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Developing A Strong Social Media Campaign

January 31, 2010 By Randy Schrum View Comments

Recently I received a post from a LinkedIn user who was quite bitter about Social Media. This sentiment is not that uncommon amongst my executive contacts and many of the very successful business owners I know.

I understand how at face value, social media seems like a big cluster of chaos. I mean really, how impactful can a tweet be or a LinkedIn group post or a fan page post?

Obviously strategy and tactics are requisite for success with these social tools, but failing social media campaigns are not always because of a poor strategy. Let me share with you some of our core beliefs from My Corporate Media, Your Social Media Advisor.

There are only three major components to creating successful (and profitable) social media campaigns:

1. Quality Content
2. Trust & Credibility
3. Capacity to Communicate/ Distribution Destinations (ie Group)s, Fan Pages, Followers, Etc.)

If any of these are missing from your social media campaign, IT WILL FAIL… period end of story! So for all the nay sayers out there, I challenge you to measure you successes (or failures) against these 3 categories. I would suggest that if you failed, you left out one of these 3 categories.

I share this with great confidence because My Corporate Media teaches others to follow this model and they do profit. They have attracted top fortune 1000 companies, earned 27,000 in 7 hours of real time marketing efforts, earned 250,000 over the course of 12 months, grew communities to 8,500 members in 11 days and there are many more examples.

So, my final thought for anyone that doesn’t believe social media is a place for business or a place for businesses to profit; adjust your strategy around these three principles for your next campaign and let us know how well you succeed!

 

 

 

*Let My Corporate Media recommend the write campaign and help you develop a strong Social Media Strategy. Email us to learn more at support@mycorporatemedia.com  Put in the subject “Help My Company With Our Social Media Strategy”

Filed Under: Education, Media, Sales, Social Media Tagged With: , , , ,

Using LinkedIn to Build an Advisory Board

January 7, 2010 By Randy Schrum View Comments

0955167 Using LinkedIn to Build an Advisory Board

By Nathan Kievman

LinkedIn has been the best place to connect with people I never would have met otherwise. I love this media vehicle to accomplish all sorts of business objectives.

One of the many things I use LinkedIn for is creating sustainable, real, and valuable relationships with people I would be interested in having on my advisory board.

In a little over a months time, I was able to round out my business (Consulting Businesses on Strategic Alliances) and have a vast network of “experts” join my advisory board.

I used several methods to identify these individuals:

1. Joined groups where these individuals would likely hang out

2. Engaged the groups in discussions to build credibility (this process was key to enable the people I was seeking to contact me first)

3. I also searched for key people with certain titles with the search feature

4. When I found a new person I was interested in, I figured out what they needed first and tried to help them achieve their goals. (when you help someone, a vacuum is created and they feel compelled to help you sooner than later)

Before you start doing the above steps to build out your advisory board, be certain to do a strengths and weaknesses analysis of your self. Know exactly what you are good at and not so good at.

You must also do an analysis of your goals, see where you want to go and identify the key players that could help you achieve these goals, then include this type of person as a position to fill on your advisory board.

For more information on how to create an advisory board with Linkedin, check out this book at

LinkedIntoMarketing eBook

For more information on how to integrate LinkedIn with your business or professional objectives, join us and see why over 10,000 others are raving about our LinkedIn Power User Strategies Webinar (F.ree).

You may also want to join the #1 LinkedIn Strategies Group on LinkedIn HERE

Filed Under: Linkedin Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

5 Linkedin Profile Tips That I Know Drive Results

September 15, 2009 By Randy Schrum View Comments

Over the last year I have written about my experience and success with driving resultsLinkedin Strategies that have produced measurable results. While I often get very target specific on articles, this week I wanted to just provide five tips that will drive results for your profile.

Here are 5 (five) Tips that will drive Profile results on Linkedin:

1. Your Headline: Should communicate your focus and how you can help others. This is not the place to name the company you’re a part of. You are listing that in your current employment. Take mine for example, currently I have this as my headline (which is directly under your name)

“Sales & Marketing Director | Social Media Strategist focusing on Lead Generation, ROI, Optimization, and Brand Advocacy”

2. Label your websites! People are more likely to click web links that have a few keywords rather than “my website”. Simply go to edit and change them with the selection of “other” and follow it from there.

3. Public Profile Link: This should just be your full name at the end and no numbers or other data. Be sure to change this if it does not read similar to mine. http://www.linkedin.com/in/randyschrum  . This will give you a slightly better ranking on Google. (by the way have you googled your name lately?)

