Have you ever received a message from someone you didn't know? 

Have you ever got this message: "Id like to add you to my professional network."

So how do you generate interest with people who you don’t know so they will connect with you.  Here is what I suggest.

Include a question at the end of your message that will give the perspective connection a reason to respond.  Ask them something that only someone in their position would know. People love being helpful, so asking a prospect for their insight or expertise on a certain topic might make them more inclined to respond. Another is how you found their profile.

Things to consider when writing a connection request. 

Be courteous & professional
Be specific. Get right to the point
Personalize it.
Complement them on something.

Here is an Example.
Hi Chris, I came across your profile after seeing your post about “Benefits Of Reading Daily. Interesting stuff…I so enjoy reading your content?   l would love to get to know you and what you ...

As you know Instagram is the most engaging platform.

Why because it has over 1 Billion Active users.

So it's important for social media marketers to keep up and find an effective Instagram strategy for getting more followers, more Engagement and more comments. 

Let's explore a few ways to get more comments.

1. Using niche Instagram hashtags can help you build a community around your brand, and get Instagram comments faster

2. Do Instagram Stories Daily - Why because the most engaged Instagram users are engaging with stories.

3. Share the posts in your feed to your Instagram Stories.

• Go to any of your feed posts
• Click on the arrow in the bottom left corner
• Click on “Add post to your Story”

These are just a few ways to get more comments on Instagram.  And remember consistency = growth.  So be consistent!

Do you have social media success?

The first thing to do to determine this is to define success for you.

Is it more followers, more website views, more sales, or more newsletter sign ups. Is it something else?  Only you know that answer.  

Now that we defined what success is for you, what you do next is important.
This is where you enforce key strategies to ensure you are successful to achieve that success. Here are 3 strategies that I feel will make you successful with your social media marketing.

1. Be human - not a robot.  You have to connect with people.  That should be one of your goals.  Who wants to engage with robot.  I know for myself I want engage with real people. 

2. Have a content strategy!  I say this over and over again all the time.  Don't be random with your content.  Make it high quality, relevant content.

3. Find out where your customers are and be present on those platforms.  Bottom line is, you have to be where they are.  

If your having problems with success....

I want to challenge you to spend 13 minutes a day on Linkedin.  Alot of times I get complaints that Linkedin doesn't work.  I always ask one question back.  When was the last time that you were on Linkedin.  I was surprised to hear, "1 year, 6 months or haven't been back on Linkedin since I set up my profile". Not sure how anyone expect to have results if they are never on.

So here is my 13 minutes  a day on Linkedin.

A.  (2 min)  View - who’s looking at your profile.

B.  (4 min)  Connect -Send some messages to connect. Make them custom to your  target Market

C.  (3 min)  CheckTabs - Home, My Network, Jobs, Messaging  and Notifications. You don't want to miss anything.

D  (4 min) Accepting  - Accept invitations that make sense.  Create your own rules around who you will connect with.  I shared mine in the video. 

If you do this 13 minutes a day, 5 days a week you will have results. 

How do you maximize our impact with video?

1. You need to optimize. Upload your video either on unlisted or private. So you can make sure you have keywords in your title and description.

2. Don't forget to share across platforms.  This means putting your video on FB, IGTV and Linkedin and your blog.  And I'm sure there are other platform that you can spread your great video.

3. Don't overlook the customized thumbnail.  It will scream your branding.  

I hope these short tips help and drop me a line if you need some help. 

Now that we are all networking online, I wanted to give you this little tip.  The best place to be when online networking is in communities such as groups.  But you must be actively involved.  So please don't just go to the sites but be involved.  Find a community with your target market and join in on the fun.  I hope you enjoy the video and please join my online community on Facebook.  

To do that friend me at Lorraine Eckert Duncan

And my private community is https://www.facebook.com/groups/SocialMediaMarketingTribe/

Using hashtags on instagram is so important.  Take the time and make sure your using the right ones.  

• Using hashtags for Instagram makes your content able to be found.  You want to use hashtags that are varied in numbers.  Such a 1 million or 10 million or 5 thousand or 10 thousand.  Mix them up.
• You don't need to use 30 hashtags in every post! I usually post 10 to 15.  It varies and there really isn't hard evidence that if you post 30 you will be seen more.
• Research your competitors and top influencers to find the best hashtags.  Find the experts in your field and see what they are using.  Also pay careful attention to how they post them.
• Make sure your hashtags are relevant to whatever you're posting.  So if you were posting a marketing picture you would use the #food, but you would use the #marketing.

Hope you learned something, next weeks vlog I will go a bit deeper and share some research tools.   

So with 89 days in this year left I want to encourage you to ramp up your social media marketing with Facebook Live.  

So you guessed it October will be FB Live month.

So want to start out with challenging you to do FB Live for 5 days.

Here are 3 reasons you should be doing FB Live for your business. 

1. It's free.  Yes!  Something you don't have to pay for.

2. It's a great way to get eyeballs on you.  Doing a FB Live will help with that.  More people will see you on FB Live!

3. Lastly, It's a great way to show your authenticity to your audience.  Your viewers will see the real you for sure!  

That all for now so I challenge you to get noticed on FB Live and start with doing it for 5 days straight.  #BizFBLiveChallenge is our hash tag. 

Please take the time to join my FB private group because I will be posting so much in there over the next few weeks for the month of October. 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/SocialMediaMarketingTribe/

I believe that you should check these 3 tab on Linkedin Monday through Friday!

1.  The home tab: When you go to the home tab there is a "Who's viewed your profile" hyperlink that you should click.  This is right under your small picture and description. Know who views your profile helps in seeing if you are attracting your idea clients.

2. The My Network tab:  This is where you accept who you want to connect with.  Remember to write a person note when connecting with people.

3. The Message tab.  This where people send you messages.  This week I connected with so many people who wrote me message.  This is important in keeping the dialogue going..

Please remember look in these 3 tabs it could be vital to growing your business. 

Many people ask me if their business should be on Twitter.  And I say absolutely!  Here are some reasons I think you should be on twitter.

1.  Getting or (Collecting LOL) followers will help you business. This is a great way to communicate with your followers and give them important information

2. You can research your competitors and other businesses on Twitter.  You can learn from them and get ideas.

3.  You can engage more with customers.  See how they're engaging with you posts and what they like and don't.  

These are just a few reasons why you should be on Twitter.  Over the next month I will be diving deep into Twitter. Until then, happy tweeting!