photos I like.” This brings in social gestures such as the “Like” that Facebook already has that tag photos and other objects. This is also data that Facebook has that competitors don’t. You can only see the photos that people have shared with you.

Searching interests: You can type in “Movies my friends like” or “TV shows my friends like.” Clearly this section of search has revenue potential. You can also search for “Videos by TV shows liked by my friends” this will bring up just the videos that TV shows have posted. “TV shows liked by doctors” shows that doctors like to watch Grey’s Anatomy. You can also search and see what kind of music people who like Mitt Romney or Barack Obama like.

Searching places: When traveling you can search for “bars in Dublin liked by people who live in Dublin” to get local insider information. Or search for people who have been to Ireland.

On privacy: Facebook has privacy shortcuts in a button on the upper right hand corner. Click on “Who can see my stuff” then photos to see the photos I have uploaded or that are tagged of me. Or you can see just the photos I’ve hidden from your Timeline. You can also send a message to the person who uploaded the photo asking them to take the photos down. For those inappropriate photos.

There’s also a partnership with Microsoft’s Bing search engine included for information that can’t be found in Facebook’s Graph Search.

We’ll be covering Graph Search and all its marketing implications in our new Advanced Social Media Marketing course (details here).

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New Course: Advanced Social Media Marketing

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Michael Carney
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Because Social Media never stands still, we’ve developed a brand new course that has as its focus the very latest developments in the medium. This course is designed for those who already have a solid understanding of Social Media Marketing and wish to keep themselves as up-to-date as possible. The course content is reviewed monthly and updated where necessary to reflect what’s happening NOW.

advanced banner New Course: Advanced Social Media Marketing

Advanced Social Media Marketing course

This is a seven-part eCourse providing a comprehensive update of the latest developments in the Social Media world, both locally and internationally. It supplements and extends the topics we cover in our general Social Media Marketing Principles & Practice course.

This eCourse is conducted on a web-based e-learning software platform, enabling course participants to proceed at their own pace, accessing materials online. This particular eCourse provides content in a variety of multimedia forms, including videos, slideshows, flash-based presentations and PDF files. No special software is required to participate.

Course lessons will be provided in seven parts, for participants to access in accordance with their own timetables. Interaction with the course tutor is enabled through the platform software tools (with telephone backup if required).

COURSE CREATION AND TUTORING
This course has been created and is tutored by Michael Carney.

WHO SHOULD TAKE THE COURSE
Any Business Owner, Marketing, Advertising, PR or Communications professional who wants to keep up with the latest developments in the Social Media sphere. Also, if you’ve taken one of our courses in 2012 or earlier, this is the course you need to bring you up to speed with the latest developments in the medium.

WHAT YOU SHOULD LEARN AS A RESULT OF THE COURSE:

COURSE CONTENTS

Lesson One: The Latest Facebook Changes And What They Mean For You

In Lesson One, we take a fresh look at Facebook and learn about:

  • The newest developments on Facebook including Gifts, Promoted Posts, Page Post Targeting, Parent/Child Pages, AdExchange, Open Graph, custom audiences, retargeting, subscriptions, local currency pricing and much more – what they all mean and how you can take advantage of them
  • Hot-off-the-press Kiwi Facebook statistics, including New Zealand’s Most Popular and Most Talked About Facebook pages, smart engagement strategies from Kiwi companies and Kiwi Facebook stats by category
  • What people talk about most on Facebook and the implications for marketers
  • Facebook’s new Mobile Strategies and what they mean for marketers in 2013
  • Facebook, Amazon and Social Gifting
  • A round-up of the latest and greatest Facebook Tools
  • Snapchat vs Poke

Lesson Two: Pinterest & Instagram and The Power Of Pictures

Pictures have taken the social sphere by storm, and Pinterest and Instagram are leading the way! In this lesson we delve in detail into these two social services, including:

  • The latest local and international statistics
  • How leading marketers are using Pinterest and Instagram
  • Pinterest’s new Business Pages and what they mean for 2013
  • Why Pinterest acquired Punchfork
  • Pinterest case studies, best practices and inspirational guides
  • What you simply must know about Pinterest’s Secret Boards
  • Compendium, Rummage and other Pinterest clones
  • Instagram’s new philosophy on ads
  • Instagram’s Privacy debacle

