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If you’re one of the literally millions of people who is using LinkedIn only as a personal résumé and business-related social network, you’re missing out on the numerous ways that this powerful site can help your marketing strategy. Here’s a list of tricks you can use to turn your LinkedIn account into a marketing workhorse:

1.  Remember that Google likes LinkedIn.  Your LinkedIn profile is very likely to show up high in search results, so make sure that the information on your profile is both useful and up to date.  Use your profile as a way to show off your knowledge, accolades, and any other information that might help give potential customers confidence in you.

2.  Keep tabs on what your competitors are doing.  LinkedIn does its best to help you find other businesses that are working in the same or a similar niche as you.  Use this to your advantage by staying aware of what the competition is offering that you’re not, and what sorts of expertise and experience they have that you might be able to improve on.

3.  Offer your expertise as evidence.  The LinkedIn Answers feature allows people who know things to share them with the people who want to know.  If you get involved with answering questions in your areas of expertise, you can quickly become known as the go-to person when people want something related to your company’s focus.  Being regarded as an expert in your field can have a wonderful effect on your business and the number of people who seek you out when they need help.

4.  Promote your site and blog.  LinkedIn provides the facility to import your RSS feed directly onto your profile.  This means that people who find your LinkedIn profile via internal search or Google can have a quick look at your blog and see what sorts of content you offer.  Of course, the real key here is to make sure that your content is always fresh and relevant, but that kind of goes without saying.

5.  Join a group, or start one.  If you’re like me, you probably already belong to one or several LinkedIn Groups that you never participate in.  Change that – start being a visible presence, or if you don’t feel any existing group is the right fit for you, create one and encourage people to join!  This has a similar effect to getting involved with answering questions – you can gain respect as a leader and highly visible personality in your niche.

What are some unique ways you’ve maximized Linked In as part of your marketing strategy?

One of the great things about YouTube is that the site can be used for so many purposes – entertainment, education, promotion, or a combination of the three. The sheer amount of visibility that your company can get by just having a few well-constructed promotional videos is staggering, and it’s something you shouldn’t ignore if you want to get the absolute most out of your marketing strategy.

Another great feature of YouTube is that it’s free, but it’s a good idea to have a professional team to come in shoot and edit your videos for you Not necessarily, though you need to have some self-awareness as to whether or not you are capable of making the kinds of videos on your own that will best show off what your company is about.

One thing you want to remember is to break things up into bite-sized chunks. Your average YouTube viewer does not want to watch a 30-minute video on any subject. Pick one small topic for your video, and keep it short and energetic. People are much more likely to watch ten one-minute videos than one ten-minute video.

Regardless of length, your videos still have to provide entertainment value. Entertaining your audience means that they will be more likely to play the video more than once, and they will also share it with their friends on other social networks. For inspiration on how to make your message entertaining, have a look at BlendTec’s YouTube channel and see what they did with a simple product message turned into a tantalizing question (“will it blend?”).

With that said, your videos don’t always have to have some sort of gimmick in order to be successful. Plenty of businesses do well just by providing value in the form of useful information (http://cogoresults.com/online-digital-buzz-northern-virginia.php). Are there some tips and tricks in your line of work that regular people on the street wouldn’t know? Divulge a few, make sure the titles of your videos are accurately descriptive, and watch your view counts grow. Sharing an industry trick about how to get stains out of carpet (if home interiors is your business) or a quicker way to put on false eyelashes (if cosmetics is your business) will not only help people, it will make them more likely to subscribe to your channel and have a look at your website.

Make sure to tag your videos with keywords and keyword-phrases that are specific to your business, and always include a link back to your website.

How have you had video success?

If you were ever in any doubt about the effectiveness of social media and online marketing, looking at the successes of other businesses can really help turn you into a believer. Seeing what these companies have done with their campaigns may inspire you to do some forward thinking of your own!

Innovating with Facebook

Facebook has always been a great marketing tool, but it can really take your business to stratospheric heights if you just use some of the standard functions in an extraordinary way. In this marketing campaign for IKEA, photos of showrooms were uploaded at various intervals, and the person who tagged themselves first on any item in the photo, won that item. This led to massive interlinking, and a hugely viral success for IKEA.

Tweet your way to the spotlight

The key with Twitter is to take advantage of the ease and speed with which communication happens. Making tweeting fun for your followers is a great way to get them talking nonstop about your product. Take this example of the new Ford Focus – Ford had a cake created in the shape of the car, and the cake contained technology that allowed it to automatically speak tweets containing a special Ford Focus hashtag. While you may not be thinking of such a large marketing gimmick, it’s a great idea to think of ways to use hashtags to spread your message.

