Tag: linkedin

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17
Apr

4 great sites to start networking

Written by Natalie Giddings

Networking is an integral part of our professional lives. It's really important to build strategic alliances for your business. Doing this used to have awkward connotations for me. But soon I learned that the opportunity to meet like-minded people and peers on a similar career path as myself was a prized gift. If it brings in additional referral business, then that is just a bonus! Just replace the word ‘networking’ with ‘relationship building’ if it makes you feel better.

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13
Dec

LinkedIn 101: Company Pages

Written by Des Walsh

One resource readily available to all LinkedIn members but which many aren’t aware of is the Company Page. For the many who do know about it, it’s still ignored or seriously underutilised. If you have taken some steps to customise your LinkedIn personal profile, then setting up and customising a company page should be the next step to amplify your online presence, reach and influence. This post runs through the basics of getting your company page set up. It's a straightforward exercise and deserves at least as much attention at ownership or senior executive level as would the preparation and publishing of a printed corporate brochure. However, judging from what I’ve seen, LinkedIn company pages often get much less attention than they should, including the pages of some major corporations. “But last time I looked, the company pages on LinkedIn were pretty static and boring.” If your experience with LinkedIn company pages to date has been that they are not very engaging, then now is a good time to have another look. LinkedIn has made some quite dramatic design changes to support greater engagement with audiences, as explained in an official LinkedIn blog post of September 6. If you are still unsure about putting some effort into developing a company page on LinkedIn, then consider your business’ search value. Long established and respected Melbourne-based company WebCentral explains: “Google gives LinkedIn pages high authority and ranks them well for any searches that include a company name or brand in the keyword search. This means that if you have a LinkedIn page, you should rank near the top of Google organic search results.”

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01
Oct

5 key steps for getting sales appointments with decision makers

Written by Des Walsh

Are you one of the many small business owners or other professionals who find it a challenge to make sales appointments with prospective customers? If so, you're not alone. And if like me you are not a “born salesperson” who loves the game of sales, even the thought of calling to set up a sales appointment with someone you haven't met can be daunting. If your budget will allow it, you might hire sales people to do this for you and maybe even to handle the whole sales process from start to finish. For others of us, the choice will be to get those appointments ourselves, or miss out on the revenue from sales we don't make. Here are five key steps that I've found work well for getting sales appointments with decision makers: Research the company or organisation. Understand key concerns of the industry. Find out who the real decision makers are. Use your network. Make the gatekeeper your friend.

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27
Aug

Three tips on getting the most out of events using social media

Written by Trevor Young

Despite all the hoopla surrounding online marketing and social media, one thing that keeps hitting home to me time and time again is the huge value associated with face-to-face activity, specifically events. We can look at events in three ways: attending an event, running an event or speaking at one. For this post I’m going to focus only on the attendance of events. Let’s be clear: events have always been an effective way to connect with new people (potential clients/influencers/business associates) and reconnect with existing contacts. However, strategically using social media in tandem with your event-based activity will ensure you get the most out of your efforts because, let’s face it, attending events can be a time-consuming business.

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21
Aug

Building a personal brand online

Written by Matthew Gain

The ten blue links displayed when you type your company name into a search engine, not your company’s homepage, is where most people first interact with your business. What they see on that search engine page, be it positive or negative, will have a lasting impact. However, for many small businesses it is the business owner the customer is buying into, not the business brand. If nothing comes up when you put your own name into Google, what does that say about you? Or even worse, if the only things that come up are personal photos you would rather keep private, then your search engine footprint needs some serious attention. Below are seven quick tips to help improve your personal brand online. 1. Blog. Having a good blog habit is one of the simplest ways to ensure you control your personal online brand. However, the act of creating a blog is not enough. You need to generate content, ideally lots of content. The more posts you write, the more content a search engine will have to index, and the more content others will be able to link to; both of which positively impact what appears when your name is searched. If you’re a business owner, place your blog on your business URL, but ensure you use your own name as the author.

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18
Jul

Do you make these 5 mistakes with social media?

Written by Des Walsh

"I’ve learned that mistakes can often be as good a teacher as success” Jack Welch, legendary former CEO of General Electric Because social media represents a new way of doing business, it is inevitable that some companies will make mistakes. Sometimes those mistakes will generate some negative publicity for the company concerned. If the mistakes are serious enough and generate enough online “heat”, there can be damage to the brand's reputation. Various case studies show that even the biggest, best resourced companies can get social media wrong, so it should not come as a surprise that small businesses can too. Five of the most common mistakes are: Expecting instant results Broadcasting, not listening and engaging Not going where the customers and prospects are Not committing resources Not being strategic With careful planning and sensible management, these mistakes can be avoided.

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