A Company Page on LinkedIn: What are the Benefits?

LinkedIn recently introduced company pages and it seems that this feature has been overlooked by many businesses, especially the smaller ones. I think the reason for this is because LinkedIn was originally set up for professional profiles to help people to get jobs at companies in the area where they live, working from home, in another state or even in another country. It was designed more with the employee in mind rather than the entrepreneur. That is changing. LinkedIn is still set up ideally for the employee and employer or potential employer relationship, but it is slowly becoming more and more geared towards the entrepreneur as well. They are recognizing that times have changed with more people starting their own businesses or maintaining their full-time careers and starting businesses on the side.

I also believe that LinkedIn wants to improve its branding and marketing abilities as well as its search engine optimization to compete with Facebook and other social media related sites. I think the main benefit of having a company page on LinkedIn is that you stand out as someone who is a business owner and not just a freelancer who is out there looking for work. The company page gives you the ability to upload your logo, give specific information about your services, request recommendations from your customers and post jobs that are available at your company. Each time someone follows your company or recommends your company and its services, their actions and comments are posted to the LinkedIn newsfeed which is visible to all your connections at various levels. This definitely helps to increase the awareness of your company and what it has to offer.

The company page also has an Analytics feature so you and your connections can see who has been looking at your page and how many page views your page has received on specific parts of your page. This information is very useful in determining how your "audience" or "connections" view your company and it provides an indication of what their interest level is in each area. Other features include a link to your blog and your web site both of which assist in improving your SEO and keeping you on the first page of Google.

To summarize, creating a company page on LinkedIn is a very strategic way to promote your company as well as your personal brand in the Business to Business and Fortune 500 online environment that exists on LinkedIn. One last point is that once you create your company page, LinkedIn pulls the employees that have listed the company as an employer and provides a link to those pages which are LinkedIn to even more connections giving your company even more visibility.

For an example of how a company page looks, please go to the link below to check out my company page and feel free to contact me if you would like me to create one for your company. I can also add it to your current social media services package if you are already one of my customers. Thank you. Becky Brooks, Professional Writing Services, 407-738-8445, email: profwritingservices@yahoo.com.

http://www.linkedin.com/company/professional-writing-services-naples-fl-

Social Media: Do you Schmooze or are you SPAM?

I often wonder how many people put a lot of thought and effort into their status posts on social media and if they consider the impact that it will have on their audience BEFORE they post something. Some people may say to themselves, "I don't have the time to do all that research." or "I need more business." Or perhaps, "Who CARES what they think?" or "I just want the ones that are interested in buying my products or services." As a social media marketing expert, I believe that it is a very effective business practice to do research on the subject matter before you post your status on any social media. To continually post small tidbits of information to your Facebook profile, your fan page, LinkedIn profile and Twitter account and never let people know who you are as a person makes it difficult for them to find a way to relate to you. Showing interest in others and adopting a caring attitude in relating to your online friends and business associates is a win-win strategy. Not only are you deepening personal relationships by being helpful, but this will also result in an increase in your business.



I believe that online networking is just as important as offline networking. It is very important to show interest in other people as human beings, not just potential clients. It is also a good practice to be careful that you are not connected to people who are multi-level marketers that are inclined to continuously bug your connections and that most of your connections are doing the same. I said, "most", because it is hard to get them all, but if the majority of your business associates or friends are the kind of people who show genuine interest in others and try to build meaningful relationships, then you are on the right track. For example, I have over 1, 700 friends on Facebook, about 600 connections on LinkedIn and just over 500 followers on Twitter. I could have more on all three accounts, but I choose to connect to people that are going to have my best interests and the interests of my friends or business associates at heart when they interact with my network.


Relationships are the key. By the way, have you noticed that LinkedIn is becoming more like Facebook? They have added the ability to post an outside link, attach a photo, and click "like" or "comment" on a post. If it wasn't working, they wouldn't do it! So use it! Take the time to comment on people's posts or click "like", then go into the discussions area in your groups and do the same thing. I think you will be surprised at how many new connections you get on LinkedIn just from displaying a little more interest in others. On Twitter, do you follow people back who follow you? Do you answer your direct messages? Twitter may seem like it is mostly a great little tool to post small pieces of information that lead people to where you want them to go, however, it is also important to pay attention to the following that you are building and respond to it personally. On Facebook, do you celebrate other people's joys and feel compassion for them in their sorrows? If not, then I think it is probably time to start. How about taking the time to suggest friends for people or ask your friends to be fans of someone’s fan page? Simply being there and not fully present will most likely keep you where you are at, but if you get involved and help others; it will make your business grow.


