However, the challenge is how to stand out in this social media networking site. Today, the number of businesses with a LinkedIn profile has already reached more than 2 million users. How in the world can yours be noticed? These are some tricks and tips on how to grow a LinkedIn page that will ultimately help you grow your business. Remember getting known and branded in this social network gets you opportunities to be marketed to the best employers, employee and professionals out there.

#1 Create a Company Profile

What you have to do is to optimize the LinkedIn page for your company. While there is a default setting, it is best for you to personalize it to fit the overall mood and personality of your company. The great thing about this social networking site is that it gives you access to all sorts of resources including images, hyper-linked banners, YouTube videos and the list goes on. The important thing for you to remember is to use less words and more visuals. Wordy paragraphs tend to turn people off while photos tend to draw their attention. Say what you want in the shortest way possible (use the idea of KISS – keep it short and simple) and say it in the most creative manner possible. Think of the allowable space to write an advert for your brand or company or name. This way you can integrate the right keywords and action words that will trigger interest from your first and upcoming visitors and viewers.

#2 Get to the point

While you want to talk about your company, the truth is that people do not care much about your long history. What they want to know is what you can do for them. What do you have to offer? To optimize your LinkedIn page, use keywords that are relevant to your business.

If you are just a starting business or new in the LinkedIn community, chances are you have a very small community. Just like Facebook, the more people you have following you, the better. At the very least, start your marketing within your business. Ask employees to follow your LinkedIn page. That way, when you post something, their other connections will have access to it as well. Also encourage them to invite friends and their family to be part of your LinkedIn community.

#3 Follow to Be Followed

Follow the pages of relevant vendors, prospects, companies and customers. If you follow them, chances are they will follow you too. Besides, if you share a common interest or platform with them, you can get their contacts to be part of your community as well. Connect with their staff, comment on their posts and give value to the relationship. You got to give something if you expect to receive something.

#4 Engage, Engage, Engage

Engage in the updates of companies that share common things with your business. Go ahead and post comments. Just make sure that it is relevant and something that will draw the attention of people to your LinkedIn company page. Being an expert in your field will not only make you look credible and worth the time of your readers.

As you build a following, thank them for their interest and be interested in who they are as individuals. Congratulate them on new positions or new jobs. Inquire about new projects. Ask questions of experts in industries you’re not experienced in. As you show genuine consideration for others, you’ll see your following increase and your connections rise.

If you want to connect with me on LinkedIn, you’ll find me here.

You can find No to the Quo’s company page here.

If you want help creating a profile or promoting your business, hire us to become your social media manager and we’ll build the relationships needed to help put your business in the spotlight. Contact us for more details and this month’s social media management special!

Two words – Connection Addiction.

Connection Addiction is a phrase that expresses ones strong need to stay connected to people and feel like they are in the loop or feel like they can talk to someone. It comes from the feeling that one gets when they feel like someone is there or they feel comforted.

In a society that is based completely around texting, Social Media, and the latest,greatest way to talk to someone without being in the same room, feeling connected to someone is a really big deal. It helps people get through the day, feel popular, and feel wanted by others. The reason why people can’t get enough of social media is because it is their ‘social life.’ Its how they stay connected with family, friends, and loved ones. It’s how they ‘stalk’ their favorite movie star or new love interest and stay updated with the latest fads.

Now, obviously not everyone experiences Connection Addiction. Some of the Social Media surfers have the ability not to get hooked on these ever-so-addictive sites, but for those who do stay up until 4am cramming for a midterm because they spent viable studying hours Facetiming or Snapchatting, here are some great tips from @yourlibary on how to remove the dependency:

• Unplug and reconnect. Impose limits on the use of cell phones, iPads, iPods and other technologies every day, such as during meal time and at social events.
• Put away your cell phone or smartphone. At least an hour before bedtime (if necessary, stow the devise on a hall table out of reach and earshot). The constant stimulation of cell phone use and text exchanges hinders the wind-down phase needed for sound sleep.
• Set ground rules for email. Check your emails at regular intervals, not continuously, for instance, at 9 a.m.; 12 noon; and 3 p.m.
• Put people first. By always giving preference to the human being in front of you rather than the pinging phone or text.
• Talk rather than text. If you’re a text-first person, try making a phone call and engaging in an old-fashioned conversation. Over the phone (or in person), you can pick up emotion through vocal inflections, pauses and a person’s tone and timing that you’ll miss when only writing.
• Moderate your use of technology. Unless you have a full-blown connection addiction and need professional help, don’t try to go cold turkey on technology. Instead, strive to reign in your use of digital devises.

