Social Media Strategies Archives

Social Equity: Big Value in Company Pages

May 10, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Social Equity receives a major boost with the added value from company pages on different networks.

From LinkedIn to Facebook, there is a way to feature your company, its services, history and expertise on almost every network. the result? Major Social Equity.

In this week’s Social Equity segment, we look at how company pages on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and YouTube add value to your business.

Facebook and Google+

We all know about Pages on Facebook and Google+. But with so much taking place on the networks, it is easy for your content to get lost in the noise. The most frustrating part? You might have some great content and a product that attracts a lot of potential customers. Having Facebook and Google+ Pages allows those leads to find everything you are offering in one central place.

Facebook takes a lot of criticism for their EdgeRank algorithm. But the truth is, EdgeRank provides a means of filtering out the noise so that those who “Like” your page, product and content have all of the information you share to the pages featured on their news feed.

The value in Facebook and Google+ Pages is simple: these are hubs that allow reciprocal engagement between your brand and fans in a central place while offering you a chance to share content towards which they have expressed an interest. On the plus side (that’s a pun, considering the point that follows) +1 and shares from your pages add a considerable benefit to your SEO, which further derives value to your business.

LinkedIn

The Company Page on LinkedIn is the strongest in terms of adding value to your business.

First, there is the Services tab. The ability to showcase your products and services to an engaged audience disrupts the conventional model of print advertising. Furthermore, the ability to link these sections to appropriate landing pages means both the ability to create backlinks and the ability to drive sales and traffic through LinkedIn.

Second, there is the ability to build a following on your page (as with other networks) and share content to those followers in an effort to drive new business. Unlike Facebook and Google+, LinkedIn offers the ability to broadcast and showcase your business to the engaged audience following your page. Users are following you knowing that LinkedIn is a medium in which companies aim to derive new business, and an active, engaging and popular page translates into Social Equity.

YouTube

A YouTube channel is an important feature, and one that can be very beneficial both in terms of its value to your business’s image and your overall Social Equity.

The ability to centralize all of your videos means two things: first, viewers can easily find your videos and, on the channel, discover more about your business and research your company further, outside of YouTube. Second, the optimization of a channel and your videos can be a tremendous SEO tool. Lone videos in the YouTube universe can easily disappear. With a discoverable, optimized channel, your business is easily showcased to your audience in video form.

Effectively, the true value of all of these pages lies in the disruption they cause to conventional marketing. No longer are you required to focus on print marketing. These pages are your corporate portfolio, and they are live, evolving elements that continually showcase your business.

In which social media company pages do you find the most value? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media Case Study: Volkswagen

May 9, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Through the strategic use of LinkedIn, Volkswagen India was able to garner nearly 3,000 car recommendations in under a month.

We often think of LinkedIn as a B2B social network. Often times, that is true. After all, LinkedIn is the professional social network, and rarely do we hear of instances where companies use the platform for direct B2C campaigns. However, through the strategic use of LinkedIn, Volkswagen India managed to receive 2,700 recommendations in just 4 weeks.

In this week’s social media case study, we look at how Volkswagen used a carefully laid out LinkedIn strategy that paid off.

The Challenge

Volkswagen India was looking to increase their exposure in a relatively new market among professionals. But rather than simply running a conventional ad campaign, they wanted a viral component that emphasized the loyalty current customers had and influenced decision-making.

The Campaign

While Volkswagen began their marketing strategy outside of social media, they knew that social would be a large component of any successful campaign. The decision to go with LinkedIn was one that was carefully calculated. According to the Head of MArketing for Volkswagen India, Lutz Kothe, “We knew that for many people, their car affects their professional life and their professional identity affects their car choice. This made LinkedIn a natural choice to connect with current and potential car buyers among the growing professional population.”

Volkswagen India launched a Company Page on LinkedIn and opened it up to the public to begin posting reviews and comments about the product. As engagement increased, they created a series of Recommendation Ads, which showcased some of the brand’s recommendations from their page to other LinkedIn users that fit their targeted demographic. The idea here was to increase engagement and drive traffic to the Company Page and, eventually, the dealership.

Overall, their modest goal was to receive 500 recommendations from current and prospective buyers. Ultimately, in less than a month, they received 2,700 recommendations, over 2,300 new fans asking for more information about the models available and nearly one million viral updates about Volkswagen models.

The Lessons

There is a lot that marketers can take away from this tremendously successful campaign.

