Last week I talked about how you can get started with Twitter, and how to manage your account. This week I want you to start using Twitter to declare your expert status!
With Twitter you can reach people you might never have access to all over the world. You have conversations with people from all walks of life. You can tweet @Oprah and she just might tweet back. Meet millions of people online talking right.this.minute. about the live March Madness basketball games. You can just jump in and join the conversation!
Twitter helps you find your niche and jump into the river of people out there waiting to find you as just the expert they need. The general consensus by “social media scientists” (oh yes they do exist) is: “Twitter is key for all forms of online marketing and communications.” Science Of Twitter 2013 from HubSpot
[Tweet “Want to know the top three words to use in your Twitter bio?”]
Today I want to tell you exactly how to establish yourself as an expert on Twitter and start using this wonderful tool to your business advantage.
1. Fill out your profile – Having a profile picture increases your number of followers by an average of 1000%. Yup that is a real number.
2. Make sure your bio tells your followers why they should believe you. – Are you the founder? Are you an expert? Guru? Speaker? Author? It has been proven that official, founder, and speaker are three of the top words to use in your micro profile. Please please please include a link to your website!
3. Link to the stuff that makes you smart! – Add links to your tweets about 60%-80% of the time. This is the sweet spot to promote engagement (aka re-tweets) and to show that you are a valuable resource to follow.
4. Be the first to know something and share it. – Found a fantastic article that appears not many people have read? Found the most comprehensive list on the best green smoothies, best way to stay organized, top business tricks in your niche? Share it and share it fast!
5. Aim to tweet at least 22 times per day. – Last week you saw this and made a lot of noise about it, so I’m going to say it again. It is very difficult to over tweet. This is the one place no one will tell you to stop sharing, stop posting, or complain you talk too much! Wondering how to manage this? Take a quick read of my post here that tells you exactly how to set yourself up for success and not get overwhelmed with posting 22 times/day.
6. As always, talk about your prospective client. – People like to know you are interested in them. Tweets with the word YOU are statistically the most often retweeted.
7. Talk about your niche in a unique way. – There might be many life coaches, real estate agents, consultants, writers, etc out there, but there is only one YOU. You have your own special brand of advice and knack for sharing that with your followers (and soon to be followers!)
8. Finally, and most importantly: Use your own voice. Your people will listen. So, my fellow business experts, what is the first step you are going to take this week to set yourself up for success on Twitter? Click here to tell me, and I promise I will retweet!
I love Twitter. I didn’t always! It wasn’t more than a year or so ago that I was whining that Twitter takes up a lot of time, and I wasn’t seeing any real results. Some business friends called me out on it, said that basically Twitter is the great equalizer, you can tweet directly to Oprah, Richard Branson, your favorite celeb, really anyone you want! [Tweet “Twitter is the great equalizer.”] They were right. I quickly stopped whining, and started building my Twitter following. It might be the single most effective thing I’ve done to grow my business in the past year. The more followers I have, the more followers I get. The more followers I get, the more respected I become as an industry expert. The more respected I get, the more interview requests I get. The more interview requests I get, the more profitable my business is. Now, I’m a HUGE Twitter fan! I tweet all the time. Twitter is fast, it’s chock full of information, it’s sometimes hard to understand, but it IS an important place to be and here’s why:
Twitter is democratic: Unlike Facebook, Twitter doesn’t screen your posts based on most liked or commented upon, it lets each post be equally visible in the stream for anyone to see.
Twitter is a trove of information: Search what your competitors are saying, search for the people who like what you like, find out what your ideal customer needs. Bam! You have enough information to create your next service offering, to find your next tribe of followers, to write your next blog post and more.
You have equal reach to all Twitter users: You can talk directly to every user on Twitter. It’s a great way to reach out to influencers in your industry, and to get your name in front of them! Engage with their posts, and you may be able to kickstart a real relationship.
Twitter establishes your expert status: Show what you know without pressure, just a few words and a link and you are set! No need for fancy pictures or perfectly worded posts, just the facts. (Ok and maybe a little funny in there too)
On the flip-side Twitter can feel like a lot of work. I recommend to my clients that they post an average of 22 times per day. No worries! There are ways to take the burden out of the bulk and I’m here to tell you how. Scheduling and automation is key. The one caveat here, automate your tweets not your DMs (direct messages), please don’t risk sounding like a robot. Automated tweets are important foundational posts about who you are, what your business is about, your business WHY, and all of your expert knowledge in one place rotating through queues of topics. You can share quotes, statistics, industry information, and general information about your products and services. Hootsuite and Buffer are two popular scheduling tools, however my personal favorite is Social Oomph. Unlike Hootsuite and Buffer, Social Oomph allows you to create re-occuring queues of tweets. It takes a little bit of time and effort to set up, but in the end, just like everything else, the hard work pays off in time saved and ability to focus on the more meaty parts of Twitter – namely having time to engage. I like to set up Social Oomph with the following queues:
blog posts
industry stats
favorite quotes
promotions
general “my stuff”
Once you have your queues set up, each time one of your posts is tweeted Social Oomph automatically places it at the back of the line to wait until its turn comes again. This could take days, weeks, or longer. The longer the better of course as you want to have a lot of fantastic content for your audience to chew on, to get to know you with, and to trust you because of it. With the bulk of this churning in the background you can finally sit back, relax, and actually enjoy social media again through connecting and conversation. THEN I use Hootsuite to engage and for analytics. I also use ManageFlitter, a paid service that allows me to sort followers by all sorts of traits, helping me to follow and unfollow strategically. That’s a more advanced service. So what’s your first step going to be with Twitter this week? Find me and tell me! @karenyankovich
Last week we discussed SMO, Social Media Optimization, and touched on the need for SEO in your business as well. Missed the SMO blog post? No worries – click here!
