Want More Social Media Connections? Then Put Your Email Database to Work!

23Feb

I am sure you have heard others talk about the importance of building a mailing list. Businesses just like yours have been amassing potential customer data for decades. If you have a sales department, it is likely that they have a lead list that includes names, postal addresses, phone numbers and email addresses so that they can engage prospects and translate them into sales.

If you have been gathering this information and saving it in a central place, well done and my hat’s off to you! If you are organizing all of this information for the first time, well, you will have a challenging time. Notice I used “challenging” instead of impossible…because it isn’t impossible in the least!

By centralizing your customer information, you will be able to market your business more effectively across the board and roll out a social media marketing campaign that is both effective and painless. As the members of your list are already engaged with your brand, you can easily add them to your social networks by using some simple functions on sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. You will not only be able to grow your connections, but also engage with your list members in a more enriching way.

To get started, open a blank spreadsheet. You can use a cloud-based customer resource management tool (CRM), but if you want to keep it easy, spreadsheets work fine.

Make three separate sheets in your spreadsheet and title them in the following order:

1. Prospects (leads who have not done business with you)

2. Current Clients (anyone who is currently doing business with you)

3. Past Clients (anyone who is no longer doing business with you)

I like to break down customers into these three separate sheets to keep a clear delineation amongst the data that I am trying to organize.

Next, set up three column headings on each sheet:

1. Company

2. Contact

3. Email

Now begin the compilation process. (This is the not-so-fun part. But think! This will help grow your business offline AND online!) Look for email addresses where they will be found most readily.

• Professional email accounts

• Personal email accounts (for any customer crossover)

• Trade magazines, newspapers, blogs, and websites

• Business cards

• Marketing collateral (pamphlets, brochures, etc.)

• Conference/event guides

• Association databases

Last, import the data to their corresponding sheets.

Once you have completed this process, you will have a nice, tidy batch of information that can be utilized for social media by simply following the instructions on each site, and that can be used for newsletter mailings and email marketing. The other great thing about this list is that you can also use it to locate people that you are looking for on social media.

For example, say that you are looking for a prospective customer whose name is John Smith on LinkedIn. Well, that could be a tricky name to search for on LinkedIn, as it is so common. But by having easy access to his email address, you can copy and paste that into the search and be able to find him more readily.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, as there are many ways to utilize your lists…and the opportunities will just continue to grow. Like I mentioned, preparing items for your social media marketing campaign will provide benefits to other aspects of your business marketing. Social media is the oil that makes the marketing

Video Marketing: Yes, You Can!

By Christopher Tompkins

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12Jan

Uncategorized, Video, YouTube

On a weekly basis, I sit down and consult with businesses who need help creating effective marketing strategies. I relish these face-to-face meetings as they focus on two of my most favorite topics: marketing and strategy. Something that I have noticed lately is the companies that I encounter have a growing interested in video, which excites me. Online influencers, including myself, have always touted the power of video in promoting your brand online. Your target market engages more with visuals than the written word, so it is an important aspect of the online marketing mix.

The scary part of this ride is not knowing how exactly to create the video without hiring a specialist. If you are fortunate enough to be a business with a large marketing budget, then I suggest hiring a professional. This will save you time, a very expensive asset in your day-to-day live.

But, not many companies have an endless marketing budget that provides enough capital to produce a professional video. So the answer is the create the video in-house, with your own team putting all the pieces together. But how will busy marketers find the time to create a cutting-edge promotional video?

The answer is to take it step-by-step, not all at once. Creating a video is a fluid process that you can take at your own speed. To help you do this, I want to share my own step-by-step process on how you can complete your first video!

