Every week someone tells me that they would like to use social media marketing but it just takes too much time. What this really means is “I don’t know how and don’t know where to start.”
Why are we talking about marketing on a web site about productivity? Well we’re all about saving time and being more effective. You can become much more effective at promoting yourself and your business if you take advantage of social media. To help shortcut the learning curve I asked social media expert, Julia Kline to share some of the fundamentals we all should incorporate into our mix.
Below is a link to an interview I did with her on our sister podcast On Target.
Do you have a LinkedIn account that you rarely (or ever) use? If so, you’re in good company.
LinkedIn can be a very powerful tool to help you build your personal brand, but many people don’t use it because they don’t know where to start.
Like thousands of other professionals, I had a LinkedIn account that was gathering dust. I was confused about just what to do with it and didn’t have time to figure it out. Until I met Crystal Thies of CrystlaClearBuzz.
Crystal is a LinkedIn consultant and social media strategist who helps individuals and companies get the most from this powerful networking tool. I first met her last Fall when she worked with me one-on-one to help me develop a profile that matched my business objectives. Later I attended one of her webinars then saw her speak at a regional WordCamp. Each time I came away with some solid ideas including how to use my LinkedIn profile to increase web traffic and links to our web site.
She was kind enough to share some of her top tips for using LinkedIn. Here they are:
1. Headline
Your headline is crucial because it is the only thing that will set you apart in a list of names from a search. Search results only list a few pieces of information – name, geographic information, and this headline. So it has to stand out and say, “Pick Me!”
Your headline should accomplish two things. First, it tells people what you do from a functional standpoint. Second, it tells people who you serve – your target market. If you have space, you want to try and fit in some performance results. However, LinkedIn only gives you 120 characters.
2. Growing Your 1st Degree
The power of LinkedIn is in the 2nd and 3rd degree. However, to get to the 2nd and 3rd degree, you have to have a significant 1st degree of people you know, trust, and who would be willing to introduce you. The quickest and easiest way to get your connection base growing is by using the Import Contacts function. This function will automatically import your connections from the most common webmail programs. If you use Outlook or another CRM then you manually upload it as a comma separated values file (CSV). Warning, after you have exported your contacts, pop the CSV file into Excel and remove all fields except First Name, Last Name, and Email Address. The additional fields will confuse LinkedIn and the import won’t pick up the data correctly with the extra fields.
This is a crucial step to getting started because LinkedIn will automatically tell you who on your list is already a LinkedIn member. You simply check the boxes next to those you want to connect to and a mass invitation will be sent out. As you start connecting with people you already know, spend time reviewing their connections. You’ll likely find many people you know who weren’t in your own contact database. You can easily invite those people to connect.
3. Summary
Your summary is as crucial as your headline – it is what will entice people to connect with you. Your summary is not your bio…it’s your elevator speech. For those of you searching for a job, it’s your cover letter. Essentially, it takes the goal of the headline – what you do and who you serve – and delves deeper. What do you do? How do you do it? Who benefits? and What are your results? Your summary should always be in first person and present tense. It should be active…this is what I can do for you today and tomorrow. The past is important only to the extent that it bolsters why you should work with me today. It should also be short – approximately 200-300 words. If it’s too long, people won’t even bother reading it. Where possible, build in white space for easier reading by keeping paragraphs short, adding bullet points and indenting.
Do you need to read more but find you don’t have enough time? Welcome to the club. I’ve been falling way behind in my reading, particularly business books, and have found it difficult to catch up.
There are so many good business books being released that it’s impossible to pick the right ones let alone read all of them. So how do you keep abreast of the latest yet still have time for everything else you have to do? You might want to try a book summary service.
Last week I happened to meet Dan Pfister a principle at The Business Source, a Toronto Canada based service that writes summaries of the latest business books. After digging through their web site I realized what a great idea. I know a few people (not me) who used Cliff Notes in college. It was a good way to get the gist of a book (not a great way to study for a test). The Business Source does something similar yet much more elegantly.
Business Source subscribes receive two 5-page summaries (about 2,500 words)each month. These concise yet detailed summaries take between 10 – 30 minutes to read. You get enough detail to come away with a basic understanding of the book’s key concepts. You will know immediately if you want more detail. If so, just click their link Amazon affiliate link and buy the book. If not, then you haven’t used much time and saved yourself $30+.
I read a few of their summaries and found them to be very well written, insightful, and quite entertaining. In fact I was very impressed with the style. The writer gives you a good insight into the book without editorializing or getting in the way. There is really an art to this and their writers very good at it.