Build a Community Around Your Product

If you have a great product, don’t wait for people to figure that out. There is no shortage of competition out there, and the only way you are going to stand out is if you actively seek out a community of fans and continue to engage with them and build that community until, eventually, they are selling your product for you!

Establish Your Goals

This was a very precise, calculated effort on the part of Volkswagen India, and that paid off. If they had gone in without any goals, they would not have known where to begin, and, as the next lesson points out, would not have been able to formulate a strategy.

Start with a Strategy

A strategy is going to be one of your greatest assets when running a social media campaign. One of the most important takeaways in this social media case study is the need for a detailed strategy. Before the program began, the marketing team at Volkswagen India had a challenge, a step-by-step approach, a target demographic, a landscape of where that demographic is located and a plan of execution.

It may sound like a lot to do, but without that kind of planning, it will not only be impossible to measure successes and failures, but it will be impossible to launch a proper campaign!

Take Advantage of Social Media’s Marketing Features

Each network features different elements that are designed to help marketers. In this case, there was a Company Page and Recommendation Ads. On other networks, there are other such features. Use them! They are not there purely for aesthetics, they are there to provide resources to help you effectively grow your business on social media.

You can argue that this was as successful as it was because of the major brand behind the campaign. But as we noted in the introduction of this social media case study, Volkswagen was brand new in the Indian market when this was launched. The successes here can be achieved by any brand, all they need to do is execute efficiently, just like Volkswagen did.

Have you tried to market your product on LinkedIn? Why or why not? Does this social media case study make you see the network any differently? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Understanding the Facebook EdgeRank Algorithm

May 8, 2013/by Corey Padveen

The Facebook EdgeRank algorithm is something we have all heard about, but what exactly is it and how should it be considered when developing content for the channel?

First and foremost, for those who are unfamiliar with the feature, what is the Facebook EdgeRank algorithm? It is a system used by Facebook to determine what posts appear on each user’s timeline based on certain criteria. The purpose? In theory, it is in place to ensure that each user only sees the most relevant and engaging content based on their history and activity.

What does the Facebook EdgeRank algorithm mean for brands? It can be either a good thing or a bad thing. There is an endless stream of content being shared on Facebook, and if you are not properly implementing a content strategy, yours may never be seen.

There are three main variables that make up the Facebook EdgeRank algorithm: affinity, weight and time decay. These terms sound impressive and technical, but like anything on social media, it all really comes down to engagement.

Recently, Will Cathcart, Facebook’s News Feed Product Manager, broke down the EdgeRank system and clarified exactly how it works and what you should be focused on when it comes to getting your content seen on your fans’ timelines.

The Individual

On an individual level, there are two key points of focus. First, history is a major factor. The more your audience engages with your page over time, the more likely it is that they will see your content appear on their timeline. That’s a given. The second factor, however, is a little more specific.

Individual engagement matters. But as a brand, you need to take note of the types of content your audience is engaging with. If, for example, images receive plenty of interaction but your videos are ignored, your audience may only see images as they are posted and your videos will disappear into the annals of Facebook.

What is important? Study what individual fans are engaging with and encourage engagement both on popular and unpopular types of posts in order to ensure that all of your content is showcased for your audience.

The Network

The second level is the network. There is a secondary effect on Facebook that can help you reach a broader audience. Have you ever noticed that when a post is receiving a lot of attention, your reach sometimes exceeds your fan count? As reactions and interactions from direct users increase on a given piece of content, more people are exposed to that post. Therefore, high engagement on a post might mean bringing back fans that were once lost for lack of engagement.

Second, sentiment plays a major role with network reach. If people are engaging negatively, then you stand to lose a good deal of your reach, and your content might be hidden from users that were once engaged in the future.

What is important? Monitor the popularity of your posts and modify your strategy in order to share only content that is receiving high levels of engagement and reaching broad secondary audiences as a result.

The Facebook EdgeRank algorithm is not a horribly complex phenomenon to understand. Sure, we may not be tech-savvy enough to know how it is coded, or how it does exactly what it does, but we can certainly understand how it produces the end result. Knowing that gives us leverage when putting together a Facebook content strategy, and can certainly give us a competitive advantage when it comes to Facebook.

Did you know about EdgeRank? Did you understand it? Have you done or will you do anything differently with knowledge of how the algorithm works? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

The Importance of Mobile in the Marketplace [INFOGRAPHIC]

May 7, 2013/by Corey Padveen

The importance of mobile in the marketplace is growing every day, and marketers should always take mobile into consideration.