Let’s get started:

*Invest in an inexpensive video camera that can controlled by remote control. Go Pro’s are great (albeit a little pricey) and have lots of easy applications and settings. But just a thought.
*Print a blog that you have written, or some marketing collateral with a good chunk of copy in it. Setup your camera and record yourself reading the copy directly to camera. Then review the video and check the following aspects:
*Lighting: is it too dark, too light, too grainy?
*Setting: is it appropriate, too busy as a background, too cavernous?
*Sound: can you understand what you are saying, is there a lot of ambient noise?
*Frame: do you like how the camera is situated in the shot, are you cutting off anything important, or leaving in too much?
*Once you have done this, do a few more practice runs, making adjustments to the A-D elements above.
*Now you should be at a point where you can create a script/outline for your video. The first video that you create should be an ABOUT video explaining your business.
*Once you create the script, read it aloud and ensure that it does not clock longer than 3 minutes. Remember your audience is exposed to LOTS of information and visuals, so keep it concise and engaging.
*Decide who will be featured in the video. Usually go with a highly visible and credible person in your organization (which sometimes is not the CEO).
*Use the guidelines that you created in #3 and do a few dry runs taping the person.
*Review these and make any further adjustments.
*Do the final taping.

Now that you have the raw video, you can use a program such as iMovie (which is an Apple program) or a Windows Movie Maker (for PCs) to format the video. The main formatting items that I would suggest that you add to your promotional video are:

*Titles at the beginning: possibly company logo and slogan

*Titles at the bottom to introduce the speaker (or speakers)

*Call to action at the end with contact numbers and logo again

What is great about the video editing programs is that you can learn them easily (believe it or not) and you can create a wonderful video in no time. Also, to make you feel a little less overwhelmed, there are templates in these programs that you can apply to your video, thus enabling you to brand and edit it much easier.

My top tip here? Relax! This is your first trial, so it is going to take the most time. Once you nail the format, just imagine how easy it will be to create ones in the future. Generally I find that once I teach someone how to do this process, the first one takes a bit of time, but the second video takes about 60% less time.

Want to Make a Splash on Social Media? Here’s Where You Start!

By Christopher Tompkins

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12Jan

Social Media, Uncategorized

As someone who specializes in the online marketing arena, I meet and chat with people everyday who are interested in using social media to market their business. Not a big surprise right? But what you might be surprised to learn, is many of these medium-to-large firms have a major problem: they don’t know how to start.

While social media marketing advice can be found on every corner of the internet, most of it doesn’t address this problem or offer ways to enhance or “reinvigorate” an existing campaign.

So in this blog I want to push aside the “Go Get ‘Em Tiger”s and technical mumbo jumbo and provide you with a fool proof step-by-step 101 list to get your social media marketing campaign underway in no time flat!

Let’s dive right in:

Step 1: Write Down Your Objectives

The first thing you’ll want to do is really identify what you are trying to achieve through using social media to market your company. Keep in mind that more leads is not your only goal. Think about possible objectives such as; engaging your current customers/clients, offering better customer service, building brand recognition, getting more local exposure….these are the types of objectives that you should be looking at.

Step 2: Know Who Your Target Market Is

A social media marketing campaign that is laser focused has the ability to reap better results than a broad shoot campaign. You don’t want to waste time here wading through unqualified leads….you want the real deal. Make a list of 5-10 target markets that you want to hit and keep it handy throughout your campaign. Having this list will help you keep your “eye on the prize”.

Step 3: Look at What Your Competition is Doing on Social Media

Many of us do a competitive analysis when we put together our marketing plan….so why don’t we do one when we are developing our social media marketing strategy? Usually the easiest way to begin this exercise is to go to their website and follow their social media links from there. If you can’t find the links there, login to sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter and search for their company name. When you find them, see what they are doing and if it is successful. Are they getting lots of comments? Do they use lots of graphics and design elements? Are they posting often? Taking a look at these items can even give you good solid ideas of what you need to do…and what you don’t need to.

Step 4: What Are You Going to Say?

This is one of the trickiest things to come by as many organizations don’t have a wealth of available info to share. If your company does – the battle is nearly over! If not, it has just begun. Make sure that you are able to come up with content that is timely, engaging, entertaining, thought provoking and educational…or one of those 5. Also, think out of the box! If I was a healthcare organization, I would go to the website for the medical association that is within my niche and share some of their updates and tips, as they would be relevant and interesting to my audience. Sharing is caring….not stealing! But content is king folks.

Step 5: Choose Your Sites

Once Steps 1 thru 5 are complete, it is time to choose the social media sites you want to start using in your marketing campaign. Every business is different and some will find success quicker on one site than the next. There isn’t a hard/fast rule on this (while many say there is). All of the sites are constantly evolving and making it easier for businesses to get involved everyday. The playing field has changed greatly over the past years (and even months!) and there is a spot for everyone on all of the social media sites out there.