4. Your Summary: This is a summary of why you’re on Linkedin and how you can help others. Again communicate your focus.

5. Specialties: Load your specialties with very specific keywords that relate to your unique experience. Put some real thought into this as this will drive search results that may feature you when Linkedin users search for specific keywords. For example I did not just put sales in mine, I also listed “Strategic Account Management”, this is just one example of how targeted I have gotten on my specialties. This has paid major dividends for me.

Would you like to learn more Power User Linkedin Strategies? Join us for our next “No Cost” Linkedin Webinar this Thursday…45 Minutes of solid content and then a Q & A afterwards that has been known to last over an hour 4pm Eastern. All we ask if for you to register so we have enough space for the webinar.

Register Here for the Linkedin Power Users Strategy Webinar “No Cost” 4pm Eastern This Thursday

~Randy Schrum

*Be Sure to get the Fast Start Guide to Linkedin Success on the right. (This is no charge)

*Profile Overhaul: For $300 we will provide a Professional Profile Overhaul- Top to Bottom. To learn more email support@mycorporatemedia  with the subject “Profile Overhaul”.

*Lets connect on Linkedin, send me a connection invite at linkwithrandy@yahoo.com

Filed Under: Linkedin Tagged With: , , , , ,

5 Keys to Writing Killer Linkedin Status Updates

August 31, 2009 By Randy Schrum View Comments

Killer Status UpdatesYou’re now on Linkedin, so how do you drive brand recognition, lead generation, and buzz? One great way is through Linkedin Status Updates. These are on an individuals profile under their headline and in the log in section of your account in the center near the top.

 

 

Here are 5 Keys to updating your status on Linkedin.

1. Think “Attention Grabbers”, Words or phrases that will stand out. When people are accessing their account , think about what words or phrases will catch their attention?

2. Once you have your subject, one way to be creative is to think of  subject or topic “keyword(s)” that can be listed first. For example if you look below in my status update I have put the subject as TWITTER. Here is a bonus, put only the subject keyword in caps and drive more attention.

 status updates 1

3. Create a call to action by providing a link. This link can be to your website, blog, linkedin group, event signup, survey, etc…

4. Try to keep your status update no more than 60 characters or around this number. One tip is to try to keep it less than 10 words. The shorter you keep it, then the more attention you will grab.

5. Use link shrinking for long url’s. Some providers you can use are www.tinyurl.com  , www.bit.ly  , and the best one being www.tiny.cc  which allows you to track how many times someone clicks on the link.

3 Special Bonus Tips to measure your efforts

1. Using the www.tiny.cc  is an easy way to track click throughs.
2. Track comments made on your status updates, no comments? Then be more creative.
3. Watch on the right side of your linkedin account and see if your profile views increase.

~Randy Schrum

Learn more on “Fast Start Guide to Linkedin Success” by registering for my “no cost” eBook and Linkedin tips on the right.

Register for our “Linkedin Power User Strategies” Webinar, held every Thursday. This is a “no cost” webinar loaded with amazing content and live Q & A at the end. Register here.

Are we connected yet on Linkedin? Send me an invite already! linkwithrandy@yahoo.com

**What do you think of the article? Post your comments, Re-tweet, or post in your linkedin groups.**

Filed Under: Linkedin Tagged With: , , ,

Optimizing Your LinkedIn Network & Profile

August 23, 2009 By Randy Schrum View Comments

mathEquation 150x150 Optimizing Your LinkedIn Network & ProfileLinkedin can be an endless source of leads, job opportunities, referrals, and multiple income streams. However, none of that matters if you have not optimized your efforts both with your network and your profile.

Optimizing your network: First key step to optimizing your Linkedin network is to build a network based off the target market you are after and want to penetrate. In order to do this write a list of potential industries and titles you are targeting. Then identify those you have interacted with in the past and invite them to connect with you. You can also target those on Linkedin within the advanced search option, who are open networkers. Using such search terms such as LION, Toplinked.com, and opennetworker can generate a long list of members whom provide their email address readily to accept connection invites. In addition you can add the keywords of your target market in the search allowing you to find those open to connecting within your target audience.

The next key to optimizing your network is to add tags or categories to your connections so you can effectively manage which target market they fall within your connection base.
(Learn more on this by joining us for our Linkedin Strategies Webinar this Thursday with Q & A at “no cost”.)

Bonus Network Tip: Now that you have the right target people in your network be sure to reach out to them and keep them updated via email or by updating your status in your Linkedin profile on a regular basis.

