Whenever I put extra focus on list building, my business profits grow.
That’s because the old adage is true: it takes approximately 7 “touches” for someone to buy from you.
I don’t know who said that but they were right! For my prospects who aren’t super “warm” to begin with, meaning they didn’t know they were in the market for LinkedUp Success or decided to sign up to my list because they know they should focus more on social media, the 7 touches theory is fairly spot on.
These future clients (and they most definitely are future clients) are in the info-gathering, researching, learning to to trust phase of the buy. And it is in this space where all the magic happens.
During this time I can:
Build trust
Establish myself as the expert
Form a positive relationship
Entice answers that help me craft a better pitch
Create an educated buyer who knows they want my product when they are ready to click “buy”
There are many paid ways to grow your list, such as Facebook ads. I believe Facebook ads are well worth the money for list building.
But sometimes we just need something that is free am I right? And using social media to grow your list is FREE.
[Tweet “Free ways social media helps you build your list.”]
Free Ways Social Media Helps You Build Your List
Today let’s focus on all the free ways social media helps you build your list, because, let’s be real here, I know we’d all like to save a buck or two when it comes to the overhead costs of running our own business and finding new clients. Why yes, yes we would.
First Step:
First things first, you must send these future clients to a squeeze page or in other words a landing page. Don’t send them to your home page. Make sure these prospects are headed to a page where they have two choices and two choices only – to enter their name and email to gain access to choice a)a webinar or free valuable info download or choice b) click away.
We don’t want to give them other tabs to peruse, nothing else to read, no social media icons or other buttons to click, just give them you, a brief yet enticing description of what and why they need what you are offering, and the opt-in box.
Here’s an example of my landing page: https://karenyankovich.com/linkedin-video-series (link no longer working)
Yes, you can also grab this from my home page, but for social media purposes, you want to drive traffic to a specific page for best results.
Per Ion Interactive they have seen, “conversion increases as high as 300% when testing landing pages against website pages.”
And, Marketing Sherpa reports that “64% of marketers say that landing pages are the most effective way to test a value proposition.” And they are right. I have seen it myself, and I wouldn’t market through social media any other way.
So now you have your landing page created based on an info product or service that you specialize in there’s only a few more steps to take and you will be marketing yourself for free across all of your social media.
Next I want you to take that landing page link and place it in the summary section on all of your social media sites.
Here’s an example of my Facebook page. You will be taken to my landing page by clicking on the Sign Up button in my header.
On my Twitter page the link in my summary takes you to a landing page for a free video series.
Take a look at my Pinterest account. On the Free Stuff board you can find the link to my landing page to sign up for my free E-Book.
I have 3 separate landing pages in my LinkedIn summary, to capture the right topic that is best suited to the reader, take a look here.
Next Steps:
Now that you have that in place on all your social media platforms here’s the system:
Tweet a few times a day with a link in the tweet to that specific landing page.
Post that link to Facebook a few times a week.
Use it in your call to action on a LinkedIn Post once a week.
Add that link to a Pinterest Post once a week.
And finally talk about it, type it in the chat screen, and make darn sure it is in your summary every single time you live-stream!
That’s it folks, simple yet effective list building that is entirely FREE via social media.
Have a question about what to say when you post,tweet, chat about your landing page link? Join my LinkedIn Group where myself and many other interested entrepreneurs would be glad to answer your question!
Periscope, Blab, Facebook Live… what do these platforms all have in common? They are live stream style social media and they are exploding.
And the list does not stop there. There are literally dozens of sites ready for you to login and get started on the social media video revolution.
There are big reasons this type of social media catching on and is a dream for marketers and business persons alike.
I was at the Periscope Summit September of this year and saw amazing things happening.
Things like:
People meeting for the first time, but they already felt like friends
People easily engaging in no stress and easy conversation
People RE-connecting after following each other’s Periscope streams in real time
Why are these things powerful? Because your audience feels like they know you and we want to buy from people we know.
By using live streaming sites you are:
Increasing your exposure
Enhancing your visibility
Expanding your reach
And all of this ultimately shows proof of your authority. I talk about social proof and your expert status a lot in regards to LinkedIn and beyond. I talk about this because it really is the most important currency we have when we market ourselves online.
