Tag Archives: LinkedIn

5 Reasons Law Firms Still Dismiss Social Media…and Why They’re Wrong

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1.“There’s no ROI”

There is ROI for blogs and social media, you just have to enter into the social space having previously determined what you want to track and get out of social media. Without some kind of benchmark such as conversion rates, traffic to your site, likes or engagement on a post, calculating an ROI IS going to be impossible. Tools like Google Analytics, Google Alerts, Bit.ly etc… can help to track interest, click through rates, demographics and where/how people are talking about your firm/lawyers.

2.“The Metrics aren’t reliable”

I don’t really understand why people would think this, because Social Media data is some of the cleanest and pinpointed data there can be. There are hundreds of applications that can tell you how many people have clicked a link, who’s clicked it, where they’re from, engagement statistics, which content got the most activity etc…basically that argument is just not sound.

3.“Social Media is still too young”

…So is the Internet, so is mobile. Does your firm use email, online journals, or other websites for research? I’m sure the answer is yes, and Social Media is no longer just for the innovative law firms–it has become mainstream. Did you know that 81% of law firms are now using some kind of social media platform? If your law firm doesn’t adapt to this social shift, you will be at a significant disadvantage.

4.“Social Media is just another trend that will pass”

A recent survey from The Nielsen Company stated Americans spend nearly a quarter of their time online on social networking sites, including blogs. This is up more than 40% from just last year! With the way social media is growing, there is simply no chance it’s going anywhere anytime soon. Social Media is all about adapting to our communication needs, and as long as people are conversing there will surely be social media.

5.We need to control our message

I was watching a webinar with Gary Vaynerchuk last week and he discussed this very topic. He explained that because of the way social media is molding traditional marketing tactics, we too need to adapt to the way with which messages are dispersed and received. We can say whatever we want about our brand, but we have virtually no control over what people are saying about us. This can be scary, but it also allows your brand to grow and adjust your product/services to fit the needs and desires of your consumers.

Pay it Forward Marketing Shift

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Today’s marketing and advertising techniques are undergoing an enormous change, largely due to the integration of the internet and more recently, social media, into business plans worldwide. Plain and simple, today’s marketplace simply does not operate in the way that it used to, and the sooner companies realize this, the more successful they will be in turning profit.

A great example of this shift is the way in which traditional marketing tactics such as direct marketing, email marketing and cold calling are shifting is the emergence of what Gary Vaynerchuck, New York Times and Wallstreet Journal’s Best-selling author, calls the “Thank You Economy (TYE).” This means that in order to advertise and market to the people that you hope to reach, you have to actually “give a crap!”

The way in which the TYE is thriving is through social media. Using old tactics like direct marketing simply isn’t going to work on Facebook or Twitter, as this messaging will immediately be marked as spam, and ignored. In order to turn followers into buyers of your products/services, you need to offer them something of value whether it be through content, coupons, giveaways, or superior customer service.

The TYE works today because people are sick of dealing with automated telecommunication messages and they want to be treated as if their business matters. It also works due to human nature. What I mean by this, is that we as humans have an innate desire to “pay it forward.” We simply can’t deal with owing people, so we repay favors in order to maintain social fairness.

We can return a favor via social media through a follow, a friend, a like, or a share. Every month, 25,000,000 pieces of content are shared via Facebook. Humans for the most part like to give back, so so sharing important/funny/impactful pieces of content to their following is an extremely powerful marketing and advertising tactic.
Consumers also like to know that their opinion and their thoughts have been heard. Reacting to customer’s concerns or praises only strengthens the relationship that your brand has to its following, and if you’re are able to implement changes in order to provide a customized product to your following, then you are thriving in the TYE.

An article that I read the other day defined a very important aspect to the TYE in one word; social commerce. The author of said article stated that social commerce helps shoppers to make smart and saavy purchases so that retailers will be able to listen and adjust their product or service to fit the needs and desires of their valued customers.

In maintaining a sort of ping pong relationship with your customers and/or potential customers, you are creating a mutually beneficial engagement and that is what the TYE is all about.

How B2B Brands are Taking Advantage of Social Media

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How Grandma and Grandpa Can Help to Grow Your Business

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Last week I was browsing the Mac store, when I bumped into an elderly person dazing emptily at his iPad. “Do you know how to turn this thing on?” he said. I looked around the table noticing at least a dozen other baby boomers raising their hand, seemingly just as perplexed, trying to get the attention of a frazzled Apple associate.

It seemed as though I had walked in on an iPad101 class. All of its students were over the age of 60.