#1 Share the page with your friends

Click the gears icon under the timeline cover image and you’ll see an option to share the page. By sharing the page it will bring Pinky’s to the newsfeed of your friends. Write a quick sentence as to why you like the page and why you’d like your friends to click the like button too.

Sharing something personal and practical will help people follow through with the request to like the page.

#2 Engage with Posted Content

Typically, Facebook only shows posted content in a newsfeed to 16% of your entire audience. So, if you have 100 fans, only 16 people will see the latest post you made. The reason for the shortage is that Facebook wants you to spend to promote the post and put some coins in their coffer. In order to increase reach without spending to promote every post, you need your fans to spread the content for you.

That’s where you come in! Liking, commenting or sharing the content will continue the efforts to expand the reach and ensure all of our fans see our content. The more who share the content the greater the potential to increase audience and fans.

#3 Send good links or content to Kyle or Lindsey to Post

If you find a good article related to Parkinson’s or you have a good story to tell, send an email to Kyle (kyle@notothequo.com) or to Lindsey to post to the page. While we don’t want to post too much content, it is better to have too much than too little. Posting content on a daily basis will keep Pinky’s front of mind to your audience and increase engagement.

As we move forward to promote the Walk and push registrations, it will be all the more important to have your help in spreading the message about Pinky’s Facebook page and partnering with No to the Quo to get the message out. Together, we can surpass our goals set at the beginning (1000 fans and 20% increased registration), but it will require teamwork!

Stay tuned in the coming weeks for new graphics designed to promote the Walk that you can share through social channels as well as email. Once those graphics are made, we will start the advertising on Google and Facebook. Kyle has direct access to the advertising staff at Facebook and has already begun discussing strategy with them to promote the page and get a high number of fans and attention to the page.

Thank you for your excitement and participation!

Sincerely,

Kyle Willis
No to the Quo
kyle@notothequo.com

In the six months that No to the Quo managed their social media accounts, we were able to create an active community on Facebook that grew to over 1,400 fans. Twitter later became a strong emphasis as we turned our attention to big data and social media predictions. We were able to increase their Twitter followers to over 1,100.

We also made multiple updates to their website. The current website has since had an overhaul, but previously it was a WordPress single-page styled website and we were hired to update graphics, text, and do some copywriting for the page content.

It was important to portray the Thai heritage throughout the website, so the homepage showcases art from the restaurant and Thai chefs preparing meals in the kitchen. They wanted a simple website that highlighted the restaurant’s aesthetic appeal and could quickly provide viewers access to their menus without having to download a PDF.

The homepage was stripped of all extras so that viewers had direct access to the two most important features the owner wanted to showcase: the menu and the contact form. While we attempt you unify design, the client wanted differing styles for the contact form (old-world) and the menus (school chalkboard). We designed them to match style with custom fonts and a real stamp from Thailand for the contact form.

The menus were all uploaded as images and we installed a custom plugin to give the viewer the ability to scroll through the pages. Banyan Tree offers many of their dishes as gluten free or vegetarian, so being able to view the menu instantly helps people plan ahead for allergies and dietary constraints.

If you are looking for some great, authentic Thai food in Kent, give Banyan Tree a chance!

Burger King’s account was hijacked around 9am PST on Monday, February 18th, as Twitter users noticed the image header replaced by a McDonalds Chicken McNugget image, change in profile name, and strange texts announcing Burger King was sold to McDonalds due to failure of Whopper sales. After the account was suspended by Twitter until Burger King could regain access and control of their account, they quickly worked to reverse any negative affects the account seizure occurred.

