Category Archives for "Social Media"

It seems that today everyone wants to be the next famous Instagram influencer. Brands now commonly market their products on social media platforms by using influencers as their 'celebrity' ambassadors. This has lead a lot of Instagram influencers to make a quick buck just for promoting a product. But how many of these influencers are being genuine? Would you buy your way into the fame and fortune that comes with being an influencer?

Do the numbers really matter?

Unfortunately, yes. The number one way firms recognize success on social media is an increase in social following. Followers represent the number of people who see your content and the higher the number the bigger audience you are reaching through marketing efforts. Having a high following somehow creates a sense of trust in the audience that the account creates great content...content they NEED to see or they are left out.

To think of it simply:

Followers + High engagement= perceived popularity and brand deals

Why Buy Followers?

Organically gaining attention to individual profiles has become more and more difficult because social media platforms have become saturated with the number of users. Unfortunately, the numbers get bloggers noticed, not the content. The number of followers has become an indication of success, popularity, and importance. 

Once a blogger has obtained a following, this is when the brand deals start rolling in. Free products, paid sponsorships, and promotional offers are given to influencers to display to their followers.

You can charge brands up to $2,700 USD per post according to Financial Times. Four to 20 million followers can charge up to as much as $17,500 USD for every sponsored post they upload. So buying followers can be perceived as a good investment for a long term return.

Sounds pretty good right?

Wrong.

Buying Followers is a Dirty Business

Ethics and moral codes are sacrificed the moment followers are purchased. The brand deals, paid sponsorships, and other perks from having a public following are not given because of the hard work put into the content. In fact, the content is no longer being shown to an audience that is going to engage with your posts, but is advertising to bots and spam accounts.

The business that has made a brand deal with these blog accounts are not reaching the audience they intended on. The money spent to have their product market was wasted and essentially they were scammed. 

Buying Followers Actually Damages Brands

By buying followers brands are actually damaging their reputation. If people can recognize that you are purchasing your followers, the sense of trust they once had in you is broken. Influencer fraud ruins the authenticity of your following.

Not only does it make you look bad, but it skews with your numbers. A brands own marketing efforts will be damaged after purchasing followers. Bots that generate comments or engage with content are not actually going to purchase a product or service. 

But no one can tell when followers are purchased, right?

Wrong, again.

5 Ways People Can Tell If Followers Have Been Purchased

1. Fake Instagram Followers Don’t Engage With Your Account

2. Sudden Spike in Followers or Likes

3. Bot Comments on Posts Do Not Make Sense or Are Inappropriate

4. Spam Comes with Bought Followers 

5. Accounts That Follow You Have Very Few of Their Own Followers and No Postings

Instagram recognizes and purges fake followers so there is commonly a lot of fluctuation in followers of accounts with influencer fraud. Not only is it wrong morally and ethically, but buying followers is against Instagram Terms and Conditions and can get your account permanently suspended.

Markerly analyzed Instagram influencers and found that out of the the 2 million accounts analyzed this was the average engagement ratio:

• < 1,000 followers average about 8% engagement
• 1,000 – 10,000 followers average 4% engagement
• 10,000 – 100,000 followers average 2.4% engagement
• 100,000 – 1 million followers average 1.8% engagement
• > 1 million followers average 1.7% engagement

It is a big red flag to followers of a brand if your likes-to-followers ratio on any post seems too high or disproportionate. If a brand gets thousands of likes on its content, but not a single comment it is clear to the audience that the likes have been purchased.

So How Can a Brand Become a Successful Influencer without Fraud?

Focus on creating content for a specific audience and make that your niche. Whether it is marketing, account, beauty, fitness, make one topic your focus and run with it. Niche accounts will build an organic following when they provide value to their audience. 

You have to pay to play. Market your brand by running ads on social media. Your brand can target specific audiences and ensure that the numbers will not be skewed when analyzed. 

Show content that speaks for itself. If your profile looks really insightful and valuable to the viewers, the numbers tend to matter less. Gain the right audience by giving them content they did not know they needed until they realized they were not seeing it. 

Focus on engaging with people's posts that you enjoy and supporting other accounts. By showing support you are likely to receive support back. Like, comment, and share your favorite content and focus on being thoughtful with your engagements. 

