LinkedIn Do’s and Don’ts

LinkedIn is a service that individuals use to find jobs and also seek out employers, but did you know there are many services LinkedIn offers that you might be using wrong? By reading our LinkedIn Do’s and Don’ts, you are bound to find a few ways to improve your profile!

DO

Choose a great profile photo.

First impressions are essential. By creating a good first impression, you will establish the baseline for all thoughts and opinions a potential employer will make of you. Did you know how long it takes to make up for and eventually reverse a bad first impression? By having a clear, professional photo, your chances of making a good first impression automatically increase.

“A photo can go a long way to convey passion, energy, charisma, empathy, and other soft skills that are hard to write about.” The Muse

Keep your page up-to-date.

There are many different functions on LinkedIn that allow you to keep followers updated on your professional career. One of the most important sections to keep updated is your profile section, which is located at the top of your profile. Keeping your profile section up-to-date is important because it is the first section viewers see when they open your page and can give potential employers a quick synopsis of who you are. In this section, you can include where you currently work (with your position title), your education, and a short summary about yourself. Another vital section on your page to keep updated is your ‘experience’ section. Showcasing past jobs and responsibilities you’ve had is important as, for some readers, this section can be viewed essentially as a resume.

Take advantage of the Summary section.

The Summary section is crucial because it allows you to tell viewers about yourself in your own words. Show off your personality, touch on your professional experiences and skills, and tailor it all exactly the way you want it to be presented. According to Career Horizons, “your summary should be around 3–5 short paragraphs long, preferably with a bulleted section in the middle.” Don’t miss an opportunity to showcase your writing skills and personality for potential viewers.

Include multimedia

When given the chance to show off your expertise through work you have produced, do it! Having multimedia on your page will likely help you stand out when compared to competition. Including any multimedia work you have done on your page gives employers an accessible showcase of your skills. You can include multimedia In your ‘Summary’ and ‘Experience’ sections on your profile.

DON’T

Don’t add people you don’t know.

Although it is important to have many connections on LinkedIn, it is not professional to add people that you do not know. Did you know that if enough people deny your invitation, LinkedIn can shut down your account? White it is important to have at least 50 connections, it is essential you know who you are connecting with.

Don’t forget to add your contact information.

Although it seems like a common thing to remember, many people look over the ‘Contact Info’ portion of their LinkedIn profile without realizing it. You can find this section under your profile settings. If you do not list any contact information, it makes it difficult for a company to reach out to you.

Don’t forget to be social.

LinkedIn is meant for many things, but one of its most important functions is to be social with others—this is social media after all. Sharing recent news and staying active on LinkedIn shows others that you are comfortable on LinkedIn and know how to use it effectively. It is easy to make a profile and then leave it dormant, but it is important to use LinkedIn fully, especially when you are in job search mode.

We hope these do’s and don’ts help you to improve your presence on LinkedIn and the overall impact of your profile. Whether you are seeking employment, or simply looking to get the absolute most of social media, these best practices will get you moving in the right direction.

Do you know of any other LinkedIn practices that weren’t included here? We’d love to know them!

Influencer Marketing

Influencer Marketing

Influencer:

The individual whose effect on the purchase decision is in some way significant or authoritative (Cambridge English Dictionary)

How influencing works:

Influencers on social media, as vessels for advertising and marketing, have become a phenomenon that many brands have turned to. Influencer marketing benefits the brand by  exposing it to a large number of people in their target audience. This exposure is secured through compensation paid to the influencer. Successful influencer marketing often requires a great deal of coordination and planning between parties. A brand must identify and establish a relationship with an individual who matches their target audience. Depending on the arrangement, the influencer might also receive free products. The influencer must then post about the brand in a creative way for the purpose of engaging their followers. Influencers are effective because their followers look up to them are more likely to receptive to the products they recommend.