Use the Power of Video

As the above two case study descriptions demonstrate, having a video can really help your audience see what you’re all about. Video can also be used to bring you closer to your audience and give your company that personal feel. Home Depot has taken advantage of the video medium to share a number of do-it-yourself tutorials that help customers learn techniques from an expert that will assist them in making the most of Home Depot products. Customers can then feel more confident about their ability to do things themselves. If this tactic can work to put a human face on such a gigantic corporation, imagine what a few well thought out tutorial videos could do to boost your business.

Do you have a social media success story to share?

Facebook keeps expanding the ways in which page admins can customize their business pages, but a lot of what you can do is limited by how much you understand about the developer side of Facebook. However, you don’t need to be a programmer to make a great looking custom tab if you use one of the free apps out there that can help you turn your creative ideas into actual pages for your Facebook presence. One of the most popular free apps is the  iFrame App by Wildfire, and it really couldn’t be easier to use.

Installation is a breeze – just click the big “install this app” button on the main page and follow the authentication instructions. After the app is installed, there will be a screen on your page that talks you through the procedures to create custom content. You can either use an image that you created in another application (like Photoshop), or if you’re good with html, you can create a page that looks like a web page and paste the html into the provided text window. Wildfire takes care of the rest.

One of the best features of the Wildfire app is what is called the “fan gate.” Basically what this does is create a “front door” page where visitors see a greeting or introduction page, but in order to get to the rest of your page’s content, the visitor has to “Like” your page first. Wildfire allows you to create the separate content for fans and non-fans all on one page of the app, and it’s as simple as uploading the appropriate image or pasting in your html, whichever you prefer.

At the moment, the iFrame Wildfire app is free, but Wildfire has indicated that they may charge for it in the future. They have generously offered to let existing users continue using the app for free indefinitely, so if you’re looking for a good, free resource for Facebook customization, get Wildfire installed now before they start charging for it. It’s such a simple app to use, even those with little or no programming knowledge can make beautiful custom tabs, landing pages, and even special tabs like contests and surveys. Having a beautiful Facebook page can really help your conversion rates, so there’s no reason not to get started on this right away.

Peg McDermott

Cogo Interactive

Getting traffic to your website is the first key to getting people to buy your product or service.  If you’ve been having trouble getting those numbers heading in the right direction, it may be time to switch things up a little and try some different tactics.

1. Appeal to people in an old-school way.  Bumper stickers, posters, t-shirts, and business cards may seem like marketing tools for another generation, but there’s a reason these marketing tools exist: because they work.  This is especially true if your company is location-based and you’re looking to drum up local business.

2. Give things away. People love winning free stuff, so hosting occasional giveaways for your website readers will keep them coming back.  You don’t have to spend a fortune to do this, but keep in mind that the nicer the giveaways, the more often people will check your site to see what’s new.  It’s better to do nicer giveaways less often than to do frequent ones – too much of anything gets boring, eventually.

3. Write a free ebook.  This may be time-consuming, but it can pay off in big ways, and many successful websites have a free ebook driving traffic to the site.  The more informative and useful the eBook, the better.  Don’t be afraid to give away some good tips in exchange for your audience’s trust and loyalty.

4. Get into guest posting.  Writing as a guest on other sites in your niche can be a great way to attract huge amounts of traffic in one fell swoop.  Just make sure that when the new people arrive at your site, you have something amazing there to share with them.

5. Invite guest posters. Having a prominent blogger write for your blog can be just as effective as writing for theirs.  They are almost guaranteed to mention the guest post on their site, and then you will have their readers coming over to check out your site.

6. Fine-tune your SEO.  With the recent changes to Google’s search algorithm, your old SEO may not be as effective as it once was.  Either update your SEO skills and your site, or hire someone who can get the job done for you.

7. Flaunt your expertise.  Search forums and social networks for people who are talking about topics related to your site.  Step into conversations and offer your help, or your take on things.  Mention your qualifications, and make sure your signature or profile contains a link back to your site!

As we head into February, hopefully you’re starting to see how the changes you’ve made to your marketing strategy  for this year are manifesting.  However, trends are hardly static, and as soon as you start implementing one set of tactics, new developments emerge that can help you decide how to fine-tune your efforts.

Mobile is major! More and more people are browsing on their mobile devices, so it’s imperative that your sites are mobile compatible. Additionally, it is often worthwhile for companies to consider creating their own mobile app. This is generally important for sites that lend themselves to being accessed on-the-go. Businesses that offer location-based components, ecommerce stores, and easily-digestible mobile content like articles or blog posts would likely do well to offer a native app. Many companies can simply ensure that their mobile site provides a good browsing experience, without incurring the additional cost of developing an app.

Another thing that is growing by leaps and bounds in the first quarter of 2012 is video advertising .  Consumers are responding both to the rapport that can be established over video, and also the comfortable familiarity and resemblance to television ads.  Online video advertising can be done for a fraction of the cost of TV ads, so there’s no reason not to branch out and connect with a bigger audience in this way.