Have you found ways to gain an organic audience through one of these techniques? Have you been turned off of a brand because of influencer fraud? Let us know in the comments below!

Today, utilizing social media can be the number one way to get your business started. The large number of users over social media platforms makes it possible for your business to gain recognition quickly. Not only is Instagram saturated with users looking for content to follow, but Instagram allows for personal pages to become specific for business.

How can you make your personalized Instagram professional?

Follow these eight steps:

1. Go to your profile and tap  in the upper right corner.
2. Tap Settings.
3. Tap Account.
4. Tap Switch to Professional Account.
5. Tap Business.
6. If you'd like, you can follow the steps to connect your professional account to a Facebook Page associated with your business. This step is optional, and will make it easier to use all of the features available for businesses across the Facebook family of apps. At this time, only one Facebook Page can be connected to your professional account.
7. Add details, like your business category and contact information.
8. Tap Done.

By creating a professional account, you are able to gain access to business features and Instagram Insights. These insights help you as a business owner to better understand the demographic of your audience. Understanding your audience can help you to create better content to resonate with those users. By clicking the '39 profile visits in the last 7 days' at the top of the page, you can then access your Instagram business insights.

Another way to view your insights:

1. Go to your profile.
2. Tap .
3. Tap Insights.
4. Select specific posts, stories or promotions you'd like to view insights on. You can also learn more about your audience.

You also have the option to display or hide your business category and contact information on your profile. After setting up, go to your profile and tap Edit Profile. Go to Profile Display under Public Business Information to choose whether you want to hide or display your category label and contact info. Then, tap Done.

Instagram will then put your promotion into the 'review' process. Once reviewed and approved, your ad will then begin running on the Instagram platform. Your promotion must meet their ad policy requirements in order to be approved in the reviewing process. Once your promotion is running, you can review its insights by selecting the Promotions button.

To Delete your Promoted Post on Instagram:

If you wish to delete a promoted ad from your profile, you must first delete the original promotion. If the promotion has already ended, you must first delete the original promotion.

1. Go to your profile.
2. Tap Promotions.
3. Tap View Insights under the promoted post you'd like to delete.
4. Scroll to the bottom and tap Delete Promotion.
5. Go back to your profile.
6. Tap the post you want to delete.
7. Tap ...
8. Select Delete and confirm that you want to remove this post.

There are many more features that your business can use to enhance its Instagram account such as:

1. Control your viewers age
2. Change your call-to-action button
3. Connecting to Business Facebook 
4. Promoting your website

Is your business Instagram set up to be a professional page? Did you know you could access the insights from within the Instagram app? We hope this was helpful!

Using Instagram Story Highlights to Enhance Your Profile

Instagram highlights have given businesses and social media influencers a new way to showcase their brand. Since the story highlights live front-and-center on Instagram profiles, they are the perfect tool to represent your niche. 

Creating highlights and strategically planning their purpose is just as important as your permanent posts. Although the posts should be candid, each one should be categorized. 

So first...

To Share a Photo or Video to your Story Using the Instagram App:

Did you say boomerang? Yes!

What is a Boomerang?

Boomerangs are created by taking very short, very fast burst of photos and combining them together to create a mini video. The video will play forward and backwards repeatedly to create a unique piece of content. 

Now that we created the story...

How Does a Story Become a Permanent Piece of Content on Your Profile?

Once a story is posted on your profile you will then be given the option to make it a highlight. After 24 hours, if the highlight is created, the content will still be visible on your profile. The highlights are located at the top of your profile, making it easy to locate them at any time.

To Add a Story to a Highlight:

1. Go to your profile and tap Story Highlights below your username and bio.

2. Tap

3. Tap to select the story or stories you want to add to highlights, then tap Next

4. Tap Edit Cover > Choose a cover photo > Tap Done

5. Enter a story name for your highlight, then tap Add (iPhone) or Done (Android). You can add more photos or videos to your highlight at any time by tapping and holding on the highlight and then tapping Edit Highlight.

Once your story becomes a highlight, you can then edit the cover photo. We use Canva.com to create our highlight images. There is no limit as to how many highlights you can create on your profile. However, only five (on mobile) or seven (on desktop) will appear without scrolling to the left.

