by winstonbromley | Oct 16, 2012 | LinkedIn, Social Media, Social Media Management, Social Media Tools
LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with more than 90 million users from across 200 countries. LinkedIn profiles have enabled numerous jobseekers to find the right job and have also been instrumental in companies’ quests to find the right candidate for a specific job. It is also an excellent way for Business owners and Entrepreneurs to get the word out about what they do and network.
To date, LinkedIn endorsements were considered to be the most effective marketing tool or a resource which could establish the credentials of a professional. Most people will tell you that these testimonials or client feedback do get a lot of attention from profile scrutinizers. Recently, LinkedIn has added a Skills section to the member’s homepage. This new Skills section appears just below the educational qualifications section.
For starters, the skills section is where professionals can mention their skills or expertise. Earlier, details about specific skills, certifications or achievement were either mixed in with educational qualification or put together in the summary section which was more out of sight and not very effective. With the dedicated section where professionals can list their skills, expertise and certifications, LinkedIn is now a much more friendly resource for jobseekers, networkers and Business owners.
Every LinkedIn member should utilize this skills section to its utmost potential. What it can do has to be looked at from three perspectives.
First, this skills section enables a user to update his or her profile with all the skills and expertise they would have. It allows as many as 50 skills which is very good as you may be very talented!
Second, these skills are searchable. People can now search for certain skills and based on whether those are listed in this new section of a user’s profile, the profiles would be displayed in the search results. It works pretty much how SEO works on major search engines. With the new skills section and the existing endorsements features, LinkedIn can become an even better job hunting and networking ground for everyone.
Third, based on the skills you have put on your profile, this allows you to connect with professionals having the same skills.
The three prong benefits of LinkedIn skills are unprecedented and should be use by anyone who uses the professional network.
Now, the skills are not just one or two qualifications or only desired expertise. It can be certifications, experience of specific hardware and software, experience in training the trainers or anything, the possibilities are endless. From a ballet dancer mentioning the variety of her choreography to a programmer mastering a new skill, everything can be given importance.
And the best part, once you have the Skills on your Profile, people can ENDORSE those Skillsets which allows others to see the Social Proof of your Skillset.
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by winstonbromley | Jul 10, 2012 | Facebook, Google+, Klout, LinkedIn, Social Media, Social Media Management, Social Media Tools, Twitter
Social media is something just about everyone uses in today’s world. Many people enjoy it because we are given an easier way to talk to friends, and it is also a great tool to talk to a lot of people. When you are out there all day, every day, sites like Facebook and Twitter become part of your life, as do your followers and friends on those sites. How much they like what you write and do, how many share it all, and the amount of people wanting to speak to you all determine your influence on the world around you. Those unsure of how much influence that they actually have can look to Klout.com to figure it out. There, you are given the ability to learn your influence score from the major Social Media sites.
See Klout.com combines all of your Social Media activity and turns in into a number from 1 to 100 (being the best) based on 54 factors. The more influence you have (meaning people who share you stuff, click on your links, talk about your stuff) the better your Score. And there are great perks to a higher score.
As the internet grows, so do the jobs that can be had on it. When a person works in marketing, for example, they spend a lot of time on the internet. That is part of their job and the more people they can get to see what they say, the better they can do their job. Using your Klout score, employers are able to see just how big of an influence you have in the world, which can help them determine whether or not you are worth hiring (and this now becoming a trend to put Klout on application forms). Your relationships with the people around you, the connections you have made during your career, and the impact you make around the world help an employer or client know if you will pay off. They want a person who can reach many people because it matters to stay connected to the world around you, being seen and heard.
Although Klout is not the only Influence Score to be had (and it’s still growing), it is currently the best online indicator for people to see how much real influence they can control. And it Matters.
Our Klout scores are already playing a larger role in the decision making processes in other real world applications. One example that is happening all the time now, is hotels in Las Vegas are looking up your Klout Score to see if you are worthy of an upgrade, because if your Klout Score is high enough, they know you will talk about it on your social media accounts thereby giving them free advertising from you. See when you talk on your Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google+ accounts about a great place and you have a high Klout score, there is a great chance that your followers will listen and be interested about that Topic and remember that location/hotel/product.