Lesson Three: Twitter 2013

Twitter continues to evolve. Here’s what you should know about Twitter today:

  • How to make optimum use of the new Twitter Cover Photos
  • Farewell to Instagram, Hello Aviary
  • Making effective use of the Twitter API
  • How to curate your Twitter lists
  • Best practices to clean up your Twitter settings
  • How to find the best Twitter hashtags
  • Twitter Tools you should use
  • Tips for more effective tweeting
  • Top Tweets and posts about Twitter
  • Famous Twitter #Fails: what brands still don’t get

Lesson Four: What you need to know about Google Plus for 2013

Google Plus is strategically important, even though the social network still has a much smaller membership base than Facebook. In this lesson, we cover:

  • Google Plus stats and demographics
  • Why Google Plus is so important for SEO — and for your online credibility
  • The implications of Google blending Google Plus with Google Shopping
  • Why Google Plus matters more than ever for local businesses
  • The controversial new Google Plus sharing policies
  • How Google Drive now links directly to Google Plus
  • New Google Plus Communities and why they matter
  • Google’s new Lightbox ad format explained
  • How to use Google Plus Hangouts On Air
  • The latest new features for the Google Plus mobile apps

Lesson Five: Getting Up to Speed on LinkedIn

In this lesson we cover the key facts you need to know about LinkedIn, including:

  • LinkedIn NZ demographics, including membership by industry sector
  • The new-look LinkedIn homepage and what it means for you
  • Is your LinkedIn Profile optimised for the new page design?
  • LinkedIn Today and how you can use it to build your reputation
  • The increasing importance of Company Pages — and the opportunities that still exist for first-movers
  • Accessing influencers and thought-leaders
  • Social Proof and LinkedIn Endorsements
  • The importance of the LinkedIn mobile offerings

Lesson Six: Mastering YouTube in 2013

THere’s a bit more to YouTube than Gangnam and cat videos. In Lesson Six, we review:

  • YouTube by the numbers
  • Associated Website Link Annotations and what they mean for marketers
  • The importance of ‘Time Watched’ for higher Video Search Rankings
  • How to use Google AdWords for Video effectively
  • Essential tips and techniques from the YouTube Creator Playbook
  • Viral Videos: the good, the bad and the very very ugly
  • The YouTube Capture iOS App and how it makes posting to YouTube even easier
  • How to Optimize For The New YouTube Design
  • How to Drive Traffic Between Your Videos on YouTube
  • The new rules of video marketing

Lesson Seven: “Big”, Enterprise-Level Social Media Users

Social Media Marketing is traditionally discussed in the context of smaller businesses; but how do large enterprises cope with the demands of Social Media? We review the latest tools and best practices for enterprise-level Social Media Marketing, including:

  • The essential ingredients of any enterprise social RFP
  • Coping with constant technological change
  • Managing social media data across large organisations
  • Cross-channel co-ordination of messages, analytics and infrastructure
  • Creating an pan-organisational social media team
  • Managing rules, restrictions and reputations
  • Promoting social media features and benefits within the organisation
  • Discovering, attracting and sourcing talent
  • Empowering employees for social media success
  • Identifying the roles required for managing social media communities effectively
  • Dealing with the organisational culture challenges
  • Preserving Engagement and Innovation within the enterprise environment

————————

TIMING

Click here for the latest course date and to register for the course.

 

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How To Use LinkedIn Effectively

Posted on November 30, 2012 by Michael Carney
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We’ve been regularly asked over the last couple of years whether we offer a course devoted to LinkedIn. Finally, we can say Yes. Allow us to introduce our newest course, How to Use LinkedIn Effectively.

