Feature Your Brand on LinkedIn with a Company Page: Here’s How!

15Aug

If you have been using LinkedIn as a networking tool for yourself, you understand how wonderful it can be in helping you connect with hard to reach people while gaining lots of visibility and credibility for your company.

Another great way to promote your business and extend your reach on LinkedIn is to create a Company Page. While they have been around for awhile, there have been many enhancements over the past year that have made these an eye-catching spot to showcase your brand on LinkedIn.

But, how do you do it? Here are the quick steps that you need to know to get setup in under an hour!

After you have logged into LinkedIn, Click on the “Companies” tab from the top menu.
On the main companies page, if you look to the top right hand side of the page you will see “Add a Company”. Click this.
Now you will see the “Add a Company” page where you will need to verify the company and your involvement with it. So add your company name (as you would like it to be found in searches) and your email address at the company. If you have multiple email addresses that you use for work, use the one that contains the domain of your website. For example, I would use christopher@http://citsprojects.in/clientprojects/thegoagencyusa as our website is http://citsprojects.in/clientprojects/thegoagencyusa. Once you have done this, click “Continue”.
Now LinkedIn will send you a verification email that you will need for the next step. Check your email and when it comes through, click on the link to verify and create the page.
Once you do this, you will be taken to your main Company Page – but it will be blank. This is where you start. If the screen is not in editing mode, click the “Edit” button on the right. A rule of thumb is that if you want to add, remove, or edit any information on your company page, click the “Edit” button. The “Publish” button is the equivalent of “Save” and will publish your information when you have completed editing.
First, choose the language you want to optimize your Company Page for.
Then make sure your company name is correct and how you would like it to appear.
Now it is onto the “Company Description”. Think of this as the “About” section of your website. If you have an About page on your website, I would simply cut and paste it, and then make any edits for keywords and space.
Next move onto the “Designated Admins” section. This will be the list of people who are able to edit this page. So if you have more than one person editing the page, simply type their name in the space provided and they will pop up. Select them and they will be added.
Next, the “Image”. This will be the splash image that will be displayed on your LinkedIn Company Page. Make it eye catching and keep it to 646 x 220 pixels and no more the 2 MB in size. To add the image, click “Edit” then “Browse” (choose your photo from your computer) and “Upload”. After a few seconds your image will appear and you can crop it if necessary. If you like what you see, click “Save”.
Now you will have to edit your “Standard Logo”. This will be a rectangular representation of your company logo. This will be highly visible, so make sure that it is a hi-resolution and looks sharp! Your logo need to be 100 x 60 pixels and a maximum size of 2 MB. To add your logo, repeat the instructions from step 10.
Next is your “Square Logo”. This will be 50 x 50 pixels and a maximum size of 2 MB. Again, repeat the instructions from step 10 to add.
Now onto your “Company Specialties”. You will need to key in your key service offerings, specialty areas of focus and unique keywords. For example, for The Go! Agency will have “Social Media Marketing, Website Design, SEO, Custom Copywriting” as ours. If you have more than 4 specialties that you would like to add, click the “Add more specialties” button and more spaces will appear.
The last fill in section on the left hand column is for “Featured Groups”. These are for groups that you have either created, are an admin for, or are a member of. To find the groups you would like to feature, simply add the name in the space provided and select.
Now onto the easy side, the right column. You will need to fill out all of the basic information about your company, including: Company Type, Company Size, Company Website URL, Main Company Industry, Company Operating Status, Year Founded, Locations and Contact Information. This is all very straight-forward, so take your time and fill in everything completely in order to properly represent your company to the millions of members of LinkedIn.
Once you have completed the left and right column, click the “Publish” button on the top right hand of the page.

And there you go! You have just created your first LinkedIn Company Page! In our next post I will take you through how to add featured products and services to your Company Page to increase your ability to showcase your brand on LinkedIn.

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Google+: Do I Need a Personal Profile or a Page?

