Don't think your profile photo matters ?

Don't think your LinkedIn profile photo matters ?

  
At our 24-7 Social Media Training and Networking events, we always review someone's LinkedIn profile. Its not a dire experience... honest, everyone starts all anxious, then really love the feedback, which  
incidentally is always constructive) its great to hear what our experts think, but better to hear what your colleagues and peers think.  
Today at our 24-7 Newport Pagnell UK group we spent 10 minutes 'just' discussing someone's profile photo. Here's the thing, firstly no one made the group focus on the photo, it just happened that way, all of a sudden we realised we had been discussing this photo for 10 minutes. Secondly, it was actually quite a good picture, the observations, comments and discussions were fabulous.

So if you think no one bothers that much about your profile photo, think again.   The way I see it you have a few choices here -  

The Professional Head and Shoulders shot, a good investment.  Photographers know how the laws of physics apply to light, and the engineering limitations of a camera, they understand composition and they have an eye for detail.  You will be well lit, composed, your eye's will be open, the background will not distract, there will be no light reflecting in your glasses, no photobombing - you'll look GOOOOD.

Your LinkedIn Profile is no place for a Selfie

DIY with a smart Phone.  The quality of the smart phone camera's is just fine, so this is an OK solution, just think a while about the composition, look for well lit places, simple background - the background will likely be in focus, 10p bet you won't be considering focus, white balance and depth of field.  And get someone else to hold the camera - please, I'm not up for debating this one, ok?  This isn't the time for a selfie!! 


Use a Holiday Pic. OK - where to start... Actually I am writing this at 16:00 on a Friday afternoon and we are too close to the weekend to phaffff about.  Could you use a Holiday Pic - No.  Move along now, there's no more to see here ;)

No Photo - LinkedIn claim search results with photo's are 7 times more likely to be clicked on than those with no photo.  Not sure I need say more do I?  I do !!  OK, well how about this, if you don't provide a photo, linkedIn will use a silhouette, a bland grey (and I have read its a male) silhouette, not at all subtle ... think sore thumbs and standing out like.  Don't shout at LinkedIn - its your profile - get a picture ... and anyway - if you don't post a photo on your Twitter profile they use an EGG !  Think on how that works as a first Impression!

  Need I say more?  I DO!!  OK... Whats the message you are giving out if you cannot even bother to post a photo?  Most mobile phones have HD camera's, if yours doesn't or you don't have a mobile or tablet, at your next networking event (we all network don't we? ... NO! - Well go see www.24-7.so) just ask the person next to you, stand in front of a plain wall, smile and think of that breakfast, it will soon be over and you won't feel a thing.  
So, if you haven't already, go get yourself a photo for your profiles - just gimme 10 minutes to post my old Panasonic DMZ DZ-10 camera on Ebay, great for LinkedIn Profiles, I'll send y'all the link... 

Is Twitter's Periscope Livestreaming app a business tool? Why not !

Periscope, for business?  Why not !

At the time of writing Periscope was the latest tool to hit the Social Media Streets.  Only a month old and already its 'livecasting' abilities are being applied to a fabulous range of innovative - as well as strange, funny and... copyright infringing uses.

So what opportunities have the entrepreneurs seen?  Here's some idea's that have presented themselves through observation and experimentation.

1. Product Launches.  The BIG boys cracked this ages ago, Apple launch events have cult like following, as do Google I/O, 007...  Now we can get involved, ok we won't have the audiences, but we can create some noise and more importantly some fresh content.

2. Promotions.  Got a deal, got some news... maybe a call to action as part of your product launch?  Brands are already livecasting ... well anything and everything, Adidas Sports wear used Periscope to livecast Footballer James Rodriguez signing a contract with them, Hilton Hotels livecast concerts from their venues.

