Meet The “Next Generation” LinkedIn Profile–Coming Soon To Your Profile!

According to the LinkedIn Blog, they’ve just launched the next generation LinkedIn Profile, making it easier for 175 million members to tell their professional stories, be found for opportunities, and build relationships through meaningful interactions.

What is the Timeline of the New Profile Rollout?

Over the next few months, all LinkedIn members will start to see their profiles in the new look and feel.  The first people to receive the profile are LinkedIn employees. If you want to be one of the first of your colleagues to adopt the new profile, you can request an invitation to receive the new LinkedIn profile.  All you have to do is click the button “request an invitation” and you are placed in the line for an invite.

With the New Look and Feel, it’s Easier to Do Three New Things!

1. Tell your professional story

The new visual design helps you make a powerful first impression and showcase your skills and accomplishments. They’ve also provided tools such as inline editing, making it a snap to create a complete, up-to-date profile.

2. Discover people and opportunities

The new profile shows you rich and visual insights on the people and companies in your network. These insights also  make it simpler to discover people outside your network and quickly establish common ground to make more meaningful connections.

3. Engage with your network

LinkedIn has also made it easier to see what your network is up to and to engage with them. Recent activity is now on the top of the profile, allowing you to stay current with what your network has been sharing and doing.

Sneak Peek of the New Profile.

One very important note I’d like to mention about the new look and feel is that it is very important to have a professional profile picture in your LinkedIn profile now more than ever if you want to stand out among the other 175 million members. Not only is your photo taking up more real estate, it’s also used more heavily throughout LinkedIn. In fact, it’s used not just on your own profile but it’s used on other people’s profiles in numerous sections.

Also, if you missed the LinkedIn press event where they demoed the new Profile for the first time, you can check out the recording of our live stream. If you found this article helpful, be sure to follow me on Twitter, “Like” me on Facebook and follow BrandLove, LLC on LinkedIn. I post many more tips and tricks on my other social channels. Thanks for reading my post and I appreciate your support!

[Infographic] 50% of Facebook Fans Find Brand Pages More Useful Than Company Websites

Yes, according to the below infographic from market research company, Lab42, 50% of Facebook Fans like brand pages more than your website. Why? Well, among the 1000 social media users surveyed, it was discovered how liking a brand influences the consumer experience. Here’s what they found: 82% of users think that Facebook is a good place to interact with brands and, out of those people, 35% say that they feel brands listen to them more on Facebook. An important stat for B2C is one of the top reasons to follow a brand on Facebook is for coupons and discounts. The study revealed that 77% of those who “Like” a brand on Facebook have saved money as a result.” So, if you’re not running promotions on your page, you probably should be.

If you’re wondering how to get people to ‘Like’ your brands Facebook page? Check out the below infographic. Lab42 asked respondents to identify what motivated (and prevented) them from showing their support for brands on Facebook. The results are interesting, and they actually bring up a few new feature ideas Facebook should consider if it wants to keep business owners and marketers happy. Take a look for yourself to see what social media users are saying.

If you found this article helpful, be sure to follow me on Twitter, “Like” me on Facebook and follow BrandLove, LLC on LinkedIn. I post many more tips and tricks on my other social channels. Thanks for reading my post and I appreciate your support!

The Benefits of Creating a Twitter List and a “How To”

The Many Benefits of Twitter Lists

I love using lists. It’s like all our favorite people in ONE place. The crème de la crème of your social network. When you start following tons of people, chances are, your stream just keeps flooding with all kinds of tweets. It becomes difficult to read all the important and helpful tweets in between the “noise.” The solution for this is to make a list. Currently you are allowed to create up to 20 lists, and each list can include up to 500 users. So, theoretically, there is room to include as many as 10,000 people on your lists.

Lists Organize Who You’re Following

They allow you to easily categorize the people and accounts you’re following on Twitter. You decide what the theme of each List is or if there’s even a theme at all. Lists are a great way to split who you follow along the lines of work and play, by topic, or by relation to you. Remember: the quality of the lists you’re on is more important than the number of lists you’re included on. Being on a respected person’s “Best Web Designers I Know” list can be of more value than being on 10 “Nice People” lists from random strangers.

