The platform was originally launched in 2003 (nine months before Facebook), making it the oldest major social network still in use today. As of this writing, they boast over 850 million members in 200 countries.

The site has traditionally been THE online place to network and talk about skills, promotions, job changes and work accomplishments.  But recently, I’ve noticed an increase in the number of personal posts being made on the platform: Pictures of kids, pets and people’s lunches, inspirational quotes, etc., are creeping more frequently into my feed.

Personally, I’m not a big fan; I dislike this kind of oversharing on what’s meant to be a professional platform (plus I’m British, and therefore will always be more reserved!), so I appreciate I have some bias. I’m not the only one who feels this way, however, as evidenced by the recent backlash over a viral post by the ‘crying CEO’.

LinkedIn will continue to remain a powerful platform for networking and business, but with over 2 million videos and posts to compete with each day, it seems that even without crying, people are going further than they used to, to get attention.

The challenge is, how do we cut through and still maintain the right balance between personal and professional in terms of shared content?

What does get noticed – in a good way?

I assist several clients with social media content creation and management, and based on years of posting and tracking outcomes, I can tell you which types of posts almost always get the best results in terms of reach, overall interest and sharing:

• Posts with photos of employees doing things – attending work events, achieving things at work, celebrating milestones, socialising with their colleagues
• Posts with photos on employees actively taking part in the community, such as participating in charity or volunteer events
• Video or photo updates on project progress (relevant for manufacturing and construction-related in particular)
• Success stories about a company’s clients (again, with photos or interviews)
• Posts that provide information of value, such as ‘how to’s’ on ways to use a product or service to their advantage and links to useful articles with some thought leadership incorporated in the resharing.

In short, the posts that do well feature people, stories and/or useful information, but in a way that engages or interests viewers rather than directly selling to, shocking, enraging or annoying them.

LinkedIn posts to avoid

As for posts to avoid, in addition to ‘oversharing’ personal information, most people know not to post opinions on controversial matters such as politics or religion, but it’s also good to remember not to do the opposite of the things mentioned above.

For example, avoid posting generic quotes (that might not be accurately attributed anyway) or things that are just copied and pasted in a hurry and aren’t valuable or relevant for people in the first place.

And if you’re really interested in learning more about what NOT to do – and having a good laugh in the process – I highly recommend checking out LinkedIn Lunatics on Reddit. (Special thanks to Adelaide research agency Square Holes for introducing me to it!)

Need help with your social media presence on LinkedIn or other platforms? Contact Breathe Marketing today.

Based on my test – and knowing that clients can benefit from this new tool, too – here’s information on how to set up a poll for your LinkedIn connections (as well as a few other polling options you might want to try), some notes on what I learned from mine and a few recommendations based on the poll results.

How to set up and run a quick poll in LinkedIn

Setting up a LinkedIn poll is pretty straightforward – and you can set up a poll from either your desktop or mobile device – but LinkedIn also has a helpful FAQ page with answers about poll creation, voting and editing.

Once you’re logged into your account, you can create a poll from your LinkedIn home page, or if you’re an admin for a LinkedIn Page or a LinkedIn Group you can create a poll for those, too.

To create a poll from your home page:

1. Click on Start a post, then click on Create a poll at the bottom of the pop-up box:
2. A Create a poll window will pop up.  Here, you can type a question and fill in answer options. Note that there’s a minimum of two options and a maximum of four options per poll. You’ll also need to choose the Poll duration from the dropdown (default is set at one week).

Once this is done, you have the option to select who you want to share your poll with. I chose to ask my own connections, but there are other options too.

When you’re ready to launch, click Post. You’ll be notified (in the app) about the first and subsequent votes. If you prefer, notifications can be turned off via the Responses to your posts, comments and polls setting.

My LinkedIn poll results

For my own poll, I asked my connections to answer the question, “What is your biggest challenge in getting quality leads for your business?” and provided three answer choices. Here were the results:

Clearly, the majority of those who responded feel that reaching their target market is the biggest challenge in getting leads, so we’ll take another look at this below.

