What in the world does outside networking have to do with Linkedin?

Usually I attend about 3 networking events per week.  After I attend those events, when I get home I connect with all the people I spoke to on Linkedin.  I listen carefully to each of the people I speak with and when I reach out to connect I give them an article or some tip about the conversation they had to better help them with their business.  

I want to challenge you to go on to Linkedin and connect with 3 people this week that you met networking.

The number 1 reason to be on Linkedin is that the people on the platform on average make 109 Thousand dollars.   What a great opportunity we have.

Here are a few tips to get you started right away or improve what you already started on Linkedin.

1. Complete your profile 100%.  People do read profiles.

2. Don't be Boring.  Make your content compelling.  Make your profile client facing to attract the right people to your business.

3. Connect with everyone.  The jury is still out on this one.  As long it's viable person with a real business, then certainly connect.  If you're just connecting with friends and family you will get business anyways but with someone you don't know it gives you a chance for something new.

Here are the 3 most important metrics in tracking your email marketing success.

1.  Open rate:  This gives you the number on how many people are reading your emails. You want higher than 29%.

2. Bounce rate:  This rate shows you how clean and healthy your email list is. You want lower than 2%.

3.  Click Through Rate (CTR):  This is the most important of the 3 metrics because this tells you how many people have clicked on the link inside your email. You want higher than 5%.

1. Promote a sign-up link on social media.   Don’t expect people to just sign up. Get your audience to take action on the platforms that they interact with you the most. Make an effort to post once a week, bi weekly or a month...whatever works best for you that initiates and reminds your audience that they’ll receive exclusive offers or information when they join your list. You can use Constant Contact apps and a sign up form to collect those contacts.
2. Ask people in your groups to sign up. Its a great way to see if they want more of what is in your private group.
3. Install an app on Facebook.  Collect email address from those who visit your FB page by adding sign-up tab. It’s really an easy integration if you have Constant Contact.  But there is other apps out there like Tabsite that you can utilize . 
4. Use the Facebook call-to-action button. Facebook lets you add a button to the top of your business page  Use it to link directly to your online...

Many people ask me why it is so important to do email marketing. I always tell them that social media and email marketing go hand in hand together.  I also tell them about these 4 benefits of email marketing.

1. It’s Cost Effective.   Email marketing is the perfect digital marketing tactic for businesses working with small budgets because its relatively inexpensive to start and maintain email marketing campaigns. 

2. You can automate the email marketing process very easily.  There are many digital marketing processes that just can’t be automated. (At least, not successfully.) Email marketing is great automate. Automating your emails helps improve the relevancy and timeliness of what you are sending out. You can use triggers and different pathways to automatically send messages to consumers after they take a specific action.

3. It’s so simple. 

Email is so popular because it’s easy to use. Most email software platforms are so...

I get asked all the time if Instagram is good for business.  I get asked all the time is instagram a waste of time.  Im here to say that I believe instagram is the most important social media platforms around.  Why because it's the best way to promote your small business or corporation.  And to be quite honest, every business right now should be incorporating instagram and should have a marketing strategy in place.

Here are some important points about being on instagram:

1. Your business can tell a story!  We live in a story telling world and it's a great way to give a glance in to behind the scenes or your business culture.

2. People engage more on Instagram!  Instagram gives so much opportunity to engage with your community.  Did you know the engagement rate on Instagram is higher than all the main social channels. 

I just want challenge you put your business out there on Instagram by creating relevant, engaging stories.

Lastly, I...

“Brands on Instagram have a 4.21% engagement rate.  That’s 10x higher than Facebook and 84x higher than Twitter.”  Forrester

What’s important to know about engagement!  You can’t be effective on instagram without engagement.

1. You should know what times to post.  I recommend looking at your instagram insights. I also recommend posting 1 to 2 times a day.  I personally like the times 9am -10am or 2pm - 5pm.  Be consistent and creative with your posts.
2. Don’t preach at your followers but tell a story.  Stories can be told in many ways I suggest that you post branded photos and 60 second videos.

There is over 800 million people on Instagram.  I love the fact that Instagram came up with IGTV.  It made them competitive with YouTube.  So my question why use IGTV?  

1.  You can reach a new audience.  You can expand your reach while repurposing your videos.  You can can reach so many more people.  Plus now it's show up in the newsfeed as preview.  Great way to get more reach.

2. You can be more creative.  Maybe use different backgrounds or maybe to create buzz around something you are launching. And remember these videos are vertical and have to be under 10 minutes.

The most important thing around is it's another way to reach your audience.  

When people ask me to look at their instagram account I often run across these 3 mistakes.

1.  Make sure your profile is public, not private

2. Don’t use google search to find your images. Create your own!  You can use an app you can get on your phone called Word Swag.  You can use Canva or PicMonkey.  You also can get Pixabay too, which gives access to free photos.  

3. Don’t overuse hashtags.  Switch them up! Make them relevant enough that your audience is searching for them. Make them make sense! 

I hope this helps with making sure your doing the easy things right!

This week I want to talk about a free tool within the Instagram app called Insights  But you must have a Business Profile.