Here are some of the most frequently-asked questions about LinkedIn:

Q. Why should I bother about LinkedIn? Isn’t it just for B2B?

A. The motivations for developing an effective presence on LinkedIn are many and varied, but here are just a few:

  • Build Personal and Corporate Credibility. Before someone decides to accept an appointment request from you, or approach you about a business opportunity, they’ll first check out you and your company on LinkedIn. Research shows that 40 percent of everyone you meet will try to check you out online. 93 percent focus on LinkedIn, 66 percent use Facebook, and 54 percent recruit via Twitter.
  • Get Referrals. Most of us have sales responsibilities (in one form or another, even if the word Sales isn’t in our job title. It’s much easier to get a sympathetic hearing within an organisation if you already know someone there. The LinkedIn system enables you to quickly identify who you know who works for an organisation (or who knows someone who works there).
  • Make Sales. 61% of B2B organisations and 39% of B2C companies have successfully acquired customers via LinkedIn, according to HubSpot.
  • Build your network. LinkedIn provides an opportunity like never before to meet and collaborate with people who you would likely not meet any other way. The talent pool available to question, poll, and request advice from is almost overwhelming. LinkedIn’s 3-tiered network gives you access to your connections’ connections whenever you search for someone with particular skills, and the reverse is also true, so a strong LinkedIn presence can get you noticed when a friend’s friend is searching for someone who does exactly what you offer.
  • Demonstrate your capabilities. This is not the place to be humble. A strong LinkedIn profile can lead to jobs, project work, speaking engagements, and new vendor relationships.
  • Display public references. This is an opportunity to prove that you are actually capable of all the wonderful things you claim on your profile. These credibility boosters are also instantly accessible references for a potential employer to read, which may give you an added push to the top of the applicant pile.
  • Build your personal brand. You already have a brand, which is how people feel about you. It’s the public’s sum total of all their experiences with you. LinkedIn provides a terrific opportunity to bring your brand online, reinforcing what people already think of you professionally and revealing it to an expanded network.
  • Increase traffic to your website and blog. LinkedIn provides many opportunities to drive traffic to your website and blog. You can start by adding links within your profile, but don’t forget about adding them to your signature whenever you post a comment to a discussion item within a group or answer a question. You can also post a link to a new blog post as a status update and within relevant groups. In addition, you can add links to your website and blog from your company’s profile, and you can use the companies component to add exclusive offers that link to custom landing pages on your website or blog.
  • Position you as an expert. LinkedIn provides opportunities to demonstrate your expertise in ways that don’t make you appear as a pompous, egotistic fool. By answering questions, contributing to discussions, and always being helpful and friendly, you can raise your professional credibility and stature. This can lead to media interviews and other opportunities.
  • High Authority Link Juice. If you have a profile on LinkedIn and it has been filled out completely, then when you type in your name, or the name of your business on Google, your LinkedIn profile will more than likely come up on page one. Now, If you participate in the community, and you leave recommendations for others with your signature, business name, and web address, you will have high authority links pointing back to your web presence from each and every one of those posts you leave.
  • Social Proof. If you spend a little time visiting other businesses on LinkedIn and leaving recommendations, you will be able to ask for recommendations in return. When people come to visit your LinkedIn profile and see 6, 12, or 20 recommendations from other professionals, what do you think this will do for your business, you, and your overall reputation?

Q. Does LinkedIn matter for Kiwi businesses?

A. As we mentioned last time, New Zealand now boasts 707,696 LinkedIn members, according to SocialBakers. LinkedIn usage has more than doubled over the last twelve months (UMR Research), going from 12% to 29% of Kiwis online. Despite that growth, the 2012 MYOB Business Monitor shows that just 17 percent of New Zealand businesses use LinkedIn to network with business colleagues and/or clients. That spells opportunity.
Q. Is My Industry On LinkedIn?

A. Virtually every industry is, naturally with some represented in larger volumes than others. Industries represented globally on LinkedIn, in order of popularity, include:

1. Hi-Tech
2. Finance
3. Manufacturing
4. Medical
5. Educational
6. Corporate
7. Consumer Goods
8. Recreational
9. Construction
10. Government
11. Arts
12. Media
13. Non-Profit
14. Transportation
15. Service
16. Legal
17. Agriculture

Although Company Pages are a relatively new addition to LinkedIn (so listed NZ business numbers are still small), these are the numbers of Kiwi companies listed on LinkedIn, for the Top Ten Industry Sectors:

linkedin by company 580 How To Use LinkedIn Effectively

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Q. What are the latest LinkedIn Stats?