By Christopher Tompkins

14Aug

Google+, Marketing, Social Media, Uncategorized

Since its inception at the end of 2011, Google+ has continued to grow and continues to define itself as a major player in the social media marketing arena.

But did you know that aside from a personal profile, your businesses also has the opportunity to throw its hat in the ring with Google+ Pages?

While to some it may seem straight-forward how to use Google+ Pages for business, many are confused as to how to set up brand marketing on the site. The main question: If I am marketing my business in Google+, do I use a Google+ Profile or a Google+ Page?

First off – when you are thinking about Google+, put on your LinkedIn hat. The best way to get the most out of your time on any social site is to follow the guidelines that are presented when you sign up. If they are asking for your first and last name – its a personal profile. If they are asking for your business name and website – it’s a Google+ Page. Pretty straight-forward right?

Here’s a little curve ball for ya…in order to create a Google+ Page, a personal profile must be presented. Yikes! What do I do now?

First, don’t worry. Like I said before, think of your Google+ Profile as you would your LinkedIn profile. You can list your interests, achievements, work and educational history, as well as social media links and lots more. Update your profile and interact on Google+ as if you were on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter in a professional way.

Now on to your Google+ Page! This is pretty much a similar format to your Facebook Page, Company Twitter or LinkedIn Company Profile. Here, updates will be in your brand’s voice and carry information that your company wants to share to engage your audience.

So to keep it short and simple, use both profiles to market yourself and your business on Google+, as this will give you two areas of coverage. Not interested in having your personal details connected? Keep your personal profile sparse. I think it is best to fill everything in, but everyone is different. Here’s one way to look at it; The internet is a pretty open place, you can find out just about everything and anything about someone – so rather than hide behind your business, be transparent! Although there may be some good reasons that one may not want to be the spokesperson for the company’s Google+ or LinkedIn page, the trick here is in how you manage your privacy settings, and what content you put online.

Top Tip: The best part of the profiles on Google+ is that they allow you to come up high in Google searches for your name or company name. This also holds true for keywords, so I would make sure to pack your profiles with powerful keywords that you would like to be associated with!

Once you have yourself setup – dive in! The conversations are lively and you will be able to connect with lots of interesting people and drive brand awareness like never before.

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Is Your Company Making These Social Media Mistakes?

By Christopher Tompkins

13Aug

Marketing, Social Media, Uncategorized

With all of the information out there about social media, it is tough to know what to pay attention to and what to take with a grain of salt. Yet even with all of this information, we all still make our fair share of mistakes when executing our social media marketing campaigns.

As an owner of an agency that specializes in social media marketing, everyday I speak with people who are trying to make the most out of their Facebook and LinkedIn profile, or making their “tweets” count on Twitter. The following are a few of the most common mistakes that I have seen companies make on social media and what we can do to combat them in the future.

Mistake #1: Lack of Research on the Platform

This is a very important one. With all of the hype around social media (and also due to the fact that creating accounts is free and easy), many of us are eager to just jump in head first. Keep in mind that social media is a branding and visibility platform and thus needs to carry the right messaging and voice. Before you go full speed ahead, first see what you are getting yourself into.

I suggest creating a sparse profile and taking the time to look through each site. Where is your target market? What is your competition doing right (which can really help you come up with a strategy)? What applications can be useful? How are people communicating? What tools to I have to communicate with my market? While Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter can work to everyone’s advantage, if you only have time to manage one or two presences, it is best to be able to pinpoint the right ones and save yourself time and effort.

Top tip: a great way of seeing what sites suit your business is by asking your existing audience via polling.

Mistake #2: Lack of Focus

When you execute an advertising campaign, you know who you are targeting. When you do a public relations campaign, you know what market you are trying to reach out to. When you do an email marketing campaign….well, you get the point. Social media is no different.

Social media allows us to target with laser focus, you just need to identify who you are trying to reach. Once identified, the key is to connect with “meaningful people” not just random people to get “the numbers.” Come on, why connect with 10,000 people who don’t care about you? What good does that do? Find connect and engage with people that matter. Focus!