Step 6: Find a Good Support Site

Search and find a site to help you manage your accounts. There are free sites out there such as HootSuite, TweetDeck, SocialOomph and others that allow you to track, search and even schedule profile updates on the fly. When you create your plan, these sites will make it a little easier for you to manage your overall campaign.

Step 7: Create a Daily Plan to Ensure Consistency

Plans save time and money and ensure consistency, which is key in a successful social media marketing campaign. Your daily plan should contain a combination of Steps 1-6 and have daily time constraints attached. Also make sure that you identify who will be the touchpoint for the communications that you get as a result of the campaign. For example if you have a marketing team of 5, decide beforehand who will be in charge of delegation and qualification of the leads, information requests, comments, etc.

Step 8: Create a Form of Measurement

This is tricky, so I would suggest waiting until after your first month of social media marketing. At this point you will be able to see what sorts of results come in: website hits, likes, comments, messages, leads, etc. Once you get a handle on this, you will begin to understand what gives you the best results. Create a quick spreadsheet and track these measures on a weekly basis. As all of the sites have wonderful archives, it makes it a cinch to go back through the week’s activity to find what you need. If you are going to use your website to track effectiveness, make sure that you have an analytics program installed that can monitor where your traffic comes from. If you don’t, Google Analytics is a free and easy option to use (and the results are tracked wonderfully).

And you are on your way! The best part about social media marketing is that it is an organic process that can change from time to time. Don’t forget to audit your campaign monthly to see if any of your measures or activities need changing or updating. Staying consistent, organized and informed will help you not only launch effectively, but promote your brand successfully.
“I Just Don’t Have Time!” Yes You Do – Try This….

There is nothing worse than getting into the office and immediately feeling two days behind. Go on, admit it…you have felt like this more often than not.

Is it because you are ineffective at your job? Nope.

Is it because you have no time to get anything done? Nope.

Is it because you don’t have a daily marketing plan? Bingo!

Whenever I speak about marketing plans (either online, to potential clients, or while speaking at events) eyes begin to glaze over. So please stick with me on this. I’m not going to talk to you about building the perfect marketing plan – I’m going to talk about how to build your perfect daily attack plan.

I’m going to assume here that you are currently using various marketing tools, and that your goals are crystal clear as to what your company’s goals are.

So, let’s move on to the plan.

First, grab a piece of paper and write down the days of the week that you work (if you are closed/don’t work Sat/Sun, leave these out). We want to focus on the “active” days of your week.

On another sheet of paper, write down everything that you are currently doing to market your business. For example, your list could look like this:

Facebook Marketing

Twitter Marketing

LinkedIn Marketing

Email Blasts

Trade Advertising

Google AdWords

Link Building

Blog Writing

Press Release Writing

Now, we step it up. Decide which needs to happen for each of these activities on a daily or weekly basis. If you are doing link building, this is something that happens everyday. So it needs to be listed every day of the week – but also with the EXACT actions that you need to take. Maybe your link building strategy is 100% built around blog comments. If so, then your daily activity would be “Link Building: comment on 5 relevant industry blogs”. Simple as that!

Then add the rest. If you are on Facebook, maybe you have to post an update, reply to comments, and engage with 3 new pages. Add this to the list. And so on.

My top tip is to pin point exactly what you want to do for each item that you have listed – per day or per week. This will help you get through these tasks quickly without having to constantly remember what you have to get done on a given day. This way, if your day goes south as soon as you turn on your computer, you can motor through this list later in the day when you finish putting out fires.

And it works! I have instituted this for my staff (as well as myself) and it does save lots of time AND it can grow organically. For example, Pinterest is a new site that just popped up and now it has been added to our daily marketing schedule with tasks associated with it each day.

I say give it a try! There is no risk when it comes to getting organized and saving precious time.

What’s Right and Wrong? Instagram Do’s and Dont’s

By Christopher Tompkins

12Jan

Instagram, Uncategorized

There is nothing worse than using a new marketing tool to reach more members of your target audience with your message…and then suddenly finding out that you have been barking up the wrong tree the whole time.