Types of influencers:

Mega-influencers:

Mega-influencers are individuals who have more than one million followers on their platform. These influencers are mainly celebrities, such as musicians, actors, athletes, etc. Mainstream brands often reach out to celebrities for advertising purposes, as bigger celebrities often have the greater ability to influence their fans and followings. Mega-influencers are able to reach a broad audience, which is why brands spend the extra money for their endorsements. Some of the most expensive celebrity influencers include Beyonce, Kylie Jenner, Khloe Kardashian and Selena Gomez. Although celebrities are not the ideal influencer for every brand, research can help brands identify when a celebrity will work best for for them.

Khloe Kardashian

Khloe Kardashian’s primary social media platform is Instagram, where she has more than 76 million followers. Khloe has been an influencer for brands such as Amazon and Calvin Klein. It is rumored that Khloe makes around $250,000 per post.

Jonathan Morrison

Jonathan is an influencer in the tech and business world. Jonathan’s main platform is his Youtube channel where he has over 2 million followers. In many of his Youtube videos, he is giving paid reviews for gadgets and also giving away free products to viewers.

Carly Waddell

Carly first gained media attention by being a contestant on The Bachelor in 2015. Since then, she has reappeared on the show and gained many followers. Today, she is a social media influencer for health products, baby products, and everyday usage products.

Macro-influencers:

Macro-influencers are individuals who have between 10,000 and one million followers. These influencers mainly post about everyday lifestyle or business matters. Pet influencers, beauty influencers, food influencers, and travel influencers are just a few of the kinds of individuals who are considered to be macro-influencers.

Lindsay Arnold 

Lindsay Arnold is a professional dancer on Dancing with the Stars. Lindsay’s following includes a large number of younger females and she has partnerships with many food, health and travel companies.

Tuna 

In 2011, Tuna’s owners created an Instagram account for their dog, who became famous online. Tuna has over 80 thousand followers and has been featured by Cosmopolitan, The New York Times and many other sites. Tuna’s posts feature the partnerships with many pet-friendly hotels around the world.

Micro-influencers:

Micro-influencers are individuals who have fewer than 500,000 followers. These influencers are individuals who partake in an everyday work-life, who relate with their followers through real-life authenticity. These influencers can create a relationships and develop trust with their followers.

The Planet D  

Dave Bouskill and Debra Corbeil are a husband-and-wife travel influencing team. They have traveled to over 100 countries and have partnerships with American Express Canada, Intrepid Travel, and Expedia. Their main source of blogging is on their personal website and Facebook account.

Tina Jui

Tina Jui is a breakfast food blogger via Instagram, and her website known as The Work Top. Tina has over 50,000 followers and is an influencer for all things cooking. She makes sponsored posts for food brands, specific cookware items, and also does sponsored giveaways.

Why influencer marketing works:

Influencers create a personal level of trust between themselves and their followers through relating to them and having similar interests. Followers value an influencer’s opinion because they are ‘fans’ of the influencer, and often feel a personal connection to them or aspire to their lifestyle. Big brands have taken notice that having an influencer mention their brand can be one of the best ways to inspire consumer trust.  Some followers even rely on influencers to learn about new brands and products, which can make influencer marketing a cost-effective method of getting the word out under the right circumstances.

The 7 Deadly Sins of Online Marketing

7 deadly sins of online marketing
Sin is defined in the original biblical language as “missing the mark.”  It is we when do not live in a way that embodies the goodness for which we were made. A “deadly” sin could be further defined as being so far off the mark that our behavior becomes damaging to the point of being destructive. When we apply the term “deadly sins” to the topic of marketing, it means we are “missing the mark” and even partaking in some practices and behaviors that turn out to be destructive to our objectives and goals. Could you be committing any of the 7 deadly sins of online marketing?Continue reading

3 New Instagram Tools That Will Skyrocket Your Business

If you had told marketers and social media managers in 2010 that the newly-released Instagram app would be one of the fastest growing platforms in 2017, they might have laughed. We’ve come a long way from the days of over-saturated filters and duck faces. But the numbers don’t lie: 700 million monthly users, 300 million daily users, and 8 million businesses with profiles exist as of this writing (The Motley Fool). Top accounts on Instagram are boasting an average engagement rate of 4.21% as opposed to the 0.07% of Facebook and 0.03% of Twitter (Forrester).

