How to Use Hootsuite to Post to Multiple LinkedIn Groups

One of the advantages to using a social media management system like Hootsuite is that it allows you to share a status update with multiple LinkedIn groups, In the following video, I show you how to add LinkedIn groups to your Hootsuite account, and post an update to them:

Think like a Photographer when it Comes to Social Media Marketing

When I was growing up, there were no digital cameras. I had a Kodak Instamatic camera that would take 12, 24 or 36 pictures at a time, depending on the size of the film cartridge used. Once you reached that limit, you had to remove the film and insert another roll. As a result, you had to be choosy about what pictures you took, especially if you were running out of film and didn’t have another roll handy.

Today, my digital camera lets me take hundreds of pictures before the memory gets full, so I can keep snapping pictures till my heart’s content. But that also means I have hundreds of pictures to look at when I come back from vacation, which can be quite overwhelming.

The number of social networking sites available today can be overwhelming too. Many small business owners fall into the trap of thinking they need a presence on all of them to be effective. I’ve been guilty of thinking that way too. I recently hired a virtual assistant to help me with my own social media marketing, because it’s time-consuming to come up with posts for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. and run my business at the same time.

Here’s a little secret. It doesn’t have to be that way. You can limit yourself to one or two different platforms. The best photographers take time to craft their shots, and choose only the best images to present to the public. You should do the same. Take time to craft good quality content that will be appreciated by your audience and engage them. If your business lends itself well to visuals, spend the majority of your time on Pinterest. If your audience is B2B, spend more of your time on LinkedIn.

Experiment to see what type of content appeals most to your target audience and gets them to engage with you. Try out different types of posts, photos, contests, even ads. Test and re-test. In time, you’ll develop a good eye for what works.

Image courtesy of ammer / freedigitalphotos.net

Social Media Marketing World – Day One: Get More Twitter Followers

I arrived in San Diego yesterday for the first day of the Social Media Marketing World conference. The first official event was a networking party at the San Diego Natural History Museum. There are several hundred people here from all over the world. I met with marketing folks and social media experts from Australia and the Philippines, not to mention right here in the U.S.

At the networking event, I met a gentleman who offered a great tip for people who want to get more Twitter followers. It was perfect timing, because a friend of mine had asked about that subject before I left. He recommended Tweetadder. The strategy is to search for people who retweet information related to your target market – ideally the type of information you would be sharing too. You then follow those people, and most likely, they will follow you back and start retweeting your content.

On the plane to San Diego, I was reading an ebook that also mentioned Tweetadder, so one of the first things I will do upon returning to home is researching this app in more detail, and I’ll do a full report later!

How to Easily Manage Your Social Media Presence

One of the biggest frustrations small business owners have with social media is trying to manage it and their company operations at the same time. This is particularly true of solopreneurs. I feel your pain, because I have the same challenge! It’s not easy balancing client work with my own social media marketing. But I have found a tool that has helped me manage my time more effectively, and is one that I recommend to my clients as well. It’s Hootsuite.

How to Build an Editorial Calendar

Last week, I shared some reasons why an editorial calendar is so helpful for content marketing. In this post, I’m going to give you some tips on how to go about building an editorial calendar.

7 Common Pinterest Mistakes

Pinterest can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business, if it’s used correctly. Now that the social networking site is allowing company pages, it’s more important than ever to make sure you’re not making mistakes that could cost you followers and potential leads for your product or service.

LinkedIn Answers Gets Pink Slipped

Say good-bye to LinkedIn Answers. I received an email from LinkedIn today stating they are eliminating the application from its site on Jan. 31. Instead, the social networking site says, “we’re focusing our efforts on developing new and  more engaging ways to share and discuss  professional topics across LinkedIn.”  And it says more details will be available in the coming months, “so please stay tuned.”

What NOT to Do on Your LinkedIn Company Page

By Gloria Rand

LinkedIn company pages can be a powerful marketing tool for your business, when they’re used effectively. But too many companies set up a page and just include a brief description instead of taking advantage of the various features LinkedIn provides. If you want to create a vibrant page that will attract followers and generate leads for your business, beware of making the following mistakes that some companies are doing:

Gloria Rand’s Top 10 Blog Posts of 2012

With 2013 on the horizon, I think it’s a good time to take a look back at 2012. It was certainly a tumultuous year for… Facebook! (Yes, it was an election year here in the U.S. but there are plenty of other blogs that can comment on that front.) The social networking site made headlines all year long: switching business pages to Timeline, launching an initial public offering (and seeing its share price tank), and then struggling to monetize its business by introducing new advertising initiatives. Of course, Facebook wasn’t the only big story of 2012. Pinterest introduced business pages to tap into its growing popularity as a social network. Google+ struggled to stay relevant by introducing communities (I’m still not convinced!), while Twitter and LinkedIn both updated the look of their profile pages.

5 Critical Reasons for You & Key Employees to be Active on Social Media

By Allen MacCannell

It’s important for modern employers to know whether or not their marketing employees and other managers should be spending much company time on social media. If you pay someone say $200 per day, you will want to know if $50 of that is well spent if they spend a quarter of their time posting, liking, +1ing, retweeting, favoriting, repining or asking, answering or upvoting questions on Quora.