What Did the Burger King Hack Teach Us:

Mistakes are often our greatest teachers. Failure to learn from them, or the mistakes of others, only sets us up for a repeat. Burger King has done a marvelous job in avoiding a PR nightmare and turning a hack into a heroic victory.

When not in control, get it back

• It took about three hours for Burger King to regain control of their Twitter account. That may seem like a long time, but when your account is hijacked and passwords, emails, and names are changed, it can take quite some time to get Twitter to work with you to get access back.

Make light of a bad situation with some humor

• There was nothing Burger King or Jeep could do about the hacking except move on, so they had a good laugh sympathizing with each other and welcoming followers back.

.@jeep Glad everything is back to normal.

— BurgerKing (@BurgerKing) February 19, 2013

.@burgerking Thanks BK. Let us know if you want to grab a burger and swap stories – we’ll drive.

— Jeep (@Jeep) February 20, 2013

Don’t repeat the joke once the punch line was delivered

• Unless you’re a three year old with an adorable voice, nobody likes hearing a joke a second time right after they already laughed at it. MTV and BET tried recreating the PR success Burger King was benefiting from by “hijacking” each other’s accounts and promoting the other channel’s TV shows and upcoming events.
• Twitter users quickly caught on to the hoax and did not respond kindly. Denny’s Diner played off it well poking fun at MTV’s hijack fail with this response:
• If we learned anything from Burger King or Oreo during the Super Bowl, respond to negative situations with humor, quick action, and value to your customers

Hacked to Hero

Since the account was hijacked, Burger King has not only benefited from extensive media reports, but they’ve seen over 40,000 new Twitter followers! The social media world responded gracefully to Burger King and laughed with them at the unfortunate turn of events. Burger King’s official response was calling it an “interesting day” and hoped their new followers would “stick around.” Something tells us they’re not going anywhere as The King probably has some new tricks up his sleeve to excite the fans.

Wondering how you should respond if something negative ever happened to your company’s social network? Keep calm and hire No to the Quo! We want to be your social media manager and work with you to not only write daily content for your social sites, but manage the reputation for your brands!

Contact us today to learn more!

Historically, Hollywood events have not been very successful at integrating real-time social media into their programs; that is until this year. If you didn’t watch the Grammys, not only was the event a large success, but also the following spree of online discourse has been hit. The Grammys, being a nationally and internationally televised event, acted as a spotlight to prove and reinforce the truth that social media can turn a static event into a dynamic interactive experience.

“Actually, the Grammys soared among the most social shows of the year, much less the week. Music’s biggest awards night of the year achieved the second highest social interaction in 2013 for a televised event, just behind the Super Bowl.
In fact, social activity surrounding the Grammys climbed 511% from 2012. Mobile interactions increased to 88% from 57% last year. And the most popular hashtag of the show (#grammys) logged over 2.6 million uses.” (S. Buck, 2/12/2013. Mashable.com)

This success was due in part to several reasons. Whenever possible, the opportunity to promote the social involvement was taken. Even before the Grammys, there was a campaign to promote the event using a unique hashtag, (#theworldislistening) accompanied by images and posters. The Grammys did a lot of other things right also. Prior to and during the event, twitter handles and hashtags were sent out in real-time about the performer/entertainer at that moment. There were mentions by the host LL Cool J, as well as commercials promoting the social interaction occurring throughout the show. All this real-time engagement helped the Grammys to virtually flood Twitter for hours with multiple trending topics, millions of tweets and hundred of thousands of mentions.

The takeaway
Social media hasn’t always been acknowledged, accepted, or encouraged by the “official” mainstream. It has been an organic progression within the masses that has slowly caught traction with the media, pop-culture, and industry. As evidenced by recent events, such as the Super Bowl, the Grammys and now the State of the Union address, it seems social media is finally is being utilized by these circles as a legitimate and effective platform for communication. Unlike the past though, social media is now being used simultaneously to compliment and enhance events. At any given event like the Grammys, fans will be tweeting and talking in real time. The task of the any social media department is to engage and guide the flow of discourse in real time.

One of the most interesting responses to the “social Grammys” was an infographic showing what the results would have been, had the awards been determined by popularity across social media platforms.