Despite all that, only 36% of marketers are on Instagram versus the 93% that are on Facebook. This is a unique advantage of Instagram in itself. While others are focusing their energy on platforms that are providing little engagement, you can be on the front lines of the one that can potentially net you 60-times more likes and comments, without having to fight as hard for the extra attention.

Clearly, Instagram is the place to be in 2017. And with the most recent Instagram updates over the last few months, promoting your brand has never been easier. Curious about what these new features can do for your profile? Below are three ways you can take advantage of Instagram’s new tools to grow your business.

Story Ads

new Instagram tools story ads
With the rollout of the new “Stories” feature on both Instagram and Facebook, businesses will have a new way to get their ads in front of potential customers. On Instagram, users see Stories from their friends at the top of their feed. In between pictures of their cousin eating brunch and a distant acquaintance on vacation, video ads might pop up as if they are part of the Story. This makes it super easy for brands to reach users they might have otherwise missed by simply entering the scrollable feed.

Story ads are easy to manage in Facebook’s Ad Manager or Power Editor. Like Facebook ads, they can be specifically targeted to a region, demographic, or interest. By selecting “Instagram Stories” as the location for the ad placement, some of those 300 million daily Instagram users will be seeing your ad in no time!

Shoppable Posts

 

new Instagram tools shoppable posts
What once was a safe place for shopaholics has now become a minefield. Instagram will now allow retailers to sell their products directly in their posts through shoppable tags. Much like the tags that can be used to identify Instagram users, these shoppable tags offer information such as the product name and price. Users can then click through to the product’s landing page, where they can make a purchase.

This tool revolutionizes Instagram for retailers. Rather than the clunky “click on the link in our bio” call-to-action, brands can make sales with each and every post. While this feature has only been rolled out to larger brands as a testing phase, we anticipate that this will be a platform-wide update before too long.

Swipe-Up Links

new Instagram tools swipe up links

The final Instagram update is one that bloggers, retailers, and just about everyone can benefit from. Users will now be able to create Stories that link to webpages with a single swipe. This means that Instagram can now be used to drive substantial traffic to your website, a feature it’s really never had before. While previously the only spot for a link was in the user’s profile, this new update (along with the shoppable tags above) will allow for potentially unlimited links using the Stories feature. This is a big deal for businesses, and while it’s currently only available for accounts with ten-thousand or more followers, we can’t wait for it to be rolled out for accounts of all sizes.

At this point, it looks like Instagram is here to stay. Or, rather, it’s here to stay AND force everyone else to leave. If you haven’t hopped on the Instagram train yet, now is the perfect time to do so. Armed with these tricks and tools, you can make your business unstoppable.

Why People Follow Brands on Social Media

Amidst the low quality selfies, hilarious pet videos, and mouth-watering cooking tutorials, social media users in recent years have found a new kind of post on their feeds. This post, if done right, simultaneously advertises and entertains, capturing the user’s brand loyalty as well as their spending dollars. Brands, realizing the opportunities that come with social media, have pounced on the chance to put their products or services directly in their customers’ news feeds. With 78% of consumers relying on companies’ social media posts to help them make purchasing decisions, according to a study done by Forbes, it’s not all that surprising that people would choose to mix their social sharing and shopping research on the same platform. But what compels a user to follow a brand in the first place?