[Tweet “Real-time video platforms have a “human-ness” that allows for connection like never before.”]
Real-time video platforms have a creativity and a “human-ness” that allows you to connect and be seen in ways no other type of social media posting could do until now. In times past you had to mix up your posts with “behind the scenes” photos and dive deep for true authenticity while also sounding professional and connecting to your clients. This can be difficult to know how to write.
With live streaming you have the ability to be yourself, showcase your brand, and answer questions your clients have in real time. It is kind of like being your very own FAQ page only 1000 times better. The be-yourself quotient is upped dramatically when someone can actually see your face and respond to your facial expressions and tone of voice.
The “must-dos” and “bewares” of live video
With live video there are some “must-dos” and a few “bewares” that I want to discuss before you head out and create your first video.
Live video posts are spontaneous for a reason, but if this is for your business be ready to talk the talk and walk the walk. Look professional as you feel fits your style and brand, and practice (or have notes!) to be ready once you click record. No one wants to watch someone ramble and stumble around. This will get better with practice, but practice you must in order to be seen as an expert in your field.
Be sure to acknowledge and answer your audience’s questions that come up in the chat feed. Call them by name if you can! We all know how it feels to be ignored and your audience is there for a reason – to connect with you. Especially if they ask a question. Be the engaging and thoughtful guru you always knew you would be and take the time to answer their question thoughtfully.
Find which platform is right for you. Take Periscope and Blab for example. Both are very similar in the fact that they are a live video streaming platform. But with Periscope you are more “on your own” showcasing what you are recording and only interacting with your audience through a chat screen. With Blab you can invite guests and they can move in and out of “seats” to actively be a part of your video session. While this is more interactive, it might not be your favorite soap box to climb on. Make sure you feel you are in the right place because that will translate to your audience members in spades.
Here are a few topic ideas to get you started.
Show how you create a product or service.
Interview someone who has knowledge in your industry. Let the audience control the interview – how often do they get to do that??
Give your audience a training tutorial.
Discuss your top 5 tips for your business niche.
Most of all have some fun! It’s a wild new world out there for social media marketing and it’s only going to get better and better for those of us willing to step out there and take these platforms for our own wild ride.
Need some more ideas? Or maybe just some moral support as you foray into video marketing? Well then, join me in my LinkedIn group where we support each other on more than just LinkedIn!
⚜Have you ever come across someone’s LinkedIn profile that catches your eye?⚜
What grabs your attention? Sometimes it is something so simple and fun we almost forget that a profile is not all about what you say or the words you use. While words and SEO is of great importance, there is more to this story of what caught your eye. LinkedIn gives us a chance to add some creativity due to a little secret – that is rapidly becoming not a secret anymore.
LinkedIn profiles use a simple formatting style, meaning basically they don’t. Your profile is an unformatted document on LinkedIn which while some may say this might be boring, actually allows the user to get creative and add whatever formatting they like! (*almost)
And the formatting that we want to add to instantly upgrade your profile in order to give it some “pop”, and catch a readers eye, not to mention making it more organized and reading friendly is …some interesting symbols!
I often get asked about this from my group members because adding symbols is one of the easiest things you can do tor your profile yourself that has the most bang for your buck.
Symbols can be used:
To separate ideas or skills in your headline ▣
To add character and personality ⛅
To create a more creative bullet list that matches throughout your profile ☀
To separate long text sections for ease of reading ☑
To emphasize important sentences or skills without missing the ability to underline or bold ★
⚡For one of my favorite sites that has all the symbols you could want: go here
Or create your own word document filled with symbols from wingdings and weddings font or others you copy and paste onto the page for future reference. (scroll to the bottom of this post to get you started)
So let’s get started shall we? It takes 3 easy steps:
Login to your profile and go to Edit Profile
Pull up the symbols, website or page of symbols, highlight the symbol by clicking over it (right click or double click) then copy (control or command + V) the symbol.