How did it work?
Months before the kick-off, Oreo paid a premium to one of advertising’s hottest firms Wieden & Kennedy to create a unique commercial to “standout” in the myriad incredible and odd advertisements which are the primary draw for many who watch the Super Bowl. Then Oreo paid the nearly $4 million-dollar price tag for the privilege to air their spot to the 108+ million viewers.  While everything with their planned advertising worked, the overall effect of their prized commercial was lacking much acclaim; yet, they were prepared for more. During the 34 minutes of the Super Bowl “black out” the advertising magicians behind Oreo created a winning tweet campaign.

“The Oreo graphic was “designed, captioned and approved within minutes,” according to Sarah Hofstetter, president of the cookie brand’s digital agency of record, Dentsu-owned 360i. All the decisions were made in real time quickly because marketers and agency members were sitting together at a “mission control” center, or a social-media war room of sorts, at the agency’s headquarters in the TriBeCa neighborhood of Manhattan. Among those who were there were two brand team members from Oreo, and nearly a dozen creatives, strategists, community managers and social-media listeners.” NewsFeed By Melissa Locker“

The results were viral.
Within one hour, the single tweet from Oreo had been retweeted (or shared for those not familiar with twitter) over 10,000 times. The buzz continued throughout the following hours and at the time of this article – 2 days later – the “favorite” count is nearly 6,000 and the retweets have hit nearly hit 16,000. The reach of this single “free” advertisement will in the end have a larger impact than their TV commercial. The question could be posed – would the virality of the post have ever caught on if Oreo were not already a “player” in the Super Bowl?

“There needs to be enough nuanced understanding of the audience, a cultural fluency really, to understand what signals in the market to respond to. Whether it’s a shift in sentiment, traffic flow, response rate, or a spike in a specific metric, the agency has to be intuitive enough to know what matters enough to respond to.  Then, it comes down to executional competency. Is the agency ready — staffed right, are the tools in place, are the processes worked out, is the client aligned — to move in something close to real time?”  Jim Cuene, senior marketing manager at General Mills. (source: Digiday)

Were there any other brands that acted in real time?
While Oreo had the most successful response to their real-time campaign, they were not the only players. Audi poked a jab at Mercedes by tweeting “Sending some LEDs to the @MBUSA Superdome right now…” and Tide with their tweet “We can’t get your #blackout, but we can get your stains out.” Another response came from Volkswagen who tweeted “Lost power during the Big Game… Don’t worry, #GetHappy.” These companies saw the opportunity and acted in real-time engaging their audience and growing their influence through retweets, favorites and shares.

The brands that responded to the Super Bowl blackout got positive attention and interactions from people. Clearly, planning and acting quickly paid off for them. Now it will be up to brands to take more risks with real time and put more procedures and the proper teams in place to make real time more than a one-off.  – Saya Weissman (source: Digiday)

So what’s the big idea?
The reality that audiences view and react to situations in real time has always been a factor for advertising. The difference is that it hasn’t been until the social media revolution that there has been an active “back channel” to communicate with the audience. Now an individual or company can actively communicate about what happens in real time. This may seem like a “duh” statement, but there are so many companies that do nothing about this huge opportunity. Many look at the success of Oreo as only the tip of the iceberg and the beginning of a race. Being actively involved in social media is a huge advantage for companies. It is events like these that will start the trend for the masses to follow.  Social media is no longer the “future”, rather it is only a tool for those trend-setters who will effectively utilize the tool for its ability to communicate to an unlimited audience in real time.

“Being agile and responsive and being really good at it is going to mean agencies and brands have to change how they work. I think it’s possible, but it’s going to be painful. CMOs want to do it, but it’s going to take changing.” David Armano, manager director of Edelman Digital. (source: Digiday)

The lessons to take away from this
For the individual:

1. Brands that interact with you through social media are trend setters that are on the cutting edge of what is possible. Follow these brands cause they are the leaders!