As so many of us are new to the game of Instagram for business marketing, there definitely is a learning curve. But add to this the fact that many of us are ALSO new to the game of visual storytelling – and you will see the learning curve get MUCH steeper.

In the interest of helping all of us make better marketing decisions on Instagram, I want to kick off by sharing a quick list of things that you should avoid at all costs on Instagram.

So here we go!

DON’T upload pictures of others (without their permission or tagging)
DON’T randomly like endless pictures of others to try to get visibility
DON’T have massive gaps in your posting times (days, weeks, months)
DON’T forget to respond to those who have commented or sent you a message
DON’T excessively use hashtags
DON’T be negative
DON’T get off message, and post random images that don’t make sense in your feed
DON’T only sell, or promote yourself, your company, and/or your products/services
DON’T use only photos, use videos too

So now that we know what to avoid…bring on what we SHOULD be doing!

DO share your tips, insights and knowledge with others
DO show off new products and services
DO show people using your products and services
DO communicate benefits of your product/service clearly
DO use Instagram advertising to reach a larger audience
DO create and execute contests to increase engagement
DO use the design tools Instagram provides to enhance your visuals

And this list could go on! We’ll stop there for now. Now grab your phone, tap on your Instagram application and get started!

10 Ways to Get More Facebook Leads, Referrals and Visibility

By Christopher Tompkins

12Jan

Facebook, Uncategorized

Its not too surprising to hear that Facebook, while known as one of the most popular social media sites for marketers to use, is still one of the most mysterious and difficult to use to market your business.

How do I know this?

When I am teaching, speaking or consulting – Facebook is always, and I mean always, the subject of the most questions:

How do I get more leads?
Why don’t I get more engagement?
Why doesn’t anyone like my content?
Who creates the cover image for you?
What is Facebook Advertising?

And the questions go on!

So, with that in mind, I thought it would be helpful for me to share my 10 tips to getting more leads, referrals and visibility on Facebook. Let’s go!

*Make Sure to Set Up Your Page Properly: In order to do this you must choose the right category and the right subcategories for your page. This helps your audience find you through searches. Also a must in this tip is filling out all of your page information and making sure your page settings are maximized to get you the exposure you need!

*Optimizing Your Visuals: Here are some useful numbers you should be using to create hi-resolution and beautiful Facebook Images: COVER IMAGE: 851 x 315 pixels, PROFILE IMAGE: 180 x 180 pixels, SHARED IMAGES: 1200 x 630 pixels

*Call to Action Button: This lives in the bottom right hand corner of your Facebook Page cover image. Simply click and set it up using the options available. This is a great way to get more click-throughs to your website or get more people to claim your promotional offer.

*The Power of Video: With Facebook video on the rise (at a rate of 758% year on year…yes that is the rate, no typo), you need to be using video to increase engagement. Remember to upload your video directly to Facebook rather than using a link: this will increase your visibility by leaps and bounds.

*Facebook Advertising: With ad clicks on the increase at the rate of 70% year over year and ad click-through rates increasing 160% – it is time to consider adding Facebook advertising to your strategy! There are more than 2 million active advertisers on Facebook, proof that this is not a passing fad.

*Optimizing Your Tabs: Your tabs can support your page to no end. Make sure to choose and format your tags, choose the best order for them, and use sites like Woo-box to customize them to fit your brand and to promote click throughs to your website.

*Optimize Your Posts: Writing posts is just half the battle. Optimizing them to be found in searches by your audience is even better. Some extra tips: shorter posts receive 60% higher engagement, use keywords, create quizzes and contests, and don’t forget your visuals!

*Post at the Right Time: Did you know that 75% of a post’s total engagement will happen within its first 5 hours?! Track the time when your audience is using Facebook the most and post then! Highest traffic occurs mid-week between 1 and 3 pm. On Thursdays and Fridays (especially during the Friday afternoon slump), engagement is 18% higher.

*Integrate it Into Your Website: If you do not have a button on your website that links to your Facebook Page – you need to get that on your site NOW! This connectivity will get you more likes and engagement using the website traffic that you are getting already. An untapped resource. Top Tip: don’t bury it at the end of your page. Put it right at the top so that it is easy to see.

