Social Media

February 13, 2024 By Pamela Bir

LinkedIn Networking Strategies and Tips

LinkedIn, like any social media platform, requires consistent input and effort. For B2B companies, it can be very worthwhile. The following article from Social Media Examiner outlines how to set up your profile and how to build your niche network. Having 5000+ connections doesn’t help nearly as much as having 50 key contacts who want your knowledge!!

Looking for a clever way to grow a niche professional network and improve your visibility as an industry leader?

By applying the following networking best practices, your LinkedIn presence can position you in the same way as being a well-prepared speaker at a top industry event. Gradually, you’ll become a go-to voice for ideas that benefit your peers and attract new clients and customers.

Prepare Your Profile

The first step to improving your LinkedIn presence is overhauling your profile. Treat this like preparing for an industry conference—you want to put your best foot forward to appeal to the right potential connections.

Specifically, update your profile picture so you will be easily recognizable. Select a high-quality headshot that conveys professionalism. Next, craft the headline, which appears prominently under your name. Don’t use this valuable real estate to place a vague job title. Instead, use it to strategically communicate who you are, what you do, and who you help.

Then, expand the About section to showcase how you assist others, not just facts about yourself. Outline the key problems you solve or questions you address. Share credentials that establish authority. End by providing a call to action to schedule a discussion or visit your website to learn more.

Check that your skills, experience, education, and more are all accurate and complete. Little profile tweaks like incorporating color or visual icons also enhance scannability. The goal is to intrigue visitors enough to click and keep reading.

Form Strategic Network Connections

Louise Brogan, LinkedIn strategist, compares prudent LinkedIn relationship-building to thoughtfully networking at an in-person conference. Avoid accepting invites from people who simply want to peddle something. Instead, seek out people who are truly interested and active in your industry niche.

When requesting connections yourself, personalize the message. For example, reference enjoying their recent guest podcast appearance or an article they shared about your specialty topic. Explain why linking up would be mutually beneficial. This extra effort sparks more interest and jogs their memory later about who you are.

If you want to connect but have hit LinkedIn’s restrictive free account limits, prioritize invites from desired targets. This then enables you to message those people directly to establish a reason for connecting. Another tactic is proactively sending notes when you notice someone visiting your profile.

Become Part of Regular Conversations With Thought Leaders

A prime way to raise your visibility is by actively engaging with top industry experts’ content. First, identify and follow select superstar thought leaders known for sharing ideas aligned with your goals. Turn on notifications to stay promptly updated whenever they post new pieces.

Then, regularly provide thoughtful comments on their updates, contributing your timely perspective. When these influential figures repeatedly see your name attached to constructive remarks, they often start noticing you more. In time this can culminate into a direct outreach about partnering. Treat it like building relationships with VIP speakers you admire at an event.

Finally, Establish Your Own Thought Leadership

With this strategy, you should avoid posting heavy-handed product pitches in favor of establishing thought leadership by posting your helpful ideas. For example, contribute lists of tips, trends analyses, or tutorials relevant to your niche. Frame your guidance from your audience’s point of view, so that it’s evident you are solving their pain points.

This content will position you as an industry resource while allowing your knowledge, passions, and personality to shine through. When your connections share and discuss these posts, your reach rapidly expands. Before long you’ll transform into a sought-after speaker at your own metaphorical conference.

Today’s advice from the Social Media Examiner eNews (02/12/24) is provided with insights from Louise Brogan.

September 26, 2023 By yclmanager5

Let’s Compare Email Marketing to Social Media Marketing

PART 1

Pros of email marketing

Targeted and personalized communication: Email marketing allows for targeted and personalized communication with customers and prospects increasing the likelihood of conversion.
Higher open and click-through rates: Email has higher open and click-through rates compared to social media.
Higher conversion rates: Email marketing is known for having a high return on investment (ROI) (average $36 currently) and can drive sales more effectively than social media, as it allows for targeted, transactional and personalized communication with customers and leads.
Owned media: Email marketing provides businesses with a direct line of communication with their customers and leads while giving them control over their message and the delivery.
Measurable results: Email marketing provides clear metrics and analytics, allowing businesses to measure the success of their campaigns and make data-driven decisions.
Low costs: One email campaign consisting of multiple emails costs less than a paid social media campaign and requires a shorter timeframe for results.

Pros of social media

Wider reach: Social media can have a massive reach, with billions of monthly active users across multiple platforms, making it an excellent tool for building brand awareness and reaching new audiences. Wider reach requires sponsored posts and/or paid ads.
Viral potential: Social media is designed to facilitate the sharing of information and content among users, making it easier to spread information and increase reach, potentially leading to viral campaigns. However, the odds of your video going viral are similar to winning the lottery odds.
Real-time communication: Social media provides a platform for real-time communication with customers and leads, allowing businesses to respond quickly to customer inquiries and feedback. (Someone on staff has to be available to respond to messages that can come in 24/7 depending on your demographics.)