Mistake #3: Lack of Consistency

If you are going to do social media, make sure to do it on a consistent basis – not whenever you can grab a free second. By consistent I mean daily, weekly, bi-weekly…on some sort of schedule. Since you are growing your audience, you need to be in front of them gaining that visibility and credibility consistently. My tip? Create a schedule of when you will be executing social media and what messages you will be highlighting. It takes a few minutes, but can save hours of weekly work.

No time to even make a plan? Outsource! It’s not a dirty word anymore.

Mistake #4: Using a 100% Push Marketing Approach

Push strategies are used often in traditional marketing. While it is a perfect fit in many instances, it is not the foundation of an engaging social media strategy. Push marketing literally “pushes” what you want from your audience directly on top of them, while “pull” marketing using social media is about starting a conversation, engaging, enchanting and much more. My suggestion is to use a 90% pull and a 10% push marketing equation. This is something that I have used and it works a treat. This way you can grow your audience and create value before offering up a special discount. If they believe you to be credible through your pull approach, when you incorporate the push elements you will have higher levels of success.

Mistake #5: Wrong Goals

Truly look at what you are trying to achieve, and “more sales” is not enough. Social media has many outcomes, so it is smart to have a broader scope. Think in terms of hits to your website, newsletter signups, ebook/book sales/downloads….this is the way to go!

Mistake #6: Lack of Planning

Again, I am going back to the importance of a plan: without a plan, you plan to fail. Although we know this cliche all too well, there is definitely truth to it. Why? Because a strategic plan saves you time and money – two things that we all can use, right?

Sit down and figure out your marketing strategy and then layer your social media strategy on-top. Social media can support and enhance everything you do, you just have to keep the two connected. Without the connection, you are wasting the power of cross marketing and branding. Flying blindly in a new marketing medium could not only be risky for your reputation, but also cause you more trouble than you can handle.

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I hope that these mistakes are ones that you have not made and if you have, you will no longer make. It is important for us to all to take a close look at our plans and strategies in order to see how strong and effective they can be. Without strategy or planning, a social media marketing campaign takes a lot more time and a lot more effort to execute.

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Healthcare Social Media: 20 of the Best Healthcare Marketing Websites

By Christopher Tompkins

9Aug

Healthcare Marketing, Marketing, Social Media, Uncategorized

The healthcare industry is one that The Go! Agency works with extensively. All areas of this field – from recruiting, hospital groups, medical facilities and clinics, to individual physicians and practitioners – are waking up to the power of social media marketing. With the Age Wave and Baby Boomers demanding better, cutting edge, state of the art care – their ways of learning, communicating with their practitioners, and telling their friends about that care will advance too…and social media is the vehicle!

As we are always ones to keep up with the latest and greatest in marketing for all business segments, we have been compiling a list of resources to use to keep up to date with all the trends.

I shared this list with a healthcare client of mine and they went through the roof and suggested that we share it with all of you. As you can guess – I loved the idea!

So below is a list of all of (my) favorite healthcare and medical marketing websites and blogs that have the sharpest and most informative content to help those in healthcare market their businesses more effectively.

Enjoy and make sure if you like the blogs, let them know I sent you!

KevinMD.com: http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/
The Healthcare Marketing Exchange: http://www.healthcaresuccess.com/blog/
Weekly Probe Marketing: http://www.weeklyprobe.com/category/marketing/
MedTouch Blog: http://blog.medtouch.com/
Medical Marketing: http://blogs.estcomedical.com/
Hospital Impact: http://www.hospitalimpact.org/
KBM Group: http://www.kbmghealth.com/blogs.aspx
Medical Marketing Blog: http://www.mednet-tech.com/
ePharma Rx: http://blog.intouchsol.com/
Healthcare.Marketing: http://hospitalmarketinganas.blogspot.com/
Quaintise: http://blog.quaintise.com/
Enabling Healthy Decisions: http://georgevanantwerp.com/
Healthy Conversations: http://www.trajectory4brands.com/
Medical Marketing Blog: http://omnimedicalmarketing.com/
Gandolf’s Marketing Magic: http://www.gandolfsmarketingmagic.com/
Medical Web Experts: http://www.medicalwebexperts.com/blog/

Are there any more that you would like to add to this list?