*Consistency: I know you may be getting tired of me saying this, but consistency is the key and a common mistake that marketers make. Create a content strategy and schedule and stick to it!

These are tips that will work for you right now, but remember that Facebook is a constantly evolving medium that you need to stay on top of. There will be constant changes to your page layout, how your content is ranked and delivered, and how you are able to manage the page. Stay on top of trends and updates, but also implement them. The key to Facebook success is being able to ride the wave of change and innovate along the way.

The Reason for the Season? Last Minute Tips to Boost Your Facebook Success During the Holidays

By Christopher Tompkins

6Nov

Facebook, Uncategorized

Unless you have been living under a rock, you know that the holiday season marketing machine is in full swing. Come on, let’s think about it: Christmas trees have been available in stores since September!

While mega brands are dumping most of their advertising and marketing dollars into selling you the latest must-have gadget, toy, foodstuff, or service – smaller brands and companies think, “ It’s too late now, we missed the boat!”

If that sounds like you, snap out of it!

When it comes to your Facebook marketing, you are NOT too late to throw your hat into the holiday marketing ring. But….you do need to act fast!

Here are some quick ideas that you can apply to your Facebook strategy that will help you to enhance your holiday marketshare:

1. Create a Seasonal Offer: Whether it is a special discount, special package, or a limited time product offer – you need something that is going to pique your audience’s interest in relationship to the season taking place around them. Ensure that your offer is not only attractive enough to your target audience, but that you have created enough urgency around it to force your consumers’ hand to decide and act.

2. Facebook Advertising: One of the best ways to bring more attention to your range of products and services on Facebook is to advertise. There are many options available on the Facebook Advertising platform that you can use to drive traffic to your site, help people claim your special offer, build awareness, boost posts, and much more. With a minimal budget set to run up to Christmas, you will be able to maximize your exposure to your target audience. Play with your budget and timings and remember to track your results!
3. Seasonal Branding: A big mis-step that companies who are looking to do a focused holiday campaign make is not adding seasonal branding to their Facebook Cover Image. Within reason and within the confines of your own branding, add seasonal imagery, show your special offer or package, and give deadline specific information. Be creative!

4. Themed Posts: Make sure your content strategy supports your discount…and make it fun! Run contests, post quizzes, and get your audience interested in engaging. The more engaged your audience is with your content, the more that your Facebook Page content will be served up to them in the future. If no one is engaging – odds are that no one is seeing your content at all.

5. Use Video: Don’t ignore the fact that videos are among the most viewed content on Facebook. You need to create your own video, upload it to Facebook, and enjoy the exposure! When it comes to exposure, video can add over 65% more engagement.

When it comes to Facebook, coming a little late to the holiday marketing game is not a problem. Just make sure that you use the 5 tips above, track your effectiveness and make changes as needed. You will need consistency and a close analytical eye to truly reap the most benefits during the holiday season. Seasons greetings everyone! Hope this holiday season is a winner for you and your business!

Seasonal Success with Instagram: 5 Things You Need to Do Now

By Christopher Tompkins

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1Nov

Instagram, Uncategorized

There is no doubt that the holiday season is a highly visual time of year. The turkey on the Thanksgiving table. The Christmas Tree. The twinkling lights on the Menorah. The decorated, snow covered houses. It can actually be said that the holiday season is a full on assault to your senses: from sights, sounds, to smells, and beyond.

One thing that all of these senses deliver when it comes to the holidays: emotion.

Emotion is one of the key things that marketers far and wide want to evoke in their target audience of consumers. Emotion helps fuel the buying decision substantially.

In the ever growing visual landscape, Instagram has really planted its flag as a viable marketing channel for businesses to tell their visual story. And if you want to start telling YOUR company’s visual story, the holidays are one of the best times to do it, or to start doing it!

Why?

To be honest, there is a lower barrier to entry in terms of coming up with ideas. Seasonal imagery and ideas can be very simple to come by, especially due to the “over-the-top” nature of our social landscape. You can’t turn around without being assaulted with holiday imagery, songs, products, and services, right?

But why aren’t you in this fray? Why are you not trying to expand your holiday sales?