Optimizing your profile:

Your Linkedin Profile is your online professional brand, just google your name and see what pops up. More than likely your Linkedin profile showed up near the top.
I often tell people “Your Linkedin Profile is Your Resume”, so how well does yours read?

1. First of all is your profile complete? Things such as work history and education are critical.
2. Have you written a compelling headline?
3. Do you have a good profile picture loaded? Preferably a nice headshot professionally done.
4. Think about your list of specialties and make sure they are keyword rich so you appear in more searches and are found easily within Linkedin for your target audience.

The first key is completing your profile. I cannot stress enough how an optimized profile is critical to measurable success on Linkedin.

Bonus Profile Tip:

Take a look at my profile and in the summary you will see I noted common misspells of my name. Why have I done this? Because someone may misspell your name searching for you on Linkedin and never find you if it’s not within your profile.

~Randy Schrum

*Linkedin Strategy Group: Learn more Linkedin Strategies and Tips at the most collaborative Linkedin Group available within the Linkedin space.

*Linkedin Strategy Webinar: “No Cost” Series, Join us every Thursday different times every week (4pm EDT or 7pm EDT “subject to change”). Don’t worry if you can’t make the live webinar, sign up anyway to gain access to the recording.

*Profile Optimization: Not sure if your profile is optimized at its best? Need the help of a professional who has helped countless others? Email support@mycorporatemedia.com  For $300 get your profile professionally revamped, in the email subject please put “Profile Re-vamp”.

 
***LinkedIn is a networking tool that helps you discover inside connections to recommended job candidates, industry experts and business partners.

Filed Under: Linkedin, Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , ,

What is your Linkedin status?

May 12, 2009 By Randy Schrum View Comments

What is your Linkedin status? Better yet, what are you working on? 
 
If you are reading this article then you have some idea of the power of Linkedin or what it can be for you as a business professional. With that said, do you understand how critical updating your status and profile are? 
 
I hope to help show you the benefit in doing just that on a regular basis. First, what is updating your status? You can do this by logging into your Linkedin account and near the center of the page you will find the option to post “what you are working on”, this will be found below your inbox preview and network updates section. This is not found on the left with all the other tabs. 
Updating your status on Linkedin shows up to all your connections when they are logged in to their account. This keeps brand image in front of them on a regular basis. I try to update at least every 24 hours with something new. This is not the place to say “I just ate a cheese burger”. This is the place to promote your business, what you’re doing for work i.e., seeing a new customer, doing a workshop, promoting your companies charity, promoting your charity, promoting an industry related article you just read, promoting an article you just wrote on your blog, and many other related topics to your business. 
 
You can also make slight changes to your profile summary which in turns shows up in your connections view. This once again just gives a friendly reminder that you are out their. 
 
So do your connections know your status? Better yet do your connections remember they are connected with you? Start updating your status on a regular basis and watch your profile views increase. The more profile views can only lead to more opportunities. 
 
For Success With Linkedin I am Randy Schrum 
Follow me on twitter @randyschrum 
 
Join the Success With Linkedin Group discussion here: 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , ,

Social Media Stats for the Business Professional

April 13, 2009 By Randy Schrum View Comments

Some interesting social media stats for the business professional that I pulled from various online sources:

• Social Media Sites are officially more popular than porn sites.
• Blogger has over 200,000,000 Blogs.
• Youtube sees over 65,000 new videos a day.
• 150,000,000 the number of Youtube videos viewed per day.
• 73% of active online users have a read a blog.
• 45% have started their own blog.
• 39% subscribe to RSS feed.
• 57% have joined a Social Network
• 55% have uploaded videos
• 83% watch video clips
• 684,000,000 the number of visitors to Wikipedia in the last year
• 75,000 active contributors to Wikipedia
• 3,000,000 Tweets per day on Twitter
• 500,000 people join per day to facebook
• Dell, Jetblue, Southwest, Starbucks & others use Twitter to communicate and generate sales with customers.
• 36,000,000 Linkedin Members as of January
• 10,000,000 visited Twitter in February up 700:% from previous year.

Why should we care as business professionals?

Only 14% of people polled trust conventional advertisement, but 78% trust the recommendations of others.

34% polled post recommendations and thoughts on blogs about products or services they use.

36% think more postively about companies who have blogs

32% trust bloggers opinions on goods and services

If you’re a business professional reading these stats and your not participating in Social Media then your missing the future of the way business is done.

Randy

Sources: Time, University of Mccain, Forrester Research, Nielsen

Filed Under: Social Media, Twitter, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,
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