Social Media

How LinkedIn Helps You Use Quotes to Pique Interest on Social Media

August 18, 2016 By Linda Dessau

While researching an upcoming blog post, I discovered a new LinkedIn feature that makes it easier to share great content with your network.

As I highlighted a sentence I wanted to quote in my post, I spotted an arrow that appeared in the margin.

When I clicked on the arrow, two options appeared:

When I clicked the first option, the LinkedIn sharing box appeared, pre-populated with the quote and the author’s name. The author’s name was also automatically tagged, so if I were to share the quote she would be notified (this is a great way to make new connections!).

I have the option to edit the text, so I would capitalize the word “when” at the beginning of the sentence. I also sometimes edit the blog post summary (next to the photo), making sure to stay within the character limit so there are no partial sentences.

When I clicked the other option, it launched a Twitter compose box, again pre-populated with the quote, as well as the author’s Twitter handle. NOTE: If the person hasn’t filled in their Twitter handle on their LinkedIn contact details, it will just say “on @LinkedIn.”

You can see that in this case I chose a shorter quote to stay within Twitter’s 140-character limit. Here I would also edit by capitalizing the first word of the sentence, and replacing the double quotation marks around that word with single quotation marks (since the entire sentence is surrounded by double quotes).

(Buffer users may recognize this feature from the Buffer browser extension, which behaves the same way if you highlight text on a website and then click the Buffer icon on your toolbar. But you have to manually find and enter the Twitter handle, and you cannot tag someone on LinkedIn through Buffer.)

Creating original content is important, but so is introducing your audience to new resources and ideas. You want to become their go-to source for the most timely and relevant information about your industry. Kudos to LinkedIn on a great new content sharing feature!

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Social Media is Meant to Be Social – A Chat With Nicole Holland

August 10, 2016 By Linda Dessau

Nicole Holland is on a mission to help experts grow their audience, impact, and influence quickly and easily by leveraging podcast interviews.

As host of The Business Building Rockstars Show, she interviews successful entrepreneurs about what it really took for them to reach Rockstar status. She also hosts The Business Building Rockstar Summit, a free online event for service-based entrepreneurs.

After Nicole and I started following each other on Twitter recently, I received this:

I appreciate you! @RNissenbaum @ScottAllen @TWD913 @lindadessau @BuzzNTips @ZeffieStorm @DrJimmyStar @TopAgentMag pic.twitter.com/mynbej5fJr

— Nicole Holland (@niczthename) July 23, 2016

Then a few days later, Nicole got my attention and impressed me again:

@lindadessau Hey Linda! Have you got any exciting events coming up?— Nicole Holland (@niczthename) July 27, 2016

When I replied with the news about my new free e-course for wellness professionals, Nicole was kind enough to share it with her audience.

In a recent chat I asked Nicole about her approach to social media, and some of the results she’s seen. Aside from building up an impressive 8,500+ followers on Twitter in just over a year, she’s also made important connections.

Social media should be social

Nicole and I also had a lot of fun comparing our social media pet peeves, which above all were people who used automation to be everywhere, without making any time or effort to actually engage with people.

Think before you post

Business bloggers and wellness bloggers often tell me how excited they are to discover tools like Hootsuite, Buffer and CoSchedule that let them promote new blog posts instantly across multiple social media platforms.

“Hold on there,” I usually say, because blasting the same message at the same time is not usually the best strategy. First of all, there are character limit differences between what you can share on the sites (Twitter is the most restrictive as 140 characters). More importantly there are cultural differences, e.g., a message for your Facebook profile might not work for your LinkedIn company page.

Here’s what Nicole had to say about automating your social media engagement across multiple platforms:

Batch the tasks, make the time

There’s no doubt that authentic social media engagement takes time. That’s why Nicole says she is most impressed when highly successful, influential and busy people still take the time for personalized – not automated – interaction.

I’m a big fan of templates, structures and processes that help me remember important steps and be efficient and consistent with tasks in my business, such as this template for blog post publishing and promotion.

Nicole batches tasks AND messages. For example, she included several new followers in her original message to me, but there was still a beautifully personal touch in how she added a visual message.

Once a week, she and her assistant identify and thank her new followers. This is a manual process, so they can weed out any fake accounts or others she wouldn’t want to be associated with. Then, they further hone down the list to people Nicole might particularly want to connect with, whether for collaboration and networking, to be a potential guest on her podcast, or some other reason related to her business.

That’s where Nicole’s own template comes into play – a list of 20 or so conversation starters she’s compiled in a Google spreadsheet. They don’t just rotate them automatically, though. They review the person’s Twitter bio (also making every effort to find the person’s first name, if it’s not in their Twitter handle) so they can match their question with the person’s background, business, and interests.

Listen as Nicole distinguishes carefully between using automation for putting content out, but never automating or outsourcing her own engagement once people respond to her.

Thanks so much to Nicole for the wonderful chat. Check out her podcast and upcoming telesummit for strategies and motivation for your own business. And if you want your own personalized welcome message, follow her on Twitter!

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Wellness Blogging on LinkedIn – 5 Costly Mistakes to Avoid

February 24, 2016 By Linda Dessau

Aside from checking out your wellness clinic website and blog, prospective clients will also likely look up you and your practitioners on LinkedIn.

Though they may be on LinkedIn for business and career purposes, people still bring their whole selves, including their health concerns and personal goals like choosing a wellness practitioner.

Whether you’re already publishing LinkedIn blog posts or just wondering how it all works, here are five costly mistakes you’ll want to avoid:

1. Mistaking posts for updates

Most LinkedIn users are familiar with posting updates, which are similar to tweets or Facebook posts.