Other polling places

By the way, LinkedIn isn’t the only place where you can take a poll or quick survey. In fact, you can take polls now in Zoom meetings, during Facebook Live events (as well as run polls on brand awareness if you’re running Facebook Ads), and in MailChimp, just to name a few. All of these platforms help provide options for learning more about your team, customers and prospects.

A few tips on reaching your target market

I learned something from my poll (and that’s the goal after all, right?): My connections were concerned about reaching their target market. So, on that note, here are a few tips and recommendations:

• Know who your target market is (and is not) – Even though in my poll, people said that identifying their target market wasn’t their biggest concern, it’s critical to know. Many businesses make the mistake of thinking that their products or services are for everyone, but this is rarely the case. You need to define your target audience(s) very carefully and specifically in terms of age, location, income, role, etc. Knowing your target market is key to creating and delivering communications and marketing campaigns that speak to them directly.
• Know their needs – What are the problems and pain points of your target group(s)? How does your product or service solve their problems? You may need to ask them directly (or, how about taking a poll?). Once you know their struggles, you’ll know where to direct your focus and communicate with them, showing that you understand them, their needs and concerns and want to help them find a solution.
• Know where they ‘hang out’ – What media do they use? Television? Radio? Newspapers? Facebook? Online search? What events do they go to?  What trade associations might they belong to? Once you know where your target market is most likely to go for information (where they ‘hang out’) you can better select advertising and communication methods and use these accordingly.

Need help creating a poll, learning more about or reaching your target marketing? Contact Breathe Marketing today.

Not surprisingly, the 2018 Yellow Social Media Report, notes that the number of Australian businesses with a social media presence has hit an all-time high. Facebook remains the most popular platform (about 90% of businesses surveyed are using it), with LinkedIn and Instagram following (second- and third-most popular, depending on business size).

The most popular reasons for social activity? Advertising and promotion were listed as the most popular, followed by customer interaction and contact.  However, remember that customers look at it the opposite way. They want to communicate and interact with just a touch of selling so it’s really important to get the right mix.

If you’re not already getting social with your customers, it’s time.

Which platform?

The golden rule when deciding what social media platform(s) to be on is to think about your target markets: what social media platforms are they on?  To help you work this out, the 2018 Yellow Social Media Report on consumers may be useful.  It provides insights into consumer social media behaviour, the technology and platforms people are using, and when and why they’re connecting.

Tools to help you plan and organise

Social media does take time and planning. One of the best ways to ensure that you’re posting on a regular basis is to include social media as part of your overall marketing plan. That way, you can ensure that you’re posting about events and sales before they happen and don’t forget to share news with your audience in a timely manner.

To help with planning, I’ve put together a free marketing calendar template that you can download and use to schedule all your promotional events for the year, including all social posts. You can customise the template in Excel and adjust it to your needs.

You may also want to consider something like Hootsuite to help you stay on track. Hootsuite is an online social media planning tool that lets you organise and report on all your social media activity, as well as calculate ROI. You can also schedule posts in advance and create assignments for teams.

With Hootsuite, you can try any plan for free for 30 days, and there’s a basic free plan that allows you to manage up to 3 social accounts; more robust plans are available for a monthly fee.

But what about content?

Worried about what to post? Many businesses struggle to come up with enough things to share. Plus, with so many businesses out there angling for the attention of their followers, how do you make sure your efforts aren’t wasted?