A. Samantha Collier just shared these numbers:

  • LinkedIn has over 175 million members as of October 16, 2012. To put this in perspective, LinkedIn had only 32 million members in January of 2009
  • Users are joining LinkedIn at 2 members per second
  • LinkedIn is expecting to reach 5 billion professional searches in 2012
  • There are over 1 million groups on LinkedIn. These groups contain between 2 and 250,000 members
  • The mobile version of LinkedIn is its fastest growing service
  • The LinkedIn mobile app had 12 options in 2011 and approximately 1 million users. In 2012, LinkedIn cut the number of options down to 4 and they saw an increase in the number of users from 10% to 23%
  • There are over 28 people searched on the mobile app per second
  • Over 75,000 developers are using LinkedIn’s API’s in their own products and services
  • LinkedIn gets over 2 billion network updates viewed weekly
  • There are over 175 thousand new LinkedIn profiles created every day
  • There were 3 billion searches on LinkedIn as of September, 2012
  • Over 25 million LinkedIn profiles are viewed every day
  • There are over 2 million LinkedIn Company Pages on LinkedIn
  • Over 1 million publishers have implemented the LinkedIn share button on their sites
  • Recently, 150 thought leaders were requested to create articles for LinkedIn on various topics. These individuals consisted of 1 Nobel Prize Winner, members with over 2 million followers, 1 McArthur Genius, 29 New York Times best seller book authors, all from 11 countries
  • There are over 10 million endorsements provided on LinkedIn everyday
  • There has been over 200% more social interactions since the LinkedIn homepage was redesigned

Whew! That pretty much covers the questions we’ve been asked about LinkedIn.

If, after all that, you’ve decided that LinkedIn is a professional social network you should know more about, please keep reading for details of our How To Use LinkedIn Effectively online training course.

How To Use LinkedIn Effectively – For Your Business And Your Career

New Zealand now boasts 707,696 LinkedIn members, according to SocialBakers, amounting to 21.06% of our online population. Yet far too many of those Kiwi members simply don’t know how to use LinkedIn effectively to promote themselves or their organisations.

In response to this need, we’ve developed a course that will show you how to use LinkedIn to best advantage, taking account of the various developments being rolled out regularly by the LinkedIn team.

About the Course

This is a seven-part eCourse providing a comprehensive introduction to LinkedIn, from the basics to detailed instructions on how to use LinkedIn to promote your organisation, build your personal reputation, find a job, recruit staff and even make sales.

This eCourse is conducted on a web-based e-learning software platform, enabling course participants to proceed at their own pace, accessing materials online. This particular eCourse provides content in a variety of multimedia forms, including videos, slideshows, flash-based presentations and PDF files. No special software is required to participate.

Course lessons will be provided in seven parts, for participants to access in accordance with their own timetables.

COURSE CREATION AND TUTORING
This “How to use LinkedIn Effectively” programme has been created and is tutored by ye editor, Michael Carney.

WHO SHOULD TAKE THE “HOW TO USE LINKEDIN EFFECTIVELY” COURSE

Any business professional who wants to master LinkedIn, whether to further their own career or to develop their business presence on the world’s leading professional network.

COURSE CONTENTS

Lesson One: How To Set Yourself Up Effectively On LinkedIn

You’re probably one of the seven hundred thousand Kiwis who already have a profile on LinkedIn — but is it just a transplanted CV? We show you how to turn your basic profile into a living, selling document that:

  • showcases your unique talents and experience to best advantage
  • reinforces your personal brand with a compelling headline that’s the first thing any visitor will see
  • highlights your achievements, not just your history
  • provides a platform for your future success

Lesson One also covers:

  • The most effective ways to ask for recommendations and endorsements
  • How to use the principle of Reciprocity to sharpen your profile
  • Trojan Horse Marketing and how it can really work for you
  • How to claim your name on LinkedIn (and why it matters)
  • How to optimize your profile for SEO
  • How to use LinkedIn’s Mobile Apps and how you can ensure that your profile stands out on every platform
  • The power of an effective profile summary
  • How to re-shape your profile to make it sizzle (and show off your best bits)

Lesson Two: How To Use LinkedIn For Business

Once you have your own personal profile up and sizzling, it’s time to turn your attention to your organisation (especially if you operate in the B2B space). LinkedIn has surpassed Twitter as the most popular social medium for distributing B2B content, with 83% of B2B marketers using LinkedIn to promote their organisations. So where do you begin? We start with Company Pages (which were recently redesigned to make it easier for LinkedIn users to find, follow and engage with companies of interest).

