by KarenYankovich | Feb 8, 2017 | Uncategorized
It’s a common issue.
We’re BUSY with our to-do lists. We’ve got to service our clients. One part of our business is sucking up a lot of our time. Distractibility …. Yup.
I want you to stop. Take a break from your to-do list for a few minutes. And tell me, if I had a magic wand, and could grant you the business of your dreams within 6 months, what would that look like?
Would it look like it does today?
Or do you want to be doing more speaking? Writing that book? Doing more workshops? Go ahead, dream big. Remember, I have a magic wand. Write out your day, how does it unfold? Who are you spending time with?
Now, go on over to LinkedIn. Take a look at your headline. Does it reflect that big goal of yours?
Often, I’m finding it does NOT. I speak to people every day about how to use LinkedIn to build a nice profitable sales funnel, a funnel that brings their business to that big dream place. But almost always I need to convince them to declare it in their headline. Convince them! Craziness.
So if speaking is a goal of yours, declare it. Call yourself a keynote speaker in your headline. Please don’t make things up! But if you’ve ever done a keynote talk, no matter the size of the audience, you’re a keynote speaker. Own it.
Are you a Realtor who is looking to crack a new sales milestone this year? OWN it. Step in to it. Start using the words to describe yourself.
If you’re not sure how to explain what your role is in your big dream business, then spend some time searching the profiles of others that are doing it now. If you need more support, grab my free video series at www.first3things.com. (Hint, video 2 is all about your headline!) Find those keywords, and search. See how the most successful people in your industry are describing themselves
I want you to do the same. Our big dreams CAN be achieved, but they start with US. We have to own it and declare it, and LinkedIn is the place to start. Tell the world how great you are! If not you, then who? It’s not bragging, it’s owning our worth and owning our dreams. This is the first step to achieving. Tell the world what you want them to know about you.
Drop your LinkedIn headline in the comments below, I’d love to cheer you on!
by KarenYankovich | Dec 5, 2016 | Uncategorized
I think it’s safe to make the call that lately, social media is becoming its own subset of traditional media in more ways than ever before. While traditional media has its place, you know you can’t let yourself slip behind with changing times; it’s important to stay on top of trends so you can consistently reach your audience in the most effective way possible.
When combined, social media and traditional media make for massive business visibility and exposure. But if you’re like a lot of people out there, making the switch from traditional to social can be overwhelming. So how do you even BEGIN to make that transition? Don’t worry–I’m here to help. But first, let’s talk about some of the ways social media is dominating the marketing space and how you can embrace the shift too.
Information Comes to You!
Unlike television news delivery where you sit down, turn on the TV, and watch to hear about stories, social media makes it possible for news to come directly to you on your computer or smartphone. Social media sites produce steady, up-to-date news on your feed in an instant–all you have to do is scroll through and read what you want to read. What’s even better is that social media presents the option to subscribe to news channels and have the news come straight to your phone in the form of a notification.
What’s the takeaway? Make your social channels valuable. Encourage your audience to subscribe to your social channels. Provide them with incentives to subscribe and run frequent time-sensitive deals or offers. They’ll want to receive information from their favorites businesses first, and you’re rewarding them for doing so. Works out for both parties!
Live Streaming is Changing the Game
Facebook recently came out with a commercial – yes, a commercial! It’s not often that you see social media sites advertising on TV, but this commercial encouraged use of their new live streaming.
Have you seen that notification on your Facebook app yet that says “so and so just went live!” yet? Yep, that’s it. That’s live streaming.
This feature can allow the normal person to jump on Facebook and report about anything while being live. People use this feature to show their Facebook users all kinds of things; for example, I’ve seen reporters live across the world talking with communities and SHOWING what the communities and lives are like. We’re on the scene when news is HAPPENING–not just when it’s being reported.