Mobile marketing is not the newest trend (relatively speaking) but as the number of smartphone users continues to rise, the importance of mobile grows faster and greater. Just look at the data below: in two years, the number of mobile searches on Google has grown five fold. Therefore, it is important to always take mobile marketing into consideration when putting together a strategy.

Of the impressive data in the infographic below, perhaps what is most important is the fact that local searches now account for nearly a quarter of all Google queries; with roughly five billion searches done on Google every day, that’s a lot of local search.

What is also important to note in the data is the fact that 60% of mobile users use their devices for daily activity on social media. The key takeaway derived from this further adds to the importance of mobile marketing: your brand and your message are amplified across a number of social channels and to far greater networks when your mobile marketing incorporates social elements.

Have a look at the infographic below and consider your own mobile strategy. Do you have one? If so, how is it generating business for you? If not, do you plan on developing one? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

4 Tips to Creating a Great Facebook Ad Campaign

May 6, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Facebook can be a successful, cost-effective channel on which to promote your business, and these tips will help you create a great Facebook Ad campaign.

We see Facebook Ads every time we log into the social network. They may not always be captivating, and you may not always notice them, but they are always there and always trying to grab your attention. But more often than not, they are not achieving the goal of converting eyes into clicks.

Facebook Ads may be easy to use, straightforward and simple to monitor, but there are a few key factors that distinguish your average-performing Facebook Ads and great Facebook Ad campaigns. Below are four tips that should help take your Facebook advertising to the next level.

Do Some Research

The first time you put together an ad campaign on Facebook, you are going to be eager to get your content out there and watch the “Like” counter shoot up. Unfortunately, without at least a little bit of research, you are not going to see the results you are hoping for.

Look through your insights, study engagement levels and develop a campaign that both fits the brand you’ve created on Facebook and appeals to a specific audience. If you are trying to target everyone, you might end up reaching no one. (Don’t worry – that makes more sense after you see the next tip.)

Target a Very Specific Audience

When you first start building your ad and you see your options for targeting, you might be excited by the prospect of potentially reaching upwards of 150 million people (and that’s in the United States alone!). But the reality of the situation is, if you are not creating an ad directed at a targeted audience – namely, one based on the research you did before you got started – there is no telling who will see it, and you will likely miss out on opportunities to reach engaged audiences as opposed to a broad audience of uninterested persons.

To put it in perspective, if you are trying to attract people to your page about food and dining for female college students, a broad, unspecific audience might only show your content to middle aged professional men. The result? A lower-than-hoped-for conversion.

Create an Appealing Ad

Sure – it sounds like a no brainer. Why would you do anything else, right? Well, it is not as easy as it sounds. The key to a great Facebook Ad campaign is appeal. People should be intrigued by the content in your ad – and you don’t have much of it considering it might be as small as a little image and text on the right-hand column of someone’s news feed or timeline.

This is where you need to let your creative juices flow. The content and images in these ads should not simply be your logo and a brief description of your company. Leave that on your page. Share a fun fact, an interesting quote, an curious question or any other engaging bit of content. People should feel compelled to see what else you are offering when they see your ad.

Though it has been done by plenty of businesses, let’s look at the “abs of steel concept” we often see floating on the right of our Facebook screen. It might be for a personal trainer, a mail-order program or a diet, but they are showing a picture of a killer six pack and asking something along the lines of, “Do you want abs that look like this in 60 days? Then click here and get started today!” Even the skeptic is compelled to click, just to see what the offer is. Go for something irresistible and your click-through rates will be much higher than average.

Try, Try and Try Again!

There are a billion accounts on Facebook and your first campaign is not going to reach them all. In fact, you might be disappointed in the results of your first campaign. What went wrong? Were you targeting the wrong audience? Was your content not as great as you thought it was? That’s all part of the learning process.

You might find after a few tests that your most engaged market is nothing close to what you thought it was. That’s a great lesson and can translate into a lot more business, and it is not particularly expensive to figure out; your ads can be budgeted very modestly. Testing is the best way to turn your trials into great Facebook Ad campaigns.

Apply these tips and you’ll see your Facebook marketing take off in no time. Once again, one in every seven people on Earth is checking Facebook multiple times every day. Why not try and talk to them with a carefully laid out strategy in place?

What other tips can you think that help build great Facebook ad campaigns? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Equity: Communities on Social Media

May 3, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Building and joining niche communities on social media can be one of the greatest assets to your business.