Here are a few tips for creating engaging content and working posts into your overall strategy:

1. Add photos, videos & images — Including an image with your text post catches the eye of your followers and helps them engage with and remember your post. Photos and videos are common, but infographics are also great to include because they combine visual interest with information. In fact, infographics are liked and shared on social media 3X more than other any other type of content.
2. Use live video (wisely) — If you read our post on Facebook Live, you know that it can be a great tool – IF used appropriately. You need to practice with this tool, have a good reason to use it and notify followers in advance about the event so you’ll get as much engagement as possible.Think about a way to use Facebook Live that will provide something of value to your viewers so it’s worth their time to tune in. Use it as a chance to answer questions, promote a new product or service, or get feedback from customers.  Don’t forget about YouTube Live, too.
3. Repurpose and link to content — Social media posts are a great way to take people to your website, as well as repurpose other content you’re creating. Remember, social media is about engaging with audiences, so it’s a great way to provide additional information they may be looking for.When you build your strategic plan, look for ways to create social posts that tie into your other marketing efforts. You can also edit text you write or use photos you take for your website, news releases or sales promotions and use them to create quick posts.

The B2Me Experience

Now we’re in the Age of the Individual and customer-led experience, social media has become even more important. It’s the only medium that enables one-to-one communication at scale.  B2Me personalisation is about creating unique experiences that are interesting and timely for the individual.  In social media terms this means that messaging is gaining increasing popularity.  This year, the number of users on messaging platforms like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp grew twice as fast as users on Facebook.  These apps offer fantastic opportunities for brands to establish meaningful conversations and should also be considered as part of your social media strategy.

Need help setting up your accounts or putting together a social media strategy? Contact Breathe Marketing today.

Download Template

Marketing calendars: Why and how

Creating a marketing calendar is one of the best ways to visualise everything that needs to be done. A good marketing calendar serves as a blueprint for the year, helping identify what messaging you will create, what channels you will use and what your biggest priorities are.

While it takes some time to fill out everything in the beginning, it’s an incredibly valuable tool that ensures nothing is forgotten, all the important tasks are included and assigned, and that you’ve budgeted appropriately for each item.

Marketing calendars also help you plan backwards from important events so you get better turnout and response from customers. For instance, if you have major sales around the holidays, you can schedule pre-sale social media posts that are coordinated with email campaigns, website updates, postcards (with plenty of time to design, print and mail) so that customers keep your offers top-of-mind during the busy buying season.

Free download to get you started

To eliminate some of the pain of getting started, I’ve created an Excel file template for 2018-19 that you can access for free.  It runs from July 2018 to June 2019 and includes rows for every week of the year, along with columns for all major marketing areas such as social media posts, email campaigns, press releases, events and much more.  You can reuse it each year too (just change the date in the top row).

Please note that this template is meant to be a starting point for you and your team. Your needs may be different, so you can add or remove columns as you go.

Download Template

Remember, too, that priorities and activities sometimes change during the year, and that’s fine. You may decide that you’re doing too much, need to eliminate some things or get some help and outsource some of your marketing. You can always adjust your plan as you start to see what’s working and what’s not.

Need help putting together your marketing calendar or reaching your goals? Contact Breathe Marketing today.

However, in my opinion, it’s vital for many businesses, especially if you offer professional services of some kind.  When one person is potentially buying the services of another, these kind of peer reviews can help tip the balance between a potential new client contacting you or not.  They can save you the trouble of arranging references, and for prospects, they can help to de-risk a new relationship.

What’s the secret?

Want to know the secret formula I’ve uncovered in my 20+ years of asking for testimonials?  I ask.  I simply ask the question: “Please can you give me a testimonial?”  It’s that simple.  (The worst they can do is say no, right?)

Obviously, when asking for testimonials, you want to pick your clients carefully (choose the happy ones) and pick the right moment.

In reality, some clients will want you to write something up for them.  I never do this, but I will happily provide some pointers if they need (never putting words in their mouth) about practical details like when we first started working together, the scope of a particular project, the results, etc.

