How to Miss the Boat and Get Nothing Out of LinkedIn as a Social Media Platform
Posted by Debralee on Sep 21, 2011 in Important Industry News, Search Engine Watch, Site Pro News Editors Choice | 0 comments
Guest Post by Karl Walinskas
LinkedIn is a rapidly growing social media platform that caters more directly to business people than do Facebook or Twitter; particularly, business-to-business (B2B) opportunities. You probably know that already. Most of those folks are looking to succeed with LinkedIn marketing and generate new leads, business, or career opportunities. What you may not know is how profoundly you can fail on LinkedIn as a super-busy entrepreneur or small business owner. It’s easy! Just follow these 10 easy steps.
1. Don’t fill in your Profile Summary section
This is critical to failure on LinkedIn. Many people want to come up in People searches, but not a maverick like you. Leave that Summary section blank since it is the primary area that the LinkedIn search, and Google for that matter, index to learn about your value. Who needs it? Anonymity rules!
2. Limit how many people can see you and contact you
People can be downright annoying, so keep your settings such that you’ll minimize contact with them. Go to your privacy controls on the Settings tab and select the most minimalizing restrictions, like turning off your activity broadcasts (you’re not doing them anyway!), making sure only you can see your activity and networks, and ensuring that you snoop other profiles incognito. Victory is yours.
3. Put your current job only
Reality says that no one is concerned about your past work history anyway, so only post your current job. Remember the KISS principle, so keep it simple and short and avoid using redundant phrases that these SEO types call ‘keywords’. By posting only one job, you won’t have to worry about having to mess around with the boring writing of keywords in your former positions either.
4. Don’t post a photo
Photos are for supermodels. As a programmer, consultant or other business pro your work speaks for itself and your face ain’t your money-maker, so screw the personal comfort level that humans since date of birth seem to feel when they see a real person’s face behind the computer lingo. This is business, not warm and fuzzy socialization!
5. Avoid References
These are faked and everybody knows it, so why bother. Who cares if LinkedIn references actually hyperlink back to the referrer for easy verification of who’s doing the talking? If I ask other business schmos for references, they’ll just want something back from me, and who has the time?
6. Be Picky About Connections
Hold your connections close to your vest and only have that handful of network contacts that you currently do business with, that way you can call on any of them with a request and not feel guilty about it. What good can a large number of contacts do for you anyway, they’ll just bug you for their little pet projects you have no interest in whatsoever. It’s not as if LinkedIn works like Google and those contacts are like backlinks that increase your search relevance to get on page 1 when your keywords are—Ouch! No keywords written into our profiles in an easy to understand manner.
7. Don’t show your work
LinkedIn offers Applications for you to post more stuff about you, supposedly to distinguish you from other professionals. The “theory” is that when people get to your profile, you stand apart by already demonstrating what you do well via slide presentations, case studies, video (ah-hem!) and the like. Balderdash! Just something else to maintain. Why put something up that only 10 or 20 people might read or look at.
8. Groups are for wussies
Subject matter interest groups abound on LinkedIn, from job search groups to industry verticals. Who has the time to listen to a few “experts” spout off about one topic or another and post links to their blogs to generate conversations. Besides, why should I share my valuable knowledge about my industry for FREE? I’m not crazy! I get paid to offer expert commentary. Damn straight!
9. Once and done it
The beauty of a LinkedIn profile or any website is that once you get it ‘live’, you are done with it forever. The more you change it the more you can mess up your search engine rankings, right? That is the perfect slogan for LinkedIn failure. Don’t you wish you thought of it? Changing stuff around takes a lot of time to boot. Post the darn thing and be done with it.
10. SPAM your contact list with mail
If you’ve got a few contacts, you can make it even fewer by making frequent request or pitches to buy your product or service or go to your website. Contacts will drop you faster than if you tried to delete them, because they’ll do it in mass, so send out a few overly smarmy emails every week and your LinkedIn failure will be complete.
The reality is, you’re not trying to fail on LinkedIn. You want to succeed as well and generate more Linkedin business leads and use LinkedIn as a bona fide marketing took for your site, but maybe you just don’t know how. If you’re like a lot of small business owners, however, and can look yourself in the mirror and see any of the Top 10 LinkedIn Failure Methods listed above in your talk or actions, perhaps it’s time to question assumptions and change your approach. It’s opposite day and this ain’t Seinfeld, so take a look at what NOT to do, and do something else and then notice your LinkedIn statistics rise and your phone start to ringing.
If you actually want to SUCCEED on LinkedIn, check out LinkedIn Profile Optimization help by Smart Company Growth, a company owned and operated by Karl Walinskas to provide unique lead generation tools to white collar professionals. He’s authored Getting Connected Through Exceptional Leadership and many, many articles published in print and online.