Communities on social media have been a growing trend since the concept originated with the networks themselves. While any network – like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc. – can be considered a community, the true Social Equity derived from communities on social media comes from the niche communities filled with like-minded and highly engaged individuals from around the world.

In this week’s Social Equity segment, we aim to understand how social media communities add value to your business, and where there are unique traits to these communities compared to other types of communities that may also be beneficial to your business.

Niche Communities on Social Media

One of the most touted features of Google+ is their Google+ Communities. In these groups, content is shared with each member without any filtration, as each community consists only of users that have an expressed interest in the content being published. These communities can range anywhere from five or six members to tens of thousands or more; it all depends on how interested people are in the content.

The benefits of communities like those on Google+, groups on LinkedIn and others around the social web is the ability to reach an audience far greater than what was ever possible. Furthermore, unlike conventional, expensive digital and print marketing, communities on social media offer an inexpensive way of reaching out to an engaged audience, sharing relevant content to prospective clients all over the world.

The Key Difference with Social Media Communities

As noted above, there are a few key differences between communities on social media versus conventional business communities. Think about your LikedIn groups and Google+ Communities. Every member is there for the same reason.

The only other type of communities like this that exist are business networking communities, and before social media, these were local business people who may or may not have shared an interest or mutually beneficial business opportunity. Of course, there were conferences, but for many small business owners the cost of attending one is prohibitive, and thus few people (relatively speaking) were able to take part.

Now, with these social communities, opportunities exist where there were none before, and for a fraction of what it would have cost to reach an audience as targeted and wide as those in these social media communities.

Social Equity of Communities on Social Media

The ability to build influence and drive new business in a community on a social network is perhaps the most crucial aspect of the Social Equity derived from these communities. In an infographic we posted recently, we noted the importance of influence on social media. These communities allow you to build that influence with a very targeted audience, very quickly. This in turn results in your market power increasing and, subsequently, your business increasing.

In addition to influence, there is also the ability to reach targeted audiences worldwide without incurring massive costs as with traditional forms of marketing and advertising. Therefore, there is a twofold bump in Social Equity: business generated from engagement in social communities and expenses saved from your involvement in them.

Communities can be a major asset to growing your business, and there is no doubt that they add a considerable degree of Social Equity to your brand.

Where do you see the benefits of communities on social media? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media Case Study: Best Buy

May 2, 2013/by Corey Padveen

The Best Buy Twelpforce program has taken the brand from a major force in local retail to an industry leader on social media.

Everyone knows about Best Buy, and everyone knows about their expertise. But a few years ago, Best Buy was faced with a challenge: How does a giant in electronics retail go beyond the walls of a store and engage with an audience, provide ongoing, real-time support, garner brand advocates and build their own brand on multiple channels in the most efficient, measurable way possible? The solution: @Twelpforce.

Twelpforce is Best Buy’s Twitter handle for their online community. Essentially, the Best Buy team provides support and answers to thousands of engaged users who want access to the Best Buy experts.

In this week’s social media case study, we look at what Twelpforce has accomplished, and what genius lay behind the concept that led to it being such a huge success.

The Concept

How is Twelpforce designed? Essentially, it is a handle to which all Best Buy employees have access. Questions about anything and everything electronics-related can be sent, and the Best Buy team answers them as quickly as possible.

With thousands of employees actively engaging with the Twelpforce platform, there is no shortage of experts that can answer a customer’s question without ever trying to close a deal. Thus, people can be comfortable knowing that they are getting a genuine, qualified response from someone who truly knows what they are talking about without being worried that they have fallen into a sales trap.

The Genius

When it comes to Twelpforce, there is a lot for Best Buy to proud of. Tens of thousands of questions have been answered since the program was founded and it has been a continually growing success. Below are a few features of note from the Twelpforce program.

Focus on Conversation

If this social media case study proves anything, it is that conversation is always better than monologue. In the first year of the Twelpforce program, Best Buy noted a 20% drop in customer complaints online. By engaging in active conversations with their clientele and providing simple, straightforward answers, Best Buy managed to boost customer morale and shrink complaints.

People like to talk to someone, with thousands of people ready to answer, conversation was inevitable.

Use Your Whole Team

People might hesitate to look at every employee and ask them to participate in a public, unfiltered conversation. Understandably so; particularly when you have a company as large as Best Buy. But the benefits to this tactic far outweighed the risks.