Then there are LinkedIn blog posts, also known as long-form posts or LinkedIn Publisher.

Updates move lower on the page as newer messages appear. That means your connections may or may not see each update, unless they click on the “View recent activity” link available from the top of your profile.

A post, on the other hand, becomes a permanent entry in your LinkedIn blog, which has a prominent home at the top of your profile. Viewers see your three most recent posts, and a link to your full LinkedIn blog.

How this will cost you: Mistaking posts for updates can look unprofessional. It also wastes the opportunity to use your LinkedIn blog as a platform to spotlight your knowledge and show people why they can trust you and your services.

2. Stopping posting, once you start

As soon as you publish your first LinkedIn post, these will always remain at the top of your profile. While you can hide or remove dates from your own blog (though I don’t recommend it), you cannot do this with your LinkedIn blog.

How this will cost you: A long gap between blog posts can make people wonder if you ran out of things to say, or if you gave up on your blogging or even your business. When I stopped posting to LinkedIn for awhile last year, I cringed every time I reviewed my own profile!

3. Forgetting to proofread

The mind plays tricks on us when we’re reading our own work. We see what we meant to type, rather than what we actually typed.

We can also be far too focused on ourselves and how smart we sound, instead of on helping our readers understand the information.

Always assume a blog post will be a reader’s first impression of you. Read the post out loud and notice whether it sounds natural, like what you would say in a conversation. Listen for missing words, duplicates, or awkward sentences.

How this will cost you: No one is perfect and the occasional typo or spelling error happens, but sloppy writing looks unprofessional and will undermine your credibility and authority.

4. Writing about anything and everything

Your LinkedIn blogging plan should include a core set of topics you will write about. These topics should be aligned with both your ideal clients’ needs and questions, and your own areas of expertise.

How this will cost you: If your LinkedIn blog includes several unrelated topics, it works against the goal of establishing yourself as a go-to expert for a specific health issue.

5. Trying to crack the code

LinkedIn Pulse is the official network of channels where LinkedIn compiles its best content into topic areas like healthcare, human resources, careers, and social media. If your post is selected, it will be seen by a much wider audience than just your own network of connections.

For example, I was thrilled when my recent post “How to Write a Curated Post For Your Wellness Blog” was picked up by the Healthcare channel. So why wasn’t the one about blogging to keep readers healthy?

I’m not sure, but let’s not spend time worrying about that. Let’s focus on writing quality posts about topics our audience cares about.

How this will cost you: If you’re too concerned about getting your post featured on LinkedIn Pulse, you may paralyze your writing process by second-guessing yourself. And while other people’s successful posts can be inspiring, if you try to copy someone else you’ll fail to attract clients who resonate with your unique viewpoint and approach.

Does all this mean you have to write double the blog posts?

Absolutely not! Instead, let your blog posts do double duty by posting them on your clinic blog as well as your LinkedIn blog.

While experts have proven that there is absolutely no “duplicate content” penalty for reusing your blog posts on LinkedIn, Denise Wakeman recommends you do tweak them slightly. She suggests writing a new title, using a different photo, or targeting a slightly different audience.

Blogging on LinkedIn can help new people discover you, your services, and your wellness clinic. Avoid these costly mistakes and enjoy the rewards of sharing your knowledge online.

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Why Multiple Tweets About Your Blog Post Are Not Bothering Anyone

January 20, 2016 By Linda Dessau

© zea_lenanet - Fotolia.com — © zea_lenanet – Fotolia.com

In my post about how to keep people coming back to your blog, I encourage you to promote your blog posts several times on social media sites like Twitter.

A concern I hear from some business owners is, “Won’t I be bothering people if I post too often?” usually followed up with, “So-and-so posts all the time and I almost/just unfollowed them because I am so tired of seeing their messages!”

Here are four reasons you don’t have to worry about annoying people with multiple messages about your latest blog posts, or links to your goldmine of archived posts:

Things move quickly on social media. Most people only see a small percentage of what their connections post, because other updates come along to push your post down and eventually off the page. If it seems like you’re constantly seeing posts from the same person, it’s likely you’re not connected to very many people yet. (Time to ramp up your networking?)
People will scan for what’s interesting and important to them. With so much information flooding us day in and day out, we’ve become remarkably skilled at ignoring the majority of what we see. We may dislike the flood, but we don’t usually rage against each individual drop of water.
People forget things. Along the same lines, since people are often focused on their own needs and interests, they can quickly get distracted with something else, even if they were initially drawn in by what you posted. In that case sending a second or third notice may be the only way they end up reading your blog post.
People want to help. Your connections may not be members of your target market, and may never click on a single link you share. However, by seeing your links and clever teaser messages, they begin to associate you with the key topics you’re blogging about. They’ll remember this when someone asks for a referral for what you do.

I’ve read over and over again that we must put just as much – or more – effort into promoting our blog posts as we do creating them. I use a blog post promotion checklist to keep track of this important part of the blogging process, and it always includes multiple messages across several social media platforms.

Keep in mind that the most important part of posting to social media is monitoring and replying to responses from your network. Ignoring the social part of social media is not just annoying, it’s downright rude. I’m sure that’s not the impression you want your business to make!

P.S. If you liked this post, you might enjoy the Blogging Tips newsletter, delivered weekly to your inbox! Sign up here.

Social media should be social

Think before you post

Batch the tasks, make the time

1. Mistaking posts for updates

2. Stopping posting, once you start

3. Forgetting to proofread

4. Writing about anything and everything

5. Trying to crack the code

Does all this mean you have to write double the blog posts?

Web presence

Social media

Creativity

Tidbits from the trenches