Many of these news stories aren’t breaking through traditional news sources because of the turnaround of many articles. They’re breaking through viral videos and viral news, straight from the sources and the people involved, not secondary sources. And remember, news is subjective. It doesn’t always have to be about large scale things in the country and overseas and politics etc. Local events are considered news as well.
While the average person can use Facebook live for just about anything, businesses are finding creative ways to use this as well. Whether it’s tutorials, information sessions, customer experiences (you name it), people are tuning in to watch Facebook live streams left and right. My realtor clients are showing sneak peeks of upcoming open houses on live stream. Restaurants are taking you into the kitchen to meet the chef. Photographers are taking you behind the scenes of their photo shoots!
Jump on this fast for your business and be creative. People will tune in if you give them a good reason watch.
Increase of video content
Typically, news shows last an entire hour, which mean if you want to hear the story about a certain subject, you either have to wait until the end or you might miss it right in the beginning.
That’s why video content is taking over the news industry. People can easily go on to the Facebook site of a news channel, look at a headline, and choose whether or not they want to watch it. From there, you can get a news story that you actually want to watch in about 2 or 3 minutes.
Not only is video content good for spreading news, but this taps into Facebook Live; people can view the entire amount of time you spent live, even after you finish recording.
Are you catching my drift? If not, let me break it down: it’s a great medium for your business when you want to show your audience your “news”. If someone can’t catch you live at that moment, they’ll be able to see it later on in their own time.
Video content is also capturing the younger generations. If a news story is too long or takes too much of their time, they’ll tune out and not want to watch. That means faster is better. People ”want it now”. Are you still sitting down to watch the news uninterrupted? Providing shorter clips in the form of videos on your timeline is a more 21st century solution to the always-on-the-go generation.
If you have more to say that can’t fit into the shorter video, you can still direct them back to your site to read an entire article or watch a longer video in more detail. But trust me– shorter will perform better.
[Tweet “How YOU can utilize the power of social sharing”]
How YOU can utilize the power of social sharing
Now let’s implement this into your business; here are my quick tips.
- Provide value to your customers. Share info about how your business can help people. Share events and activities that your customers and followers can benefit from knowing about. Interact with your customers on social media, because it will show up on their pages and spread news about your business to their friends and followers. It will also help you connect with your followers!
- Listen to your followers. Figure out what they want and deliver information they want to hear. Retweet sources about your niche and target audience. People visit and use your business because they want something from you, so give them information they need, for free. Social media is a goldmine for free advertising; if you give your audience what they want, they will give you want, which is a strong customer relationship, and business!
- ALWAYS double check your sources… And then double check them again. With the power of social media and people having their own voice to speak out, stories can be misleading with wrong or unreliable facts. Make sure whatever you share comes from a largely reliable, ethical source that fact checks.
- Build connections. Networking with individuals who are educated about topics you support is a great way to bring exposure to your business. Work with them, gain from their knowledge, and give them something in return (for example, a feature in your store or on your website through social media). Both of you will gain coverage on social and a wider targeted audience.
With all of this being said– make sure you don’t do this INSTEAD of using traditional media. Social media is not a replacement; it’s a necessary supplement to your marketing strategy that will help you fully reach your target demographic. For the most influential positioning above your competitors, you have to do both. Find the balance and run with it; it won’t be long before you start to notice benefits.
Comment below! Tell me how you are using social media and traditional media together. I love hearing YOUR stories! And don’t forget to join my free Facebook group, Get Seen Be Heard; come ask questions, talk social media strategy, and spark game-changing ideas for upping your business’ success surrounded by a community of like-minded (not to mention, incredibly friendly) professionals. I’ll talk to you soon!
by KarenYankovich | Nov 14, 2016 | Uncategorized
It’s been an interesting week here in the USA. Lots of emotions for sure.
Let’s take the emotion out for a minute and talk about some facts.
The fact is, the most unlikeliest of candidates won a major election, despite the polls. Despite the pundits. Despite the predictions. Despite the fact that he held no previous political office. Despite the media.