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How to Miss the Boat and Get Nothing Out of LinkedIn as a Social Media Platform
Great Website for Designers
Posted by Debralee on Jul 8, 2011 in Important Industry News, Search Engine Watch, Site Pro News Editors Choice | 0 comments
I came across this website the other day, WeeNudge, and thought it might be useful for those of you (web designers) who need to teach your clients the “mysteries of the web.”
It has some really great articles on White Space, Spec Work, The Fold, Delivering Your Files, Wireframes, Content, and Giving Feedback. All very important when designing a website. An educated client is by far easier to work with than an uneducated one. Just point them in the right direction by providing them a link to the site or a specific article. This may help improve communication, and speed of delivery of your project.
Good luck!
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Great Website for Designers
Stars Wars Characters Discuss Blogging
Posted by Debralee on Apr 20, 2011 in Important Industry News, Search Engine Watch, Site Pro News Editors Choice | 0 comments
For all those Star Wars fans out there….a different take on the importance of blogging. By David Mercer. Republished from SitePreBuilder.com.
Let me guess, you thought the star wars characters weren’t bloggers, right? Wrong. They had to blog. I mean they had space ships and light sabers, surely they had an Internet connection?
So Luke, Obi Wan, Jabba, C3PO, Yoda, Han Solo and Chewbacca are sitting around talking about their blogging experiences on Tatooine. The following is a transcript recorded by some gossip columnist… a Jawa called Perez:
[C3PO]: Master Luke, I took the liberty of remotely accessing your blog. You received one comment from your sister, and a few blocked spam posts from the Tusken raiders, who seem amused by the notion of…
[Luke interrupts]
[Luke]: Blast. I’m sick of only getting read by those Tusken raiders – all they do is try and sell stuff back to me. I’ve decided to add Jabba and Chewbacca as guest bloggers to increase my reach and build traffic.
[Yoda]: When ten thousands visits in one day you get, crash your server it will. Mmm.
[Han Solo]: It always crash this, crash that with you isn’t it, Yoda? A disturbance in the Internet exchange, a disturbance in my Google analytics. Why don’t you shut up. No one reads your blog anyway.
[Chewbacca]: Wooo oooo ooo!
[C3PO]: Dreadful creature. That’s your answer for everything. Well, master Luke and I are taking you off the blogroll immediately.
[Han Solo]: I suggest you keep the wookie on your blogroll.
[C3PO]: And why would I do that?
[Han Solo]: Because other bloggers won’t tear your arms off.
[Jabba]: Ho ho ho. Nganga tu social media, ipi lo viral marketing. Ho ho ho
[Jabba licks his lips]
[Han Solo]: Err, I don’t think Jabba’s going to fit in well with hooray-for-good-guys.com’s style, even if he’s got 2 million followers on uglyface-book.com.
[Obi Wan]: He’s right Luke. These are not the guest bloggers you are looking for.
[Luke]: And what would you know Obi? I haven’t seen your face on Slashdot or Digg recently.
[awkward silence]
[Yoda]: Much black-hat SEO I sense in Jabba. Seduced by the dark side of Internet marketing he is. Spam, he does. Hidden links. Mmm.
[Luke]: Alright fine. I won’t go with Jabba. But I can’t pay for the servers unless I start getting some traffic.
[Obi Wan]: I’ve got it, Luke. You will make up a story that starts right here on Tatooine and then grows into an epic battle of good versus evil. You will write about it in six blogs with backlinks and social integration.
[C3PO]: Capitol idea, Master Wan. We could call it Star wars and it would be an ever so exciting adventure. We can write press release, and articles. Merchandising, advertising, affiliate marketing.. it’s got it all.
[Luke]: Hey, that’s not bad. I could be the hero who saves the whole galaxy.
[Han Solo coughs loudly]
[Jabba]: Ho ho ho. Begu lapa lo stupid idea, ngingu star wars. Ho ho ho
[Luke]: Shut it, Jabba. We’re doing it anyway. Keep up that attitude and someone’s going to strangle you one of these days, I swear.
[Obi Wan]: It’s settled then. Luke and I will travel to a Galaxy far far away and begin selling our blogs’ syndication rights to gullible aliens. I already have a contact, his name is George.
[Static sounds... Recording ends]
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Stars Wars Characters Discuss Blogging
Another Charlie Sheen Review? – Guest Post by David Meerman Scott
Posted by Debralee on Apr 14, 2011 in Important Industry News, Search Engine Watch, Site Pro News Editors Choice | 0 comments
I must admit that I have been fascinated, if not confused by Charlie Sheen’s behavior of late, but short of seeing him in action myself I’ve posted a review and comments by someone I admire and respect in the Internet Marketing – Social Media sphere. David’s review is one of the best I’ve seen yet on any media. Let me know what you think!
