A Digital Marketing Insider's Point of View by Winston Bromley.
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Fear of Missing Out, or FOMO, with Social Media

Fear of Missing Out, or FOMO, with Social Media

As a person who loves and enjoys social media for it’s innate ability to connect us to people and events, which we could never have done so even just a few years ago, I wanted today to talk to you about a topic dear to my heart. It’s a strange but very real phenomenon that has occurred within the past few years with the rise of Smartphones being tied to our hips and wrists and almost everything we do. When our phones bing with texts and FOMO Fear of Missing outwe answer it the second it happens, or we check out tweet or Facebook timelines every 10 minutes, this begs the question. With all of technologies advances in the past few years, does technology bring us closer to each other or further apart?

My answer to that is that both are correct. We live in a world where the gift of “social media” is that we can discuss, rate, help, contemplate, learn and talk in mere seconds/minutes/hours on new things happening throughout the world. However, we also live in a world where living in the “present” is being “assisted” by technology.

There is concept that is called Fear of Missing Out, or FOMO for short. This is the idea that most of us using our smartphones and technology are glued to what others are saying on the social media platforms, and have this need to check in as  often as humanly possible, just in case we miss something good. As humans, and curious people, we hate to think we missed something good. Naturally, we do this as a way to feel connected to our “friends” online that we follow and Like, and Pin. It makes us feel good. Some people have mentioned that they see their real friends more often online via Facebook, Twitter, etc than they do in just getting together in person.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I am part of this group and have willingly jumped in, as have you, to be part of my own experiences online as well as finding out about my connections, brands I follow and friends and their latest exploits detailed online. However, I do believe you need a BALANCE in life and go and meet, in my case, business leads and contacts you meet online. I use social media to start the process, and finish in person.

What I wanted to share in this post, from a Social Media insider, is that sometimes, we just need 2 things in our lives to achieve a good balance online:

1. UNPLUG and be ok with it. Don’t be afraid of missing out on something you missed online. Like a detox in real life, I have Unplugged myself when I find I need to re-charge my “batteries”. No cellphone, no social media, no texts sometimes for 1 day or longer just so I can be present with my family and my life.

2. Take the conversation OFFLINE and TALK to that person via the phone or in person. It’s amazing the amount of friendships and connections I have built up over the years with this tip.

Don’t buy into FOMO. Buy into real connections and being present.

My 2 cents…

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Bring it back home: How your website should be the Hub of all your Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing: Using a Hub for full marketing effectSocial media is a great tool to use in order to communicate with people that already follow you and to help find prospective consumers of your product or service. With the help of Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and more, there are many ways you can grow your business and reach a new unexplored consumer base. Social media gives you multiple platforms that expose you directly to the consumer and enables them to give you valuable information regarding your product or service. In order to be successful in today’s business environment, you must have a presence on social media. That’s a given. However, in order to assure consistency throughout all social media platforms, it is very important (even crucial) to have all your social media accounts leading back to one place. I called it the “Hub”.

Think of an airport. All the flights fly into one place however they all originally started from another location. This “hub” could be your Blog, your Company website, or whatever you fancy, but it should be where all your traffic merges. You may be bringing people back to your site to read a new article or discuss a new service or product or it may be showing people pictures of your services/products. Whatever it is, the end game is to always bring people back to this main “Hub”. By doing this consistently, people will start remembering your brand better as they get repeated exposure to it, what you do, and why they should be using you over everyone else. By keeping it simple, all of the main material on one site, you won’t split the attention of your prospects.

As an example, if you posted a new article that discusses a topic in your Business, it is best to have it on your Company blog. That way, you can use Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and the other social platforms independently to drive those followers/friends back to one location to funnel the traffic to where you want them to be… on your site. It is also a great way to build up links back to your site and demonstrate social proof to the search engines (yes that is becoming a major factor in ranking) that your site pages should be ranked better. (Just a side note, when people land on your site, it should ideally be with some call-to-action such as Subscribe to my newsletter, Buy Now, Follow me, as you will get the most traction and more subscribers in your list by doing so).

Having one hub for your business will make it easier for you to find and develop relationships with prospective clients that are interested in your product or service as you will always be adding to your site and those that have visited before, could also return for each posting. Another side effect is that it will also help with search engine optimization using the newer part of their ranking algorithim for social proof.

If used properly, social media platforms can add so much to your business by having one central Hub. Your one Hub will help brand your Company more effectively online and allow people to automatically identify your brand to a certain product, service or post.

Are you already using your website as the “hub” of your Social Media marketing?

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Well done, LinkedIn: Your Company pages are ideal for business owners

LinkedIn Company ProfilesSocial networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have taken over the world by storm, connecting people in ways that no one ever thought possible. There are many different types of people that use LinkedIn and access its benefits in the best ways possible, and this has quickly become a great tool for those seeking to expand their personal professional networks to others who they may only know from afar.

What is great about the success of these social media outlets, is that anyone can sign up for a profile and start meeting people, even companies. With the new LinkedIn Company Pages, companies now have the ability to make connections to others via the social network that wasn’t available a while back.

Getting a company page is akin to making a page on Facebook; both are meant to outsource a person, brand, or products availability in a way that is convenient and conducive to finding out more information. LinkedIn has created a way to share a company’s information on its site, versus the personal profile layout of the majority of its visitors.

The LinkedIn Company Pages allow companies to express their brand through pictures that they might not have the ability to share otherwise. This is invaluable since the internet is really about instant gratification and pictures can many times speak for themselves (I am looking at you Pinterest!). It also allows companies to showcase what they have to offer, such as being able to quickly give a customer the ability to scan what it is that you offer in a hands-off, non-intrusive way. This quickly builds a customer rapport on a level that regular advertising does not. These pages allow a company to highlight what’s important and keeps their followers up to date.This allows for a connection to the individual in a way that companies in the past could never even dream of!

People all over the world connect to each other every day through social media. Now, with the revised LinkedIn Company Pages, even companies can connect to their customers at the base level like never before through status updates, pictures, highlights, and comments. Companies are now able to interact directly with the people who are buying their product, supporting their brand, and who have questions. Although similar only in idea as a Facebook company page, companies can now interact so closely with their consumers like they can through LinkedIn Company Pages as LinkedIn is more about doing business and connecting,  whereas Facebook is about sharing information.

Well done, LinkedIn.

LinkedIn Spruces Up Your Skillset – Use this in your Online Business Model

LinkedIn Spruces up your SkillsetLinkedIn 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.

WinstonBromley on LinkedIn

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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The Top 5 Reasons Business Owners Need LinkedIn

Top 5 Reasons Business Owners Need LinkedInLinkedIn 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.

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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?