Top 5 mistakes you could be making with LinkedIn
If LinkedIn isn’t working for your business, you could be making one or all of these 5 common mistakes.
Keep your business-building on track by following these guidelines
Where do I find content ideas?
Reminders of key dates in your sector, awareness of sector-specific events that would be relevant to them, training that you’re embarking on to show you’re up to date in your field all support a good social media strategy, alongside other marketing solutions.
Key strategies to optimise your LinkedIn profile
So try describing what you do, who you help and what you help them achieve in a sentence so that your audience can tell if you offer the kind of help they’re looking for and you have an appropriate headline* to ‘travel’ with you all around LinkedIn.
*The headline is your descriptive that you see under your name, which displays whenever you like, react or comment on a post below your profile picture so that anyone else who has reacted to that post would see it.
Why you need a social media strategy
When we talk about raising awareness of your brand, we are really focusing on your values. If you’re on social media for business purposes, your ultimate goal is to make sales whether that’s consultations or products, so that’s when you make offers to sell. Typically you’re looking at a ratio of 80% informative or entertaining posts to 20% of sales posts.
Does your LinkedIn profile speak to your ideal customer?
If a user searches LinkedIn for an expert in a certain field, they are unlikely to search for “business owner” for example, so when you set up your bio think about who you help so they may find you more easily.
Blogs, podcasts or videos? Which content is right for your business?
What’s the best way of keeping your website fresh? Writing a blog, creating a podcast, or adding video to your website?
How does your audience like to consume content? If you’ve done your ideal client avatar (ICA) work you’ll know a fair bit about your clientele; Where they hang out so that you can reach them, how busy they are, where they have time for a read or whether they like to consume content on the go and a podcast perhaps? Or maybe they prefer to watch a video at the comfort of their desk or at a café with earphones?
7 steps to stay consistent on social media
Be consistent with your marketing as all the effort you put in now pays dividends later. Set aside 20 minutes a day of dedicated time to post and engage on social media. Look at forthcoming events in my diary and create content that complements.
How to build a quality social media following
Yes, growing organically and authentically is much slower but don’t all relationships take time to build? The good lasting ones do. So when you think about posting on social media, don't simply post every day because someone told you you should. If you haven’t got anything helpful, useful or fun to share on a particular day, why not spend the time engaging with others on your platforms of choice?
Is video part of your marketing mix?
From the group training work I’ve done I know there was hesitancy to use video. We seem to have a fear of appearing on camera, is it because we worry about what others think of us? Partly that, but deeper it is the concern that we need a full production crew behind us to ensure great quality.
So what is social media marketing?
Use social media to support your business by building your community.
Not telling your audience what you do but how you can help them. See if you can narrow down the characteristics you notice in your ideal client. Aim to speak to your ideal client in your bio and use the law of reciprocity
Do you reflect on how far you’ve come?
I’m approaching my first six month mark and I have definitely discovered what makes me most happy. If you’ve seen anything of my previous blogs you’ll know I recently held a webinar to encourage business owners to get started with Instagram - perhaps you may have joined me for it?
As I delivered a workshop for a retail group last week, their key requirements were to show their audience the products they had available, whether it was in a bakery, a gift shop to show what products their audience could buy through click and collect or deliveries, or even a tour round the barbers or restaurant to show what safety measures they have been putting in place in preparation for re-opening.