3. Blogging, or Vlogging as they call it.  An obvious use for Periscope, easy, quick and real time - so arguably more real / authentic.  Periscope settings let you save the video to your iPhone or Android device.  Motivated to share something, click, point, speak, couldn't be easier... You're warming to this now aren't you ;)

4. Exclusive content.  Your top tips, inside info or special events, encourage engagement and reward viewers with special or exclusive content.  West Ham Utd Football club live stream behind the scenes events including Man of the Match awards and presentations.

5. Tutorials, training or demonstrations.  Live, real time, anytime any place.  The relaxed casual tone can work very well.

6. Q & A.  Maybe for the bravest of you, but realtime Q&A sessions are very effective.  Viewers questions scroll up the screen so there's no hiding place everyone see's the questions - even the awkward ones.

7. Live events.  Share that high tech hot topic seminar...

So, having watched a few Priscope Livecasts .... I have some advice... some top tips, from a viewers perspective ...

1.  Use a tripod. . . unless its clearly an action shot ... Please .. no wobbly hand held streams.
2.  Make sure you're connected with WiFi or 4G... Please nnnnnnoo freeeeeeeze framessssssss
3.  Frame to maximise the top 1/3rd of the screen.  Viewer comments obscure the bottom 2/3rds
4.  Make the title work, attractive and with a call to action.  Its all users see until they click through.

Finally, remember, Periscope is a world wide platform.  While you can broadcast to a private, select audience, and you can block individuals in real time, if your going public - the age old catch phrase applies ..."What happens on Periscope... Stays... Public - World Wide".

Have I mentioned our "Periscope for Estate Agents" training course yet ;)

Has Social Media taken Marketeers on a 360 degree journey?

Recently I am reading more articles about how search engines are getting better, smarter and delivering increasingly relevant results.  I have been reading articles like this for 15 years (that's pretty much when Google came onto my radar), lately these articles have made for more exciting reading with the emergence of automated Image Recognition, BIG DATA (see what I did there with the font) and new techniques for fast searches of these huge amounts of data.

Big Data in a nut shell - the Social Media giants and the Search Engine major players have been collecting data about us, lots of data.  Data from ... everywhere.  The usual suspects are browsers and web sites, but they are also getting data from our spending, credit cards, loyalty cards, mobile devices, our cars, our phones, tv's - even our central heating thermostats (google own Nest) soon our fridge will re-order eggs from Ocado (or Tesco's, Asda etc) arrange a convenient delivery date and time and post a note in our diary - because it can.

But its not just the Big Data that I am reading about - what triggered the thoughts in this blog was an article discussing the Automated Image Recognition technology being developed allowing the search engines to extract contextual information from still photographs and video.   So now a photograph can be automatically analysed to determine its actual context / content regardless of how we label it - if its a picture of a cat, its a picture of a cat.  

Basically, the decision on what is relevant content for an audience is now squarely with the Search Engines and Social platforms, no matter what key words you use, now they decide - queue an algorithm update from Google.

Bringing this all together, 'they' have huge amounts of data on us, combined with clever, fast, pattern matching search algorithms = extremely accurate search results, based on what we are interested in matched to what the content is actually about.  Organic results from Organic searches on honest Organic data.

So our social proof is going to be increasingly important as only interesting content will be delivered to interested people.  Its not just the search engines that are doing this - the Social Media platforms like Facebook are filtering who see's our posts.  I have blogged on how Facebook are doing this, you can find that article HERE. 

So, there's where I come to my idea that Marketeers have gone on a 360 degree journey.  The art of Keywords, SEO, meta tags, the 'art' of optimising web sites, blogs and content to convince search engines to rank your material higher is increasingly being trumped by the simple actual relevance of the content to the target audience.  And now that relevance includes search engines and platforms interpreting the meanings in a picture or video for themselves.


Welcome back traditional marketing skills of understanding a target audience, creating and sourcing appropriate content and placing this where it will get seen.  That its now online is academic, the web is completely transparent.


Any one want to buy a Crystal Ball, one careful owner? 