Limiting your engagement to a small team detracts from the purpose of a program like this. The goals, as noted above, are to start a conversation, and when you are simply providing support, there is nothing exceptionally unique. By involving the expertise of their whole team Best Buy accomplished two things: first, they ensured that questions would be answered promptly. Second, they ensured that no question would go unanswered, as they had a veritable “expert” in every field imaginable!

A 20% drop in complaints proves this was the right move.

If You’re There to Help, Help!

One of the most crucial aspects that led to the success of Best Buy was that they did not use their social community as a direct sales tool. Of course, if someone is asking about Best Buy-related products, then they can be driven to a landing page that helps them out further. But as far as sales go, that is not why people engage in a conversation with Twelpforce, nor would that angle have led to the same amount of success.

Twelpforce was designed to Tweet help (Twelp). By steering clear of the sales angle, Gina Debogovich, Community Manager at Best Buy noted the following: “Factoring in call deflection and sales influence, our online community engagements provide around a $5MM benefit to the organization.”

What strategy do you employ when it comes to engaging with your online community? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

The Importance of Influence on Social Media [INFOGRAPHIC]

May 1, 2013/by Corey Padveen

What metrics exist to show us that there is a great deal of importance when it comes to influence on social media?

We are all familiar with influence measurement sites like Klout, Kred and PeerIndex, but what makes influence on social media so important?

There is a lot of talk about your influencers and the people and brands you influence on social media, and people and brands go to great lengths to figure these things out. In fact, in a recent social media case study we looked at Honda’s use of Pinterest influencers to penetrate new markets and reach a massive audience with little cost to the brand. While there are many ways to go about reaching out to influential groups on social media, we might not be sure why they are so important, or how they can benefit our brand.

This infographic does a great job showcasing how and why influence is so important. The most crucial point? Influence on social media translates into influence on decision making. A recent finding showed that 85% of Facebook brand fans recommend those brands to friends and followers, compared to 60% of average social media users. That’s a substantial group. When you consider the power that comes with influence on social media, you can’t ignore its importance.

Take a look at some of the stats in the infographic below and let us know which ones you find to be the most shocking or important! Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Handle Negative Feedback on Social Media Like a Pro

April 30, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Seeing a negative comment about your brand on a social network can be a horrifying sight, but these tips will help you manage negative feedback on social media the right way.

Before you can understand how to deal with negative feedback on social media, it is first important to understand what kinds of negative feedback exist. From there, you can apply some of these tips when the situation comes up (don’t worry, it happens to the best of us) and come out looking like a pro.

Types of Negative Feedback

There are essentially three types of negative feedback that can come up on social media: product issues (malfunctions), service issues (complaints) and brand issues (PR and brand crises).

When customers have an issue with your product, they may try to reach out to you through social media channels. The same goes for customer service when it comes to complaints. We recently posted an article about Social Care (customer service on social media) in which we noted that one-third of active social media users prefer Social Care to conventional customer services options (e.g. phone). That also means that a third of social media users may prefer to vent to your brand on social networks rather than on a private phone call.

The third type of negative feedback on social media has to do with a crisis. This relates closely to brand and reputation management on social media.

So what are a few tactics you can use when it comes to dealing with these types of issues on social media?

Tip #1: DO NOT Stay Silent

Burying your head in the sand may make it seem like there is no issue and everything is just fine, but the reality is that with every passing moment that you say nothing, the issue gets worse. Even if you simply post a generic “We are working hard to resolve this issue. Thank you for your patience and we apologize for any inconvenience.”, this is still better than nothing at all.

That said, direct engagement with individuals is better than a mass message. It shows people you care and lets them know that their business matters to you. Just because it is your average customer posting on Twitter does not mean they should be ignored. They speak for the masses, and silence looks more like you don’t care than anything else.

Tip #2: Act Fast

Social media moves at the speed of light. Some experts estimate that the lifespan of a tweet is a mere 15 minutes, and that of a Facebook post is just a few hours at best. So if you wait hours or days to respond to people, you will be jumping into a conversation that has no participants.

Social media is happening in real time, and if people are talking and you are not talking back, they will not care what you have to say in a week. You weren’t there when it mattered and they made up their minds.

Tip #3: Plan Ahead

What are you going to do if it all goes down without a moment’s notice? Do you have a plan in place? How will you respond to irate customers on social media? Planning for issues and negative feedback on social media is very different from other types of crises. As noted, this is a real-time, very public conversation, so it is in your best interest to have a plan in place in case it all unfolds.

