I love when my time online translates to learning the little tricks that social media platforms have but don’t often advertise.
And I definitely love when I can share these new features with my clients and other busy business owners like you. These tricks make social media a little more FUN for everyone out there who has little time to really dive deep into online platforms.
[Tweet “9 tricks that make social media a little more fun for everyone out there.”]
9 tricks of social media that you might not know about (but will be happy to start using)!
1. Save Facebook Links. A friend of mine sends me direct messages on Facebook all the time with a link and: “I wanted to save this link but didn’t know how so I’m sending it to you so I can find it again!” Maybe it’s a recipe, or a video, or a great article you want to read, so I’m here to say: now you can! Just click that little drop down arrow to the right of each post, click on save link, and Voila! that link is saved in a saved list for you. You can find this list via your Home page in the left hand column under your news feed and favorites list. (pssst M. you can stop messaging me those links now!) 🙂
2. Create a playlist on Facebook of your YouTube videos, Periscope Videos, Family Videos and more. Head to your Facebook Main screen, click More (it’s on the right side of the tabs under your header) and then click on create playlist. Now people have instant access to your YouTube feed or Periscope Videos, it’s a great way to organize all of your content, drive traffic to other areas of the web that are all about you, as well as preserve those family memories you want to keep handy.
3. Use your Facebook Personal profile to lead people to your business – no matter how private you like to keep it. I totally understand the want to keep your personal profile on Facebook locked down and very private. In this day and age though people interested in your business and what you have to offer will very likely search you out. So feel free to keep your personal profile locked down except for one tiny section: your work/position information to the left hand side on your timeline screen.
Edit this section in this way:
Click the pencil icon to edit Work and Education
Where it says Position I edited mine to say: Click here to visit my page
Make sure you change the privacy settings to Public. Even if the rest of your page is private leave this one section as Public so everyone viewing can click through to your business page.
Make sure to save the changes.
4. Analyze a search term or hashtag on Twitter. A fun site called Topsy.com helps you do this. Enter a search term in the search bar and you get to see numbers of tweets mentioning this term from 1 hour to 30 days out, the most recent or most popular, and topsy even gives you a “sentiment score”. I searched the ever popular “cute dogs” to see what information I could glean. And as you can tell, cute dogs is still a popular subject.
But of course regardless of what keyword you search much can be gained by knowing who is talking about these terms in your niche, why they are talking about them, what they are saying exactly and how often.
5. Organize your social media via Twitter Lists. Create a private list for your clients, your current partnerships or future want-to-be business partnerships. I keep all my lists private because Twitter sends a notification when you are added to a list. From these lists on Twitter that you create you can easily share the word of your clients and others who are important in your business circles. I follow over 24,000 people, and to search through that to get to a Tweet I want to share from a client would take some time. Using my Twitter list I can quickly share, retweet, and favorite all sorts of great content that people in my niche are talking about. It’s good for me, and it’s good for them, a win-win!
To create a Twitter list just click on your profile Icon in the top right of your home page and then click list! From there you can create and add at will.
6. After you connect on LinkedIn create a custom TAG to organize your connections. With 500+ or even 50+ connections it’s easy to get the names, organizations, and reasons for connecting lost in the shuffle. LinkedIn allows you to create a little “cheat sheet” to help you with this. Once you connect with someone go to their profile page, click on the star icon just below the blue Connect button. From there you can add notes about who they are, how you met and when, what you want to follow up on with them, as well as create tags (sort of like how I create and use Twitter Lists) to place them in a group based on how and where you want to further this connection.
Tags you can use:
The name of the networking event you met at
The type of business niche they are in
Prospect client or prospect business partner
Anything that works for you!
7. Don’t just LIKE a Facebook Business Page, make sure you receive their notifications. Liking a business page these days does not guarantee you will get their updates so you have to go one step further. Head over to a business page on Facebook that you enjoy following and hover over the Like Button, click on the down arrow and then click on Get Notifications. This step is important because now you can share their posts, be more active and visible on social media, and serve those businesses that you feel deserve to be known. So go ahead and think about what businesses you want to engage with, head on over to their Facebook page and get their notifications!
8. Customize your LinkedIn Public URL. When you sign up for LinkedIn you are given a generic URL filled with letters and numbers. But you can change it to a custom link that looks very professional that you can use everywhere!
Go to your profile and click on the little pencil icon that is next to the URL under the blue View profile as button. From there you can change this URL to anything you want!
If your name is taken I recommend trying:
Your name with a middle initial
Your name with your location of business if locale is important to your niche
Your name with one of your top skills ie.) karenysocialmediaexpert
Do this now and then add the new link to at least one of your social media bios!