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Off-Site Social Media Marketing: 10 Ways to Market Your Profiles Outside of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter

By Christopher Tompkins

9Aug

Marketing, Social Media, Uncategorized

While going through numerous articles on social media strategies it dawned on me that there was a glaring omission: tactics on how to promote your social media profiles OUTSIDE of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

While it may sound odd, cross marketing is an essential part of a successful social media marketing strategy (as well as a successful marketing strategy). It is completely understandable that when you launch a social media campaign, you really want to spend a bulk of your time logged into the site trying to achieve penetration and engagement. For example, when marketing your business’s Facebook Page, you are logging in on a daily basis to update your page, share it and use different onsite tools to engage with your target consumers.

But what about the people that you speak to everyday on the phone or at events? How about those who you give your business card to? How about the people on the receiving end of the 100+ emails that you have to respond to daily?

This is where you need to focus on what I call Off-Site Social Media Promotion. The best part? It isn’t that tough (which is always a good thing, right?).

Here are my top ten tactics that you can instantly use to promote your professional social media presences…off-site:

1. Add to Your Email Signature: When it comes to promoting your social media presences off-site, email is your first stop. In your email signature, add a link to one or all of your social hubs. Just be careful not to overdo it! If you are a member of 100 different networks, don’t add them all. My rule is to try to keep it to around 3 or less.

2. Add to Your Business Cards: A trend that I have been seeing is the adding of social networks to business cards. This is a trend that I definitely support as it adds more relevance to the handing out of business cards (especially in our growing “green” landscape). The same rules apply, but with business cards I suggest adding the networks where you are the most active. For example, I may be the most active on Twitter, so that would be the one I would add. When adding the network address, make sure that you have a custom username so it is easy for the recipient of the card to read and then type into their browser.

3. Add to Your Website and Blog: One of the best ways of promoting your social networks off-site comes courtesy of the networks themselves. May have plug-ins that are free and easy to add into the structure of your blog and website. These look like boxes with your logo, recent activity and a box for the viewer to click to connect. These allow people who are visiting your blog/website to easily engage with you on the social platforms WITHOUT leaving your site. Plus, as you update your social networks, it reflects on your blog/website badge which not only makes you look up to date, but it provides your website/blog with fresh content on a consistent basis.

4. Add Share Buttons to Your Website and Blog: If you are constantly publishing content to your website and blog, why not allow others to share it? This is a bit more complicated, but a web design professional can help you do this. If you don’t have this, you are definitely missing a trick. Also – make sure that you have an RSS feed on your blog, it is very important and can be used in many wonderful ways online!

5. Add to Your Advertising: This one is a no-brainer – make sure that you add the link to your social media presence in your magazine, newspaper, radio and television advertising. Just think: you are spending quite a bit on advertising, why not get the most bang for your buck. Also, you can use your social media presence to support a contest that you are promoting through your advertising.

6. Add to All of Your Marketing Collateral: This is another no-brainer. If you have brochures, media packs, flyers or physical promotional products – add your social media link to them. Easy as that!

7. Add to Your Events: When putting together the promotional schedule for an exhibition or event that your company will be represented at, make sure not to forget to add your social media profiles to the game. Make sure that it is on the collateral and stand, but you can even run a Twitter contest during the event and promote it through a bag drop. There are lots of ways…just think out of the box!