These classes seem to be on the rise as more and more seniors are joining the digital world. With this rise comes a growing need for education. In fact, schools like Howard Community College’s Gateway Campus launched introductory courses in Facebook and Twitter for those over age 60 in September, and added a new course this past winter called “Blogging 101.”

From 2010 to 2011, the social network use among internet users over the age of 50 nearly doubled to 42%. Nearly 16 million Americans over the age of 55 now have a Facebook page…that’s a lot of Nanas on Facebook.

According to a study conducted by iStrategyLabs, a social media marketing firm, there were 15.5 million Facebook users over the age of 55, an increase of nearly 60% from the year before where the number of users over the age of 55 was at 9.7 million.

Not only are baby boomers using social media, but they are beginning to use it regularly as part of their daily routine. According to data collected by Pew Research Center only 20% of baby boomers in 2010 used social media on a daily basis. By the same time the next year, that number had risen to 32% representing a 60% increase.

A Nielsen statistic revealed that the over 55 age bracket spends a total of 85 minutes each day browsing the internet. Not only are they using it to keep in touch with their children and grandchildren, but they are also buying products within the online marketplace. Though this is significantly lower than that of the younger generation, it is important to consider the fact that this older bracket controls the majority of the economy, with a combined spending worth of more than $1.8 trillion.

As a marketer, one cannot ignore the potential that this demographic has for creating market growth. Accounting for nearly 58% of the U.S. population, the Baby Boomers make up more than half of the American population. We can capitalize on this shift in technology use by using targeted Google or Facebook advertising to this age bracket. Specific industry verticals like pharmaceuticals, doctors, or lawyers, can take advantage of this demographic by searching for people who are in need of their services. Doing a simple Google search or twitter hash tag search will help you to find people who may be complaining about the price of their prescriptions, or who are looking to settle an estate or will dispute.

So hide your incriminating photos kids, Grandmas and Grandpas on Facebook are here to stay.

SEO 101 Part 2 – The Benefits of Social Media

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Social Media is beneficial in a variety of ways, not the least of which being its ability to increase your site’s search engine rankings. You might wonder how something like a Facebook profile or a Twitter account can have an effect on your site. The answer lies in the fact that search engines such as Google and Yahoo! take into consideration the amount of traffic your site already gets in addition to how many other sites link to yours.

Incoming Links

We’ll discuss the benefits of a good linking strategy in the next SEO blog (it’s second in importance only to keywords and copy), but for the purposes of a Social Media discussion, it’s vital to understand the core concept that Google, Yahoo! and all the rest of the search engines look for; links FROM reputable sites TO your site. While these search engines do most of the heavy lifting themselves, they leave a certain amount of it to the community at large. What this means to your Web site is that if you have several links coming into your site from reputable sources – as which Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn certainly count – then Google sees those links as “votes of confidence” in the content and relevancy of your site, and will raise your ranking accordingly. This can be reinforced by reciprocating those links.

Traffic

Another factor that the search engines will take into account is how much traffic you’re already getting, via word-of-mouth or other means. In other words, while having a properly-optimized site is of paramount importance, if you somehow manage to drive hundreds of hits to your site daily, Google will raise your ranking. This is instance number 2 where having social media profiles are invaluable – if you’ve got a Facebook account, Twitter handle, LinkedIn profile and all the others which are consistently pumping out interesting, relevant information, people are going to follow the links contained therein to your site, thus boosting you rankings even further.

Harnessing the Power of LinkedIn for Competitive Intelligence

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LinkedIn has become an invaluable research and monitoring tool for professionals and businesses looking to interact and converse with similarly-positioned companies and individuals. Because of LinkedIn’s reputation as being a social network for “the professional,” many people are more inclined, and feel more comfortable filling out personal information than they would be on Facebook or Twitter. For that reason, many LinkedIn users opt to make their profiles public in order to better position themselves to be seen by potential employers, business partners, and potential clients.

LinkedIn differs from other social media platforms in that users have a more legitimate motive to connect with another user. Professionals are more apt to connect with other professionals for matters having to do with business rather than pleasure. LinkedIn also makes it harder to connect with someone that you have never worked with, are not a connection of, that you didn’t go to school with, or that you aren’t friends with. If you are looking to connect with someone that you don’t know, you must be introduced by a mutual connection—again making it harder for ill-intentioned users to connect with other users.

Those in the competitive intelligence field can take advantage of many users’ LinkedIn public setting. LinkedIn is loaded with valuable information that companies will often post freely, giving companies like us significant information about our competitors.

Below is a list of potential competitive intelligence data that can be gathered from a LinkedIn account.