I want you to try out Instagram this holiday season and see how you can enhance your holiday business returns! Here are my five tips that will help you enhance your exposure, website traffic, and leads via Instagram:

1. Get Special: When doing any holiday marketing, it is good to have something exclusive or “special” to offer your audience that you can deadline to create urgency. Make sure the special is attractive to your audience (basically, it is something that they want) and also be able to tie it into the holiday season in a straight-forward way. Make sure this special is linked to all of your posts.

2. Formulate Your Schedule and Timeline: There is nothing worse than a random, unorganized plan of action. Decide how many posts that you are going to be sharing per week, and when the best time is to share them (in order to get the most engagement and views). Make sure all of these posts (pictures and video) have the holiday angle. Make them fun, punchy and SHAREABLE!

3. Themed Posts: Make sure your content strategy supports your holiday package…but make it fun! Run contests, post funny quotes, run quizzes on holiday song lyrics – just get your audience interested in engaging with your special content. Remember, posts on Instagram can enjoy up to 15% or more engagement over a Facebook Page post – so the more the merrier, so to speak.

4. Use Video: Instagram video is lots of fun and is a firm user favorite – so use it! Social media video is always an engagement winner, enjoying over 65% more engagement than a written post. Make sure to showcase your special, tie your contests into the video, and have some seasonal fun!

5. Use Specific Hashtags: You can definitely come up with a hashtag for your special (the best is to use your coupon code if you have one), but also use hashtags that are well used in your niche to promote holiday deals, sales, or offers. Do a little digging and come up with a list of approved hashtags that can be used on all of your posts. This will help enhance your exposure.

My last tip? Get started today and have fun! Instagram is a creative outlet for your company and really allows you to tell a whole different side to your company’s story. The visual storytelling ability on Instagram will benefit your business to no end, so why not get started today and enjoy more engagement, leads, and sales during the holiday season!

LinkedIn: 10 Steps to Creating an Impressive and Engaging Professional Profile

By Christopher Tompkins

5Oct

LinkedIn, Social Media, Uncategorized

Would you consider your professional profile maximized on LinkedIn?

If you hesitated, then the odds are that there may be some room for improvement.

When it comes to having a fully maximized profile on LinkedIn, there are many areas where your focused improvements can really make a difference. I’ve spoken to countless people who were firm believers that their LinkedIn profiles were built to deliver results.

And then I took a look through them. Let’s just say their profiles left a lot to be desired.

By just signing up for a LinkedIn account, copying your resume points, and adding a picture – you are not putting your best foot forward. In order to create a profile built for success, you need to really illustrate your value and credibility to your target audience.

How you may ask? Here are 10 quick changes that will help take your LinkedIn profile from a starter to a winner in no time:

1. Headshot: Ok, this seems SUPER elementary – but does your picture actually look like you? Have you ever met someone offline that doesn’t match what they actually look like? Doesn’t really help their credibility right? Use a shot that looks like you!

2. Keywords: Before you start working on your LinkedIn account, pull out the list of keywords that people use to find you online. If you don’t have one of these, make sure to take the time to put it together. Once you do, use these keywords liberally (within reason of course) through your ENTIRE LinkedIn profile.

3. Your Professional Headline: Underneath your name you have the ability to create a wonderful and engaging headline for yourself….so why not. For example here’s mine, “CEO of The Go! Agency, Founder of The Social Marketing Academy, Author of “The Go Method.” You can do the same. Use this real estate to your advantage.

4. Location: Make sure that the location that is mentioned in your profile is most suitable to where you do business. So if I was based in Orlando but did 100% of my business in Tampa – I might consider using Tampa as my location. Also, if you have moved and never updated this, it is a big no-no. This is another way people find you on LinkedIn!

5. Add Some Posts: You can easily add some Posts from the homepage of LinkedIn. These will show up directly underneath your Professional Profile header and will allow you to illustrate your expertise to a wide network of possible customers/clients.

6. Summary: Does your summary sound like you? Is it in first person? These are things that I strongly suggest. If I wrote my summary in such a way that I said “Christopher Tompkins is the CEO of The Go! Agency” versus “I am the CEO of The Go! Agency”….you can see the difference. You want people to engage with you – so don’t sound like a company bio from a corporate website, add a personal touch.