8. Add to Your Contest: I touched on this earlier, but when you are holding a contest, a great idea is to use the opportunity to showcase your social media profiles. Especially on Facebook, you are able to nearly duplicate the look of your website on your Facebook Page – it is just down to making the cross marketing happen and finding a designer to complete the job.

9. Add Your Networks to Your Phone: This little tip does involve a bit of on-site promotion. One of the biggest tips that I have is that if you have a smart phone you should have the main social media sites you us downloaded and ready to use on your phone. This way you can share pictures, video and information in real-time from anywhere. There are always things that you miss that you regret not sharing, this makes sure that it doesn’t happen again. This tip is also helpful when you need to show people your profile in a pinch if you are meeting them face-to-face and describing your online work. I’ve had to do it about a million times, so it does happen.

10. Add it to Your Vocabulary: Do you ever tell anyone about your social media presence? Or do you just think they will find it on their own? In order for people to find and engage with you online, they need to know that you exist online….and many times if you have a very common name brand or name, it can be confusing and difficult to locate you. So make sure that you talk about your presences on your calls, when you meet someone new, at events and more. The people you interact with everyday can be some of your biggest supporters on sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

I think the overriding message here is to mention your social media presences as much as possible. Remember, if people don’t know that you are using social media sites to promote your company – they aren’t going to look for you. Let them know, it’s the best way to go! At the end of the day, you wouldn’t send out a marketing material without your web address on it, would you?

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I’m Private, But Social Media is Just So…Social. What Should I Do?

By Christopher Tompkins

5Aug

Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Social Media, Twitter, Uncategorized

First of all, I absolutely love this topic. Again and again I cover this as it is a concern for lots of professionals such as you and I out there. We see that members of our target market are using social sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube like crazy…but how can I get involved with social and not share all of the intimate portions of my life.

This is something that I completely understand. When I started out in social, promoting myself, I made the decision to be 100% transparent. It was hard at first, but felt very natural in the end. But I speak with people very often that enjoy hiding behind their brand and distancing themselves from social.

I am definitely placing no judgement there. For years we were able to do this but the humanization of brands is something that social sites have begun to put on fast forward. Now it seems that everything is wide open and online for all to see. BUT…this isn’t the full picture.

Over the past few years privacy laws and site updates have seen drastic changes to sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter which allow you to have lots of flexibility on how you are found, viewed and interacted with online.

But privacy aside, let me give you the real insight here. When you decide to market your company using social, you do NOT have to reveal every single personal fact about you as a person.

What I mean by this is that is:

*Facebook Page: In order to create a Facebook Page, you can do so from an account not connected with your own. While having the connection makes it easier, creating a Facebook Page account can put privacy concerns to the side. Also when using your Facebook Page account, you will always be commenting and interacting as your page, not as yourself. Add to this the plethora of privacy settings that you can add to your personal profile and Facebook Page. These are important settings that you MUST explore!

*Twitter Account: Create a Twitter account for your brand and Tweet about your company, industry and news….not anything personal. In the description you should put your name and that you are the “insert title” of “insert company” and a little about what you want to tweet about. Again….professional to the forefront and personal out of sight. Also, make sure to learn about the privacy settings and other ways to protect your account and tweets.

*LinkedIn Profile: This is a bit trickier as you will, and should, completely fill out the profile. But, there are privacy settings on here that will let you restrict what people can see. My advice though is that if you are not comfortable with networking with other professionals, I would side step LinkedIn (which, by the way, is an absolute gem when it comes to social). Also, please review the extensive privacy settings which provide lots of protection.

So as you can see, there are ways to get around things. Each site offers privacy settings that many of us didn’t know existed. We hear about the Facebook stalkers, bullying and spamming – but if you are savvy enough and look close enough, you are totally protected.

My advice? If you want to keep it professional, keep it professional. If you want to mix professional and personal….go for it. At the end of the day, the more “human” your brand is the more you will resonate with your audience. But, if you are worried about privacy and are able to humanize your brand without a face…then fair play to you.

