Posted by Patrick Murphy on Thu, Jul 15, 2010
Social Media is big and growing but why are you on social media? Chances are you found this blog either through some form of social media, could be Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook. Either way you are already engaging in social media but why?
For social media I saw a recent report from eConsultancy which outlines what companies are gaining from social media. For Facebook the results were as follows:
- 55%: Improving Brand Awareness and Reputation
- 47%: Marketing Channel
- 46%: Publish New Content
- 37%: Brand Monitoring
- 32%: Gathering Feedback
- 25%: Customer Services Issues
- 16%: Sales channel
- 16%: Market Intelligence
What is the take away for social media and Facebook? That Facebook should be used as a means to create your brand awareness and as a marketing channel. This should reflect on how you use Facebook on what to expect back from your investment in social media and Facebook. But how does this compare to Twitter as a social media channel?
- 50%: Improving Brand Awareness and Reputation
- 49%: Publish New Content
- 47%: Marketing Channel
- 42%: Brand Monitoring
- 25%: Marketing Intelligence
- 25%: Gathering Feedback
- 23%: Customer Services Issues
- 22%: Sales channel
Social Media has many channels and it is about finding the right channel that suits what you are trying to achieve. So what are you suing social media for? There are many reasons why you should use social media such as:
- Social Media is Free
- Social Media can provide very quick Quick Results
- Social Media is very Flexible to suit your requirements
- Social Media provided a great resource for traffic
These are such some of the reasons why I use social media. So why are you using social media?
Posted by Patrick Murphy on Tue, May 25, 2010
Can Linkedin be used for Inbound Marketing, but of course. LinkedIn is the world's largest professional network with millions of members worldwide and growing daily. LinkedIn enables you to connect with people and exchange knowledge, ideas, and opportunities with a broader network of professionals in every sector. But how many people are using Linkedin correctly for inbound marketing? Below are some tips and ideas on how you should use LinkedIn for inbound marketing and generating leads.
Linkedin Inbound Marketing Tip 1: You have a personal profile so use it to your benefit. Use your personal Linkedin profile to sell your skill set and specialities. Avoid the temptation to turn your LinkedIn profile into your CV so use the space wisely.
Linkedin Inbound Marketing Tip 2: Linked is about connecting and creating your own networks. How many times have you seen people that have completed the hard work in creating their profile but still have so few connections. Like most networks the more connections you have, the more opportunities arise. So look through your contacts and connect.
Linkedin Inbound Marketing Tip 3: Do not forget to search. Linkedin offers great searching capabilities through their members, so use it. Linkedin allows the ultimate in specificity. You can search for exactly who you want to be referred to - by company, by geography, by name, by job title, etc. And you can search across your entire network at once. Great resource so use it for your advantage.
Linkedin Inbound Marketing Tip 4: Linkedin groups is one of the most over looked features of Linkedin. Linkedin groups are essentially discussion forums for specific interest groups. They allow you to find out the latest news, and to join in debates on topics of interest. You should be joining groups both of interest to you professionally, and the groups where your potential client are also members of.
These are just my ideas on how you use Linkedin for Inbound Marketing. Recently SiliconCloud preformed a survey on how other people are using Linkedin. You can view the results here: Linkedin Survey
Posted by Patrick Murphy on Mon, Feb 08, 2010
Did you every use Linkined answers?
For those that do not know already Linkedin Answers. Used correctly Linkedin Answers can help you get fast and accurate answers to any of your business-related questions. It is possible to receive business advice from hundreds of thousands of experts. When you combine answers with Linkedin Groups you reach the experts in your field. And for those who do not know about Linkedin Groups. LinkedIn Groups is a place to find and join communities of professionals that are based on common interests, experience, affiliation, and goals.
A few weeks ago a put a question to the Inbound Marketing group and I taught that I should share their insightful answers. You can follow the discussion at on Linkedin here. Here is the question that I asked the Inbound Marketing Group "What is your one "Inbound Marketing" tip for 2010. And it can't be hire me. If you bumped into someone in a lift and they asked for one inbound marketing tip what would it be?"
The answers that came back were all insightful into building a successful Inbound Marketing campaign. Here are a few samples:
"Want to transform your website into a powerful inbound marketing machine? Use keyword taxonomy, and learn how people are looking for the products and solutions you're providing, and the value of all those different keywords. Having this knowledge you can better execute your PPC and SEO efforts. If you do PPC and SEO but don't ready your website, you will fail."
"I would tell them to write everything as if they were talking to their current best customer. Address their questions, concerns and further their ideas. You will, in effect, be cloning them."
"Post 3 inbound links daily via your twitter, facebook, etc. Highlight a case study, point to a video, list tips, link to news, etc."
"Listen, listen, listen and your customers will tell you more than you think."
"DO NOT do any PPC without a very good landing page, designed to do one thing and one thing only....capture lead information from your PPC Clicks"
"Be a source of good information - free tips not always selling. The more you give away the more people will seek you out."
These are some that I pointed out, why not login and read the other 82 comments! And if you are using Linkedin check out our blog on How to SEO your Linkedin profile.
We at SiliconCloud understand the challenges for business to grow. That is why we are running a free webinar on "How to Grow your Business with Internet Marketing".
Where we will cover topics such as:
• The changing nature of marketing and how to transform your business
• How to hire a marketing team in this changing world
• How you should communicate to the company and board about what is going on in marketing
• How a you should use social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn
• How to measure and understand which of your marketing efforts are working
Register now, as space is limitied
Posted by Patrick Murphy on Wed, Nov 04, 2009
LinkedIn is one of the few social media websites every professional should be using.
Here are some tips we recommend to optimize your Linkedin account:
Fully complete your profile - Ensuring that this contains all relevant career history and interests.
Use the vanity URL - This should be set to use your name (or closest match if unavailable) within the URL, for example: http://www.linkedin.com/in/murphyjpatrick - this will help you to optimize your own name in the search engines and also makes the URL easier to remember if promoted on business cards or email signatures.
Make connections - Increase the reach of your profile by connecting with current and former work colleagues, clients, friends and family. I'd also recommend adding any industry contacts, perhaps from people you have met at conferences/events or are connected with on other social media sites and share a similar interest.
Register a company profile - If your company doesn't already have a company listing, you should create one! If your company does have a profile, you should encourage employees to create their own individual LinkedIn profile's and ensure the current employer entry is completed. This will automatically update all employees listed on the company profile, providing the company name is exactly matched.
Make use of the 3 website hyperlinks - For SEO value, LinkedIn is very good - they give you the opportunity to add three hyperlinks of your choice. This is a simple way to add url to search engines.
Join related groups - Find groups where other industry professionals have joined and look to participate in (or at least join) these groups. Adding value to your own profile and helping you to get found by other industry contacts.
Use LinkedIn Answers - This can help to build up your reputation within a field. For SEO it also builds the number of internal links pointing to your profile from within LinkedIn, therefore helping to strengthen your profile in the search engines!
Optimise your job title - LinkedIn now includes your job title within profile title tags. I'm not saying you should lie about your job, but within reason you could include descriptive keywords which may help to attract relevant search engine traffic. For example, using "SEO Account Manager" as a job title instead of "Account Manager", if appropriate. any i know I have to do mine....
Please check out our next webinar on Facebook for business
http://www.siliconcloud.com/facebook