For the businessman and entrepreneur:

1. Just as a car does little good without gasoline, so a Facebook account does little good if you don’t use it. We all know that social media is not a passing fad; it’s changed society forever. If you have not already – GET CONNECTED!
2. While the tech-savvy and social trend setters have already been doing real-time engagement for a while, it’s not too late to get on the early band wagon!
3. Create an environment that supports and engages the real-time opportunities that you and your company will face. As often as possible, be prepared like Oreo was, so that when faced with a situation, you can utilize it as an opportunity.
4. To learn more, I would highly suggest the book “Real-Time Marketing & PR” by David Meerman Scott. For those on twitter follow David “@dmscott”
   ]]> http://notothequo.com/marketing-improvisation-advertisers-the-super-bowl-blackout/feed/ 1 http://notothequo.com/marketing-improvisation-advertisers-the-super-bowl-blackout/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/n2q/~3/Unm1A3NsyDs/ http://notothequo.com/beyond-branding-a-look-at-red-bull-stratos-the-jump/#comments Thu, 18 Oct 2012 17:00:11 +0000 kylewillis http://notothequo.com/?p=1835 Imagine a company; but not just any company, a very special company. This company created an entire industry around its product. The creator was so confident in his product that he was willing to charge 4-6 times the price of the closest comparable product. He claims that his product/company can help you achieve your dreams; most would consider this a lofty claim for a simple product. Have you figured out what company I am talking about? Before I give you the answer, lets look at what they have done, and how successful it has been.

   The creator and genius behind the brand is a quiet and eccentric Austrian man named Dietrich Mateschitz. Mateschitz believed that by becoming part of his customer base, by knowing intimately what type of people they are, what they aspire to achieve, who their role models are, that he could achieve unrivaled success. Instead of spending money on traditional advertising, he choose to invest in the things his target demographic 18-34 year old males were interested; extreme sports. The magic of this successful branding was the combination of the right product, the right marketing, and proving ultimately that the priority for this company was not a bottom line, but rather a common goal, to give wings to your dreams.

   Yes if you haven’t figured it out yet, I am talking about Red Bull. The company that last year sold over 4.5 billion cans in 164 countries, earning 4.253 billion Euros. While these numbers are impressive, they are just numbers. So what makes this company so unique?

   Red Bull Gives You Wings: Red Bull + Sports

   Why does Red Bull sponsor athletes and extreme sports? They do this because it puts their product and more importantly their brand at every extreme sporting event around the world. With over 500 sponsored athletes, TV shows, numerous global events, a record company, and some sponsor ships that defy description, its no wonder everyone knows and loves Red Bull. Dietrich Mateschitz has always held that Red Bull is not just about the product, it is about an idea that a brand can embody a concept as intangible as adventure. Because Red Bull is not about pushing their product, they want to be branded as a player, as part of the team. They always want to be on the front line, as one of the people, not a bunch of product pushing salesmen. This is why they are supporting athletes who are pushing the boundaries. They are helping to achieve the dreams that everyone else can only watch and applaud.

   Red Bull Stratos

   The most recent and notable stunt was Felix Baumgartner’s jump from the edge of the stratosphere at 120,000 feet. More than 8 million people viewed the live stream of this event. Although official figures as to the cost of this venture have not been released, one can guess as to what a space adventure costs. Perhaps the more important question is, what is an event like this worth?

   “The sponsorship transcended sports and entertainment into Pop Culture, hitting new consumers that Red Bull does not usually capture, and on a global scale,” said Ben Sturner, President and CEO of Leverage Agency, a full-service sports, entertainment and media marketing company. “The value for Red Bull is in the tens of millions of dollars of global exposure, and Red Bull Stratos will continue to be talked about and passed along socially for a very long time.” (D. Heitner, Forbes Oct, 15, 2012)

   The Benefit of This Strategy

   Their strategy is pretty simple, but it is also hard to replicate. Here are the lessons and principles that Red Bull has mastered over the last 28 years in business:

   • Have a great core product that you can stand behind 100%. Mateschitz will never change the original recipe because he knows its value is not just in its flavor.
   • Focus on the consumer, not the product, or the sales. I know this idea sounds counterintuitive, but trust us and them; your customers will become your friends.
   • Become interested in what interests your customer and become an advocate for them. Take this “friendship” concept one step further by becoming an active role model for your customers. Engage them in purposes outside your company.
   • Put your money where your mouth is, and be a do-er! Red Bull spends an estimated 1 billion in all their sponsorships, events and marketing per year. Red Bull does such a successful job of this, it can be easy to forget that they make a few energy drinks.