Go back to your LinkedIn profile and paste it exactly where you want it to go. (control or command + P)
Here’s an example of my headline with two different symbols in it to separate the main ideas:
And here is a fun list of characters and symbols to try:
Ok there are many strategies to LinkedIn. But there is one really easy strategy that I immediately do after researching a new client’s level of “social proof”. I research this throughout their social media presence and this can take some time. Which is of course why they hire me. But not everyone has the means to hire a social media strategist for themselves and their business.
[Tweet “A quick + easy way to increase your social proof quotient on LinkedIn.”]
So I want to share a quick and easy way to increase your social proof quotient on LinkedIn.
Two areas on LinkedIn that scream social proof are your profile recommendations and endorsements.
Recommendations should be interspersed throughout all of your experiences, but most heavily weighted under your most recent experience – the one that tells your readers the direction you are going and how you are going to get there.
Often my clients who come to me for LinkedIn assistance are in transition. Transition possibly from a corporate job to entrepreneurship, or from a small idea to a bigger business evolution. And it is through your experience (and summary) sections that we showcase how your skills translate to your newly choose field or niche. This new field or evolution needs to be represented by proof that you are still an expert.
Endorsements should also showcase your new niche requirements. This section is where you can grab the profile readers who I call the “skimmers.” Those readers who just want to get to the nitty gritty: what do you do, how do you do it, and who thinks you are good at it. When they see that 99+ strangers (to them) agree that you are very good at Public Speaking, or Sales Copy, or Social Media Strategy, it makes an impact.
As humans we are wired to believe in what the “herd” believes in. There is safety in numbers and if those numbers show us that we can trust you to be what you say you are, then we most likely will. As will your next business prospect, future client, future partner or sale.
Think of Yelp. I use Yelp a handful of times a week. To find a restaurant, to find a good dry cleaner, or to find a gym with good customer service. LinkedIn endorsements and recommendations are your version of a Yelp review and you can’t afford to ignore their power.
Steps to creating your plan of action on how to build in hefty social proof to your LinkedIn profile.
1.Make sure your endorsements are using your keywords. Don’t let people who haven’t worked with you for 5 years endorse you for those skills they vaguely remember you doing well. Create your own list chock full of keywords that exemplify your new market. Go into “edit profile” mode and cruise down to your endorsements section. Click on “add new skills” and go to town. There is a limit of course, but try to think of the top 10 skills that are keywords in your business niche and add those in.
2. Move your endorsements around to highlight your top skills. Yep you can re-order those skills to your hearts content. Make sure the skills that you want noticed the most are up at the top. The first 10 skills are usually the ones that get the most clicks, so even if those skills are newer – that’s ok! Soon they will be full up.
3. Endorse other people routinely. This is a no brainer because LinkedIn makes it so easy to do this by giving suggestions on who to endorse for what every time you log into your profile. And my hope is you are logging in at least a couple times a week. As you endorse others it is usually a quick response as they return the favor.
4. Once a week log in and take a look at your connections. While you are working on steps 1 through 3 I want you to be thinking of recommendations too. Each time write down a few people who you would be able to write a thoughtful and genuine recommendation of their work experience. Or maybe you have connections in which are very enthusiastic about their work – that is a great thing too! Plan on once a week, investing in about 15-20 minutes, to craft a recommendation for them. That can go a long way to getting organic recommendations of your own.
5. Finally – please just ask! People love to be asked to help out, and I always love to write a recommendation for someone who deserves it, so don’t be afraid to be honest and just ask someone. Take that same time each week and look for 2 people in your contacts list to ask if they would write you a recommendation. Be clear and specific to save them time. Let them know exactly which skills you are looking to highlight and which experience to attach the recommendation to. One word of warning: you can’t transfer existing recommendations to new experiences so make sure you are editing current experiences to enhance the specific experiences you want to keep if there are recommendations there you don’t want to lose. Or make sure you are happy to create a new experience knowing you will be able to get new recommendations when you are finished.
LinkedIn is a platform designed to enhance your social proof. Endorsements lay a good foundation and recommendations are this version of social proof on steroids! So let’s get you out there showing the world you are an expert in your field, start with these 5 steps today.