To make and keep your business visible, SEO is the other half of the “feed the Google Beast” pie! Let’s dive in! What exactly IS SEO in the first place?
SEO is Search Engine Optimization.
Google’s web-bots are constantly crawling around the interwebs searching for the right website, blog post, article, or image to list when anyone sits down at their computer to look for answers. The big question here is what are your future clients looking for before they actually find you? And, How does Google know that you are the person/website to recommend? I’m glad you asked, let me show you how…
[Tweet “Your business deserves to be seen.”]
Steps to increase SEO:
Take a look at ALL your URLs. Your blog posts, your page titles, your Facebook page name, your LinkedIn profile link etc. All of these should be actual words, clearly stating what that page, profile, or post is about, or in the case of a profile be as close to your name or business name as you can get that makes sense. Google sees that and it makes them happy that you are a legitimate business person who is staking a claim to your own piece of internet real estate.
Find out what your prospects are searching for. First just brainstorm, ask friends, sit at your computer thinking: “What the heck would I type in if I was looking for Me/My Service/My product?” Keep a running list handy of whatever comes up. I keep a journal just for keywords because they change as my business changes.
Next use these tools to help you find out which of those words are the most popular: Google Adwords Keyword Planner, SEOBook, and Ubersuggest. Enter a search term or a list of terms related to your business and voila! Google will show you historical data on how popular that term is across the millions of Google searches done every day. (Studies show there are an estimated 500 million Google searches performed each day!)
From that list pick your top 5-10 best performing search terms. These will now be the keywords that you will use when and where you can: blog posts, web page content, page titles, etc. These may change from time to time, and just like everything else should not be neglected so check back with new terms to search and update your keyword list on a regular basis. Be sure to use these same keywords across all of your sites, social media, whatever.
Review these monthly! You want to be sure you’re using keywords very specifically for what you’re currently promoting. Keeping that keyword journal makes that really easy.
So that just about covers the basics of SMO and SEO 101. I know this is a lot of information to digest, but with a few of the steps listed above you can start to get a good handle on this very important corner of the online world. Your business deserves to be seen and it is my passion to help you make it so. Comment below and let me know what your favorite keyword tools are, I know there are more!
Good luck my amazing entrepreneurs and I can’t wait to hear how the traffic comes rolling on in!
We all know we need to play nice with Google to have the favor returned in the online world.
There are two ways you can work to do that as you build your business on the web: SMO and SEO.
Today we’re going to tackle the basics of SMO, how it can help you and what to do about it!
SMO is Social Media Optimization.
Google tracks how many shares, comments, re-posts, clicks and link backs to your website/content are done across the web. High numbers establishes “social proof” that you are an expert in your field and thus Google recognizes this and rewards it with higher ranking. You can easily optimize this process by helping your content be visible and easily “re-purposed” across many social networks. You want to continually be feeding the Google Beast! Here’s how…
Steps to increase SMO:
Expert, expert, expert. Show that you either know what you are talking about or have great resources that point to others in your field that do. Hopefully a mixture of both! You want people to see your content, your website, or your blog as the one-stop-shop for information they might need relating to your industry topic.
Do some keyword homework, and use those same keywords across all social media sites. This brings consistency to your online presence, and helps Google present you to the right people.
Engage with your audience. Ask for comments, respond to comments, set up social share buttons on every post/page, and then ‘push’ these posts out to all your social media platforms. Make it EASY for your readers to engage. Just like the rest of us if your reader is more comfortable on LinkedIn then make sure you are sending your content there to be seen and commented on from the comfort of their own ‘home’.
The nitty gritty. Keep your title tags short and shareable, make it twitter friendly! And as we all have heard a thousand times… A picture is worth a thousand words. Use them!
A quick tip. Finally there is some research that states certain platforms are more optimization friendly, notably Google+ and LinkedIn. Both will show up very high in your search rankings. Make it a goal to define a presence on one or both of these platforms in the next few months of 2014!
[Tweet “5 easy steps to increase your SMO, every time.”]
There you have it…SMO basics, pick one step to try this week and make it happen! Which one will you choose?
We’re rising in the work hierarchy, we’re breaking glass ceilings all over the world. We’re leaning in, we’re leaning out.
Some of us, anyway.
The reality is, as a gender, we’re still not as comfortable shouting our genius to the world as our male counterparts are. Ladies, we’re losing business because of this.
The Facts:
LinkedIn has over 225 million registered members and 77 million of those make their home in the U.S.