9. Finally do you ever want to add bold, italics, or underline emphasis to your posts? As someone who is an enthusiastic speaker and because I write how I speak, the inability of most social media platforms to do this easily sometimes drives me crazy! (And causes the use of excessive exclamation marks.) You currently can only use a Unicode Text Converter to do this at this time – similar to how we add symbols to our LinkedIn profiles. But here is a little known fact of Google+ platform: Surround any text with asterisks to turn the text bold, with underscores to make it italicized, or with an underscore followed by an asterisk to make it both bold and italicized. Do this to add a little punch to your posts!
So there you have it – 9 social media tricks that many people might not know about.
Try one today and share with all of us in my LinkedIn Group (please join if you haven’t) which one you tried!
Today we are looking at all the other sections in LinkedIn. LinkedIn will make some recommendations for you on what sections they think you might want to add to your profile. This is the stuff that might make your LinkedIn profile stand out from someone else’s.
Things like honors and awards. If you’re in sales and you’ve got some great sales awards or you’re a realtor of the year or accountant of the year. You want to add those awards because it impresses when they see your profile. And that’s what we want for you, right?
Often, when people create their LinkedIn profiles they forget this stuff or leave it out. You’ll find that people will connect to you and relate to you better when you’ve got some of that information in there. And that’s exactly what you want with LinkedIn.
Subscribe to my YouTube channel to see more videos!
Today we’re on LinkedIn and we’re going to customize your public profile URL.
You click on your profile, under your pictures. It says your public profile URL. LinkedIn assigns you one when you sign up. It’s full of crazy letters and numbers, but if you look at mine, it’s www.linkedin.com/in/karenyankovich.
Click on the pencil icon and go to the top to your public profile URL. Click on the pencil icon there and type in your name. That’s it. So easy. Then hit ‘Save.’
If your name’s not available, use a middle initial, use some variation of your name. Remember, this is your personal LinkedIn profile, so we want it to be about you, not about your business. Don’t use your business name.
Now you can share this public profile URL, this nice clean link, on your business cards, on your email signature, to let people know you’d love for them to connect with you.
Subscribe to my YouTube channel to see more videos!
But last year that all changed and LinkedIn really stepped up their game! There are many ways we can visually improve our profiles, one such way is spending a little bit of time on your header image.
[Tweet “A fantastic LinkedIn profile will speak to your clients and tell a story about your brand.”]
Steps to Create a Fantastic LinkedIn Header Image
A fantastic header image will speak to your clients and tell a story about your brand.
First step: Get the layout and size right. Your header image must be 1400 x 425 pixels and a file no larger than 4mb or LinkedIn will not let you upload it. Make sure it is a high resolution image because if not it will upload blurry. Be aware of the “blocked section”. The top of your profile page will cover almost half of the image you upload. This creates a nice headboard effect, but can also be a little tricky in figuring out what and how to create your image.
A few ideas to get around this:
Use one recognizable background image that speaks to your brand or business clientele. One client of mine used a panoramic of New York, she was a journalist and this spoke to her base of operations and showcased very well known ‘of the moment’ city.
Place specific text that will show up in the top 1/3- 1/2 of your photo. Maybe it’s a product that is evergreen or one that is your most popular. It could also simply be your web page address or contact info. You could even do a call to action that points viewers to an opt-in for email capture.
Use a second profile picture that was taken in a powerful way to add more trust and connection with your viewers. The photo displayed might just show your eyes, or another pose of you off to the side that tells a story about a different part of your personality.
Here is a shot of my header. I chose to use a mixture of the ideas above.
Second step:Update your header image every so often. You may want to keep the same image for awhile once you have your heart set on one but here are a few ideas why you might want to create a few header images at once and rotate them as your move through your business year.
You are launching a new product or service, why not point to it and bring attention to it by adding some new text to your header or possibly a small image that describes it.
You decide to have a sale or host an event and your LinkedIn header would be a great place to promote that is a soft easy way to get some eyes on it.
Add more value by writing a few quick “tips”, one for each header image, you can rotate through that will speak to your customer base and help them out. For example I could write a tip about how many times to post on Twitter to be most effective, or I could write a short tip on creating a great header image from this blog post.
Third step: Send people to your LinkedIn profile! This may seem obvious but many people work hard to set up their profile page and never direct people to it. One quick tip – put your LInkedIn URL on your business card and show it everywhere you can. Not sure how to do that? Join me in my LinkedIn challenge it’s going on now! 30 days to clean up your profile and get it ready to shine. We even have a Facebook group to help with all the little extra questions along the way.