Need to meet some people who are happy to endorse and recommend as we get to know each other? Join my LinkedIn group! We always try to help where we can whether that be through advice, encouragement, endorsements of skills we know you have and more. I hope to see you there.
Today we’re talking about targeting for Facebook ads.
What I’m going to show you is how you can see why I’m seeing this a particular ad. In the case shown in the video, I’m seeing the ad because Holly G Studios wants to reach people interested in Oprah Winfrey. Holly has some kind of Facebook ad strategy that figures out if people would be interested in Oprah Winfrey, then they might be interested in her content.
Not only does it help you understand why you’re seeing what you’re seeing in your Facebook feed, it can also help you with your ad targeting.
This tip is helpful because 1) this will help you see why you’re seeing particular things in your feed 2) when you’re thinking about targeting your own ads, you can do some competitive intelligence, see what you competitors are doing. Wen you see their ads, take a quick screen shot as shown in the video. Once you’ve done this, just click, “Why am I seeing this?” Take a quick screen shot of that, put in a dropbox folder somewhere, so when the time comes for you to create your own ads, you’ve already got this done.
Subscribe to my YouTube channel to see more videos!
There are two main reasons people are afraid of LinkedIn.
They don’t want people to know who their customers (connections) are.
They don’t want to lose employees.
Are you still afraid of LinkedIn?
Let me address these two main concerns to show you that LinkedIn is a valuable, profitable, and useful tool to have in your social media and marketing game.
First: This fear basically comes down to fear of competition. But having an Non-Abundance attitude (aka there are not enough customers, success and wealth to go around) does not serve you at all. In fact this fear of competition does you a huge disservice because knowing, understanding and connecting with competitors has many valuable benefits in the long run.
When you connect with other experts in your industry, share advice, and even refer clients you build:
Huge trust. You build trust with your current customers, who now believe you have their best interests at heart.
Potential successful partnerships. You very well may partner with someone completely outside of your niche, but more than likely you will find someone like you, doing something like you’re doing and realize there is a way you can do it better, together.
A vast quantity of research material. Being on LinkedIn and seeing what your others post, what your connections and customers say and do, what other business owners talk about and need, can bring you a whole slew of answers to questions such as: How can I best serve my client? How can I run my business better than Sally Competition? Why are they successful and I’m barely hanging on?
These are answers that equate to profits and profitability in the long run.
Fear Number Two: This fear comes from a fear of “if I invest in my employees online brand they will find new jobs or take all my customers to a new job.” I call BS on this. Imagine if a prospective client goes to your LinkedIn company page, and every single employee they click on has a polished, professional profile? That helps YOU my friend, the business owner. It shows that you are investing in the people that are an integral part of your business. There’s nothing but good in that. Will people leave? Of course, they do now! Let’s not focus on that, lets focus on the good it’s doing for your business image to have such rockstar employees. The biggest and best asset you can grow is employee loyalty. Your employees are the ones who can talk about their fantastic job to friends and on social networks to gain you more clients and more profits.
I am an advocate of always empowering your employee to do more, to make more decisions, and to think more about “us” as a team. The minute your employees become invested in the growth and wellbeing of your company or business is the minute you truly succeed. And this has a very funny way of translating into profits as well.
So create a company page on LinkedIn and have your employees link to it. Give them the responsibility of posting about activities, company values, and products. Let them be genuine and honest!
When you allow employees to do this you create:
Individual success that leads to group success
An additional way for social networks to learn about you and your brand.
A portfolio for prospect clients to see the amazing work your employees can do for them.
A way for your employees to get kudos and recognition for a job well done, which goes far in keeping those valuable employees right where they are needed most – working for you!
A unified brand that builds trust among potential customers who are “looking around.”
One caution: please make sure your employees on LinkedIn have a professional and polished profile, as polished as yours. Refer to my blog post here to know exactly what to look for and what to do in regards to your employee’s profiles on LinkedIn.
So I ask you now, are you still afraid of LinkedIn? If so, that’s ok. Come on over to my LinkedIn group and tell us why. Tell us so we can help answer any questions and allay any fears.
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