It takes at least 36 thousand 1st degree connections to crack the top 10 most connected on LinkedIn.
Only 5 women are in the top 100, 2 are in the top 10, and 4 are in the top 20.
Speaking as a woman here, I know we are often not as comfortable at promoting ourselves, asking for testimonials/recommendations, as well as receiving praise. Believe me I know it can be difficult, this is why I loved LinkedIn. This platform makes it so much easier for us to step into our power, to claim our expert status, and promote our business genius with personal branding.
A fully fleshed out profile with an attention grabbing headline noting exactly what and who she is. At a quick glance we know if we would want to hire her, sell to her, be her friend, and why
Her summary is clean, easy to follow, highlighting relevant numbers for her field (e.g. 23K+ Twitter followers), relevant experience and where to find her
There are visuals: photos and links to articles and websites that again highlight her expert status
Specialties section is being used so we know exactly what she feels she is best at
Experience sections are chock full and engagingly written in first person with enthusiasm – notice the titles – very specific – again we know her expertise
Recommendations section is active – she has 25 which is not an unreachable number for the rest of us
Her awards and honors section is full and again establishes herself as an expert in social media, recruiting and connecting, with links to appropriate articles to back it up
As a speaker she lists her 2013 schedule – we can ALL list classes and conferences attended to pack in credibility in our own way
Her endorsements are plentiful – endorse 5 people a day each time you are working in LinkedIn and you will be surprised how fast your own list grows
Advice for Contact section is very clear – she wears multiple hats – which most of us do – and the well thought out, as well as personal, contact section shows anyone easily: how and where and why to get a hold of her
She shows interest in volunteering and causes which helps us know she is a real person
She is a member of multiple groups (37 or more) and while we don’t need to be as prolific even a handful of groups rounds out the profile picture of who you are and why you are here
You CAN be influential with a small number of connections, but the most influential of all have large networks and one of the easiest places to build yours is LinkedIn. Think of it as a virtual trade show or conference where you make real live connections.
Having a larger network enables you to show up in searches of people you might otherwise never have met! So claim your power, spruce up your profile, and let your genius shine! Then slowly build the network you deserve.
You started out your business, and you grabbed a Facebook business page. Over time, you’ve added a Twitter page, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest,Instagram. Holy crap do I need to Snapchat now? Oh yeah, and my LinkedIn page. What? I need a LinkedIn Company page now?
It’s overwhelming, I know it. I want to ease the pain a bit here today and give you permission to pick two or three sites that really resonate with you and with your business, and focus on them. You need not, and should not, be posting on 10 social media sites a day, at least not until you’re making enough money to get some help.
But that’s not why I’m here today.
When you’re an entrepreneur, a small business owner, a sales professional, marketing online can be VERY lucrative when done strategically. So while I don’t want you to be posting on each site every day, I do want you to HAVE a presence on each site, and here’s why.
Snag Your Vanity URLs
You never know how your Social Media Brand Strategy is going to evolve. Today your strategy may include Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, but as you evolve, you may shift your focus to other sites. In anticipation for that, I want you to snag your branded vanity URLs NOW, wherever you can.
I’m in several business groups, and typically each group member shares the URLs for their social media sites so that the members can get to know each other. RARE is the occasion when you find someone that has personalized all of their URLs. It’s such a simple step to take, and adds serious credibility to the business when it’s done.
Ideally, you want to use the EXACT SAME handle on each site. Doing so allows seamless cross posting, for example, if someone tags your handle in an Instagram post and shares that post to Twitter, that “tag” will automatically carry over to YOUR Twitter handle if it’s the exact same handle. I use @karenyankovich on Instagram and Twitter, and I get double the exposure when I share across platforms with one post.
So how to you do that?
There’s no need for me to go into detail on each platform when they do it so well themselves, so I’m providing a link to each site’s help page that will take you through how to personalize your URL for each site. I’ve included links to all of MY branded sites, I’d love for you to connect with me all over the place!
Just a quick note about Google – Gmail, Google+ and YouTube should all be connected to the same account. Just doing that does NOT give you a vanity URL, so you still need to take these simple steps.
Create that list for yourself and save it somewhere, it comes in handy! Of course, come connect with me.
A Consistent Brand Presence
This whole process will take you about half an hour, and will SAVE you a lot more than that over time as you figure out how to find your URLs. You’ll be able to easily send people you meet at networking events or at Little League games to your social media sites. Most importantly, you’ll be branding yourself, your business, and your social media to establish a consistent presence across all sites.
So go ahead. Grab your branded URLs for all of the sites above while it’s still available. You don’t have to actually be using the site right now, but I want you to be ready when the time comes to add a new social media platform to your strategy. Keep an eye out as new sites are started, grab your name, then file it somewhere and forget about it until you need it.
BONUS TIP! If you are not going to be actively using a platform, please don’t include a link to it on your website. Promote only what you have a strategy for. I want you to shine as an expert, and a promoted social media site with tumbleweeds on it does not support that expert status. Only share the platforms you are actively participating in.
I hope this was helpful! Please comment below and tell me what YOUR top 3 social media sites are for your business, and why you love to use them.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.AcceptRead More
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