Each highlight can contain 100 photos. For example, the AmpliPhi 'holiday' highlight can contain 100 photos of our team celebrating holidays and they will not expire from the profile until manually deleted.  

To Edit or Delete a Highlight:

1. Go to your profile.
2. Below Stories Highlights, find the story you want to delete then tap and hold.
3. Tap Delete Highlight to remove the story from Stories Highlights, or tap Edit Highlight to add more photos or videos to your story.

To Edit or Delete a Photo or Video from a Highlight:

1. Open your story highlight and find the photo or video you want to remove.
2. Tap More (iPhone) or More (Android) in the bottom right of the photo or video.
3. Tap Remove from Highlight or tap Edit Highlight to add more photos or videos to your story.

I exaggerated this to make a point, but the principle is if what you need to do is find 100 people who love you — 5 star is what people expect. For them to love you, you need to do more than what they expect. We play out these scenarios all of the time — once you go up to 10 stars, 6 stars doesn’t seem so crazy anymore.”

You don’t have to be an Airbnb host to provide six-star service to your clients, and thanks to the accessibility of social media, you don’t have to be Elon Musk either.

That six-star service level is what happens when you find small gestures that make a big impact. It’s a level of service that is so good, and so tuned in to the customer’s personal needs and wants, that it borders on weird.

Every business can offer amazing customer service by striving for that 10-star, ludicrously amazing customer review. If you work backwards from the 10-star review, you’ll realize how simple it is to provide above-and-beyond service at the 6-star level or better. And by using social media effectively, you can do it for free.

Here’s what that looks like.

Instead, find a post that resonates with you, and comment, like, or share it with your network, pointing out why you appreciated the post. Make that client look good by sincerely listening to what they’re trying to share, and then helping them get the word out.

You might think that any effort you put into interacting with a company on social media will only be noticed by that company’s social media manager. But in my experience, that’s not the case. C-level executives watch the activity on their social media pages, and they notice when you show them love. As a C-level exec, why wait for customer survey feedback? Just check your social accounts to put your finger on the pulse of what’s happening.

In the service world, when you get asked to submit a proposal for a job, you’re often competing between companies who are all just as capable of providing the service as you are. What distinguishes you is your willingness to go a step beyond in customer service to earn that 6-star review.

The effort you put into social media can earn new business, but even more importantly, it can earn repeat business from your existing customers.

So break it down. What does a 10-star review look like for your business? Give yourself permission to consider the absurd, and simply dial it back a bit.

As an example, our company AmpliPhi, is working toward this model:

5 star service – After a great yearlong relationship, you count AmpliPhi (and our staff) as your biggest fans on social media. You see us continuously sharing your content and highlighting your successes.

6 star service – AmpliPhi commissions a professional video case study highlighting your company’s most notable accomplishments.

7 star service – AmpliPhi pays for your favorite food truck to come to your location and serve both lunch and dinner to you and your staff.

8 star service – Enjoy all 14 tickets to AmpliPhi’s Badgers’ football suite for this year’s Wisconsin vs. Michigan game and Bucky Badger will welcome you at the door.

9 star service – AmpliPhi coordinates and sponsors a private event in your honor for your staff and your top 20 clients or customers including a special performance by Spencer’s band, Myopic Son (original lineup from 2000).

10 star – Mark Cuban comes to your business for a day-long hangout and Q&A session. He observes, provides tips for improvement, shuts down the local restaurant for a private company lunch and joins in for an escape room in the afternoon.

Your company doesn’t need 10 star service, or 9, 8, or 7, for that matter. What about 6 star, though? What would going just a bit further beyond 5 star mean to you and your customers?

Facebook Image Sizes

Business Page Profile Picture: 180 x 180 

Photo will appear on page as 170 x 170 pixels on desktop.

Cover Photo: 820 x 312 

Anything less than 820 x 312 pixels will be stretched.

Have a video that you want to highlight? Use it here instead of a photo to grab the attention of potential customers.

Shared Image: 1,200 x 630

Sharing an image is one of the most popular ways to get your posts seen.

Share photos of events happening around the office, or invest in having someone take “stock” photos of your company.

Shared Link: 1,200 x 628

Facebook prioritizes links to fast-loading web pages, so ensure your website is up to date.