Finally, if the layout, pixels, adding text and images to your header all seems too much you must check out Cheryl at www.cherylfinbow.com or Jackie at Custom Fan Page Designs. Tell them Karen sent ya!
If you have been a follower of mine you already know the absolute 3 must-haves your LinkedIn profile must…well… have! And because you are smart, like all my readers are, you have those filled out, primed and ready to go.
Do you know what those 3 must-haves are?
Your Headline: maxed out using all characters available that describes who you are and what you do. But describes it in a way that says more than you are just a Partner, CEO, or Business Owner.
Your summary section: yep maxed out here too, use every character that you can here, along with skills/expertise while you tell a story to your ideal client or boss.
Your experience section: all headlines filled out fully in a similar manner to your main headline. But here yes you can be a bit more generic using the labels ‘partner’, ‘business owner,’ ‘CEO’.
And most of all your summary and experience sections are fully fleshed out with specifics, links, media uploaded, resume and more.
Why are those 3 things the most important? Because they are all searchable, each word. And also because they showcase the main components of your business why, which is very important to your ideal client or boss or future partner.
But after dialing in this trifecta there is so much more you can do to create a full and well rounded profile that will bring you more online rewards.
[Tweet “Great tips on creating a full and well rounded LinkedIn profile.”]
Here’s more you can do to create a full and well-rounded profile
First – If you are pressed for time or unsure where to start LinkedIn gives you suggestions. Suggestions about which of these additional features to add. Just click Edit Profile on the home page and voila LinkedIn tells me I should add a language to my profile. Take a moment each day or each week and tackle one section at a time. Skip the ones that have little or no significance, but try as hard as you can to think of items to add before you decide to skip it.
As for adding a language to my profile, I’ve always wanted to learn! But sadly never had the time (starting a new business and all) so for authenticity sake I must leave that blank until I am taking classes or until I book that Italy immersion trip I’ve always wanted to try! But if you have even a minor proficiency – add it – you never know what type of connection you could make.
Second – Pick the section where you feel you might have more bang for your buck. For example if you are in the education realm, honors and awards, courses and certifications, and publications sections are probably key for your niche. If you are in the non-profit sector, projects and volunteer sections lend a great depth to a career devoted to doing good. If you are in a science field, projects and patents and interests just might be the best way to connect. And finally one more idea if you are in a marketing or advertising niche, personal details, interests and advice for contacting are quite possibly key to getting noticed in a field dominated by personalities.
Third – If you only fill out more sections develop these three:
Publications: Even if you don’t have a “I can hold it in my hand or see it in an online article” type of publication use your own blog posts here! That in itself is a publication online that will serve to add value to your profile and bring visitors to your website if they like what they read.
Projects: As a business owner and entrepreneur I know you have a few (or few dozen) side projects up your sleeve. Talk about them here! Stop worrying about people stealing your idea and start looking for partnerships that will help you achieve these side dreams of yours. If you don’t talk about them you will never accomplish them and you never know who will be connected to your profile that may be able to help.
Education: The network of Alumni is not to be understated. In the business world we all hear over and over again, “It’s who you know”, and yes that is still true to this day. Sometimes the only thing you know about them is the fact they attended your school, or if someone is looking to hire you that you attended This instantly gives credibility, trustworthiness (whether warranted or not) and a wealth of things to talk about which ultimately leads to connections and jobs. So please do not leave this space blank if you can help it. Also be sure to fill it out enough listing any clubs you belonged to and activities you engaged in. You never know what fellow sorority member is now CEO of the company you would absolutely love to work for.
You may be thinking, “Well if these sections aren’t fully searchable then why bother?”
Great question and here’s the answer:
It very well may be someday. LinkedIn sections and search functions are getting more robust every day. I see LinkedIn adding functionality and features all the time. I believe it won’t be long before we Google one “interest” and gain an entire list of possible connections.
Inside of LinkedIn the search function is more powerful. LinkedIn is always trying to connect people and often it uses the other layers to do so via the sections you have filled out. One assistant of mine had 34 profile views, 1/4 of which were from the typical title, summary, skills keyword searches. However more than half came from “people similar” and “unknown key words” which means anything from interests, to projects, to publications to honors/awards and more. It’s hard to say exactly, but clearly having more depth to your profile is definitely key to getting more views. And more views = more clients at the end of the day.
So I challenge you today, sit down and fill out one “extra” section on your LinkedIn profile, then in a few days fill out one more. After a week take a look at your “Who’s viewed your profile” section and see the gains you have made.
Not sure which additional section to choose? Join me in my LinkedIn group where I can answer that question and more everyday!
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