Jody Raines

  • Web MarCom
  • About
  • Blog

July 17, 2018 By Jody Raines Leave a Comment

Social Media And Social Networking: Best Practices And Big Mistakes For LinkedIn

Jody Raines, web marketing communications, webmarcomSocial media, especially LinkedIn, are networking tools which, when applied correctly, can potentially grow your business exponentially.  Utilizing social media channels correctly shouldn’t be difficult, yet for some reason, the people who use all social media channels to blast out the same message, will continue to barrage the wrong people with the wrong messaging.  What a turn off.  Indeed, the folks who use social media incorrectly will stop reading and continue to make the same mistakes that cause prospects to opt-out and disconnect.

If you find that you have a large number of opt-outs of your email campaigns, or you notice that your social media followers or likes are dwindling, read on…

Here are the three biggest LinkedIn Mistakes that I see over and over again… by sales and marketing “pros” who are too eager to “use” social media to generate leads.

Frankly, any of the following mistakes would result in not connecting, disconnecting or opting out.

Three BIG LinkedIn Mistakes:

First mistake – if you met someone at a networking event, chamber meeting, or family barbecue and you exchanged business cards that’s not always the best way to add to your network. When you establish a rapport with someone, and you feel that you can confidently recommend their services or refer business to them, then you should add them to your network. A great thing to do when you add someone is to mention how you met them or something from that conversation. I cannot tell you the number of times I have not accepted a request to connect because I didn’t remember whether I knew the person or how we met.

Second mistake – if the person connects with you, please, do not send them a note immediately trying to share what you do and why they should work with you. Unless that’s continuing a conversation where the person indicated that they were interested, slamming someone that way will not endear you to the new connection.

Third mistake – if you think it’s cool to send your ‘newsletter’ or ‘announcement’ to all your contacts through LinkedIn and that your going to get a ton of business that way, thing again. It’s actually somewhat disrespectful to send a blanket email to your contacts that way. No one wants to be addressed as “Dear Contact”. The power of LinkedIn is that it gives you some great information, and you have the opportunity to make the connection more personal.

Best practices – LinkedIn

Here’s a recipe to utilize the power of Linked in that can work for you. Let me know if you have other tips that work well, and we can share them.

  • Fill in your entire profile. LinkedIn represents an opportunity to share your resume online. Be complete and share relevant information that can be searched for keywords.
  • Use links to your website and change the description for SEO. The links in your profile use default descriptions for “my website” and “m y blog”. You can change these to a phrase or company name for improved search engine optimization.
  • Ask for Referrals. If one of your contacts is connected to someone you would like to know, there is an appropriate way to request a referral. Be sure to explain how you can HELP the recipient contact. If you only want to connect to sell them something, or if you do not add value, you should re-think wasting your contact’s time.
  • Connect with your former associates. Think about high school or college – each of your friends there has gone on to different organizations or companies. Adding them to your network can expand the strength of your network considerably. People you used to work with, for example, most likely have moved on to other positions within other organizations. Adding them to your network gives you the opportunity to connect with their connections or ask fro introductions… Very powerful when used correctly!
  • Join groups. A little known feature of groups is that it adds the ability to connect with other members of the group. If you want to meet people or add to your network, joining groups and participating in group discussions is a great way to get your name out there.
  • Ask questions. Withing groups and within LinkedIn, asking questions can help you to identify others who can utilize your services. A well worded question can expose motivations and vulnerabilities that you have the ability to help with. For example, a client who does vehicle wraps could ask a question regarding the top issues for wrapping a fleet of vehicles. If answered, the person has now identified the fact that they have a fleet of vehicles and that they are having a problem. Based upon the problem, this could be an amazing prospect… Think about it!
  • Connect with other group members. Other group members have networks too – and their network could be greatly different than yours. By connecting with others in your group, you now have new contacts that are just a couple of degrees of separation from you, and those numbers increase algebraically.
  • Use Search to connect with company. If you use the search function within LinkedIn, it helps you discover who, within your network, may be connected with someone at that company. Try it – it’s very cool!
    Ask for introductions. If you share how you can help the person you are requesting an introduction to, and if you have a good relationship with the person from whom you are requesting the introduction, this can be a powerful tool.
  • Post periodically. Recently LinkedIn introduced the ability to have articles posted. It’s wonderful exposure – you never know who you may reach! If your post is intelligent and has good content, you will get some attention.

 

There are many new and exciting ways to utilize the power of LinkedIn for connecting and generating new leads. What are some of the ways that you have had success? Have you tried any of these ideas? What was the result?

Filed Under: Email, Email Marketing, LinkedIn, Marketing ROI, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Optimization, Social Networking Tagged With: LinkedIn, Social media, social media connections

February 18, 2018 By Jody Raines Leave a Comment

Why Do People Unsubscribe From Your Email Campaign?

Optimize email

ITo have the email read, personalize, not just the email itself, but the content.

Email marketing can be powerful and effective. It can bring prospects closer and nurture leads. It can also be a deadly way to lose contacts and potential connections.

Today I unsubscribed from an unsolicited email announcing a web-based radio show that for some reason I need to know about. The announcement came from a person that I exchanged cards with at a networking function. The announcement was all about him, and his new wonderful radio show – with no logical reason that I would want to listen to it. In fact, it featured a big picture of him, right in the middle, and some jargon about when the show will be recorded.