Highlighted Image: 1,200 x 717

Has your company recently been nominated for a local award? Choose to highlight a post to keep it at the top of your feed so that more people will see it.

Event Image: 1920 x 1080

Event images provide a lot of screen space to work with, so make sure your image is eye-catching in order to attract more views.

AmpliPhi Facebook Quick Tip:

When running Facebook ads, make sure that your ads’ images are not covered with more than 20% text. Ads that break this rule may be rejected by Facebook, or shown less frequently to your audience.

LinkedIn Image Sizes

Personal Profile Image: 400 x 400

Recommended between 400 x 400 and 20,000 x 20,000 pixels.

Minimum 200 x 200 pixels. 

Company Logo Image: 300 x 300​

Be sure to use high- resolution versions of your logo when uploading to social platforms.

Square Logo: 60 x 60

This is the logo that shows up when your company is searched. This can be the same one as your main logo, or a logo that complements it. Just make sure that it is recognizable as part of your brand.

Company Cover Image: 1536 x 768

Appears as 1400 x 425 pixels.

Banner Image for Company Pages: 646 x 220 (Minimum)

This image appears when a user visits your brand’s homepage, and is a great way to highlight your brand.

Shared Image or Link: 1104 x 736

Appears at 552 x 289 pixels.

AmpliPhi LinkedIn Quick Tip:

Don’t overthink your posting. Share what you know and be genuine about it.

Twitter Image Sizes

Profile Photo: 400 x 400

Make sure your logo is high-quality as it will be seen in the following places:

1. On your page
2. In-Stream
3. Who to follow

Header Photo: 1,500 x 500

Be sure to use high- resolution versions of your logo when uploading to social platforms.

In-Stream Photo: Minimum 440 x 220 (2:1 Ratio)

Recommended aspect ratio is 16:9.

Can tweet up to 4 images at one time.

AmpliPhi Twitter Quick Tip:

Twitter is great for directing people back to your website. If you create content, craft a tweet with a link to the blog post. It’s a free way of sending traffic to your website.

Instagram Image Sizes

Profile Picture: 110 x 110

Use your company’s logo or make sure your profile image is recognizable so users can find you easier through search or explore.

Photo Thumbnails: 161 x 161

These smaller images and videos will expand when clicked and include a place for people to comment.

Photo Size: 1080 x 1080

Square or rectangle photos: maintain an aspect ratio between 1.91:1 and 4:5 ratio.

For portrait (4:5) photos, recommended dimen- sions are 1080 x 1350 pixels.

Instagram Stories: 1080 x 1920

Minimum resolution is 600 x 1067.

Aspect ratio is 9:16.

AmpliPhi Instagram Quick Tip:

If your video is too long for an instagram profile upload (longer than 60 seconds, utilize IGTV. Upload a vertical video with an aspect ratio of 9:16 or a horizontal video with an aspect ratio of 16:9.

What’s The Real Cost of a ‘Like’ on Social Media?

Now that it’s possible to buy ‘likes’ by investing in paid reach on social media, some brands have almost completely abandoned their organic social media efforts. They’re focusing on optimizing their ads and targeting the right demographics, and they’re obsessed with the ROI of each like they receive.

Anyone who has just run a major Facebook advertising campaign can probably spit out the average cost of each like gained throughout the campaign.

Sure, that’s the cost of buying a like.

But what’s the cost of giving a like?

Social media is still, at its core, a community. No matter which platform you’re on, it’s a way to use technology to have one-on-one conversations at scale. And conversations require two-way communication.

Think about the best conversationalist you know: Is she a great talker, or is she actually a great listener who makes you feel valued when you speak with her?

One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say. — Bryant H. McGill

The best social media strategy puts more emphasis on listening and engaging with others’ content than it does on promoting its own.

The policies of Reddit — a social network focused on sharing, rating and discussing news and other website content — illustrate the crucial role listening plays in social media. It’s almost impossible to spam a forum on Reddit because you have to earn your way into the community by liking, commenting, and appreciating others’ content before you can start sharing your own. If you haven’t proved your commitment to the community and to supporting others with upvotes and comments, most of your own posts will never get approval.

What Reddit understands is there’s a huge value in protecting the entire ecosystem it has created. People use Reddit because they trust the conversations that are going on there.