Here are some other tips and options when asking for testimonials from your clients:

• Give details – if you’re publishing the testimonial, include the full name of the person giving the testimonial, and if it’s a business, include a job title and company name. Doing so helps add credibility (rather than just saying, ‘Mr. M. in Murray Bridge’) and reduces the feeling that a review might be ‘made up.’
• Ask as soon as possible – if you’ve just finished a project with a happy client – or if they’re starting to see results due to your work – now’s the time to ask. The sooner you do, the better the client will be able to remember specifics about the project and what he/she liked, how you helped the business, delivered value, etc.
• Consider video testimonials – video testimonials and/or case studies are great. There’s no arguing with them, and they give prospects a chance to hear about your work straight from the horse’s mouth.
• Ask by ‘not asking’ – still nervous about asking for praise? Instead, ask the client how things are going with your product or service. If they have positive things to say, dig a little deeper, summarise what they’ve told you and ask if you have their permission to use it as a testimonial.
• Try an email – by asking via email, you can separate yourself a bit from a face-to-face ‘ask’ and streamline the process. Create a basic template in Word that makes the process easy for clients and provides lines for name, company name, job title, location and project, as well as space for writing out details on how you helped solve their problems, offered great service, etc.
• Ask for a LinkedIn ‘Recommendation’ – these are also a great way to get testimonials.  The system is automated, which can take the sting out of sitting across the table from someone, pen in hand. It’s easy: you send a personal message to one of your contacts asking if they’d mind giving you a recommendation, they write it in the LinkedIn template, you get to review it before you publish, and then it’s there online for all to see on your LinkedIn profile.  Here are some of my LinkedIn recommendations.
• Facebook Reviews & Google Reviews – these are great places for testimonials, too, so if someone is willing to give you a testimonial or say something nice about you and your business, encourage them to write it on your business Facebook page or Google business page.  Huge kudos for your digital footprint!
• Repurpose them – if you have other places you want to show testimonials (such as on your website), you can simply copy and paste what your happy clients have already written in email, or your LinkedIn, Facebook, or Google page – just check to make sure clients are OK with this first. Here’s my testimonial page.

(By the way, I promise I’m not showing off by linking to my testimonials – I just thought it would be useful to show how I do it.  Remember, being British means self-publicity doesn’t come as easily to me, although I do work in marketing, after all ….)

Also, one final reminder: be sure to get permission so there aren’t any surprises if a client sees their name and feedback on your website or in print. The last thing you want is to have a happy client become an angry one because of a misunderstanding!

Need help in asking for or displaying testimonials from your clients? Contact Breathe Marketing today.

Going ‘live’ on Facebook means that a person or group is broadcasting live video. The video can be of anything from an official announcement (like a press conference or new product release) to a rugby match or a family event.

Regardless of the content, live video is one of the hottest trends in social media for both individuals and businesses. In fact, going ‘live’ can be a great way to generate interest among your followers – and when used effectively, it can build loyalty, help answer questions or share announcements with your customers.

With that in mind, let’s take a brief look at Facebook Live and how you can use it to your advantage.

What is Facebook Live?

Introduced in 2016, Facebook Live allows you to create and share live-stream video. This is different than just posting a video on your page (though that’s good, too) because those videos are pre-recorded. However, once you create and share a live video on Facebook, it will remain in your News Feed as a viewable “post” unless you decide to delete it.

(Note: Not to be outdone, Twitter and Instagram have also added “live” options, and Periscope is a site completely dedicated to sharing live video, so if Facebook’s not your thing, you have other choices.)

How it works

With Facebook Live, you can broadcast video directly from a smartphone or tablet. Friends and followers can “tune in” and see your broadcast at the appointed time.

Here’s a list of the steps:

1. Log into your Facebook account on your mobile device.
2. Open the status bar like you were going to write a post.
3. Click the “Live video” icon.
4. Allow Facebook access to your camera and microphone (this should only show up the first time you test it out).
5. Choose a privacy level. It’s best to choose “Only Me” first just to try things out! Once you get the hang of it, you can go public. Scroll to the bottom to find this setting.
6. Add a description/title. This is optional, but the title will appear in your News Feed later, so be sure to help your viewers understand what you’re showing.
7. Aim your camera at what you want to film.
8. Hit the blue “Go Live” button to begin. As soon as you begin filming, your video will appear in your News Feed just like any post (providing you’ve changed your privacy setting back to ‘public’ after testing). Once you’re done, click “Finish” to stop recording.