   

   What Will You Do?

   Obviously this strategy has worked tremendously for Red Bull, but will this strategy work for your company? There are no guarantees in the business world; there are only good principles and a tough marketplace. A good final thought to leave you with: If Red Bull gives you wings, what can your company give?

   If you missed the big jump, Red Bull put together this recap video on YouTube:

   ]]> http://notothequo.com/beyond-branding-a-look-at-red-bull-stratos-the-jump/feed/ 0 http://notothequo.com/beyond-branding-a-look-at-red-bull-stratos-the-jump/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/n2q/~3/GjRr1F0uwB0/ http://notothequo.com/developing-an-audience/#comments Wed, 10 Oct 2012 18:51:18 +0000 kylewillis http://notothequo.com/?p=1822 It seems with each passing day, every company wants to have their own social media presence. Every company wants to have a place where their audience comes for information, engaging content, and experience. This is a positive and necessary evolution in the development of technology and the dispersion of digital information. But this causes several issues, such as: Who are you? Who cares? Why should anyone stick around?

   What is Your Core Brand?

   First you must clearly identify your company. Who are you, what are you all about, and what do you do? If you can’t answer this, the people you are trying to reach won’t know who you are either. Its best to have a clear established brand, name, logo, and color scheme. Once you have these things you can integrate them into your branding: website, backgrounds, landing-pages, etc. It is also very important to establish the tone of your brand. Are you up-beat, creative-artsy, professional, economical, high-brow? How you present your brand, through image and through communication is critical and it needs to be consistent.

   Draw the Crowd

   Many large companies will have a built-in audience simply by enlisting employees and their families. Small businesses on the other hand may not have anyone who currently knows or cares about them. Now because this is all about building an “audience”, this content is inherently pertinent to social media. There are many ways to attract people and most methods are very simple, and unfortunately, very repetitive. Without buying followers or paying to promote, here are some simple and proven methods for steady growth.

   1. Facebook: Depending on how you set up the profile, you can friend acquaintances, or you can share the page with friends. This process needs to happen again and again. Continually widen your circle of sharing, but try to always ensure you share your page with people that you have mutual friends with so that it doesn’t come across as spamming.

   2. Twitter: Follow Follow Follow! You can follow nearly 2,000 people before you hit a follow limit. Once you do hit your limit, go back to websites (such as Twitterkarma) that show which individuals follow you back. If they don’t follow you back after 48 hours, then unfollow them and try again later.

   

   Entertain and Engage Your Audience

   While you may be able to momentarily gain people’s attention, this feat is of very little value unless you can actually engage them with your content. This process of attracting and engaging must be a symbiotic relationship for it to be effective in growing your audience. Now that you have your audience, what are you going to say?

   This is the never-ending process of content creation and curation. There are a million different tips and blogs about how to create and curate good content, but essentially you need to make sure you are consistent, you represent your core brand, and you don’t post offensive material. Things to think about also are what channel (Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, YouTube, Instagram, Myspace) you use to communicate, but also how to mix up your content with text, graphics and videos. As time goes on, try to keep a consistent flow of content and maintain your brand voice or the tone with which you communicate. When people interact, make sure you give them attention immediately. This is incredibly important in an age of real-time consumption. Got all that?

   So What Did You Just Read?

   This post was all about how to build and manage an audience using social media. To successfully develop an audience takes some strategy, some brainless repetition, and a lot of self-discipline. In essence, it is about attracting people, and engaging them once you have gained their interest. This is not rocket science, and once you get the hang of this process, the challenge becomes learning how to increase efficiency while maintaining consistency and quality.

   Have you had any surprising challenges using a content specific channel such as Instagram?

   ]]> http://notothequo.com/developing-an-audience/feed/ 0 http://notothequo.com/developing-an-audience/