I’m not going to try to figure out how or why, but here’s what I DO know. Donald Trump spent less money on reaching his audience than any other candidate he ran against. Clearly though, he did reach them.
So what DID he do better than his opponents?
[Tweet “What did Donald Trump do better than his opponents? And how can it help YOUR business?”]
Extensive use of FREE social media.
It’s astounding. And we all missed it. The pollsters, the pundits, the media, and me. ME! The social media queen, the person who teaches businesses how to use social media to get free visibility for their business. I missed it too.
Sure, his opponents used social media. But it was careful and calculated. It was written like you would write a commercial for TV.
But not Donald Trump. Love him or hate him, he was REAL on social media.
Check it out.
Twitter Transparency:
Twitter has been Trump’s biggest platform for social media campaigning. Since he announced he was running for President, Trump gained almost 10 million more followers and has been re-tweeted over 3.5 million times. Clinton gained almost 7 million followers and her most re-tweeted post during the campaign got just over 100k re-tweets.
One unique thing from this platform is that typically candidates have a staff that run their twitter pages for them. However, even though Trump did have a social staff, he frequently tweeted out his own statements.
His claims and statements on Twitter have been the center of his social media publicity.
Here’s an example. During the first debate, the most re-tweeted post from a candidate was Donald Trump’s, in which he claimed “global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S manufacturing non-competitive.”
He basically discredited scientific proof that global warming is a real and serious thing.
Even though the majority of us know better than to believe what he said, this outlandish statement spread his face all over the internet. And the result was the funneling of more people to his page (supporters or not) just to see if the claims he makes are true.
Also knowing they came from his own words and not just some intern looking to stir up buzz made them that much more credible to his personality and political campaign.
Hashtag #wins
Along with extensive Twitter use, supporting hashtags in this election played a great role in Trump’s continued exposure, which led to his win over the states.
Edelman, a leading communications and marketing firm, conducted hashtag research to analyze what effect social media had on the public vote. Their results concluded that Trump consistently out-performed Clinton on social media in the last 30 days leading up to the election.
Here are the key results to point out:
- Pro-Trump hashtags outnumbered Pro-Clinton hashtags in the 28 days leading up to election day. 71% favored Trump while only 29% favored Clinton.
- @RealDonaldTrump drove stronger engagement and wider reach than @HillaryClinton
- Positive conversation in the key swing states of Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and New Hampshire favored Trump in the final 28 days leading up to election day. *New Hampshire was the only state out of these six to swing toward Clinton*
Political experts note that the few months and days leading up to election day are the most crucial to any campaign. Since support for Trump was able to successfully outperform Hillary on social media in these down to the wire days, the correlation between his win and support online is a key take-away for the importance of this free campaigning tool.
Domination in the Press
We all know Donald Trump’s tweets spoke to him as a person and what he believes will “Make America Great Again,” but his tweets also allowed him to gain coverage in the general media as well. And you know what they say, any press is good press, and his Twitter press increased his online presence by a landslide.
Never in an election have we been able to see news stories on television about “Presidential Candidate ___ ___ tweets so and so”, and gain EXTENSIVE news coverage over a 140 character statement. That is bigly.
Not only did he dominate the media in this form, but here’s an interesting statistic. 75% of the media coverage from his campaign was actually negative, compared to Clinton’s media coverage, in which only 56% was negative.
But what were the differences in their coverage?
Donald Trump’s negative media came explicitly from how HE was in general, based on the angry tweets, facial expressions and demeanor, while the majority of Clinton’s came from, you guessed it, Emailgate.
According to this, hardly any politically based media coverage even existed! The majority of coverage came from things you saw on Twitter and Facebook, from those angry tweets, the viral videos, the statements from people he worked with, etc. and not from his political stances on the problems he claimed was going to fix.
It was all from statements about HIM seen on social media that made it to the press and to the eyes of the voters.
Even though the media coverage was negative, his social support swung positive.
So how did this happen?