7. Add Files to Summary: Make your profile come alive by adding pdfs, links, and much more to your website. This way you can showcase your work in a whole new fashion. Well worth the time and will really look impressive to those who use your profile.

8. Bring Your Experience to Life Visually: There is nothing better than seeing visuals attached to the company that you have worked in. And LinkedIn wants to empower you to do this! So you can add Documents, Photos, Links, Videos, and Presentations to your experience to really shine!

9. Testimonials: If you are not getting testimonials to add to your experience you are missing out on POWERFUL third-party endorsements that will really make you look like the expert you are. Don’t hesitate to ask and follow up on these.

10. Fill in Everything: I know, I know – there are a lot of sections that may not pertain to you. But fill in every section until it is either maxed out, or it ABSOLUTELY does not apply to you. Think outside of the box – you might just be able to fill out more sections than you had originally thought!

My best tip I have left until last … DON’T NEGLECT. And by this I mean, don’t complete your profile once and then never go back again. There are so many variables in life and these always need to be reflected in your profile. Win an award? Add it to your profile. New brochure? Add it to your profile. New company video? Add it to your profile. Promotion? Add it to your profile.

Start off with these tips and you will be on your way to creating a winning LinkedIn profile that gets more views!

The Value of Ongoing Social Media Marketing Education

By Christopher Tompkins

22Sep

Email Marketing, Facebook, Google+, Healthcare Marketing, LinkedIn, Marketing, Pinterest, Social Media, Twitter, Uncategorized, Video, YouTube

Lifelong learning is not necessarily a new trend. As a business owner, marketer, sales person, whomever – in this fast moving world, it is impossible to survive unless you are able to be malleable and learn new things on a regular basis.

But little did they realize that within ten minutes of putting down that book or jumping into the car to ride back to the office after the event, that the information they had just learned was outdated.

Over the past 7 years of working in the social media space, I have seen hundreds (if not more) of people fall into this trap of “learning it once, and done.” They hit the social media information circuit hard for a month, and then vanish for life – utilizing all of the tips that they gleaned in that one month of information gathering.

I hate to tell you folks, but if you want to be successful with social media marketing, you need to be constantly evolving your skills and organically changing your approach on a weekly (if not more frequent) basis.

This is why I am a huge proponent of ongoing social media marketing education. So much so that I actually created an online social media marketing school (The Social Marketing Academy) where students can log in and learn more about whatever topic they are interested in the most. On-demand. When they learn best. With the wonderful response to that, I expanded it to include in person workshops and bootcamps.

From this time I have spent with the students at The Social Marketing Academy I have truly seen a difference in how they approach their social media marketing, due to their exposure to ongoing education.

Whether you are a student of The Social Marketing Academy or not, there are ways for you to constantly stay abreast of the changes and advances that are constantly being made to market your business more effectively.

By focusing on constantly developing your social media marketing knowledge you can expect the following benefits overall:

I find this attitude applicable to how a business views social media marketing. I’ve come across so many entrepreneurs, CEOs, CFOs, marketing, and sales professionals who have gone to one social media seminar or read one social media marketing-themed book and thought they had the game down pat.
But little did they realize that within ten minutes of putting down that book or jumping into the car to ride back to the office after the event, that the information they had just learned was outdated.

By focusing on constantly developing your social media marketing knowledge you can expect the following benefits overall:

*Being Ahead of the Pack: There is nothing worse than logging into your Facebook Business Page and finding out that all of the image sizes have changed, resulting in your page looking ridiculous. Or how about finding out about the secret time saver on LinkedIn that no one is using…too late so that it is no longer effective. Keeping abreast of social media advances will keep you in a proactive mode, rather than a reactive – which is not ideal for social media marketing success.

*Competitive: Allowing your competitors to being privy to effective social media information before yourself is doing your business a massive disservice. This is public information, that when you stay on-top of it you can implement it quickly. And sometimes with these tools or tactics, the first-adapters get the highest return.

*More Control: By having a clear understanding on an ongoing basis, you will have more control over the design and execution of your campaign. You will know what to anticipate, how to implement it, and how to organically change your campaign for success.