Why do people follow brands? Incentives

As much as we’d like to think that consumers are following our page for a good laugh or the informational content we spend hours producing, it turns out there is a little more to it. Before they can become a loyal and engaged user, there has to be good reason for them to click the “follow” button. A whopping 56% of social media users surveyed by MarketingSherpa said they originally followed brands to see promotions or coupons regularly. In a similar vein, 44% said they followed to enter a contest, get a discount, or win a gift card. Evidently, many are most interested in what companies have to offer them.

Incentives really serve two purposes. First, they attract new users to follow your account, buy your products, or (ideally) both. Second, they keep loyal customers coming back again and again – an equally important task. Discounts or promotions serve as reminders to consumers, positioning your brand at the top of their minds.

Why do people follow brands? Content

According to the same Marketing Sherpa survey, less than half of all consumers (38%) follow a brand for their informational content. Those how-to posts, reviews, and tip sheets you slave over? Apparently they’re not as alluring as the twenty-percent-off coupon that takes you a few minutes to throw together. Even fewer (31%) follow for entertaining content such as funny videos, memes, or bits of pop culture. But don’t let this discourage you, as informational or entertaining content serves its own purpose in attracting and keeping the right customer. As we discussed in our 80/20 Rule of Content Marketing post, all of your social media efforts are in vain if you are not aware of and catering to your target market. While a discount will get you a new follower, your content is ultimately what will determine whether or not they stick around after the promotion is over.

Good content is what turns your brand’s account from a bulletin board of coupons to a social page where users can stay engaged.

♦♦♦

In the delicious and complicated soup that is social media marketing, it’s important to remember that each ingredient gives your social platform a different flavor. Pushing out too many incentives can make your brand seem impersonal, but too much informational or entertaining content might allow customers to forget that you have something to sell them. Striking a balance between the two gives you the best chance of accomplishing the dual goal of attracting a large following and keeping them coming back for more.

What Is Twitter (And How Can It Help Your Business)?

What makes Twitter different than other social media platforms?

What Is Twitter?

Maybe you’ve heard it before. There are some people who will say, “What is Twitter?” “I don’t ‘get’ Twitter,” and “how can Twitter help my business?” The implication is that they ‘get’ other social media, but not Twitter. This makes as good a place to start as any, if we are to examine Twitter as a social medium where businesses could and should have a presence. Twitter.com is a social media platform like no other, and grasping its differences is the first step to understanding how a business can get the most from it.

Facebook vs. Twitter

So, why do some not understand Twitter?

Probably the biggest reason is that they bring the wrong expectations to it. Other social media platforms have more straightforwardly obvious reasons for existence. Facebook, on the web, is ubiquitous. And as such it is generally the standard-setter, where social media is concerned. It is quite different from Twitter. Facebook is about personal connections and keeping up with one’s friends, family, and such. Where business pages on Facebook are concerned, the functionality is rather similar to a website, and everyone on the web knows what a website does. A Facebook business page holds the business’s vital information, and even has pages, as a website does, for drilling down into greater detail. Further, many companies even have a Facebook store. Web commerce is done there, just as it can be done on a website.

Pinterest and Instagram vs. Twitter

Other social media are likewise rather obvious in their function. Pinterest is a sort of scrapbooking site. Pinterest does much more, of course, but we can all see the usefulness of Pinterest at a glance. Instagram is about sharing cell phone photos — that, too, is plain, and also useful.

What Is Twitter? Twitter is essentially a real time chat room.

Twitter, on the other hand, is not equipped to provide these services — not as straightforwardly, anyway. Twitter is essentially a chat room. And like a chat room, Twitter is more “real time” and immediate than other social media. Twitter is more about breaking news than Facebook is. More than Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, and Google Plus are, as well.

Twitter is also about conversations. Rapid-fire communications. It is very news- and trend-driven. Twitter is a platform that people turn to when news is breaking and they want to see what the reactions to it are, in real time.