Another example is one that I and others with a higher score get often, is what is called Klout Perks. Companies are hooking up with Klout to send new products to people with Klout scores over certain numbers. I recently got a full kit of AVENA NATURALS products (no cost to me) sent in the mail to me. You bet I talked about it on my Social Media Feeds.
A guy in San Francisco had a Klout score of 74 (and he was just a well connected 25 year old) and he got the new VOLT car for a weekend to test drive. No cost to him at all. You can bet he posted it everywhere thus giving the VOLT a lot of advertising from an influencer.
Take a moment to see what your Klout Score it by clicking here. Let me know how you fair… You may be getting Klout perks soon enough.
by winstonbromley | Jul 3, 2012 | LinkedIn, Social Media, Social Media Management, Social Media Tools
LinkedIn is a professional networking service that allows people to create professional contacts. Currently, LinkedIn has more than 120 million members and allows people and businesses to exchange ideas, contacts, and more to help grow their businesses. LinkedIn is a tool that needs to be utilized by business owners. This is a free social media service that can be used by anyone.
- The first reason business owners need to utilize LinkedIn is that there are a multitude of small business owners and entrepreneurs searching LinkedIn for connections with others. These businesses owners are actively seeking to network with others who are in small business. These connections can allow business owners and entrepreneurs to meet others who can provide ideas and feedback on creating a better business.
- A second reason for joining LinkedIn is that customers are already on LinkedIn. With a business looking to sell a product or service, the more visibility to customers provides more sales. Customers are leaning on social media more than ever before and being visible on LinkedIn allows customers to come to you rather than you seeking out customers. There are many customers out there that you may never reach without utilizing social media.
- Third, you are able to control the voice of your business. It allows people to find your business on Google searches and other social media searches, but it allows you to control what is said about your business. You are able to promote your business the way you want to and not have all opinion based on reviews of others.
- A fourth reason is that you will be able to say that you are an expert in a certain area. By networking with other people, you are going to learn more about your business and in the end, be able to say that you or your business provides expert service.
- The fifth reason to get LinkedIn profile is that it is the future of business. Social media connects entrepreneurs with each other and with customers. It is the new way of doing business and by not moving into the technological future, companies get left behind and stagnate. To keep current, it is important to join LinkedIn.
There are many reasons to join LinkedIn, but there benefits are endless for promoting a company and finding customers. Business success depends on social media and it is the new norm.
What do you think?
by winstonbromley | Jun 23, 2012 | Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Social Media, Social Media Tools
Almost every business has realized the potential of social media. If not, now is certainly the time to get on board.
However, social media is almost always used just as a marketing tool by itself. There are marketing benefits of using social media which I am fan, trainer and user of, however creating a social business can do a lot more and reap huge benefits in the long run.
Social business is a fairly new term on and not many entrepreneurs would know what it actually means. It definitely does not imply a business using social media for marketing purposes. It has far more utilities and benefits lined up for any business.
A social business is typically a business that uses social media in all facets of the company’s modus operandi. It is being widely believed, and rightly so, that social media is all set to become a focal point for any business. Right now, social media is just at the peripherals of any business whereby some marketing efforts yield fruit while others are simply futile attempts at conducting promotions and special sales.
Here are some of the benefits of doing social business.
- A social business puts much more focus on the value that social media can offer a business rather than only the marketing rewards.
- Social business calls for an inclusive involvement of social media and internet users which offer a wider platform to share and discuss almost anything about a business. Right there, a business gets to build a foundation for employees to interact with online citizens and gauge popular opinion. The opinion, feedback or thoughts can then be taken back to the boardroom for illustrations and a business can take appropriate steps to enhance a positive feedback or to curtail some criticisms.
- Several major corporations in the world are mulling over an idea to get the consumers involved in the creative process of product development or in the conception of an idea and developing it as per popular sentiments. In fact some companies have already started this process with various degrees of success, such as Nike.What this does is, it offers any business the leverage to do prelaunch market research and also gain specific product feedback even before something has been created or developed.
- Being a social business can have far reaching effects in terms of brand value. With social media gaining more acceptance as a common mode of communication and interaction, customers are more likely to interact with individuals and trust them rather than a brand. With people getting more exposure to social media from businesses and brands they like, it is upon the shoulders of the the entrepreneurs and executives to drive their brand value using their own reputation and skills.
Let me know what you think.
