What I learnt from the #smli webinar – Part 1 (LinkedIn Strategy)

Whenever I try to do something good, something stupid happens OR the timing isn’t right. Today, friends have come over to my place and I have started writing this blog. They are talking, giggling, and having fun and I’m here in this room fighting with words. Well, you gotta do what you gotta do. Here’s a synopsis of the Advanced Social Media Marketing webinar I attended this afternoon. I was lucky to get through in the first go as there were hundreds of people trying to connect at the same time.  

Like all other SMM presentations, they began the session by listing social media stats and explaining why social media is important. Facebook users spend about 5.5 hrs a day, which amounts to about 38.5 hrs a week on the social networking site. YouTube has become the second largest search engine after Google. Technorati has indexed 210 million blogs. To sum up, more people are spending time online more than ever before. 

LinkedIn expert Lewis Howes explained the sharing feature on LinkedIn which allows users to share content not only on their own timeline but also on the groups that they are following. It maximizes content reach and saves time. They call it ‘The Group Share Avalanche Strategy’. In addition, with the new Twitter settings available on LinkedIn, you can update both sites simultaneously.  

Winging away from Twitter, Lewis Howes provided industry examples illustrating the tremendous growth of LinkedIn searches in the past couple of years. Businesses are looking for service providers and employers are looking for qualified employees on LinkedIn. Therefore, it is very important to rank high on search results. How do you do that? He addressed the LinkedIn SEO challenge in 5 simple steps.

Step #1: Add a keyword to the title

The space below the name allows you to write a description so add relevant keywords there to rank higher.

Step #2: Current work experience

Write the current work experience in a way that it has the keywords that you are targeting. Try to use them as much as possible but don’t sound ridiculous.

Step #3: Past work experience

Again, add relevant keywords to the past experience.

Step #4: Summary

Structure your summary to incorporate maximum relevant keywords.

Step #5: Specialties

Add keywords to this section as well.

Furthermore, he pointed out that most people have no idea how to use LinkedIn to get leads. He suggested networking and trying to be a part of as many groups relevant to the industry as possible. Make a list of contacts and target them to get the maximum advantage. Finally, he stated that LinkedIn is a great resource for gathering quality leads, which was soon followed by their sales pitch. I assume people don’t want me to write about that. :) 

 

In my next blog, I will write on Sean Malarkey’s insights on Twitter. Stay tuned!