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Increasing LinkedIn Engagement and Credibility with Endorsements and Recommendations

By Christopher Tompkins

17Jul

LinkedIn, Uncategorized

A large part of LinkedIn has to do with your reputation and how you are viewed by not only your peers, but also the masses at large. Credibility and visibility are two other factors that, when paired with a solid reputation, can make for not only a killer LinkedIn profile – but also a more successful LinkedIn marketing campaign.

Two elements that help you elevate your LinkedIn reputation are endorsements and recommendations. Here I want to give you a quick overview of these two topics and show how they can help you build your reputation on LinkedIn.

The first thing you need to do is create a list. I know, I am always telling you to create lists, but this is the best way to move quickly through certain social media marketing functions such as this. Your list should be made up of two categories: peers/influencers in your target area as well as those who can recommend you, your work, your company’s work.

On this list, make sure to have the person’s full name (first and last) and their current email address.

Now let’s move onto the endorsements and recommendations:

Endorsements: One of the newer features of LinkedIn, endorsements allow you to go to a person’s profile and “Endorse” or vet them for certain skills (and vice versa). So for example, if you go to my profile on LinkedIn here the first thing that you will see is a large blue box above my profile that says “Does Christopher have these skills or expertise?” From this list, you can select all of them, click the x to remove, or type in another area of expertise. When you have made your selection, click the “Endorse” button. This will immediately let that person know that you have given them a thumbs up about their skill set.

Now, using your list, search and locate peers and/or influencers (as well as potential clients) that you wish to get in front of, visit their profiles and endorse them. Has someone endorsed your skills? Send them a thank you! This is a great tool to build credibility on your profile and to begin engaging with people you normally wouldn’t.

Recommendations: These are more familiar to LinkedIn users as they have been around since the beginning of LinkedIn. The most straight-forward explanation of these are that recommendations are testimonials you are able to post to your public or private LinkedIn profile. You can see how they appear by visiting my profile above and scrolling down through my experience.

Obviously, having a testimonial on your profile looks great – but why should you recommend others?

So that your picture, words and links are visible on others people’s profiles! Just think if their profile is viewed 100 times more than yours and your testimonial and profile link are visible on their page….pretty powerful right? While it can be a bit tough and time consuming, recommending pays off.

My only rule? Don’t ask or write recommendations for ANYONE that you do not know or haven’t worked with.

To get started, click on Profile, then Recommendations. This will bring you to the main recommendations page where you will be able to manage your recommendations, request recommendations and make recommendations. This is where your list comes in handy. Make sure that if you are going to make or request a recommendation, you choose the right relationship from the list provided. And off you go! All recommendations are reviewed before they are posted live, so do not worry about anything being posted that you are not aware of.

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These two functions, while a little tricky, can be a great way for you to not only get in front of those decision makers you are so eager to meet, but they also give you the power to pop up everywhere on LinkedIn, thus increasing your visibility!

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Is Hootsuite Right For My Business?

By Christopher Tompkins

16Jul

Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Marketing, Social Media, Twitter, Uncategorized

For many of you marketing your businesses on social media, you know there are many other tools you can utilize to effectively keep on top of your daily social media marketing commitments.

Third-party tools are available for free, or a small charge, and can help you do everything from schedule posts to find influential people to connect and engage with.

Hootsuite is one such tool and can be an asset to your social media marketing strategy. But first thing, first: you need to have a social media marketing strategy in order to get the most out of Hootsuite. My disclaimer here is that before you begin using third-party tools, you have a clear idea of the capabilities of the social media sites (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+) you want to use for marketing purposes and what sorts of activities are going to make up your overall strategy.

Having these elements clearly presented will allow you to not only look at Hootsuite more analytically, but it will also help you get the hang of it quickly.