In addition, the email had a description that read something like “this is where you should describe your offer”. Seriously. He hadn’t even revised the boilerplate. Not impressed.

In today’s digital marketing environment, that’s just not good enough. If you expect to be accepted as a professional business person, you need to realize that the name of the game in digital marketing is personalization. It you are doing business the old way and sending out a blanket one-size-fits-all email to everyone, you are appealing to no one.

This must be my day for unsubscribing because I also unsubscribed from a Linkedin contact who sent a blanket email to everyone she is connected with on Linkedin. That’s not the way connect, nor are Linkedin contacts supposed to be used for overt solicitation. Frankly, this tells me a couple of things; one is that the person just does not understand why we connected, and two that I am not important to the person who sent these.

If you treat your connections indiscriminately, you deserve to have them disconnect from you. The first step is to opt out of your email blast. Too many opt outs, and you will begin to see that the mail services are not going to like handling your outbound email campaigns. In fact, you may wind up being booted.

Ever try to put together a program to increase your subscribers? It’s not that easy to entice new subscriptions. So, when you have a connection or you have a subscriber, treat them like gold.

Rules For Email Blasts:

Is your email personalized?

  • Does the recipient want to recieve the information? If you met at a networking event and exchanging cards is the sole basis for sending th email, you haven’t earned the right to include that email on your sending list. Before including them, send a special PERSONALISED email that reminds the person of how you met and explains the type of email you will be sending and ASKS if the person would like to recieve these types of emails. Better yet, give them a choice of topics and let them pick the topics that would be best for their needs. This means that your emails will be much more targed and less likely to be reported as SPAM. (This is called “opting in”).

Is the content targeted?

  • Is the email targeted content, or is it a broad announcement all about you? By targeted, what I mean is that the information contained is applicable to the industry, to the role, or in some way could be construed to be focused on the need of the person who is receiving it. Just to send out a blast all about you is really as dull as dating someone who only wants to talk about himself. Really dull. Don’t expect a second date and don’t expect that the recipient is actually going to read your pablum!

Is the email correct?

  • Have you completely filled in the template and tested it? Twice! The worst thing is to have an email blast go to your most treasured list of prospects and have it undermine your professionalism because it has a section that’s “greeked in”. Wow. I see this sometimes on website as well, where its funny text that is supposed to be replaced. Why should I spend my time reading it if you didn’t spend the time to put it together correctly. Send it to yourself. Send it to someone else. Make sure it’s correct.

Most important, be sure the message is appropriate and timely and has value.  If your recipient feels the message is helpful, they will continue to look forward to. Your messages.  Respect your subscribers, and they will respect you too.

Filed Under: Email, Email blast, Email Marketing, Email personalization Tagged With: Email marketing, Email subsciptions, Opt in email

Internet Marketing Insights

Social Media Trends, Social Marketing Trends

Social Media Marketing And Inbound Marketing Trends For 2014

February 9, 2014 By Jody Raines Leave a Comment

Want your online marketing to be a Knock Out? Internet marketing trends continue to evolve and as we enter the new calendar year we evaluate what the Internet marketing trends will be, and what the impact will be on social media marketing or inbound marketing.  Some of the changes we are tracking will have great […]

Jody Raines, social media tips

Social Media Tips: Trust and Transparency

April 20, 2016 By Jody Raines Leave a Comment

Trust. What does it take to create trust, and how can trust be taken away? And for that matter, what is social media trust?  And how does social media transparency help or hinder building trust and engagement in social media? You may have heard the term “transparency” used in relation to business branding or identity […]

Bad SEO

Small Business – Hard Lesson: What You Need To Know About SEO

March 17, 2014 By Jody Raines Leave a Comment

Your SEO expert may be killing your business.   Recently I’ve been receiving calls from friends and potential clients who have been referred to me for help or advice.  In most of these cases, I am seeing a similar situation.  There is a trend among small businesses to attempt to improve their business by hiring […]

Jody Raines, Webmarcom, SEO basics

Why Your Website Is Not Coming Up In Search Engines

June 19, 2013 By Jody Raines Leave a Comment

Building a website is not assurance of being found online.  Often,  I am requested to take a look at a website that does not come up in the search engines when the owner of the company starts realizing that the organization is not showing up in search results.   In fact I just got off […]

Best Call To Action Ideas

Jody Raines Shares Best Call To Action Ideas – WebMarCom (Web Marketing Communications)

February 14, 2014 By Jody Raines Leave a Comment

One of the questions I hear frequently when doing Inbound Marketing is how to create compelling Call To Action offers. The concept of creating usable informative tools is not difficult, but can take some time to come up with offers that are enticing and interesting. It also takes understanding who your audience is, and where […]

  • Fly Eagles? Fly Dogs! How Social Media Changed A Mascot
  • QR Codes Are Dead? Long Live The QR Code!

Recent Posts

  • Social Media And Social Networking: Best Practices And Big Mistakes For LinkedIn
  • How To Develop An Online Brand
  • 3 Key Tips For Internet Branding
856.504.6066 Voorhees, NJ 08043

Copyright © 2023 Jody Raines | WebMaster· All For The Love Of Dogs