Topics covered in Lesson Two include:

  • How to use LinkedIn Banner Images to showcase your company brand and really bring your page to life
  • How to attract keen followers to your company pages (and what that does for your organisation’s visibility on LinkedIn)
  • What you can now say about your company’s products and services
  • How to harness social proof to best effect
  • Why you must make your updates valuable, relevant and interesting (and what that really means)

Lesson Three: How To Use LinkedIn To Find A Job

You’ve probably heard that LinkedIn is very useful when you’re looking for a new job — but where do you start?

In Lesson Three, we talk about:

  • How to use LinkedIn to get the word out that you’re in the market
  • How to polish your LinkedIn profile even further, to highlight your best (and most employable) characteristics
  • How to find out where people with your skillset are working
  • How to check if a company is still hiring
  • How to identify new recruits (and perhaps pick their brains)
  • How to find out who’s who in your target industry
  • How to network shamelessly to future-proof your career
  • How to build your personal brand
  • How to enhance your Resume with LinkedIn Testimonials
  • How to find (and capitalise on) inside connections at potential employers
  • How to search the hidden job market for opportunities
  • How to use LinkedIn to prepare for your job interview

Lesson Four: How To Use LinkedIn To Generate Business

Can you actually use LinkedIn to create business? Yes, indeed you can, and we’ll show you how. Along the way, we’ll talk about:

  • How to use LinkedIn to find business opportunities
  • How to Use LinkedIn Groups to build relationships with prospects and attract new leads
  • How to decide who you should connect with (and who doesn’t make the cut)
  • The power of a clear Call To Action
  • LinkedIn Special Offers (and where it’s appropriate to make them)
  • How LinkedIn’s Advanced People Search feature can be your very best prospecting friend
  • How to use LinkedIn for sales success

Lesson Five: How To Use LinkedIn’s Paid Services

You’ve probably noticed that, whilst many of LinkedIn’s services are free, you are occasionally encouraged to buy some stuff there. Reportedly, around 2% of LinkedIn members have paid-for subscriptions. So should you dip into your pocket?

In Lesson Six, we evaluate the pros and cons of:

  • LinkedIn paid advertising — how it works, what you can expect to pay and what results to aim for
  • The surprising response rates of LinkedIn InMails (and when using them is worthwhile)
  • How to use LinkedIn’s Profile Organizer
  • The LinkedIn paid account options and what they provide

Lesson Six: How To Use LinkedIn To Promote Your Business

So far we’ve looked at how to use LinkedIn to make sales and build your reputation. But LinkedIn is also an ideal vehicle for promoting your organisation to other businesses.

In Lesson Six we’ll look at the promotional potential of LinkedIn, including:

  • How (and how often) to craft status updates that will appeal to your target customers and clients
  • Best practices for sending out mass messages and invitations (without being a pest)
  • How to use Groups to build your authority and keep in regular touch with your prospects
  • How to connect from LinkedIn to the rest of the web, using widgets and plugins and other automated services
  • How to share useful articles and resources without overdoing it
  • How to add videos and presentations to LinkedIn
  • How to use the right tools to manage your LinkedIn content to avoid getting overwhelmed

Lesson Seven: How To Use LinkedIn For Recruiting

We’ve already covered using LinkedIn to find a new job. In Lesson Seven we look at the flip side of the coin — how to use LinkedIn to find the most appropriate candidates for vacancies within your organisation.

In this lesson, we consider:

  • why LinkedIn is a fertile ground within which to find perhaps 80% of your prospective employees
  • How to use LinkedIn to tap into the most effective recruiting source of all
  • The crowd-sourced accuracy of LinkedIn profiles
  • LinkedIn’s job-posting facilities (and whether you should use them)
  • Soliciting introductions: the appropriate protocols
  • How to use LinkedIn to search and compare

TIMING

The next “How To Use LinkedIn Effectively” course begins on Thursday December 6. To make allowance for the Christmas Holiday season, we will pause for a three-week break in the middle of the course. As a result, the following timetable will operate:

  • Lesson One: Thursday December 6
  • Lesson Two: Thursday December 13
  • Lesson Three: Thursday December 20
    BREAK
  • Lesson Four: Thursday January 17
  • Lesson Five: Thursday January 24
  • Lesson Six: Thursday January 31
  • Lesson Seven: Thursday February 7

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INVESTMENT

This seven-part eCourse is available for $497 +GST.

