Category: Social Media Marketing
Creating a Business Listing on LinkedIn
While many associate LinkedIn with resume posting, it’s also a simple way to expose your company to an unlimited sea of connections. We know there is a lot of skepticism associated with social media marketing, but once you’ve signed up for a website like LinkedIn, your business has the ability to be linked to anyone from potential clients to suppliers, industry allies and even your competitors.
Simple Steps to Create A Business Listing on LinkedIn:
1. When joining LinkedIn as a business, enter your company name and email information. Remember to use the entire name of your company. That way no matter how your business is searched, it will show up in search results.
2. Next, you should work to perfect your page. Start with the basic information essential to your company. What do people need to know about your company?
3. Include contact information, the company’s website address, a description of the company and its services, choose the industry in which you belong (include your specialties!) and any other information you think is vital.
4. Differentiate your brand by including your most identifiable image – logo, taglines or links to regularly updated content (including newsletters and blog posts).
Remember, social media outlets are all about exposure. So, don’t forget to incorporate some of the more traditional, tried and true methods of getting your company name and product out into the public. All too often we see companies focus on staying up to date with social media sites that they neglect other marketing methods. Here at Barcelona Creative, we believe that successful marketing strategies are integrated, cross-channel and interactive.
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You’re LinkedIn… Now What?
LinkedIn is a professional social media network that was started in December of 2002 and launched in May of 2003. While many associate this form of social media with resume posting, if you think that’s all you can do with it, then you’re missing out.
Lately we’ve received a lot of questions regarding LinkedIn: how to use it, what to use it for, and what are the benefits for a business? As always, Barcelona Creative is here to help you champion the intricacies of professional social networking.
In addition to posting your resume, LinkedIn allows you to develop your business/marketing/sales, brand yourself, job search, follow companies and organizations and recruit.
When you create your profile on LinkedIn, you can join and create new groups and join industry networks. Once you become part of these groups (you have to request membership and be approved), you can connect with other group members to grow your networks and participate in questions and discussions.
For the average LinkedIn user, your homepage consists of very basic, yet useful tools. Here are some that you should become familiar with:
Search Tool: The Search Window on LinkedIn allows you to search various companies and executives. Searching these will allow you to view what networks companies are most linked to and whom you are connected to that are a members of various companies.
Inbox: The Inbox feature is worth more than just basic messaging. This is the way to check new connections and find out whether or not your requests are accepted.
Your Contacts and Your Networks: Through the section on the right labeled “Your Networks” you can see not only who has joined LinkedIn in your networks recently but how many additional professionals your connections link you to. Those to whom you are connected are great resources, so don’t be shy. Asking to be recommended by former employers, colleagues and clients is common and can add credibility.
Jobs you should take a look at: This is the meat and potatoes that lead so many people to join LinkedIn. When you follow a company, you can see who’s been hired or changed positions within the company and what job opportunities currently exist. This also means that, as a business, you can post available positions within your company.
Links or News: This allows you to contribute what you know and what you are reading in the news. Utilize this tool in a professional capacity, as this website is geared toward the world of experts and colleagues in your field.
LinkedIn, when used to its full potential, offers so much more than a website to post your resume. It’s a chance to establish your identity in your professional arena and grow your network to help you build your career.
Illinois Continuity of Care Association hosts a special event on Social Media
The Illinois Continuity of Care Association 
utilizes an extensively organized process of combining all aspects that ultimately create high quality patient/client care. The process combines the patient, the family and the team working together to ease the shift from one level of care to another.
Members of the Illinois Continuity of Case Association benefit in many different ways with all the association has to offer. Members are presented with networking opportunities with healthcare colleagues, as well as opportunities to identify key professional resources and services amongst the community. The Illinois Continuity of Case Association also hosts special events throughout the year. These events serve as a channel to enlighten the community of proven strategies that have ultimately helped businesses throughout the community become more successful.
Evolving technologies bring new challenges and opportunities for businesses and their brands. Social Media, when used effectively, can help businesses build relationships, create meaningful conversations and increase word of mouth. Our own Vice President, Juli Barcelona, will present success stories she has experienced with incorporating Social Media into the overall marketing strategy of Barcelona Creative Group as well as the strategies of their client’s businesses.
For more information please visit our Facebook event page.
If you have questions on how to successfully incorporate social media tools into your company’s marketing plan, please contact Juli Barcelona by email at juli@barcelonacreative.com or call her at 708.448.8077.
How will you grow your business in 2010?
For those of you who may not know who Jeffrey Gitomer is, Gitomer is defined as a creative, on-the-edge, writer and speaker whose expertise on sales, customer loyalty, and personal development is world renowned (according to www.gitomer.com). I have read quite a few things by Jeffrey Gitomer. I was turned on to his writing by my Dad, who on a somewhat regular basis will send me, and my brother and sister, Jeffrey’s weekly e-zine – Sales Caffeine. Others may know him for his very popular “Little” books.
