Category

Communications

Websites with a Blog have 55% More Traffic

By Communications

If your business website still doesn’t have a blog, today’s the day you might decide to change that.

A recent study indicates that businesses that incorporate a blog on their website have 55% more visitors and 97% more inbound links.

It is now, in my opinion, counterproductive to NOT have a blog on your website. If your competition has a blog and you do not, your website is practically invisible to your audience.

The original study, produced by Hubspot.

Capiche?

Five Things to Do on LinkedIn Before You Leave the Office Today

By Communications

MJ Linkedin
You have an hour or so till the end of your day. There are several projects you could start . . . but why not use the hour and devote it to something you’ve been meaning to get a handle on for years: Your LinkedIn network.


Here are five really worthwhile actions you can take right now, today, before you leave the office.

  1. Upload your email addresses from Outlook or by exporting your contacts and importing them to LinkedIn for a quick, simple way to find out who in your network is already using LinkedIn.
  2. Take a self-portrait or have someone else take a photo of you and post it to your profile. It doesn’t need to be a fancy headshot but the image there should be you, your face should be visible and recognizable and recent (no fair posting that gorgeous photo from your early 20s.)
  3. Edit the title field in your profile to include keywords that represent what it is you do — Vice President or Manager doesn’t really tell me that you’re a logistics expert, or a manufacturing specialist. What else do you do? Are you a trainer, a speaker or maybe even a blogger? Get it in there!
  4. Recommend someone you’ve worked with. It doesn’t have to be long, or gushing — just do it. Share how pleased you were with the work and in doing so, make someone’s day.
  5. Ask someone else for a recommendation. Have you just finished a project or provided a good lead or referral to a contact? It’s time to ask for their endorsement.

Start chipping away at tasks like these and soon, you will be reaping the value of a robust LinkedIn presence.

How NOT to use LinkedIn: Three D’oh!s from a Real Life Example

By Communications

I got a bizarre e-mail today.

“J. is a friend of  D. and noticed your profile on LinkedIn,” the message began.

“J. thought you were the type of person who he would like to have as a client one day.  You may not be in the market for any [fill in the blank – not what it said, but not giving away too much here] services at this time, but J. would like to tell you about what he does in case you need something in the future.

J. asked me to contact you and schedule an appointment to introduce himself.  Do you have time for coffee next week?”

Let’s review all the ways in which this is wrong, shall we?

1. J. didn’t reach out to me himself, he had an assistant to it, which leaves me wondering if J. would be too busy to provide the actual services he offers himself, as well.

2. J. was savvy enough to use LinkedIn to prospect, but NOT savvy enough to ask for an introduction through the social network via our mutual connection, which would have validated the relationship.

3. The e-mail was to “undisclosed recipients” which was a tip off to me that the assistant did a massive SPAM e-mail to several second degree contacts of J.’s — or, should I say, only those who seemed like they were the kind of people J. would like as clients.

D’oh!

Naturally, I forwarded the e-mail to D. who responded with “you’ve got to be freakin’ kidding me!” Turns out I was the second person to contact him with it today.

Linkedin FAIL.

I get it; times are tough and we’re all looking for ways to grow our business, but there are rules of engagement and if you don’t know what they are, you had better ask, before sticking your foot in it like this guy has.

What do you think of this guy’s approach?

Twitter: Why We Care What you Had for Breakfast

By Communications

cerealI can’t tell you how many times this example has been thrown my way, as a challenge to the relevancy and purpose of Twitter.

“I don’t care what you had for breakfast!”

“Why would I care what someone had for breakfast!”

Why breakfast? I wonder.

Of course the people tossing out the Most Important Meal of the Day with the bathwater haven’t experienced Twitter and so, I struggle to find the most polite way to tell them they have no idea what they’re talking about.

Of course Twitter users are tweeting about more than their bagels and schmear or their $5 lattes. But let’s say, for fun, that for a day, everyone on Twitter tweeted their breakfast. Now that would be VERY interesting to those people over at Dunkin Donuts. And to the mom and pop coffee shops in your town. And to Eggo and to the billion dollar breakfast cereal industry. If all those breakfast-interested parties were also on Twitter they could ENGAGE with those Twitter users and ask them why they prefer, say, Bodo’s to Panera, or Mudhouse to Starbucks.

But you don’t really care about what your customers are thinking, saying and doing, huh?

On a personal connection level, say I’m tweeting my breakfast from a local coffee shop and learn that someone I know via Twitter only is there, or on her way there and at last! We will meet! And a friendship that had heretofore only been online, is now in real life and that is why we care what you’re having for breakfast.