Bookings are confirmed on receipt of payment, which can be by cheque, bank deposit or credit card. We can raise an invoice in advance if you need it.

To reserve your place in our “How To Use LinkedIn Effectively” course, please pay by credit card through PayPal by clicking here.

If you would prefer to pay by cheque or bank deposit, or require an invoice, please send an email to bookings@socialmedia.org.nz with your requirements.

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Marketing Monitor Snippets November

Posted on November 23, 2012 by Michael Carney
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  • Pinterest prepares for Brand Pages. Pinterest has started paving the way for brand pages by launching accounts designed for marketers. Last week the social scrapbooking site launched accounts that allow marketers to sign up using business names (rather than requiring a first and last name).
  • Kiwis who already buy daily deals online are also likely to purchase gifts for friends and family, according to a recent survey commissioned by daily deal operator GrabOne. That study, conducted amongst 7,177 GrabOne customers across New Zealand (August 2012) showed that 93.5% of those customers have purchased a gift online for family or friends over the past year.
  • Amazon goes social with brand pages. Amazon has launched Amazon Pages, giving brands the ability to set up pages that incorporate some of the more popular features of Facebook and Pinterest. Brands can customize their pages using one of three templates and can act as publishers when it comes to posting content including images, product pictures and 140-character messages. Adweek via Smartbrief.
  • Earlier this month, Skype launched Skype in the workspace, a new online platform for small businesses to instantly connect with potential customers, partners and suppliers across the globe. The free-to-use tool taps into the Skype network, allowing millions of small businesses to promote their products and services to new networks and connections.
  • Facebook have just announced some proposed updates to their Data Use Policy, covering how they collect and use data when people use Facebook, and their Statement of Rights and Responsibilities (SRR), which explains the terms governing use of Facebook services. To review these proposed changes and give feedback before they are finalised, visit the “Documents” tab of the Facebook Site Governance Page https://www.facebook.com/fbsitegovernance to learn more about these changes and to submit comments before November 28, 2012.
  • Latest Kiwi Social Stats (November 2012): 76% of New Zealanders who are online use Facebook, up 7% since 2011, according to a survey by pollsters UMR. Linkedin is the next most popular on 29%, although this is more than double what it was in 2011 (previously 12%). On the other hand, 90% of people who are on Linkedin are also on Facebook. UMR’s monthly Online Omnibus survey also looked at Twitter: 19% of New Zealanders who are online use Twitter, up 7% on 2011; 97% of people who are on Twitter are also on Facebook.

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The Digital Olympics

Posted on August 3, 2012 by Michael Carney
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olympic rings 480 The Digital Olympics

London 2012 — it’s been dubbed the Digital Olympics, in part because (according to 101 Media):

viewers can follow the events through their choice of device. According to survey results released in July by TechBargains.com 46 percent of viewers will watch on laptops, 39 percent on desktops, 31 percent on tablets, and 27 percent on smartphones. They also have a selection of apps that offer coverage fo the Game. The official London 2012 apps, for example, enables audiences to watch everything from the Olympic Torch Relay to the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, as well as receive live updates, medal tables, and athlete profiles. The BBC and NBC also plan to stream live video. The NBC Olympics Live Extra app features the streaming of all 32 athletic competitions and the awarding of all 302 medals, while the NBC Olympics app provides content like interviews, news stories, highlight videos, and live results.

From a New Zealand perspective, we’ve seen an explosion of viewing options for this games, the first Summer Games since Sky won broadcasting rights. Digitally, iSky is offering Prime’s coverage of Kiwis in action in London — not quite the same as what’s available offshore, but it’s very definitely a move in the right direction.

What else might we look forward to in future games? How about ultraHD?

The UK has also seen (according to the Telegraph) the innovative public availability of so-called Super Hi-Vision, or ultra-HD. Developed by Japanese broadcaster NHK, it’s 16 times the definition of HD and offers 22 channel sound. ultra-HD is available only on special screens in London, Glasgow and Bradford. Reportedly,  it’s as close to really being at an event as television can currently achieve.