Once you’re live, you can take and respond to comments from viewers if you choose. And just like other Facebook posts, you can delete the file if you want to remove it from your News Feed.

Tips for using Facebook Live in your marketing

Facebook Live is easy to use, but to get the most out of it, it’s best to plan ahead. Here are some tips for getting the most out of Facebook Live:

1. Create a strategy
   Think about ways to use live video that would help inform and engage your followers. Have a new product to share? Would a customer testimonial or interview with a member of your team be live-worthy? Put together a plan for how to use live video as part of your overall social media strategy.Also, think about how long your live video will be. Will people stick around for an hour-long event, or do you need to keep things short, sweet and focused? Long events that do well are seminars, roundtables, and training sessions.
2. Rehearse
   BE SURE to try the process out before you go public! Yes, there may be a few surprises with a live broadcast and things may not be perfect, but nothing says “amateur night” like a shaky camera or long, awkward pauses. Your audience is likely to leave.
3. Give notice
   Facebook will automatically notify fans when you’re live, but it’s best to let people know in advance what you’re doing and what your event will be about so that you have as many people watching as possible when you broadcast. Consider sending an email prior to the event or posting advance notices on Facebook for a few days before your event.
4. Or be spontaneous
   Giving notice when you will do a live event can help attract a larger audience, but spontaneity can be good too! Once you have some experience going live, look for opportunities to do a quick spontaneous video. Something fun or unusual happening at the office, an interesting site out in the field, a quick tutorial showing how to use the product in real life, etc. These are great opportunities to really engage with your customer base.
5. Engage
   One thing that makes live video so interesting is that viewers can immediately request and receive information. For example, if you’re presenting a new product, you have the chance to answer questions about how it works and get feedback from viewers on the spot. Get your viewers involved and make it worth their while to tune in.

Need help incorporating live video into your overall marketing strategy? Contact Breathe Marketing today.

So now we’re nearing the end of 2016, how have things gone? Are your sales up over the same time last year? Did you stick to your budget? What was your ROI on your campaigns? Do you know which marketing efforts were most effective?

If the answer to any of these questions is, “I don’t know,” you’ll want to make some changes in time for 2017.

Why measure and test your marketing?

When it comes to marketing, it’s critical to know where you currently stand as well as what’s working and what isn’t – not only so you know if you’re improving, but also to know which marketing campaigns are worth your time and money.

Testing is also a great way to improve your marketing. This can be done by creating different versions of print ads, postcards, landing pages or email campaigns and tracking which ones get the best results.

With these things in mind, here are four major areas to track in your marketing:

1. Print

Print marketing results – for instance, from print ads and direct mail offers – can be difficult to track, but they’re an important part of branding and an overall marketing strategy. One way to help track the effectiveness of print promotions is to include an offer code in the ad that the customer has to mention in order to get a special price or discount. You’ll also want to make sure you include a call-to-action that urges recipients to act (preferably before a deadline, so they feel a sense of urgency).

As noted above, you can also create different versions of postcards and send them to different groups within your list to see if one version gets better results than another.

In any case, be sure you keep track of your print promotions and have a clear schedule that notes how many you’re sending, when, to whom and what your results were for each one.

2. Website

Your website should be a 24/7 tool that helps answer questions, handles sales (if you sell products online), builds your brand and educates your audience. Do you know if your website is performing as it should? Is your traffic going up or down? Is your site leading to sales?

Google Analytics, which is a free and powerful tool, does a great job of giving you information about your site, including overall traffic numbers, demographic information, how much time people are spending (on average) on your site, whether they’re using a desktop computer or mobile device to view your site and many other key statistics.

However, there are many things Google Analytics CAN’T tell you in basic reports, such as how useful and clear your content is or what your overall user experience is like. Other tools – such as ClickTale and CrazyEgg – can help you understand viewer behaviour, but to really get a grasp of your website performance, you’ll probably need a website audit.  Talk to us about doing a website audit.