Charlie Sheen and his stage
I caught the Charlie Sheen Violent Torpedo of Truth show last night in Boston. I was eager to check him out live because I have been fascinated with how he has used social media. I wrote about his amazing use of content (videos & Twitter) and how he has mainstream media talking about him: Why Charlie Sheen matters
Sheen in Boston
I watched his show as a professional speaker. I’m someone who knows what it’s like to be given a stage for an hour or more. I know the feeling of walking out in front of more than 1,000 people.
It is an incredible gift to be given a stage. People take time out of their day to hear what you have to say (and sometimes pay money too). The gift of an audience should never be taken lightly.
Once you’re given a stage, you need to deliver. It is not easy.
I see a lot of bad presentations on the speaking circuit. Bestselling authors who think they deserve the stage and do not craft a speech. CEOs who talk incessantly about their company’s stupid products. An Olympian who thinks showing a few video clips from the race is enough.
What would Charlie Sheen do with his stage?
Sheen could have gone the standup comedy route but he did not.
Sheen could have gone the professional speaker route and delivered a well-crafted speech with a story arc while providing his audience with motivation to act. But he did not.
Sheen sort of hosted a variety show. It sort of worked in places. In others it fell flat.
It worked best when Charlie Sheen was being Charlie Sheen.
He led off by coming out from the back of the room boxer style, with security around him. The entire audience was on its feet. This was a good opener.
He delivered his now famous one-liners often, throwing “Winning” “Tiger Blood” and “Trolls” around a lot. This was good because it got the audience on his side. Give ‘em what they want.
Early on, he turned his TelePrompTer around so we could see it. (It displayed “How do you like Boston?”) He then went on a mini-rant about how “These TelePrompTers are the electronic tools of trolls.” I thought that was hysterical.
“How do you guys feel to be on the drug called Charlie Sheen – Now you know what I feel like! I’m like this all the time!” This line got a cheer.
He lost much of the audience when he spent about 20 minutes hosting a “contest” to find “the third goddess” to add to his harem. A dozen women were invited up on stage (I think at least three were plants). Each had a short moment with the man himself as he asked why she should be goddess number 3. The audience voted by cheering who was the best.
The intermission was fascinating. His YouTube video Charlie Sheen: The Unedited Version played on the big screen. It was kinda cool actually – the virtual Charlie Sheen in the form of his own YouTube video serving as entertainment during the intermission to his live show. Fortunately the video and the intermission were short.
The second half dragged because Sheen took a series of inane questions from the audience. As any professional speaker knows, when you open it up for questions, people can say anything.
Rather than “dealing with the question” as a politician would and just riffing in any way he wants, he actually tried to answer the dumb questions.
I did like how he took a photo of the audience and had a helper tweet it out live. Nice.
Bottom Line:
As a standup artist, Charlie Sheen stinks.
As a motivational speaker, Charlie Sheen stinks even more.
As the host of a variety show, Charlie sheen is terrible.
But Charlie Sheen is damned good at being Charlie Sheen and that’s what I paid for so I was satisfied. I’m glad I went.
I’m convinced that Sheen is enjoying himself immensely during this process. He has the media hanging on his every word and millions of supporters. So who is #Winning?
Boston show tweet
Posted by David Meerman Scott on April 13, 2011 Web Ink Now: Charlie Sheen and his stage
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Another Charlie Sheen Review? – Guest Post by David Meerman Scott
Online Marketing Explained with Reference to Cows – Guest Blog by David Mercer
Posted by Debralee on Apr 8, 2011 in Important Industry News, Search Engine Watch, Site Pro News Editors Choice | 0 comments
Starting a new blog or website can be a bit of a trial, but it’s almost always more of a challenge to get people to come and visit it at first. Inevitably you end up having to go and read up on online marketing and that’s where the fun and games begin.
If you’ve ever struggled to understand the lingo when it comes to promoting a website or blog online then the following list of definitions should help you to find your way around.
Social marketing
You have a cow.
You show some friends a clip of a man being hit in the crotch.
They tell their friends who pay money to come and look at your cow.
Social media
You have a cow.
You tell your friends.
People start listening to what you have to say.
Affiliate marketing
Your neighbor has a cow.
You show a film clip of a man being hit in the crotch.
You charge people to go see your neighbor’s cow.
Traffic
You have a cow.
You put it on the side of the road.
People stop to look at it.
Spam
You have a cow.