No one can say for sure. But from all this buzz created in both the news and social media, Trump aligned who he was, with his campaign, with social media, and America made him our new President elect.
What about us?
So! What does this all mean for us other than a new President in the US?
As small business owners, we can learn from this. Social media can make a definite impact on exposure of your company.
Donald Trump got his name out there, created visibility, inspired his supporters and won the election through social media! He credited social media on his “60 Minutes” interview after the election..
Now, are we suggesting you tweet out ridiculous statements and gain negative attention, just to create buzz for your business? Absolutely NOT!
BUT, being true to the brand of your business and what you do is the essential part of creating exposure for your business, and if Donald Trump can fuel his national platform through Twitter, why can’t you?
Generate content that supports the values and ideals your business holds. If most of your business is local, make them feel special! Give them a shout out on Twitter or do giveaways to keep customers coming back and new ones coming in.
Check out my blog post on “7 Ways to Encourage Customer Loyalty” for more ideas on how to do this through Twitter.
So I’m going to gently nudge you.
We know that social media leads to more visibility.
We know that more visibility leads to more customers, and more customers leads to more profits.
We NOW know that unlikely results come in elections where candidates use cutting edge digital marketing.
Spend less money, reach more people, win the game.
What kind of results can YOU get for your business, using these cutting edge techniques? You’ve heard me say it a million times. You can STAY in business if you do this right and stay true to your brand.
You know I’m here to help. Let’s make YOUR BUSINESS great! Start here, with this free video series, and comment below if I can support you further.
by KarenYankovich | Nov 8, 2016 | Uncategorized
More Visibility – More Customers – More Profits
You’ve been hearing that from me quite a bit lately.
I teach you how to get more visibility, and how that visibility leads to more sales.
But there’s a side to visibility that no one talks about, and that’s the push back you may get from your friends, family, maybe even your existing clients!
I’ve been hearing it from my students a lot lately. “I mentioned this to a few friends and they’re concerned about the negative effects this might have on my reputation” or “I got a call from someone on the board who thinks that I can’t associate my business with this program I conceived, started, developed, ran, and executed successfully”
WHAT?
Here’s the thing. As your business grows, you’re going to start to outgrow some of those relationships. I’m not saying you have to ditch your friends and family, not at all! But at some point, when your influence grows, when your visibility grows, they’re not going to understand what you’re doing and why.
And it sucks! For some of my clients, it’s a huge win when they overcome their OWN insecurities about putting their business out there. When they start hearing negativity from people they care about, they want to crawl back in their cave.
What would have happened if Oprah did that? Do you think her childhood friends and family were comfortable with her growing visibility? I’d venture a guess NO. But she had a dream. A plan. A mission. She’s the gold standard we need to look towards. She didn’t waver, and she’s helped millions and millions of people.
How many people can you help from that cave of yours?
[Tweet “How many people can you help from that cave of yours?”]
It’s going to happen. It happens to me. It happens to every single one of my entrepreneurial friends. The more successful we get, the more negativity gets flung our way.
Ignore it. Focus on the good. Focus on the people you’re helping. Focus on YOUR dream. And stand in your power damn it! Hang around with other people with dreams as big as yours. Of course you can still spend time with your friends and family, be grateful for their concern, and file it away quickly.
Comment below and tell me YOUR story. What kinds of crazy things did you see and hear as your influence grew? There’s comfort in knowing we’re all in this together. And we are. I’M on your side, I’m your biggest cheerleader. Hang with me HERE in my Facebook group and lets get bigger than the noise around us.
Here’s to your business successes!
by KarenYankovich | Aug 1, 2016 | Uncategorized
If you’ve attended any of my webinars, you may have seen this chart already.
No, I’m not trying to make you crazy with this stuff. I know you’re looking at Twitter and thinking to yourself “has she lost her mind?”
What I want is for you to use these social media platforms for PROFIT. I want you to use them in a way that will keep your name top of mind with your followers. To do that, you need to be consistent, you need to have a plan and work that plan.