PART 2

Let’s Compare
Email Marketing to Social Media Marketing
Email Marketing vs Social Media: The Statistics

The following statistics should only be used as a guide. Your specific results may vary based on your target audience, the quality of your content, and the specific email or social media marketing campaign that is being executed.

Open rates

On average, email open rates range from 15-25% depending on your industry.

Reach: On average, organic reach for businesses is decreasing. In 2022, Instagram average reach rate is around 13.51%, Facebook’s average reach rate is only 8.60%.

Click-through rates

The average click-through rate for emails is around 2.9%.

Engagement rates on social media can vary widely depending on the platform, the type of content being shared, and the size of the audience. On average, engagement rates tend to be lower on social media compared to email marketing.

Conversion rates

Transactional emails have an average 38% Open Rate. The average conversion rate is around 8%. This can vary widely depending on the goals of the email, the product or service being sold, and the audience being targeted.

The average conversion rate for social media is around 3%. However, this can be significantly higher for certain industries and products. (Go Zappos!!)

Return on investment (ROI)

On average, for every $1 spent on email marketing, the return is $36. In the retail, ecommerce and consumer goods sector, ROI is higher with $45 per one dollar spent.

There are no statistics!

Personalization

Personalized emails have higher open rates (29-50%) compared to non-personalized emails (15%).

There is no such thing as personalization on social media.

Mobile optimization

Over 40% of all emails are opened on mobile devices, making it crucial for businesses to optimize their emails for mobile viewing.

All social media platforms are designed to work best on mobile. Some features aren’t even available from a desktop.

Additional factors that impact small businesses

Video content has a higher engagement rate compared to other types of content with email marketing and on social media, with video content accounting for over 80% of all internet traffic.

Influencer marketing

Influencer marketing in emails can include guest articles, linking to online articles from credible sources or joint emails with a credible company.

Influencer marketing on social media can drive significant results, with influencer marketing campaigns delivering 11x higher ROI compared to traditional forms of digital marketing particularly in consumer oriented campaigns.

Additional email stats that impact small businesses

50% of the world’s population use email
Welcome emails have an open rate of 86%
Email deliverability averages at 81%
5% of all emails are opened on mobile devices
Emails under 200 words are most likely to be engaged with
Personalized subject lines increase Open Rates by 29-50%
Use clear Call to Actions (CTAs) right at the beginning of the email and repeat them throughout the email
Average email open rates:
- Newsletters 19%
- Welcome emails 86%
- Transactional emails 38%
- Autoresponders 26%
- RSS emails 23%

Would you like some help applying this information to your business, your target audience and your marketing budget? Call Pamela Bir today at 480-929-0335.

September 24, 2023 By yclmanager5

Social Media Update

The world of social media (Facebook, X, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, etc.) has gone a bit mad (or madder!) in the last few months. As a small business owner, you need to evaluate your goals and expectations for social media.

B2C or B2B Companies

B2C firms (selling to consumers) have a greater need of social media because your audience is on multiple platforms and is used to researching and shopping online.

B2B firms (selling to businesses) have less of a need – probably. People use the platforms to verify your identity and credibility. But rarely to buy a product or service.

Set Reasonable Goals

Look first at your target audience. Which platform(s) are they on? (Ask me for user stats if you need them.) If you’re trying to connect with older adults with more disposable income posting educational articles on TikTok is not going to help you. They’re looking for funny animal videos.

Consider what your audience is expecting from your type of business. No one is going to Facebook to see if Your Computer Lady is running a sell on WordPress websites. They are looking to see if YCL is a legitimate, stable business. If they see consistent, intelligent posts, they are more likely to make a call as they have more confidence.

Analyze your marketing budget. If you have $1000 a month to spend, put the biggest percentage into the channel that gets the most profitable results. Use smaller percentages for branding, presence, i.e., social media and goodwill marketing. As your business grows, you can increase the budget and increase the percentages to experiment more or to give more to your community.

How Can Your Computer Lady Help You?

If you don’t know which platforms are most used by your target audience, ask me for the stats!

If you need to use your content in as many ways as possible, call me. Let’s make a plan!

Your Computer Lady can cut the dollars and time needed for building a presence on social media. We can create industry related, eye-catching posts for you and schedule them. You get quality and consistency. You can then make the “cream” posts when you have new content, events and the time!

Here are some examples of the types of posts we’re doing for clients now.