I was doing some reading today, getting into gear for 2010 after having a few days off from work, when I came across an article my Dad gave me by Jeffrey Gitomer from the Grand Rapids Business Journal. The article is entitled “Social media – the new cold call; do you want to play?” I was going to share it by just simply bookmarking it on our company’s Delicious page, but instead, I decided I needed to write about why I liked the article so much and share that with you.
To summarize, the article talks about how one by one, the non-believers of social media are being converted by the social media believers. I find this to be true in the work that I do everyday. Clients, who were once skeptical, are now becoming believers and beginning to see the great value and possibilities offered by social media tools. They are turning to us to help them incorporate social media into their overall marketing strategies – and seeing great success in doing so.
According to Gitomer, “the big six – Facebook, You-Tube, LinkedIn, Twitter, Ning and Flickr – pretty much dominate the market. If you’re going to play in the social media world, those five are the sandbox.”
He goes on to talk about how millions of businesses have social media logos on their websites and the numerous business opportunities that are afforded through these tools. I love that he makes this point because when I talk to business owners – individually and in the groups that I speak to – this is one of the biggest points I touch on. Businesses still fail to realize the doors that social media tools can open for them, and what an important investment their company website really should be. Facebook fan pages can be used by brands to engage with and attract friends and customers. Twitter can be used to share valuable tips and messages, while YouTube affords business the ability to create a company channel to post tips, commentary and customer testimonials, as well as build trust and loyalty in their brands.
Gitomer writes, “The key right now is to build a base of connections and consistently deliver value messages to attract more.”
This is such an important point, and social media allows individuals and businesses to spread word of mouth further and faster than ever – without breaking the bank.
This is a great article by Jeffrey Gitomer and I’d like to include my favorite part. In a few short paragraphs, I think Gitomer does a great job of “hitting the nail on the head.”
Gitomer writes, “The largest element in social media or social networking is you: what you do, what you post, what you tweet, what you shoot, what you record, and the work (dedication) to make your personal message and your personal brand attractive.
Like anything else in business there will always be a small percentage of idiots and zealots doing the wrong thing: Ignore them. Don’t let the actions of a few spoil your outlook to advance and grow.
There’s billions of dollars of new business being generated by social media. How much of it will you get?
Maybe you need to get a bit more serious about being a bit more social.”
As we begin 2010, it has never been more important to consider the marketing channels your business uses, the dollars your business invests in marketing, and the return you may or may not be seeing and take action to improve. Consider whether you are taking full advantage of the opportunities that social media can afford your business. And, if you are still a social media “non-believer”, maybe its time to really ask yourself WHY?
Breaking Down Walls With Social Media
Over the past couple months I have been presenting “Marketing on a Shoestring” to several different groups of business owners. The purpose of my presentation is to show business owners how incorporating new media into their traditional forms of marketing can help businesses build greater awareness of their brands and engage their communities in a whole new way. I discuss the benefits of blogging, using Twitter and Facebook, as well how to take advantage of LinkedIn as more than just an online resume.
Once we’ve had a chance to discuss these social media tools and answer questions, I go through a number of client “success stories.” These examples show the incredible results that BCG clients have had by incorporating social media into their overall marketing strategies.
I really enjoy helping business owners learn how they can make social media another valuable tool they can use. It’s a great topic to discuss with a group because everyone is different, every business is unique, and they will each use social media tools to accomplish different goals.
My favorite thing about presenting is that it allows me to interact with a variety of businesses and break down the walls they have put up as a result of the tough economy. In these economic conditions, many business owners are quick to slash their marketing and PR budgets as a way to save money. This is such a huge mistake! Being able to show business owners why this is a mistake is great, not only because it allows me to express my strong belief that marketing your business in these times is critical, but because I put our client’s success stories right in front of them and also because these marketing tools are so cost efficient.
Over the next few weeks I’m going to use Barcelona Creative’s blog as a way to address some of the most frequently asked questions I’ve encountered during my presentations, and some of the positive feedback I have received that has allowed me to enhance my presentation EVERY time I get up in front of another group. These experiences are helping me become a better speaker and thought leader.
That’s another reason I enjoy interacting with groups of business owners – THEY are making ME better at what I do everyday. Learning from them is helping me put myself in their shoes so that I can see the problems they are facing in their businesses everyday. As a marketing partner, we must know the issues our client is facing in order to create an effective marketing campaign. How’s that for breaking down walls!
I hope that over the next few weeks, you will feel free to post your own comments and questions on our blog. By relating to one another, understanding the problems we face in our businesses and learning from each other, we can all be more successful going forward.