You cannot succeed on Reddit unless you are a true Reddit native.

And even though other platforms aren’t nearly as quick to ban you from their community as Reddit if you blatantly try to use the platform for your own gain, the principles are the same. You can’t truly succeed on any social media platform unless you bring real value to the community.

Think about it from a psychological perspective.

People often fear putting themselves out there. So when they finally put in the effort to share a piece of their own original work, but no one reacts to it, it’s almost worse than if someone said something mean.

The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated. — Harvard psychologist William James

Social media offers you a platform to satisfy the deepest principle in human nature. And the best part of it? It doesn’t cost a thing.

You can’t underestimate the value of expressing your honest appreciation for the content that people in your network are producing.

I’ve noticed that many people who are wonderful listeners in person haven’t connected the dots to realize that social media is all about listening as well. The number of people who view a post compared to the number who like it is drastically different.

I’ll see people at networking events who will say, “I saw that thing you put out on LinkedIn the other day.” I’ll say, “Oh you did? I didn’t see you like it or comment on it.” They’ll respond, “Oh I don’t really ‘like’ things on social media. I don’t do that.”

Part of me wants to shake them. Many people have this hesitation to signal that they like something or support it on social media. They prefer to just observe. Sometimes, they’re too busy putting out their own content to spend any time interacting with others.

There’s a huge opportunity here:

If you’re the one organization that’s actively engaging in and liking other people’s stuff and letting them know that you value it, you will become valuable to them.

My own experience with Instagram proves the value of building your social strategy around giving likes first. My personal account has grown to about 4,000 followers after 400+ posts. The posts reflect both my personal interests and some insights on social media marketing, and I’ve never followed a specific strategy to gain more followers.

Another account I own, Law Marketing, has many of the same posts as my personal account. But on Law Marketing, I hit 3,000+ followers with only 50 posts. Since the content is similar, I attribute that difference to my activity on each page.

On my personal page, I’ve focused more on putting out my own content and waiting for friends to react. On Law Marketing, I made a concerted effort to find other accounts producing content that I valued and to show them my appreciation. I would set a timer on my phone for five minutes, and then I would search law-related hashtags and spend that five minutes liking other people’s posts.

My strategy worked because of a basic fact of human nature. When we receive a compliment, we usually view the giver of the compliment in a positive light.

The world is full of people who are great at receiving compliments. What the world needs is more people who give great compliments.

It used to be a lot harder to publicly show your support and appreciation for your clients or partners in business. Before social media existed, taking out an ad in a magazine, newspaper or TV network was the only way to brag about your clients or partners publicly, and it was prohibitively expensive. A half page full-color ad in the Wall Street Journal costs $192,921 for one day.

With social media, we can help other people feel good by publicly acknowledging their good work. And we can do that for free. It’s the modern-day equivalent of showing up to an open house to fill the room and show your support. By listening to the voices in your network, showing your support and helping to amplify their voice, you will earn their loyalty, respect, and engagement, and it won’t cost you a thing.

The cost of giving a like is nothing, but the value of a like is priceless.

The Top Mistakes Seen In Social Media Marketing Today

The first thing I noticed with social media marketing is that commonly people are trying to sell stuff or trying to get someone to hire them. A lot of people try and highlight their core competencies and what they can do for you to make money. 

Now, don't get me wrong, this is a very important thing to do and social media has an unlimited amount of space to do so.

Social media allows an unlimited amount of content to be created, shared, and liked. The problem is, most people have no reason to listen to that message until the exact right time when it can provide value. 

A prime example of this is the beer commercials you see running during a football game. The commercial says, "hey don't you want this". Once this message is seen enough times by the audience, they eventually realize that they do. 

So heres a story to put it all into perspective...

I had a reporter reach out to me and she said, "We have used you before for a piece and right now we are doing a new piece about Instagram marketing for professional services marketing". Now I can't think of a single professionals service practice, with which we work, whether it's in legal, financial services, or banking that we utilize Instagram. However, I didn't say that to her right off the bat. I took the time to analyze the data and what we do individually here at AmpliPhi. So I took the time to do this and wrote something up and the article went live. 

This is really important because instead of saying, "no I am not interested". I said, "let me at least try to add value to your audience and have this piece that you can then use us as your expert". 