The summaries do an excellent job of getting to the mead of a book yet do it in a way that keeps you reading. For example their web site contains a free sample of their review of Freakanomics. A book I have never read, but wanted to. In 20 minutes I had a good understanding of the essential elements of the book and a plan to buy a copy for my collection. Take a look at it and you’ll see what I mean.
Business Source Subscribers receive two summaries of current business books each month plus 24 sets of business tips and 4 audio tracks from prominent business speakers each quarter. The cost is $130 US per year, about the cost of 4 books.
If your time is valuable, but you understand the value of “sharpening you saw,” then you should check out The Business Source
have you ever tried to explain something verbally or written that would be faster and easier with a screen capture or even a short video? It’s easy to do with Jing, the free screen capture and screen recording software from Techsmith. Here’s a short video that shows you how it works and how to get it.
If you’ve listened to even a little of my training you know I harp about the evils perils of attempting to multitask. You can’t actually do two things at once you can only switch quickly between them, "switchtasking" it’s been called.
I won’t repeat myself here, but I will refer you to an excellent discussion about the subject that took place on the Marketing Online Live podcast a few weeks ago. This episode has nothing to do with online marketing so if you have no interest in this subject fear not. This one is all about the most effective use of your time. It’s only about 12 minutes long so take a few minutes and give a listen.
The program is hosted by Internet marketing guru Paul Colligan and Alex Mandossian who is a leader in the tele-seminar field. Mandossian is also a productivity expert in his own right with a web site called beproductive.com. As a deep thinker in the subject he is a big proponent of focusing your limited time and attention on the truly important things, one at a time.
New membership site development service – WishList Master.
Since we began to offer our online Outlook program I’ve received a number of inquires about how we made it happen. It seems many of our readers have produced content like training, articles, coaching or consulting services that lend themselves to online deliver Here’s a quick explanation how our system is put together.
Workload Master is a very special kind of blog called a membership site. This simply means that someone must be a registered member (or subscriber) to access the premium material. Our site is powered by WordPress, the most popular content management system on the planet. Our member’s area (master Your Workload with Outlook) is managed by a very special WordPress plugin called WishList Member.
I’ve had so many people ask how to develop a site like ours that last year I formed a brand new company called Wishlist Master (how original is that). WishList Master provides consulting and development of membership sites for trainers, consultants, publishers and other content providers. The sites we create are based upon the WordPress platform using WishList Member.
If you have any interest in exploring this exploding Internet niche, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I love to talk about this stuff.
I also receive a lot of questions about our videos. Almost all of them were recorded with a piece of software called Camtasia. It is the most popular and versatile screen recording application for the PC.
I thought it was going to take about two weeks to create the online training program. After all, I had been teaching the program for years. Well it took over 6 months of working day and night to launch the site. Since then I’ve learned a lot, which is why we formed WishList Master. Our objective is to help clients avoid the learning curve so that they can bring their membership sites to market in a fraction of the time that it took me. It’s working.
When you begin to think of your time as an asset (like money) you begin to think differently about how you are using it. Try to apply common money terminology to determine if we are making the best use of yours.
First a major distinction. You can always get more money (or any other resource for that matter). But you can never get any more time. You get what you get and that’s it.
Invest…Spend….Waste
We tend to use the term “spend” when we think about how we use our time. But that’s not quite true.
For example, you can “invest” your time by finding ways to do things faster or eliminating unnecessary steps. The result isn’t more time, but you do have more available for other things.
Here’s a quote from Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged that sums it up nicely: “…every hour I save is an hour added to my life. It used to take me five hours to fill that tank. It now takes three. The two I saved are mine-as pricelessly mine as if I moved my grave two further hours away for every five I’ve got.”
You can also invest time to create income. For example using your time to learn a new skill can result in an increase in your income.
And most important, you invest time when you use it to strengthen relationships. Forget the phrase “I’m spending time with my family” and look at it as an investment instead.
Next time we’ll look at spending and wasting time.
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Just before the holidays I used Survey Monkey to conduct a time management survey among people who work form home. Since then many of the participants asked to see the results, so please accept my apologies for the delay. However it took this long to get enough responses. My objective going into this was to [...]
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Every week someone tells me that they would like to use social media marketing but it just takes too much time. What this really means is “I don’t know how and don’t know where to start.”
Do you have a LinkedIn account that you rarely (or ever) use? If so, you’re in good company.
