In this short video, i’ll explain the steps you need to take to transform social media users you’ve never met into your biggest advocates.
When you post LinkedIn
discussions, does your discussion display the status ‘Awaiting Moderation?
Chances are you’ve just become a victim
of SWAM (Site Wide Auto Moderation).
Whether you’re aware or not,LinkedIn SWAM is not something that can be
ignored. You need to understand
what it means, when and how it can be activated and more importantly, you need
to know how to get your LinkedIn account and status restored back to its
original setting.
So, what
is SWAM or Site-Wide Automatic Moderation?
SWAM is an anti-spam measure put in
force by LinkedIn. If for any reason you’re blocked by the administrator of one
group, all your discussions in all other groups have to be moderated by the
group owners before they are published. This is little different to being
blocked as few group administrators bother to check discussions awaiting
moderation. Many wouldn’t even know it exists!
Originally,
the aim of this was to enforce a LinkedIn-wide ban on those members who had
posted anything deemed by one group to be offensive or inappropriate. However,
certain group decision-makers have taken this a step further and classified as
‘SPAM’ anything that they don’t feel should be posted on their group’s
discussion page, particularly if it’s in any way “sales oriented” in its
message. Some group administrators ban members who post any links in their discussions. This means that every time you post something on to one of your
discussion groups there is a possibility your membership to all your groups
will be blocked.
Setting KPIs is crucial to being able to measure how effective and successful a particular marketing activity or campaign is. You need a benchmark to measure success against, otherwise you could be starting, stopping or continuing a campaign with no real arguments or reason to support your decision.
KPIs can include:
At the most basic level you should set up a spreadsheet to record and then map/measure the results. You should also log clients (potential or existing) who have expressed an interest in your product/service but who’s interaction took place offline e.g. they emailed or phoned you.
This week’s video blog…In order for your message to reach your target market on Twitter, you first need to win over the influencers who are speaking to your customers and then encourage them to share and ultimately promote your content.
Are you responsible your social media campaign?Most social media campaigns are set up without any forward planning and without any discussion around what the outcomes should be.
In fact, the majority are managed back to front: profiles are set up, updates are put and only then do companies start talking about their expectations.
So how should you proceed with your campaign? What is the “right order” for running your campaign?
The key to raising your profile and making LinkedIn work for you needs to be more than just an impressive profile and joining the right groups. It is all about having the right discussions with the right people on the right topic, encouraging them to see you as an expert in your field.
Most importantly, never put across sales messages either as a status update or as part of a discussion post. Others will see this as “spammy” which will in turn have a negative impact on how people see you. Worse still, it could also see your discussion moved to the promotions section or worse see you removed from the group altogether!
Instead, try to share ideas, ask questions, request feedback and opinions. And otherwise encourage others to engage in discussions with you in the field you are working in. The more you interact without others, the more they will know, like and ultimately trust you. They will then be more inclined to connect with you, meet with you to discuss business, recommend you to others as a ‘trustworthy expert in the field’ and ultimately buy from you!
Do you ever post status updates on your profile?Having a completed profile is great, but if you don’t interact with others users, you’re missing a major opportunity!
LinkedIn has numerous groups where you can engage with others in your industry and share your profile. By posting discussions within groups or simply on your home page you can attract the attention of the right people.
So what steps can you take to make the most of LinkedIn groups?
Some of you may have noticed changes to the LinkedIn interface during the last month. These were highlighted on on LinkedIn’s blog on May 22nd (You can read it here). In it, they wrote…
You may have noticed that we’ve been on a mission to simplify LinkedIn. We hope you’re enjoying a simpler and easier, yet elegant and engaging experience across your mobile and desktop experiences. From the redesigned Homepage, to the new Profile, and the recently revamped mobile application, we are continuously looking for ways to improve your everyday LinkedIn experience. Today, we are excited to unveil our latest effort, the new LinkedIn navigation bar.
The result is an all-new navigation bar which prioritises the most popular functions and removes a lot of the clutter. Applications such as polls have now been removed. Account features such as privacy settings can be found in one click. The search box has also been aligned front and centre to give it more prominence. With mobile devices being used as much as desktops for internet access, LinkedIn have tried to align the two interfaces so they now look more similar. Unfortunately, at the time of writing the mobile app was not yet available to UK customers.
In today’s busy work environment you don’t have hours to spend looking for effective followers. There’s no way you can really follow 1000 people but there are ways to easily find those worth following.
Twitter lists can help you more effectively track what different people are saying that is relevant to you and your business. By filtering their updates into lists you will save time and will quickly be able to identify important information or comments made by other followers.
When you follow someone, you are publicly endorsing them but you don’t necessarily want to endorse all the people you follow. There are many people or companies who you just want to keep an eye on. A Twitter list will enable you to actually follow a person’s twitter account without actually ‘following’ them, you can group similar people/companies together and you can even keep certain groups private.
Do you tweet regularly?Be very careful about what you say!
Sally Bercow is currently being sued for libel because she tweeted "Why is Lord McAlpine trending? *innocent face*", amid intense speculation around the identity of a high-profile alleged paedophile. The prosecution have argued that the tweet was a “nudge and a wink to readers”.
Last year Matthew Woods was handed a 12-week prison sentence for posting jokes about April Jones and Madeline McCann. In 2011 alone, there were 1,286 prosecutions for “sending by means of a public electronic communications network a message or other matter that is grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character”.
Some tweets are blatantly malicious, but there are many other instances where tweets, which are written in the heat of the moment can get you into a lot of trouble.
Because Twitter is spontaneous, it’s easy to write something in a fit of anger that you might later look back at and regret. If you said something in anger during a conversation, it’s easier to retract it. But if it’s been published, it’s there for the public record.
Here are a few sensible steps you can take to ensure you don’t get yourself (or your fellow staff) into trouble.