Exclusivity is another feature that consumers seem to love.  Having trouble getting your customers to “like” your Facebook page?  Offer special, exclusive content or offers to those who do, and watch those numbers soar.  Many businesses have even found success with offering a tiered paid subscription service that lets subscribers in on special deals or offers.  Keep in mind, though, if you’re going to charge money, the reward customers get will have to be worth it.

On the flip side of the exclusivity issue is loyalty.  Getting customers is one part of your goal, but keeping them is even more important.  Establishing a loyalty program with rewards is a great way to make sure customers stick around, but you should also create a series of perpetual action opportunities that give your customers incentive to try various products or services.

Social gaming is a huge deal right now.  If your business has an actual bricks-and-mortar premises, location-based services like Foursquare can help you take advantage of all that social gameplay has to offer, by creating deals and offers for people who prove their loyalty with frequent visits.  You can even create points-based social games on your Facebook page, giving your fans and followers some friendly competition, and keeping them interacting with you the whole time.

Probably the most important thing you can focus on right now is using transparency to increase your online integrity perception.  Being completely open and honest with your audience about who you are, what you stand for, and how you feel about things like privacy can make potential customers more confident about trusting your company with things like personal data.  That sort of connection is essential in this age of online purchasing.

As you know, you can often have better success with concentrating your efforts on reaching a lower number of people whom you know to be in your target market, than just marketing to the general public and hoping for the best.  You may automatically think that Facebook is the place to be, and there’s certainly an argument for the benefit of Facebook for most businesses, but if there were a fairly well populated niche social network that caters to the same market as your company, then it would make sense for you to at least do some test marketing in that network.  It doesn’t matter if “everyone” is on Facebook – if your target customers are elsewhere, then that’s where you need to be.

Whatever social network ends up working best for you, make sure you implement a system of perpetual testing, and keep an eye on the numbers.  If there was a time when MySpace was working for you as a marketing tool that probably isn’t the case anymore.  In the same way, today’s social networks will evolve, and some will eventually give way to newcomers.  Be prepared pick up and move from one social network to another when the appropriate time comes.

For most of us, social media benefits our businesses for two reasons. One, it gives us a way to engage and interact with both customers and potential customers on a personal level. Two, it gives us a platform from which we can market our products and services in a way that will help us connect with the largest audience possible.

Often these two aspects of social media for business overlap quite a bit, and that’s where it’s important to be careful with just how much self-promotion you’re doing in the scope of your everyday social media efforts. While self-promotion is certainly a big part of having a social media presence, being social is the key factor in making your marketing efforts work in your favor.

We’ve all run across that person on Twitter or Facebook, the one who never shuts up about how great their product is, or how their service can help you. How long did it take you to unfollow them? No one wants to listen to a stream of repetitive marketing speak 24/7, so it’s important not to be that person if you want to build a responsive social media following.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with talking about your product on your business social media accounts – that’s what you’re there for, after all. But you have to know where to draw the line between tasteful marketing and obnoxious marketing. If someone on a social network asks you a business-related question and there’s an opportunity to get your marketing message out there, go for it. But if someone asks you how your weekend went, chances are they just want to know how your weekend went.

For some of us, the concept of choosing when not to market is quite foreign. Marketing used to be a one-way conversation – you sent the message, and your target market either got it or they didn’t. These days, marketing is much more give-and-take – your customers ask what they want to know, and you can respond in the context of an actual, one-on-one conversation. Keeping that conversation flowing naturally is essential to keeping their attention.

Today’s social media users are intelligent people. They can smell over-marketing a mile away. If you put the emphasis on being approachable and informative instead, people will want to talk to you more often, which puts you in a great position in terms of building up an audience of potential customers.

2012 is finally here, which means you have a clean slate to build an improved social media strategy that will better benefit your business in the coming months. Here are some things to keep in mind when constructing your strategy for this year:

Don’t only promote your own stuff. No one wants to listen to you talk about your product or service incessantly. Remember that social media issocial before all else – you can talk normally and share other content while still being informative and helpful about your business, and it will make you seem more like a real person.

Do answer people who message you. Communication is important. People remember when they are ignored, and they also remember when they get a prompt response. Which way do you want to be remembered?

Do train your employees on the company culture before giving them social media access. There’s no better medicine than prevention, so to avoid embarrassing social media disasters in your business, make sure each employee fully understands your social media guidelines, and what image the company is trying to convey.

Don’t send auto-DMs. Nothing says “we don’t really care about you” like sending the same automatic message out to everyone. Take the time to write your direct messages personally, and avoid sounding like you’re quoting from a form letter.

Do follow people with whom you’re engaged in conversation online. If you’re talking to someone online, you can assume they talk to others, as well. Use this to your advantage – follow people you’re engaged with and watch your own network grow.

If you need help developing a strategy, please call me at 703-885-8406 or email us at: info@cogoresults.com.