• Monitoring the backgrounds of all new hires gives the competition valuable insight into what area of business a certain company is trying to expand on—this may also suggest weak areas of the company.
• An in-depth analysis of company employees’ connections can often reveal a lead to their new developments or partnerships.
• A company’s frequent interactions with companies from a very specific geographical area can sometimes hint at a possible move for the company or even the opening of a second location in that area.
• Sometimes a company will provide a link to a slideshare presentation, which is meant for their employees, often involving the company’s strategy, financial statistics, or an introduction to new software or product. If the slideshare presentation isn’t set to private (which often times it isn’t), anyone can view this presentation including the competition. It is important to catch this early though because often times slideshare presentations are taken down after a few weeks by the company.

Just like Facebook or Twitter, the profile of a business or professional can tell us a lot about that brand or person. Using these strategies, we can dig a little deeper into our competition’s world, allowing us to bridge some of the gaps that we as a business may encounter. LinkedIn profiles can give us a lot of insight as to where our company stands in comparison to our competition, and what specifically we are doing better or worse than competing brands. Of course, all of these competitive intelligence strategies are legal, and we don’t advise snooping beyond the hints that we’ve given here.

If you’d like to better understand your competition using LinkedIn or any other social media platforms, please contact Viral Technologies today for your FREE competitive intelligence consultation!

Foursquare Isn’t Just A School Yard Game Anymore

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For those of you who have yet to get into the Foursquare game—it’s a bit different than our grammar school recess memories of Foursquare—it’s actually yet another way to let everyone and their mothers know where you are, who you’re with, and what you’re doing. At first I was weary of the social media application that allows the user to “check-in” to pretty much anywhere in the world, but after closer investigation, it actually can be a really great business tool.

According to realtimemarketer.com, the average American web user spends nearly 85% of their online time on social networking platforms. With that being said, why not get your business involved in the Foursquare application that can be easily downloaded onto your smartphone devices? Those who usually get the most out of this program are businesses that have a tangible product for sale where the customer can go in, and make a physical purchase, though any business can have great success and gain awareness for their brand using the app.

Companies are using Foursquare to attract more business by setting incentives for those who check-in to their business. For example, if someone becomes the mayor of your company, meaning they have the most check-ins, they can be sent an exclusive coupon, or given a free product. Word of mouth travels fast, and if you give your customers have something buzz-worthy to talk about, more people are sure to visit. Also, be sure to maximize your exposure by linking your Foursquare to other social media platforms such as Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter.

One of Foursquare’s greatest features is its ease of use. Consumers can now be automatically checked into any location. Another great feature is the built in GPS which helps you to locate gas stations, restaurants or other businesses of interest if you are traveling and unfamiliar with your surroundings.

For more information, or to download the app, visit foursquare.com!

Google+ Hype Explained

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Okay, so there’s so much buzz going on about the new-ish social networking platform Google+, its relation to Facebook/Twitter, and how its affinity with Google may help it rank higher in searches. Hopefully after reading this blog, all your questions will be answered, and you will be able to decide whether or not you want to create an account with Google+.

When Google+ first emerged in its Beta testing stages, it was only accessible by invitation. In September this obstruction was lifted, and Google+ became public. Since then, it has been growing at an alarming pace, one that far surpassed the growth that Facebook experienced at similar stages in development. A study that measured how fast each major social network obtained 50 million users was conducted in October and the results were as follows:

Google+ – 88 days
Twitter – 1096 days
Facebook-1325 days
LinkedIn- 2354 days

Google+ is neat because it essentially took everything that people liked about Facebook, and removed a lot of the things that people disliked about Facebook—and that added a lot of other cool stuff. Google’s +1 button simulates Facebook’s ever-popular “Like” button, and there’s no need to create two Facebook accounts (one for your friends and one for your family), or block your mom from seeing your tagged pictures. What Google+ created from this headache, is a way to separate the different groups of people in your life so that only the information you want will be seen by your different groups of people.

Google+ was created by Larry Page in order to fill the gap that Google had within the social media space. Because the Web has begun to shift from a “you need something you search for it” to a “your friends tell you what you should buy/try” motto, Google felt the pressure to emerge into this new social era. Another interesting fact that I came across from the same study as above, is that the highest demographic of Google+ users are software developers and web designers. I’m not quite sure of the significance of that, but I think perhaps it has to do with the tech-y nature of Google, and may be another one of its deficiencies in being able to target to social media users.

While the amount of Facebook users still far exceeds that of Google+, both social platforms continue to battle the other with new and unique features, and this progression doesn’t seem likely to slow down.