Twitter’s Noisy Rep

It’s often said that Twitter is “noisy,” and by “noisy” someone means that it can be a firehose of content. Nothing is thinned out or excluded. Every tweet goes into a feed, and every follower of that tweep (individuals with accounts on Twitter are called “tweeps”) receives that message. That has pluses and minuses. The good part, obviously, is that Twitter does not have the constriction of reach that we must contend with on Facebook and other channels. The bad part is, of course, the chaos and noise, and that fact that messages can be missed by followers in the torrent of content.

What Is Twitter? Twitter does not restrict content like Facebook does.

There are ways to reduce that chaos and noise. We have more to say more about that in the future, but for now, we are still analyzing Twitter’s differences.

Facebook vs. Twitter (once more)

We found this question posed on Quora: “If a business could choose only one, which network should they choose (Facebook or Twitter)?” A representative of Zoho.com offered this answer:

“It depends on these considerations: (1) On which network does most of your target audience hang out? (2.) What is the primary objective for your social media presence? If you want to create and share content and get more reach for it, then Twitter is definitely the better network since its format lets content get shared/spread more easily. (Emphasis ours.) If you want to showcase your products online and enable people to place orders from your page when they see them, then Facebook is the network to choose because the format makes it easy for your audience to view your products for a longer period of time. (3) How much time can you invest? While both networks will require you to put in time and effort, Twitter is more real-time in nature than Facebook. So if you’re going to actively engage your audience on either network, trying to do it on Twitter could take more time (although it may be worth the extra time, in most cases).”

Perfect for Mobile

Twitter is well suited for mobile users. Its 140-character limit for messaging makes it easy to operate in one’s palm, on the fly.

What Is Twitter? Twitter, and its 140-character limit. is well-suited for mobile.

Twitter is efficient. Because it is so “noisy,” it is also very forgiving — and that forgiveness makes it the perfect platform for repeating and re-using one’s content. Twitter followings are very tolerant of message-repeating. That’s largely because Twitter’s firehose feed means that most tweets don’t get seen by most followers on the first pass, anyway. So transmitting a tweet hours later, or days later, is commonplace on the medium and the Twitterverse is generally fine with it. That means you can get extra mileage out of your content creation. If you’re using Twitter for link-building, that means you’ll get more links built with less time and money.

Growth Hacking and Twitter

Twitter is also a productive place for growth hacking, and given that many companies like to use Twitter to build followings and to move those followings over to Facebook or LinkedIn or other more “aggressive” sites, growth hacking on Twitter can be a very worthwhile proposition.

What Is Twitter? Twitter make building personal connections easy and breezy.

As author and digital marketing authority Gary Vaynerchuk said in his book, Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook, “Twitter is a marketer’s dream come true because it allows you to initiate a relationship with your customer.” That’s a good way of thinking about Twitter. It’s an easier, breezier environment for making personal connections, because of that “chat room” feeling. And savvy marketers will then want to cultivate connections by coaxing them over to other social media or to the company’s website.

Twitter Versatility

Moreover, Twitter is a social platform uniquely positioned for customer service, direct influencer-outreach, content distribution, and social listening. For insights on all four, see this source.

What Is Twitter? Twitter can help with customer service, reaching influencers, content distribution, and social listening.

Now that we’ve covered the main aspects of the “Twitter Difference,” we can hit some high points of how to make the most of your business’s Twitter presence. For that, stay tuned for our next deep-dive into Twitter. And be sure to follow us on Twitter for timely tips and links to more in-depth content, not just on Twitter practices but on web marketing and social media—in fact, on all digital marketing efforts in general. Happy tweeting!

For more on Twitter for business, see our article on Twitter Do’s and Don’ts.

 

25 Twitter Do’s and Don’t’s for Businesses

Jemully Media twitter dos and donts

Your Twitter account represents your business; it’s a part of your brand. I’ve been on Twitter for several years managing various client accounts and it’s easy to see who knows what they’re doing and who doesn’t. Like it or not, a business that displays a degree of social media acumen is a business that gains trust in the eyes of consumers.