Here are some reasons why Hootsuite could be good for your marketing strategy…..does this sound like you?:

“It is impossible to keep up with posting daily updates to our social media profiles!” This is definitely one of the areas where Hootsuite excels as you are able to schedule your posts to go out on your chosen social media networks whenever you want. It allows you to do both the date and time, allowing you with lots of flexibility. I am not saying that social media marketing all comes down to scheduling posts to go out via Hootsuite and waiting for the wonderful results to roll in. Scheduling posts helps you stay consistent when you have to travel, have a busy week ahead, lost a member of staff, or even if you are just starting out and need to use a bulk of your time researching your new social networks. Scheduling really can be a help at these times.
“My company has 4 social media accounts, how can I keep up with that?” You are able to add multiple social networks to Hootsuite and manage your accounts from one place. While it doesn’t take the place of on-site visits and daily check-ins with your audience, it is wonderful to be able to post and see the news feeds for each of your networks added.
“I have no idea how many people are clicking my links!” There is a reporting area on Hootsuite which will track links from the accounts you specify. Then a report will be generated and emailed to you showing how many total clicks your links received as well as which links were clicked. Of course, it will only track the links that you schedule through Hootsuite, but still it is handy to check and track the effectiveness of your campaign!
“I want to share things instantly or I’ll forget to do it later!” There is a wonderful plugin for Hootsuite called Hootlet. Once installed into your internet browser bar, when you are reading a story online that you want to share with your audience, you simply click the Hootlet button and a popup window will appear with the link shortened and a title. Just customize this as needed and share instantly….or schedule it to go out later. Another great way to share your knowledge in real time.
“I want to get my email blasts in front of more people!” Currently there are free plugins that Hootsuite provides supporting Mail Chimp and Constant Contact that enable you to share your email blasts with your social networks by a click of the button. A great way to get that email blast to go the extra mile and increase your exposure by the size of your network reach. This is one of the lesser important functions, but there are many other plugins that you will want to explore that can support other areas of your online marketing plan.

While Hootsuite has many wonderful features, there is no tool out there that does everything. Hootsuite is best utilized as a tool in your social media toolbox. Using Hootsuite does not mean that you will never have to log into Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+ to interact with your audience, answer questions, post discussions and build your network. Social media marketing is not down to one solution, but having good solid tools in your toolbox makes it all the more simpler!

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What You Need to Ask Before Outsourcing Your Social Media Marketing Campaign

By Dale Griffen

15Jul

Facebook, LinkedIn, Marketing, Pinterest, Social Media, Twitter, Uncategorized

(This blog has been reprinted courtesy of Doctor’s Life Magazine CLICK HERE TO VIEW IT ONLINE).

In my last two installments of “Your Social Media Prescription” we discussed “Social Media 101” – getting your online marketing efforts up and running, and “The Cost of Social Media” – showing you the pros and cons, as well as the true costs associated with social media’s ‘free’ usage.

In this issue, we’ll discuss what you need to know if you decide to refer your social media marketing campaign to an outside provider!

As in your practice, there are several reasons that you may refer to a trusted specialist. Sometimes you need a second opinion. Other times the needs of your patient may fall outside of your scope of practice. Maybe you may not be taking on new patients at the time, so you look to other professionals to help out, or take over those tasks.

The same may be true for your social media marketing. If you are finding that you, or the person that handles your social media in the office:

•   logs into your Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter account and just doesn’t know what to say several times a day, or…
•   scratches their head trying to figure out how to get your current and potential patients and referral sources engaged, knocking on your door or calling for appointments…
…then you may need to outsource! This is exactly what social media marketing firms do! Not only that, but a properly executed campaign:
•   puts you on the leading edge ahead of your competition;
•   highlights your expertise in the field; and,
•   places you in direct communication with other thought leaders – giving your practice a wonderful boost!

Think about it another way, if you wanted to create a TV commercial, billboard or print ad, you wouldn’t try to do the entire thing in your office, would you? You would hire the experts to listen to your ideas and goals, and then using their expertise – allow them to come up with a campaign that you will love! Social media is no different.