Does all of this sound like too much for you? Do you think these ideas are good, but you aren't sure how to implement them or are you too busy? Hey, I can understand that. That's where I come in. Give me a call! 407-738-8445


For more information please contact Becky Brooks at Professional Writing Services, http://www.professionalwritingservices.com/. Thank you.

How to Maximize Your Online Presence Without Getting Squirreled!

  

Okay, so not only do you have to figure out how to blog, now you have to make an overall great impression on people who have the attention span of squirrels! Yikes! How do you keep up? What do you do?

For starters, remember that the first impression is the most important aspect of the whole online presence game. If you can’t “engage” them in two minutes or less, you have pretty much lost them. There is also no way of knowing “how” they are going to find you and what is likely to impress them. Even with all of the reporting tools out there, you still don’t know. This is because there are many ways that people will look for what they need online and people are not all the same in how they think.

The best way to cover it is to make sure that you look good everywhere. How do you do that? You make every social media profile, every tweet, every post and every blog count! You must think about what will go through the mind of your target audience before they see your company information on your social media, blog or web site. Learn to put yourself in their shoes and think about what they want and what they will respond to.

For example, if you are an accountant and you have 300 connections on LinkedIn with 25 recommendations it makes you look very impressive when someone wants their taxes done. But what about that huge firm that you want to handle the books for? Well, you better have your Summary, Specialties and Past experience sections filled in with lots of information about your business in a way that will capture their attention or they are going to move on to the next candidate.

You may also have a very impressive fan page on Facebook for your business with over 500 fans, but how does your profile picture look? Is it a nice professional looking photo or do you have a picture of yourself holding your kid with strawberry jam all over his face? The strawberry jam picture is great for your friends and family, but not the customer who wants to order your line of clothing or artwork for his store. Again, make sure that who you are matches what you do, because you never know where they are going to find you.

Your web site may be very informative--perhaps too much. That is why it is a good idea to have links to your social media and blog from your web site, so people can learn more about your business without having to read through all of the content on your web site. Your social media icons should also be consistent in their style and they should be highly visible and easily accessible from your home page.

Remember, to make that first impression count or the squirrel will choose another NUT! J

For more information please contact Becky Brooks at Professional Writing Services, http://www.professionalwritingservices.com/. Thank you.

What is Shop Tab and How Can It Help You?

Shop Tab is an application that can be added to your Facebook fan page to help you to sell your products and services. It is very easy to use and it links right to your Pay Pal account. You can promote products that you normally sell on your web site or create a small online store on your fan page for only $10.00 a month.

You can add up to 500 photos and links to Pay Pal or your Google shopping cart and still only pay $10.00 a month. It is also great for when you are having an event and you want people to pay in advance. This works especially well if the event is a fundraiser or one with food that has been prepared for a certain number of attendees. You don't have to worry whether everyone who RSVPs will show up and pay or not, because they have already paid in advance with Shop Tab.

If you are someone who is a photographer who takes photos all the time at various events that people will want to purchase later in different sizes, Shop Tab is ideal. You can get as descriptive as you want for each item by listing the size and the condition of the item. In photography, it is good to let the buyer know whether the photo is the "original" or a "re-touched" version.

Shop Tab can be a little tricky to set up at first, especially when working with the images. You need to have a separate account like Flicker or Image Shack to store the photos and then link to Shop Tab. You also need to have your Facebook ID handy to add it to the Shop Tab page and link it to your fan page. Once it is set up it is very easy to use. There are lots of strategic ways to incorporate it into your marketing plan using all forms of social media. When you fully utilize this applilcation you can drive traffic from your social media to your web site and back again.

For more information on how to work with this fantastic new application, please contact me at 407-738-8445 or profwritingservices@yahoo.com to schedule your Shop Tab Consultation today!

Thank you.

Becky Brooks
http://www.professionalwritingservices.com/

Six Sure-Fire Ways To Liven Up Your Public Relations (PR) Copy

Here are six sure-fire ways to liven up your PR copy and keep your reader engaged. Even better, not a single writing suggestion mentions the words grammar, spelling or punctuation!

Tip 1) Use resonant flesh-and-blood characters rather than boring old nouns. If I was writing a memo about sales, my characters would be clients and customers, rather than projections and results.

Tip 2) Use action words that propel your readers along. We love to see verbs that power us visually from one place to another, rather than just sit there.

Tip 3) Perform the 8-word test. Keep your characters and actions within 8 words of each other, so your reader can easily follow who is doing what. The fewer words between the nouns and verbs the better.

Tip 4) Link complex sentences and phrases with connectors to help your reader navigate through the text. Good connecter words, for example, are however, because of this, therefore, thus, and so on.

Tip 5) Lead your readers from old information (first) to new information (second). Establish common ground in your message development, gently nudging your audience from comfortable familiar territory into the strange and new.