Lists make Twitter Easier To Use

Twitter Lists reduce the clutter and make Twitter itself easier to use because you no longer need to read everyone’s tweets in one stream of information. Instead, you can divide that stream into separate streams that are easier to follow and more focused on topics that you create. Also, keep your Lists small, so their easier to read and it doesn’t defeat the purpose of creating a List. For best usage, aim for medium-sized lists (between 20 and 200 names). If you just have 2 people on a list, you might as well just visit those people’s Twitter profile pages to view their tweets. And if you include 400 users, it is unlikely that you’ll be able to keep up with all of their tweets.

Lists Save You Time

By making your Twitter Lists public, you’re sharing them with everyone else. If you create Lists that are valuable to other people, they will follow your Lists instead of taking the time to create their own. Also, by filtering tweets, you have a content provider providing a constant stream of retweetable material. 

It is a Way of Showing Gratitude

When you list someone, it shows that you value their tweets and read their content. It’s a form of appreciation on Twitter, a gesture of gratitude. You might get listed back too. Do not feel compelled to reciprocate being put on a list, but feel free to thank the person if being included is a compliment to your relationship or competence in your field.

How to Create a Twitter List
1. Click on “Lists”

2. Click “Create List.”

3. Choose List Name.

• According to Twitter, your list name  cannot exceed 25 characters, nor can they begin with a number
• Keep your list private until you want your list to be public and you’ve notified the people you’ve added to your list.

Managing Your Lists

Now that you’ve created your first List, a link to that List should appear in the Lists area in the sidebar of your Twitter profile. When you click that link to visit one of your Lists, there will be links to edit or delete the List (shown below). Click “Edit” to add or remove people or click “Delete” to remove the list.

4. Add or Remove people from your lists. (Refer to screenshots below.)

1. Click the person icon drop-down menu on a user’s profile.
2. Select Add or remove from lists. (You don’t need to be following a user to add them to your list.)
3. A pop-up will appear displaying your created lists. Check the lists you would like to add the user to, or uncheck the lists you’d like to remove the user from.
4. To check to see if the user you wanted to add was successfully included in that list, navigate to the Lists tab on your profile page. Click the desired list, then click Members. The person will appear in the list of members.

Congrats, you’re done! Play around with lists and think of them as works in progress instead of tablets written in stone. Create them, add people, take people off, delete a list, and create new ones. They are tools to be used, not measures of yours or other people’s worth.

Use your expertise and knowledge of your field to craft a high quality list and then submit it to Listorious and other Twitter List directories so that others can benefit from your work and talent. Be sure to choose appropriate tags and write a list description that best captures its content.

If you found this article helpful, be sure to follow me on Twitter, “Like” me on Facebook and follow BrandLove, LLC on LinkedIn. I post many more tips and tricks on my other social channels. Thanks for reading my post and I appreciate your support!

[Weekend Humor] The Profile of a Twitter User

This witty infographic created by @ngonews separates the different types of Twitter users into six simple categories consisting of newbie, brand, smore, b1tch, maven, and mensch. Eye-catching, clever and entertaining – what every infographic seeks to be. Nicely done in my opinion. I hope you all strive to be mensch’s and are nice to newbie’s. Which category do you think you fall in?

 

Be sure to follow me on Twitter, “Like” me on Facebook and follow BrandLove, LLC on LinkedIn. I post many more tips and tricks on my other social channels. Thanks for reading my post and I appreciate your support!

LinkedIn Rolls Out New Feature to Company Pages: Header Images to Increase Brand Identity

LinkedIn has once again rolled out new features to company pages. The biggest and best change, in my opinion, is that companies can now easily add a custom header that best represents their brand so their look and feel is consistent across all social channels furthering brand awareness. A picture is worth a thousand words without a doubt.