We want to better serve the audience and find what will work for them. This creates trust between the audience and the person they are turning to for advise. 

Take a look at how you are leading teams and how you are leading projects as two really good ways for you to share with an audience, what it is that you are figuring out. The number one struggle heard from people about the number one thing they do in their job is no one prepped them to do project management or they don't really know how to lead a team. 

So what I ask you to consider doing is in your day to day work that you're doing, think about 'I ran into this situation with a project. I ran into this situation with a person.' Share what it is that you learned and what it is that others can learn from you. After awhile, the audience will begin to wonder what it is you do for work.

The more you can get people to trust you in order to get them to hear a message from you, the better off you will do. 

Another example to put this into perspective is, think of your favorite band. If you hear a song that you really like, are you more or less likely to look up that band? Of course the answer is more likely. You hear a song you really like, you research the band, and you discover other pieces of content that you enjoy. 

Start to put together a catalog of content that your audience can look back on. The more content you create, the more people are going to trust you. It isn't that one song that is going to make you a fan of the band. 

With social media we have unlimited data, we don't need to rely on a reporter to prompt us with a question. You can simply say 'this is what we do at our business'. 

I hope this starts off your week well! Go out and be helpful today. 

Social Media Scene: How to Compel Your Staff to Share Your Firm's Social Media Posts

LinkedIn is often credited with coining the term “employee advocacy” as the active promotion of your company by the people who work for it.

Sounds easy enough … just tell your employees that they need to share good news about your firm or services, and you’re done, right? If this is your strategy, say hello to limited engagement and mundane, template-sounding social media posts from your staff.

If you already have an amazing firm culture, this strategy might work because your employees want to brag about the awesome entity for which they work. But for those firms looking to earn the respect of the tremendous social media force they have within their own walls every day, you’re going to need to work for it.

There is an old adage that states: “We love our parents, because they loved us first.” For those of us as parents, this is both straightforward and inherent. But taking this lesson and applying it to your business is also the best way to make employee advocacy actually work. If you try to implement an employee advocacy program before you’ve shown your employees that you truly care about them, it might not be very well received. You’re essentially asking your employees to love you before you love them.

Let’s think about a service-based organization that’s been around for a while. I bet you’ve seen one of those plaques hanging on the wall of a McDonald’s — usually over the counter, but still visible enough for customers to notice. McDonald’s has been naming an “Employee of the Month” long before social media existed. They do this to show appreciation to an employee that has recently gone above and beyond in their position. This strategy has merit, but it also has drawbacks such as limited reach and a finite amount of real estate on the wall where they can display this act of kindness.

Fast-forward to 2018. Every firm in the world has an unlimited amount of space on their digital and social media platforms. Businesses have the opportunity to create an endless amount of content focused on their employees and their lives inside and outside of the office — what they’re passionate about, their hobbies, their goals. This is the kind of authentic engagement and appreciation that will make an impact in their minds and, more importantly, their hearts. These are the types of posts that make employees want to share things about their employer, because they feel appreciated and cared for by the boss.

Are you doing this for your staff? If not, consider advocating for your employees first before you ask them to advocate for you. Give your employees a reason to care.

What Should Your Employee Advocacy Strategy Look Like?

Outline an Approach

Choose the platform on which you’ll focus first. I recommend LinkedIn since it is business-centric and doesn’t blur business/personal lines like Facebook. Then, create a content calendar that includes an appropriate number of posts highlighting someone/something else three-quarters of the time. Use the other one-quarter to say something about your firm or firm’s initiatives.

Get to Know your Employees

Spend time getting to know your employees. Have a conversation with them focused around what it is they do outside of work or what they are passionate about in their free time. Maybe they volunteer at the humane society or take care of elderly adults on weekends. It’s important to both hear and understand their stories. If you want them to tell yours, tell theirs first.

Create Content

Once you have the information about the staff that you’d like to share, decide the media that best suits their personality and story — video, image(s), simple text or anything else that effectively conveys the message.

Define Success

Employee advocacy can radically extend your reach and awareness. Since employee shares are seen as more genuine because of their very personal approach, more people are going to engage and take part in the content. This expanded network could eventually mean bigger and better business development opportunities. A brand’s online visibility has never been more crucial, and a huge factor in modern-day business includes its social media presence.

