We’ve just made some great likeminded Twitter friends, The Media Octopus – cool name, huh! The Media Octopus is a Manchester based digital marketing agency using creativity and experience to help their clients bring their products to market, reach new audiences and generate leads. Specialising in SEO, social media, content marketing, email marketing and website design.
Here we have their first guest blog post which focuses on getting the most out of LinkedIn. Written by The Media Octopus Social Media Executive Pamela Bustard. We’ve got some other blog posts all around LinkedIn and Social Media on the BeSeen Blog, you can check them out here.
With over 260 million users on LinkedIn, this social platform has grown into a worldwide networking community of like-minded people from 260 million different businesses. The world’s largest business to business online channel, LinkedIn is the ideal place to search, identify and engage with professionals, including current clients and prospective customers, generate leads and promote what your company does, sharing updates and website content links.
While it’s important for your business to have a presence with a Company Page, at The Media Octopus we think it’s important for you to consider your own personal profile when representing your business. We also believe that rather than using LinkedIn as a social media tool, pushing out sales messages and promoting your businesses, it should be utilised as a social networking channel; more about building up relationships and generating interactions with people to establish connections.
Here are our top 3 tips on how to get the most out of the social network on a personal level, to benefit both you and your business:
1) Do you sell yourself in your profile?
These days it’s all about personal branding; establishing your own identity, representing both your business and role, as well as acknowledging and identifying your own individual skills, achievements and areas of expertise in your field. While there’s a balance between being arrogant and being modest your value, consider what people remember about you – why should others connect with you?
Make sure your profile is full of value, don’t be shy to share the successes and outcomes of the facts listed on your ‘About Me’ section. Add context to these points so others can immediately gain more from the bullet points of skills. Always include an appropriate photo on your profile too – research by LinkedIn found that you are seven times more likely to be viewed if you include one. Not only that, but 86% of people do not trust someone they cannot see, so don’t use logos or avatars either.
2) Are you connecting with the right people?
Relationships are key to getting your name (and your business name) out there and widening your network, reaching out to the people you want to notice you. A crucial element of this is reputation – what people say about you when you’re not ‘in the room’. How can this be achieved? Know who you’re talking to within the relevant industries and professions, whether from conversations via email, phone or face-to-face, develop a friendly association and most importantly, establish trust between the two parties.
By using LinkedIn with these in mind, plus reminding your connections what you can offer (both individually, as part of your role and from the business in general) and how you can help them, you should ideally build up a mutually beneficial network of contacts. It’s also worth considering whether you want a vast network with many connections or a more intimate one with fewer people; make it work for you.
3) Make it work as a referral engine
Along with an updated profile, with the right platform and strategy in terms of reach, connections and activity on the social networking channel, LinkedIn can work for you and your business. Described as “word of mouth on digital steroids”, all these aspects of having a LinkedIn presence can lead to getting a recommendation or endorsements from those who feel you deserve credit for your work. These are valuable on a personal level but are also reflective of your business and as such, help to spread the word naturally throughout both your own and your network’s network. Nothing speaks louder than words than an honest referral, which could result in a lead.
Professional use of LinkedIn can help to raise your game, expand your network and secure leads and sales. So what are you waiting for, get your profile updated, get engaged, share interesting content and make people want to connect with you!
Why not get connected with The Media Octopus company page on LinkedIn?
Pamela Bustard – Social Media Executive at The Media Octopus
My role as Social Media Executive for Manchester based digital marketing agency, The Media Octopus, is being the voice for everything we do, managing social media channels for both our internal brands, such as The Data Octopus, as well as external client brands.
Across the main social media channels, including Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Facebook and Pinterest, my aim for our brands is to promote relevant content, raise brand awareness, generate leads (for B2B clients), while continuously increasing online presence and establishing a brand identity.
Researching industry-related news content to ensure our brands are constantly at the forefront of changes and trends, I ensure these are communicate through social media platforms to further add credibility and expertise. I have a passion for creating and maintaining appropriate and approachable identities while building and nurturing connections and relationships. Tracking, monitoring and analysing social activity also play a fundamental part in determining the direction of content promoted through these online avenues for our brands.
As well as keeping our social profiles constantly updated, I assist with online content writing for our internal brands, such as blogs and newsletter editorial pieces, plus contributing ideas to the digital marketing strategies for our businesses.
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