With that being said, use caution! Obviously, as in any business, not everyone out there that claims to be an expert in the field always is. To avoid wasting time, money and getting a bad taste for social media in general, there are several questions you must ask when choosing a firm to represent your social media marketing campaign. Don’t trust this public relations, brand awareness and relationship-building effort to just anyone. Make sure that they know what they’re doing, have a proven history of success, and that their own reputation, platforms and online following are in line with what you would like for your own.

You need to protect your reputation and to help you do so, we’ve provided 12 questions you may want to ask a potential social media marketing partner…

1.   First, look at their online profiles (the links should be available on their website). Do they have at least daily activity on each channel of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.? Do they have a decent number of followers? Is their brand aligned with the services that THEY provide? Once you get this data, bring it to their doorstep and ask them about the infrequency/frequency of their posts and the quality – will this be what you are going to do for us?
2.   Ask what sets their company a part from other social media marketing firms?
3.   Do they work with medical or healthcare related clients now (or in the recent past)?
4.   Do they know how to deal/work with the healthcare industry, including rules and regulations, patient privacy and HIPAA, to name a few?
5.   Will you be allowed to view and approve all final work before it’s sent out to your audience?
6.   Is all of their work done in-house, or do they work with partners during the delivery process?
7.   How much of the marketing work on the accounts is automated? Can they give you a percentage?
8.   How many people will be working on your account and have access to your passwords?
9.   Will they be monitoring your brand through the social media channels they are using?
10.   Will they share 3-5 past/current clients that you can speak with about their services?
11.   Will you have access to your account(s) during and after the campaign?
12.   What happens to your campaign if you stop working with them? Who owns it?

These questions should get you off to a great start. Obviously you want to also ask questions about the campaigns (and how they work), but the questions above should enable you to figure out how credible that potential partner is. Remember – go with your gut. Choose someone you trust or have a good feeling about. If you have distinct reservations, beware.

Remember, social media marketing campaigns can be extremely beneficial in getting the word out about you, your brand, your services and your ‘WOW’ factor!
Should you have any questions about why the above points are important to ask, or have any other questions – be sure to give us a call or send us an email!

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Twitter Lists: How to Create and Populate Them

By Christopher Tompkins

11Jul

Social Media, Twitter, Uncategorized

One of the best features of Twitter, but little used by Twitter newcomers, is the Twitter Lists function. If you want to get the most out of this popular site, this is a great way to target your marketing efforts while shaving valuable time off of your daily onsite work.

Before you create your list – you need to figure out what the list will be all about. This is where the planning comes in. How would you like to use your list? Some of the most popular way to use lists is for prospecting, following power users, keeping abreast on a specific topic or keeping tabs on the competition. Whatever you choose, create your list accordingly and then start adding members.

Creating your first list is simple. Here’s what you will need to do:

Login to Twitter
Click on the “Me” button on the top black tab
Then on the menu on the left, click “Lists”
On the right, you will now see the main Lists page. It will show you the Lists you are Subscribed to and the Lists that you are a Member of. Next to that, you will see a button that says “Create List”. Click this.
This will pop up a little window where you can create your new list. First name your list. Here you want to choose an identifying name that will help you quickly reference the list.
Then write a description. Here you want to describe what the list contains in 100 characters or less.
Then choose if you would like to make your list Public or Private. Basically, if you do not want ANYONE to see the list, keep it Private. But if you are creating the list so that its members know they have been added, keep it Public.
Click Save list.

Now….you need to start adding people to the list. This is fairly simple as well. While logged into Twitter, find the person that you want to add to the list and go to either their main page or profile summary. There you will see a little button with the outline of a person. Click on this button and a dropdown menu will appear. Choose “Add or remove from lists…” and a window will pop up where you “Include @person in:” the list of your choice. Tick the box next to the list that you would like to add them to and click the x on the top right to save and close. Then…move onto the next person!

If you ever want to reference your lists at anytime, repeat steps 1-4.

Happy List making!

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Tag : social media marketing

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