There were also a few more minor updates also made such as:

• The follow button has been placed in a more prominent location to help increase their follower base.
• LinkedIn is now allowing you to target status updates.
• The navigation has also received a makeover. Products and Services  have been moved to the right sidebar, intended to give your products and services more exposure to visitors of your company page.
• For select companies, such as American Express , Unilever , Expedia , LinkedIn also started to offer a more compelling and visual way for them to showcase their employer brand through the Career Pages section of Company Pages. LinkedIn thinks this new look and feel makes it easier for companies to tell their employer story and make the job hunt process more personalized for job seekers.

If you need a little help figuring out ‘How To’ upload your image, I’ve included some screenshots to walk you through the process. Hope this helps.

1. Go to your Company Page, and click to “Upload an Image.”

2. Click “Add an Image.”

3. Choose your file and upload. LinkedIn will let you resize your image if you haven’t done so already. The header needs to be 646 x 220 pixels. Click “upload.”

4. Click “Publish.” Note: What to do if  you get an error uploading your image. (This happened to me several times!) Try using Internet Explorer instead of Chrome. For some reason, I was able to upload my header image when not using Chrome.

 

If you found this article helpful, be sure to follow me on Twitter, “Like” me on Facebook and follow BrandLove, LLC on LinkedIn. I post many more tips and tricks on my other social channels. Thanks for reading my post and I appreciate your support!

Attention Facebook Page Admins! Get Simple Answers to Complex Facebook Page Questions. (Free Analytic’s App!)

If you’re a Facebook page admin looking to get your  feet wet in the world of marketing, PageLever recently launched Minilytics — a FREE app for marketers looking for quick answers to the basic marketing questions of your Facebook pages. If you’re struggling to identify how to get the most value from your Facebook page because you don’t know who your fans are, how to reach them or when to reach them, Minilytics  is a great solution. This basic analytic’s tool is a great way to get answers specific to YOUR Facebook pages: your best time to post, the number of fans your posts reach, the most popular kind of content to post for your fans and an analysis of the demographics of your fan base.

At the moment, Minilytics provides you with 4 important metrics based on your past performance, to help you adjust your strategy. You should know that the point of this tool is not to dive into deep data but to get a quick overview of how your page content is doing. It’s great for people that want to be aware of their performance but find other analytic services or even Facebook Insights too overwhelming. The tool is completely free and all you have to do is connect your Facebook account. If you’re looking for a more advanced analytics tool, check out the paid version, PageLever.

So, let’s look at the 4 metrics offered here (not in order):

How many Fans am I reaching?

Of course, one of the essential metrics in Facebook Marketing is Reach, or how many people your posts are actually reaching. It is said that the average is around the 20%, which doesn’t necessarily mean you should expect that. The below screenshot represents the performance of BrandLove’s last 7 Facebook posts. My average reach is 40.2% of my fans without any paid advertising. It also shows the mininum reach and maximum reach.

Who are my Fans?

“Who are my fans” is basically a quick snapshot and more visual version of the “Who you reached” charts provided by Facebook Insights. With the Minilytics version, you can easily read the gender and age groups. Do you think you’ll be surprised by the results of your fan base?

Best Type of Post?

In this case, Minilytics is gathering data from the last 100 posts to analyze what type of post is performing best with your audience. “Type” meaning your media, photos, videos, status or links. If you haven’t posted a certain “type,” maybe you haven’t posted any videos–Minilytics will not have any idea how those types of posts would have performed–so they are ignored for the calculation. On a side note, if you are only posting links at this time, I would highly recommend experimenting with photo’s and video’s since they have the highest reach and are the most engaging types of posts. MTV India found that photo albums increased clicks by 1290%. Seriously.

Best time to post?

Minilytics calculates this report based on the time when your Fans commented in your last 100 posts. This is valuable information if you’re looking to find premium times to post your updates. After all, your Facebook business page should be all about engaging with your fans, right?

Your report is ready!

You also have the option to print, download or get a link for your report. For some reason, there was an error with my report so I couldn’t capture a screenshot of the actual report.

If you found this article helpful, be sure to follow me on Twitter, “Like” me on Facebook and follow BrandLove, LLC on LinkedIn. I post many more tips and tricks on my other social channels. Thanks for reading my post and I appreciate your support!