You put it in the middle of the road, stopping traffic.
A few morons buy some viagra from you, making the initiative profitable.
SEO
You have a cow.
You put up a road sign with “Cow” in the title.
Passers by stop to look at your cow; you charge them for parking and sell them lemonade.
Content
You have a cow.
You write a novel about it.
A pig farmer copies your novel, paraphrases and publishes it as his own.
PageRank
You and your neighbor each have a cow.
You both put signs up to advertise your cows.
You pay someone to move your sign directly in front of the neighbor’s in the middle of the night.
Advertising
You have a cow.
People pay you to paint their logos onto your cow.
Your cow looks like a billboard.
ROI (Return On Investment)
You have a cow.
You pay $50 to dye it pink.
People flock to buy tickets to see your cow; you earn $1000.
Conversion
You have a cow.
You refurbish the barn.
More people pay to look at the cow.
Reality
You have a cow.
No one cares.
If you still don’t understand online marketing…
Don’t have a cow, man.
David Mercer, http://www.siteprebuilder.com, is one of the most experienced technical writers in the world today, having contributed to books that have have been translated into virtually every major language in the world.
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Online Marketing Explained with Reference to Cows – Guest Blog by David Mercer
Content curation – Guest Blog by David Meerman Scott
Posted by Debralee on Feb 26, 2011 in Important Industry News, Search Engine Watch, Site Pro News Editors Choice | 0 comments
An interesting aspect of the culture of sharing on social networks is that of content curation. This is the act of pointing your followers to content from other people.
Have your say
Anyone who sometimes uses Twitter to send people to an interesting blog post or news article or video that they did not create is curating content. A retweet is a form of content curation too.
Essentially the idea is that you find things that interest you and share them. If you become known as “always finding the good stuff” people will eagerly follow you even if you don’t do much in the way of original content.
This human approach to content selection is very different than an algorithmic approach than used in a search engine like Google.
If you do online book or music reviews, you’re curating content. When you blog about other people’s work you’re curating content.
SXSW Future 15
Content curation happens offline too. At the South-by-Southwest Interactive Festival in a few weeks, I’m curating a panel discussion on social business. SXSW calls this a Future 15 because each of ten panelists gets just 15 minutes to present. I curated the ten panelists from among the thousands of panel submissions to create a unified two and a half hour session that fits together under the theme “social business”.
The SAY 100
The SAY 100, launching today from SAY Media, highlights “100 of the most interesting and influential voices online today” and is a great example of content curation. SAY Media worked with ten experts in ten categories, to discover interesting content and communities – the people that are driving discussion and influencing opinion online.
Michael Sippey, VP of Artist Development at SAY Media says: “We built Say 100 to highlight the power shift that’s happening in media from brand name sites, newspapers, magazines, etc. to individual voices.”
Here are a few:
Seth Godin curated the Say 100 business channel. You’ll recognize some familiar voices there.
Jane Pratt curated the Style channel, and picked great people like Tavi Gevinson and Scott Schuman of The Sartorialist
Clay Shirky curated the Thought Leaders channel, and picked some big brains like danah boyd, Sady Doyle and Richard Lipton.
Tina Roth Eisenberg curated the Design channel, and picked some fantastic bloggers like Will Hudson and Daniel Howells.
This is really cool stuff because now I have a bunch of hand selected blogs that are new to me to check out.
How are you curating content as a way of building an audience?
About the Author: David Meerman Scott, author of the blog WebInNow, is a marketing strategist, entrepreneur, keynote speaker, seminar leader, and the author of the hit new book World Wide Rave. His previous book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR, was a number-one bestseller and is being published in twenty-two languages. He is a recovering VP of marketing for two publicly traded technology companies and was also Asia marketing director for Knight-Ridder, at the time one of the world’s largest newspaper and electronic information companies. David has lived and worked in New York, Tokyo, Boston, and Hong Kong and has presented at industry conferences and events in more than forty countries.
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Content curation – Guest Blog by David Meerman Scott
10 Jobs Where Hiring Will Serge in 2011
Posted by Debralee on Jan 27, 2011 in Important Industry News, Search Engine Watch, Site Pro News Editors Choice | 0 comments
I found this article to be quite interesting….what job grabs the #1 spot??
The 10 Jobs Where Hiring Will Surge In 2011 by Leah Goldman in Business Insider.
#1 Mobile Applications Developer
Projected hiring growth: 131%
Projected openings: 50,000+
Average starting salary: $73,250-$102,500
Why it’s hot: booming popularity of app networks that support mobile devices
Read more: www.businessinsider.com/jobs-that-are-hiring-2011-1
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10 Jobs Where Hiring Will Serge in 2011