3. Email campaigns

Email platforms like MailChimp have fantastic reporting tools built into their systems, so when you send a campaign, you’ll automatically be able to see how many people opened your message, clicked on any links or went to your website directly from the email. You’ll also be able to see information about which email addresses bounced or if anyone unsubscribed.

In addition, MailChimp offers many tools that allow you to track sales that come directly from email campaigns, as well as connect your campaigns to other apps and programs like Magento, Shopify and WooCommerce so you can see just how well promotions lead to sales.

And if you have time to do some A/B testing of subject lines, content, offers or images in your emails, you’ll be able to track what resonates best with your audience and adjust your emails accordingly to make them more effective.

4. Social media

All social media platforms offer analytics.  Make sure you’re regularly looking at the reach and engagement your posts are getting, so you can fine-tune your content in the future.  Keep an eye on how many people are unliking your pages – this can be a sign that you’re not producing relevant content.

Build a monthly dashboard pulling together the key metrics from your marketing efforts, so you can keep an eye on KPIs.  You’ve got great tools as your disposal such as Google Analytics, MailChimp and social media analytics, so be sure to use them.

Need help measuring your marketing? Contact Breathe Marketing today.

Here’s some information on the changes from Facebook that you’ll want to be aware of:

News Feed Algorithm, Part 1

Feel as though no one “likes” you anymore? You may have noticed that the number of “likes” from your friends and fans has been down in recent days. The good news: It’s not you. The bad news: Your friends and fans may never have had the chance to see your updates in the first place.

With the News Feed algorithm changes, it’s now harder and harder for your posts to show up in feeds at all. Why would they make this change? Facebook states that they’re trying to give viewers “the most interesting stories at the top of their feed and display them in the best way possible” – and have therefore made changes based on their research results.

The underlying reason? Most likely, it’s because Facebook wants to cash in on your updates. Want to make sure everyone sees your post? Facebook will be happy to share it with everyone – for a price. (Note the handy “Boost Post” option that now appears when you create your updates.)

News Feed Algorithm, Part 2

In general, Facebook has said they will now be showing more text-based status updates from individuals, but fewer text-based status updates from Business Pages. However, the good news is that they will probably show more status updates from Pages that are media- or link-based (rather than just text-based).

If you want to share a link in your post, Facebook recommends using the “link share” option instead of embedding the link in the text. Instead of this:

You’ll want to set up your post like this:

How to do this: When you add a link to a Facebook status update, the image with the title and description should get pulled into the post, thus creating a “link share” post (as in image #2 above). You can then delete the link in the status update box because the image and the description will already be clickable for your viewers.

Have more questions about how to set up a link share? Need to set up a business Facebook page for your company? Let us know!

What’s ‘repurposed’ content?

When you repurpose content, you basically take ideas or images from one piece of content and reuse them for other content. For instance, let’s say you have some text that’s been written for a company marketing brochure. With a little editing work, you can probably use some of the same information on your website, in a blog or forum post, as a narration script for a YouTube video, or for a Twitter or Facebook post.

Here are four ideas for repurposing content:

1. If you’ve recently given a presentation at a conference, workshop, industry meeting, etc., see if you can reuse the information in a whitepaper for your website. Keep in mind that if you use highly technical terms in the paper, you may need to simplify some of the language for different audiences.

2. Have some great photos of a new product for your brochure or website? Use them to your advantage in social media by posting images to Facebook or Pinterest. Whenever possible, include some ‘teaser’ text about the product and add a link to a corresponding page on your website so that interested viewers can easily get more information.

3. Review your Google Analytics reports, take a look at what blog posts or pages have been most popular recently, and look at ways to expand on that information. For instance, if you have a blog post that’s been popular with your visitors, see if you can create a short video or do an interview with an industry expert about the same topic.

4. News releases are great sources of content. If you have a formal PR announcement about an event, new employee or industry award, use that information in other ways. Do a quick Facebook post about it with a link to the release, create an informal version of the text for your blog (and add a photo or two), or add a few links to related information or resources for readers who want to learn more.

Have thoughts, questions or other suggestions? Let us know!