This chart is the place to start.
I’m not saying you need to be in all of these places. What I’m saying that if you ARE going to post in a platform, use it wisely. Use it to get the most bang for your buck. Pick one or two and do it right.
Much of this can be pre-scheduled. For example, for every blog post I write, I throw three tweets for it into a queue of content that goes out to Twitter on a rotating basis. Hey, I took the time to write it, why not share it over and over ? The content is still valuable to my followers for many months or even years ahead.
Need help figuring out what to post on each of these platforms? Join my LinkedIn group where I and other interested entrepreneurs are always brainstorming new content ideas!
by KarenYankovich | Jun 13, 2016 | Uncategorized
LinkedIn is a very different social media site than most and there are plenty of practices used on Facebook and Twitter that don’t come across so well on a professional site like LinkedIn. Here’s six tips on what not to do on LinkedIn and how you can take the extra step to stand out on the site:
1. Don’t send the standard connection request, always personalize. When you’re on LinkedIn on your desktop, you’re given the option to send a personalized connection request when you add a connection. Utilize that feature! If you’re connecting to someone that you maybe saw speak at a conference or even someone you went to highschool with, let them know how you know who they are.
2. Don’t spam your groups. Make sure you’re providing value, commenting on other people’s posts, engaging in discussions. It’s a great way to share the different blogs and sales you have but you’ll get way more of a response from people if you have also been commenting on their posts. Then, when you post about your business or the different things that you do, people will see your name, remember it, and be way more interested in what you have to say. About 70% of the time you spend in those groups should be adding value to others’ posts, not just about you!
3. Don’t selfie. Your LinkedIn profile picture has such a different standard than any other social media site holds. Set aside your selfies, pictures of your cat or your kids, and nature photos for Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. LinkedIn is about your business and you as a professional, so you really want to come across that way. Maybe it’s time to get together with a group of your friends and have a headshot party! They can be SO much fun and you will acquire a photo much more suitable for your LinkedIn! This is your personal brand that you’re selling, make it count 🙂
[Tweet “There are plenty of practices used on Facebook and Twitter that don’t come across so well on a professional site like LinkedIn”]
4. Don’t skip over the summary! This is where you can tell your story, where you can intrigue your followers, where you can share a call to action. All these words you use in your summary are searchable by google. Make sure you are throwing in some keywords that really summarize you and your business so that when people search it, you’re the first to come up! This is a way for your LinkedIn to work for you while you’re sleeping, it’s way too simple to skip over it. Keep it clean, relatively short, and feel free to keep a lot of white space in your summary so it’s easily read and skimmed.
5. Don’t forget to check your privacy settings! This is such a simple fix that can easily slip by you. If your profile is private, that is not helping you be seen by the masses. Make sure you set your profile to public. Go right now and just double check, this is another incredibly simple way to increase the traffic on your page!
6. Don’t ignore recommendations! Of course it’s great to write a review for your hairdresser or your personal trainer, but don’t be afraid to write recommendations for people who can write one back for you! So if you collaborated with someone and you think that partnership went really well, write them a LinkedIn recommendation and more than likely they will write one back for you. Recommendations are gold on LinkedIn and they really make you stand out from your competition. Customers are much more likely to trust a professional that has been recommended by plenty of people that they have worked for or with. If I speak at an event and someone running it comes up and says “Hey, thank you so much you really did a great job and everyone seemed to love it!” I’ll come right back and say “Of course! Thank you and would you mind writing me a recommendation on LinkedIn?” and 9 out of 10 times it I come out with not only another speaking gig under my belt but a glowing LinkedIn recommendation as well.
And that’s about it! Six easy tips that I swear by that can totally turn around your LinkedIn game. Do you have any other LinkedIn tips you swear by? Let us know! I’d love to hear your thoughts!!
Want more tips? Join my LinkedIn group!