The long-term success of any company relies upon its work force, and your employees are the only component that make your firm — by definition — unique. Recognize each employee’s impact on your entire employee advocacy program. It shouldn’t be just the top performers — each person in your firm contributes to a larger cause. Congratulate and recognize their contribution regardless of size.

And finally, let your team have a voice in choosing material that truly resonates with their careers and personal lives. By doing so, you make them part of the entire curation process, and this will result in drastically more authentic engagement.

Have you instituted an employee advocacy program at your firm yet, whether in name or in practice? Are you sufficiently shining the spotlight on your employees before you’re asking them to publicize you?

Why You Need Video Posts on Your LinkedIn Company Page

For a little over a year, LinkedIn company pages have been allowed to do video postings. I don't see a lot of companies doing it, though. Through data, I can show you why you should really be posting video on your LinkedIn company page.

Let's take a deeper look into why.

When you look at a typical company page LinkedIn post you can see some stats at the bottom (when viewing the page as an administrator). Typical posts include status or photo posts. You can see the impressions, reactions, click-through rate, comments, shares, clicks, and the engagement rate. This seems like a lot of data...

But what if I told you that you could gain even greater insights by posting video content?

Here are the steps how:

Step One: Click Show Stats in the lower left corner of any video post.

Step Two: Click on the 'Total Video Views' blue number.

Step Three: Analyze Lifetime Data then proceed by selecting 'Audience'.

Step Four: Analyze further business analytics.

These analytics are GOLD (not literally, but they are pretty much just as valuable).

The analytics include the 'lifetime' of the video (the average length of watch-time by viewers), the views (number of times the video was watched) and the number of  viewers (or unique people that have watched the video for longer than 3 seconds). 

But, if you click on 'Audience' what you'll see is data that we just don't get from typical posts.

THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT. Why?

Walking from right to left on your screen, we see the locations from which people have come. This can be especially useful when trying to target certain audiences by geographic location.

The second column is the job title of the person...which also useful information.

But there is one section that is particularly fantastic.

This is the 'people from these companies viewed your post' section.

If you are responsible for your company LinkedIn page, accessing this data and presenting it to the person who oversees your work will set you apart. Those doing business development and other sales-related roles love to know who's seeing your marketing material. Why is that?

Here's what I discovered after doing 3000+ business development meetings - sales is about confidence more than anything else.

There is a monstrous gap in sales between 'I have never heard of your company before' and 'for some reason your company rings a bell'. Imagine if you empower your business development people, your sales professionals, or other co-workers by saying:

 "We published this video and these people from this company saw it."

How would that make them feel? It would make them feel very confident. It would make them feel pretty darn good, because marketing is helping them do their jobs better.

So what do I want you to do?

Think about doing very simple LinkedIn company videos. These videos don't need to be overly developed or big productions. Just do short bios of people contributing to business development at your company or something you think might be useful for your audience.

Take that data, share it with those who are doing business development, and let them know about your contribution. What you are doing is bridging the gap between 'I have never heard of you in my life' and 'for some reason you ring a bell'.

I hope you found this useful! Have you posted a LinkedIn video on your company page? How did you analyze the data? Did you find something different than me? I would love to hear in the comments below!

Here’s the guaranteed way to get someone’s attention on social media:

But first, what got me thinking – I’m speaking at a conference in Vegas next week, and my email address was added to the list where vendors/business partners can reach out.

After receiving dozens of emails stating exactly the same thing – “Come to our booth and meet so-and-so, win a prize, see our latest product/service, etc.” I haven’t seen an email stating why a conference attendee would actually benefit from visiting the booth. 

Email campaigns are kind of like that, right? You email a bunch of people, some open, and a smaller amount of those openers take the action you want.

Social media is much, much different because the goal isn’t to shout at everyone, but to start conversations. 

The guaranteed way to get on someone’s radar, then: find something they’ve done, be it them individually, their firm, or their company, and use social media to highlight it. Tag them (use the @ sign) to ensure they see YOU are publicizing THEM.

Is this more work than sending an email? Yep. Is it more effective? At least 10x. 

And don’t forget this old adage from sales – “Things work so well, you stop doing them.” Make this an integral part of your business development process.

Do you agree with my strategy?