Tip 6) Use the Problem-Solution-Action paradigm. One of the most common writing complaints I hear from my students is they don't know where to begin. If you start with a problem statement, followed by a solution proposal, and wrapped it up with an action plan, a memo can write itself!

Source: http://aboutpublicrelations.net/ucvanhook2.htm

New ISO Standard For Safer Use of Symbols with Medical Devices

With the globalization of trade, symbols are frequently used to convey information that is essential for the safe and proper use of medical devices. A new ISO standard proposes a methodology for the development and presentation of symbols related to medical devices which can be understood independently of language.

ISO 15223-2:2010, Medical devices – Symbols to be used with medical device labels, labelling, and information to be supplied – Part 2: Symbol development, selection and validation, includes methods for validating those candidate symbols being proposed for inclusion in, ISO 15223-1, Medical devices – Symbols to be used with medical device labels, labelling and information to be supplied – Part 1: General requirements.

It can also be used by manufacturers and regulators for validating symbols for use with medical devices, where suitable symbols are not standardized.

ISO 15223-2:2010 has been developed by ISO technical committee ISO/TC 210, Quality management and corresponding general aspects for medical devices, to improve the quality of symbols developed for use in labelling by:

■Establishing the need


■Providing guidance on the development of symbols


■Providing a test methodology to make sure that the candidate symbol is suitable for adoption and use.

Leighton Hansel, convener of the ISO working group that developed the standard comments: "The use of standardized symbols agreed by international consensus avoids the confusion that users may experience when presented with labelling in a number of different languages. There was a need for systematic methodology for the development and presentation of symbols proposed for adoption in ISO 15223-1. Part 2 was developed to meet that need and includes detailed processes to reduce the probability of misinterpretation of symbols".

The standard deals with:

■Principles for identification and development of new symbols


■Process for selecting and validating symbols for inclusion in ISO 15223-1


■Classification of risk


■Concept development


■Evaluation


■Acceptance criteria.

ISO 15223-2:2010, Medical devices – Symbols to be used with medical device labels, labelling, and information to be supplied – Part 2: Symbol development, selection and validation, was prepared by ISO technical committee ISO/TC 210, Quality management and corresponding general aspects for medical devices, working group WG 3, Symbols and nomenclature for medical devices. It is available from ISO national member institutes (see the complete list with contact details). It may also be obtained directly from the ISO Central Secretariat, price 86 Swiss francs, through the ISO Store or by contacting the Marketing, Communication & Information department (see right-hand column).

Source: ISO Web Site http://www.iso.org/iso/pressrelease.htm?refid=Ref1308

How To Earn Money Using Social Media

If you want to earn money for your business using social media or even find a job using it, you need to know what type of social media is best for you to use. For example, if you are looking for work as an engineer, the chances of you landing a position with your profile and resume posted on Facebook are almost slim to none, because Facebook has mostly small companies on it. Large companies are on there, but they are using the tool on a much higher level.

However, if you post your resume on LinkedIn and connect to people from your previous jobs and also get recommendations from your past employers, you are very likely to get noticed and possibly even get a job through one of your contacts or their contacts. Even Monster has a place for you to post your picture on your profile, so our traditional job boards are becoming more like social media every day.

If you are in retail, Facebook can be a goldmine and so can Twitter. You simply connect to all of the people in your neighborhood, dog group, Chamber of Commerce, women's professional group, church affiliation group and anyplace else where there are people who will either buy your products or tell people about them. All you have to do is create a professional profile for yourself and a fan page, then start interacting with people you know online to build relationships with the people in your community. Later, you can post pictures of your products on your fan page and introduce your business to your friends. You can use Twitter to send tweets out to your friends and their friends about your sales, especially if you own a local retail store. If you sell things online, you can do the same thing only expand it further by drawing attention to the "shopping cart" on your web site thru the use of your fan page. Just don't blast them with your sales stuff first or you will lose them!

If you provide a service rather than a product, you may find yourself using all three. You can use Facebook to set up a professional profile that tells a lot about you and a little about your services and create a fan page that tells more about your business. You also can emphasize the benefits of your services in your profile or fan page to draw people to your web site. LinkedIn is great for consultants or businesses that offer services and there are tons of groups on LinkedIn that are specific to the services you provide. These groups are great to share industry knowledge, network and get referrals from. You can use Twitter to interact with people who may need your services and post special offers in the form of "tweets" to your audience of followers.

For more information on how to set up, maintain and build your business online, please contact me at profwritingservices@yahoo.com or 407-738-8445 for a consultation. Thank you, Becky Lynn Brooks, Social Media Marketing Expert.