If you want your business to be well-represented on social media (and why wouldn’t you?), it’s important to know what you’re doing. Here are 25 Twitter do’s and don’t’s for business.

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The 80/20 Rule of Content Marketing

Jemully Media - The 80/20 rule in content marketing

The 80/20 Rule of Marketing

Or: Why constantly promoting yourself and your services can have the opposite effect.

One of the best ways to explain the 20/20 rule of marketing is to imagine a scenario where you are hanging out with your friends. What if you only talked about ONE thing… every single time you hung out. And that one thing was something you were trying to sell to them. YIKES! Probably not the best way to keep friends, right? Perhaps you would be lucky if those same friend would hang out if you only talked about what you were sellingt 80% of the time. Then you could engage in conversation about other topics 20% of the time. How about, an even better idea. What if you switched the 80/20 rule around and most of the time you could talk about mutually entertaining and enjoyable subjects, leaving only 20% of the time to promote your product? 

The same idea holds true for social media practices. If a company only posts about their products and services, their friends and followers may quickly tire of hearing about it. Ideally, companies will intersperse this type of information among other content that is a little more personal and engaging. Just as your friends want to learn more about you, a company’s following typically wants more than just a sales message.

At Jemully, we encourage our clients to follow the “80/20” rule for social media marketing. In fact, we recommend the 80/20 marketing mix for all of your content marketing. This rule says only 20% of the content will directly promote your products or services. The other 80% can be topics related to your brand, or things that you have strategically planned that your audience will enjoy. We can adjust these percentages, depending on the client, but it is a good rule of thumb. You are more likely to get engagement on your posts if they vary in type. It makes your sales pitch less likely to be tuned out by your audience.

20 percent self-promotion and 80 percent other content

 

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Factors Impacting Your Social Media Management Costs

Which major factors can cause social media management costs to go up (or down)?

Social Media costs go up and down as your social media needs change. There is no “one size fits all” approach. However, there are some factors that impact the social media costs to fluctuate. Being armed with the knowledge can help you plan and prepare strategically for times when you need the budget to fluctuate.

  • Strategy
  • Frequency of posting & engagement
  • Quality of posting
  • Scope of creative services (graphic design, video creation/editing, writing service)

 

1) Strategy

Before a social media campaign’s frequency, quality, and creative services can be determined, a strategy must be developed. How detailed should your social media strategy be? Social media strategies begin with determining the specific target audience, selecting the right platforms to reach that audience, and then defining the goals, how you will measure success, and actions are considered a conversion. These aspects can be as general or as highly detailed as you see fit, but they must both be in place to effectively determine your social media costs. In our experience, we believe the more detail in your strategy and plan, the better your execution will be, and the better you can control the social media costs in the future.

For our comprehensive guide to defining your target market, click here.
Goals, Measurements, Conversions – What are you looking to achieve with your social media campaign? Knowing your goals will help your social media team (whether they are in-house or an agency) put together a strategic plan to accomplish the goals. Some goals to consider are:
    • increasing followers to boost brand awareness and website traffic
    • engagements and interactions including comments, likes, shares, re-pins, lists, etc.
    • customer service and answering customer questions through social media messaging
    • lead generation through sign-ups, downloads, phone calls, brick-and-mortar visits, etc.
    • online sales

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How Much Does Social Media Management Cost?

Jemully Media - how much does social media cost

How much does social media management cost?

Naturally, the cost of hiring a social media manager to handle your company’s accounts will vary depending on whom you ask and where they are located. Here are a few things to keep in mind regarding how much social media management will cost when setting your budget.

What do you hope to accomplish with your social media presence?

Some businesses like to be active every day; lots of posts, and near-instantaneous responses to every customer or follower interaction. These are worthwhile, valuable goals. Yet, accounting for a few variables—not every company requires this level of activity, and not every company has enough time to devote to this level of activity—it is not always realistically attainable.Continue reading