*Tools and Metrics: As a lifelong social media learner you will get access to major time-saving or cost-saving tools that will help you take your social media campaign to the next level. Ever heard someone talking about a tool that they use that you never have heard of? If you are ignoring the social media news, it could have been around for years…and you could have been using it. Some tools can save hours a week!

*Reporting: You will also be able to fine tune your objectives to be more aligned with what each site can really offer your business. With this knowledge you will be able to set more realistic objectives, measurements, and report on your results in a more informed manner.

And this is just scratching the surface. I urge you to take this to heart, especially if you dip in and out of following social media trends. Put some time aside every week to learn something new, check in on the trends, and check in with what your competition is doing.

If you need some help, I proudly suggest that you check out The Social Marketing Academy. It is a great tool to help you stay on top of social media education and trends. Also, what sets us apart from other educational institutions is that we develop the courses that you suggest. Our curriculum is based on what YOU want to learn about. So get started today – click the following link, learn more, and enroll today: http://www.thesocialmarketingacademy.com

The 6 Step Facebook Advertising Formula: The Fast Track to Facebook Engagement

By Christopher Tompkins

8Sep

Facebook, Social Media, Uncategorized

Facebook Advertising has really exploded over the past few months in terms of visibility. Now it seems that you can’t even make a post to your Facebook Page without being asked if you would like to “Boost” it or promote it in some way, shape, or fashion using Facebook Advertising.

While you may be thinking – enough Facebook – what I would suggest is that you overcome this adverse reaction to advertising on social media and begin to embrace it. Once you are able to just understand the hard fact that advertising is something that is a crucial aspect of your overall campaign, the more successful you will become on Facebook.

One of the biggest barriers to entry for any online advertising model is the ease of use. Once we veer off the usual path (profiles and timelines) and go into the weird wild world of Facebook Advertising many people instantly get a bit scattered. I understand. But this is part of the learning curve.

This curve has recently been flattened a bit as Facebook has made their advertising interface VERY friendly and easy to use. So if you are interested in advertising on Facebook, here is the 6 Step Formula that you need to follow to quickly and effectively setup your ads.

Step 1: Choose Your Objective
I’ve written about Facebook Advertising Objectives before. There are 10 choices that offer you different paths down the advertising setup model. Which ever you choose, you will still have to complete the following steps. In this step, decide what you want your Facebook Advertisement to do!

Step 2: Who Do You Want Your Ads to Reach?
Now let’s get down to demographics. WOW is all I have to say. Facebook allows you to go as niche or as broad as you would like to. But to move through this step quickly you will need to know the following:
*Geographic location you want to target
*Age
*Gender
*Languages
*Interests of your target audience for the advertisement
*Behaviors of your target audience for the advertisement
*FB Connections you would like to include/exclude

Step 3: Budget
Now you need to setup how much you want to spend. If this is your first add I always suggest a Lifetime Budget of $50 for a 2 week or 1 month period. This way you can monitor your success closely in a more manageable way.

Step 4: Scheduling
When do you want your ads to run? All the time? Perhaps you have done research and found when your target audience is on Facebook the most. Then you can customize your ad schedule so that your ads only run at those times.

Step 5: Visuals
Facebook gives you the opportunity of adding 6 different pictures to your advertisement. I would suggest having these ready to go before even starting your Facebook Advertising journey. Just remember that images with text that takes up more than 20% of the image may not be approved. So be careful with text in your ad!

Step 6: Adding Text
This is where you can add your call to action for your Facebook Advertisement. Depending on what your target is, you get the opportunity to say more or less. At the low end you have to make your impact in around 90 characters or so, thus you need to be crafty in creating your ad copy.

And there you go! You click “Place Order” and your ad will be sent to the Facebook Advertising review board who will then approve or deny your ad. If denied, you will be notified why and given an opportunity to go in and make edits, not start all over (which is handy).

My tip here is that the more in-tune you are with your marketing strategy and your target audience, the easier this whole process will be. Otherwise there will be lots of guess work for you to complete. So look at the list above and come up with your ideas for each point and THEN log into Facebook and start setting up your brand new Facebook Advertisement!

Tag : social media marketing