Olympics-linked marketing opportunities are limited to the official sponsors, of course — but the total Games experience is worth studying for its lessons for future events.

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50 Amazing Mobile Marketing Facts

Posted on July 21, 2012 by Michael Carney
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Cool presentation from HubSpot:



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Using Twitter To Keep In Touch

Posted on July 10, 2012 by Michael Carney
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Full marks to British cartoonists Peattie and Taylor, who regularly take breaks from producing their compelling caustic commentary on the U.K. financial system (aka The Alex Cartoon).

Why the bouquet?

Because — whilst Peattie and Taylor normally post single frames on the Alex website announcing that their creations are having a break — this time they’re redirecting us to Twitter to keep up with Alex’s misadventures.

alex twitter Using Twitter To Keep In Touch

Nice touch.

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The Long Tail of New Zealand Facebook Pages

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Michael Carney
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As we mentioned in one of our January newsletters, we’ve been steadily crunching our way through thousands of New Zealand Facebook pages (6,251 of them at last count) in our efforts to map the Kiwi social sphere. We’ll be turning our efforts into a Social Trends Report which will be on offer in due course, but these are some of our top-line conclusions.

There’s plenty of room for improvement when it comes to Kiwi businesses and social media. Most New Zealand Facebook pages attract no more than a few hundred fans at best:

  • A quarter of all New Zealand Facebook pages have 100 likes or less
  • Slightly more than half (56%) have up to 400 likes
  • 79% have less than 1600 likes
  • Just 74 pages have more than 50,000 likes
  • Only 19 have managed more than 200,000 likes
  • At the very top, only seven NZ-related pages have more than 500,000 likes

The numbers are even more challenging if we attempt to identify those New Zealand Facebook pages that are effectively engaging with their followers.

How do we measure engagement? In this instance, by determining how many people are “talking about” each Facebook page.

“People Talking About This” is a Facebook measurement which, according to Facebook, quantifies “the number of unique people who have created a story about your Page [in the course of the previous week]. These stories include liking your Page, posting to your Page’s wall, liking, commenting on or sharing one of your Page’s Posts, answering a Question you posted, RVSPing to on of your events, mentioning your Page, phototagging your Page, checking in at your Place or recommending your Place.”

So what exactly have we found?

In late January 2012:

  • 14% of New Zealand Facebook pages had absolutely NOBODY talking about them
  • 11% were interacting with just one person
  • 57% had between 2 and 50 people talking
  • 2% had more than 1,000 interactions in progress
  • Just 5 pages had more than 20,000 people talking
  • Only one page had more than 100,000 conversations in progress

Does it matter if you’re being talked about on Facebook or not?

Yes it does, and it’s far, far more important than you might realise — Facebook uses an algorithm called EdgeRank, which determines whether or not your posts will show on the newsfeeds of those who ‘like’ you. One of the most important ingredients of that algorithm, is, not surprisingly, based on the proportion of your followers who are talking about you. Fail at that level and you simply won’t get seen on anybody’s newsfeed.

Our conclusions, based on our research thus far:

There’s huge scope for improvement for most New Zealand organisations who have planted a virtual outpost on Facebook. There are now more than two million Kiwi Facebook users yet 97% of our local Facebook pages couldn’t manage to engage the interest of even 500 of those Kiwi users.

That doesn’t mean we should just give up on social media. A handful of our top achievers have managed to score some seriously large Facebook followings — and an awesome few have many thousands of people engaging and interacting with their pages. Their performances are inspiring and aspirational — clearly Kiwis are willing to engage, if you can catch their interest and attention. Silence is not golden in the social space — it’s a critical failure.

So — if you’re one of the 5,571 Kiwi businesses with less than 100 people talking about you, will you take up the challenge to engage your way to the top?

(Ahem — if you’re not sure how to do that, may we respectfully encourage you to check out our Facebook Accelerator course here (Early Bird Offer, saving you $100, closes tomorrow); or, if you outsource your social media efforts, see our course on How To Prepare An Effective Social Media Brief here (Early Bird booking deadline Monday, so grab it now).

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