Tip #4: Pick Your Battles

While it is important to be engaging with individuals across different networks, you need to know what comments you should be engaging with and which ones you should let go. At the end of the day, there are some battles you just are not going to win, and engaging in those – for example, someone lambasting your brand on some unfounded grounds – can lead to nothing but a long, drawn out argument that makes you look bad and gets you and your clients nowhere.

Tip #5: See It As An Opportunity

There is nothing more valuable in business than brand advocates. What are those? These are customers that are so enamoured with your product, service or the way you treat them that they go out of their way to promote your brand and advocate your business without any incentive other than the fact that they like working with you.

If there is one opportunity that a crisis or negative feedback on social media presents it is the chance to turn a disgruntled customer into a brand advocate and have a whole group of other users see it happen. People like personal attention. Engaging with them during a crisis and helping them through the process with a personal touch can very easily make them go from an angry client to a strong ally.

Whether it is an industry influencer or one of the little guys, everyone can and should be treated like the most important client you have – it is hands down the best way to turn them (and everyone watching the conversation) into a brand advocate.

Can you think of other tips that can help when dealing with negative feedback on social media? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

How To Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile: 4 Tips for Success

April 29, 2013/by Corey Padveen

LinkedIn can be one of your strongest business resources, but you first need to optimize your LinkedIn profile.

There are hundreds of millions of users on LinkedIn, the majority of whom do the bare minimum when building their profile. There are the basics that are needed in order to get started, but for many, that (or a step or two later) is where the process ends. LinkedIn is not a what-you-see-is-what-you-get model, like, for example, Twitter.

There are numerous fields that can be used to optimize your LinkedIn profile, and this set of tips should help get you started on the right track.

1. Tell People Who You Are

Sure, your name and (possibly) place of employment are on LinkedIn from the get-go, but people want to know more about you. So tell them!

LinkedIn features sections for everything from your education history to a list of publications. The more impressive information you can feed to your LinkedIn profile the better your results will be. Furthermore, this is an opportunity to showcase your expertise to an audience of professionals more so than on any other network. The LinkedIn profile is a truly a medium for self-promotion, and since those are so few and far between in the world of social media, we suggest you use it as much as possible.

2. Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile for SEO

LinkedIn is a miniature search engine…of one billion annual searches. While this might be a tiny fraction of the searches done on monster engines like Google, it is still significant, and each of the searches done on LinkedIn are within a very narrowed scope. Therefore, it is very important that you optimise your LinkedIn profile for search purposes.

LinkedIn – like Google or Facebook’s EdgeRank – has the Relevance algorithm. This is the criteria by which search results are ordered. While most people are searching for someone or something in particular, there are still those looking for broader results, like “Manhattan Real Estate Agent” or “San Francisco Caterer”. Though the top results will always be first-degree connections followed by second- and third-degree, you will certainly want to optimize your profile for keywords.

According to an article by blogging4jobs.com, the most relevant areas in which to place keywords are your name, headline, company name, job title and skills.

3. Seek Out Endorsements

Once again, LinkedIn is a medium for self-promotion. Now that does not mean that you should not be engaging in the conversation, but it does mean that you can actively pursue help from your network to grow your business through LinkedIn.

One of the best credibility criteria on LinkedIn is also one of its newest features: endorsements. Though people know that endorsements are not necessarily the most trustworthy measurement for credibility (just like asking for friends to ‘Like’ your Facebook page, you can do the same with LinkedIn) a large number of endorsements for different skills (and you should fill out all 50 that you are given) does look impressive and does hold some clout when you are leading the conversation.

4. Engage in the Conversations

You are allowed to be a member of 50 groups. There is no excuse for anyone not be a member of 50 groups. With over 1.6 million groups, you will be hard pressed to find a forum in which you cannot participate in the conversation. And that is one of the most powerful features of LinkedIn.

Engagement can mean several things including increased visibility, increased traffic and increased credibility. You might have an impressive profile filled with links to your blog or website, but with hundreds of millions of people talking, you are pretty tough to find organically. By engaging in the conversation and starting some of your own, you increase the likelihood of being found and getting the most out of LinkedIn.

Some of these tips may seem intuitive, but the reality is that few people are actually taking advantage of all that LinkedIn has to offer. To really boost your activity and the success you are seeing from LinkedIn, implement some of these tips and see how quickly you derive the benefits of LinkedIn.

What other tips can you think of that can help with optimizing a LinkedIn profile? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

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