Are Facebook bullying us by restricting our post reach?

You think Facebook are bullying us by restricting our post reach?

When presenting on the subject of Facebook for business, I am often asked about Facebook's strategy for throttling back the number of people that will see your post, the reach, its now down to a few % of your followers.

Many think this is Facebook bullying us into paying for adverts or to boost our posts.  While I agree that it does seem like facebook have moved the goal posts and are then monetizing their position - particularly when many have been investing a lot of time, effort and money in growing their followers. 

But, apologies to those that like too bash Facebook, this isn't what is going on here - Facebook are merely giving 'their' customers what they want, a good experience.  Which is a timeline of content they are interested in.  And they are right, Social Media is, and should be, all about focused, interesting, organic content and an engaged audience.

I admit to being disappointed that Facebook seem so ready to compromise this insightful strategy - in that you can pay for an advert or boost the reach of your Post...  

The thing is, this is how Social Media is going (tribe led) and all the platforms and tools are at it - so don't think you can swerve this and bungee off to carlos-fandango-NET or google+.

If you want to read more here's a good article on how, more importantly WHY, Facebook are managing what posts people see. The Guardian http://bit.ly/1uQOSIE

Are Christmas Cards - Ghosts of Christmas Past ?

I read a recent head line suggesting Christmas Cards, your proper paper/card ones, are 'Greetings Cards' Ghosts of Christmas Past, and the email / landing page / PDF / animations etc are taking us all digital...

Interesting hypothesis.  Begs some other questions, do people under 30 send cards, or have they outsourced this to Facebook or compressed Christmas greetings into 140 characters and a bunch of followers?

Having a technical bias I got to thinking where's this going?  Indeed, what would the 'Greetings Card' Ghosts of Christmas future look like?

Tooled up with me Galaxy tab, Google, mince pies and a neighbours home made 'Mulled Port', off I went.

As an aside - a quick word on this 'Mulled Port'. DON'T! I know, I know - it's not big and its not clever, and I should have know better, etc etc, but its Christmas my shields were down, and he was SO sure this batch wasn't toxic... what could I say.

Anyway - off I went.  Did you know 20% of all searches on Google are unique!  You think that's impressive... quite soon ALL of mine were unique, typo's, fat thumb syndrome and Mulled Port Chuckles really nail it to Google.

By the way, is Port a hallucinogen?  Because it wasn't long before I was seeing 'Greetings Card' Ghosts of  Christmas Future everywhere.  But, remember, I am a techy, and I tell you, I have seen the future!!

Its .... '3D' / Hollogram cards, that's where its at, trust Michael.

Don't believe me?  Well - check this bad boy out I brought this classic Santa comedy routine  back from the future, if you're reading this blog on old an '2D' medium, trust me this is HILARIOUS, and remember you saw it here first !

I got quite carried away with all this - I was going all in with this one, even had a brand name all ready to go.   iHollo.way    How cool is that !  Has a certain subliminal message an inevitably successful future acquisition perhaps?

Anyway - like many a good idea, turns out I wasn't first to pick this one up.  Aha - you thought this was rambling nonsense.  iHollo and Future communications with 3D / Hologram technology, well - seems I have been beaten to it I am afraid.

Don't believe me? Well I wonder who else had the idea.... go on, Google 'iHollo.way' or Click HERE

Ho hum, back to the day job ... want help with these Twitter Christmas Greetings ?  :D


Here's wishing you a merry Christmas and I hope you have a fabulous time and if you like Port, maybe get to drink some of what I have been drinking ;)

Mick

What's LinkedIn's Connection Strategy ?

Back in July 2014 I posted a blog on how I reviewed and modified my LinkedIn Connection strategy.  There's a link to that blog HERE

Basically when I started out on LinkedIn I was looking to grow my network and I was very relaxed and not at all selective, 'promiscuous' as I put it in my blog.  And like all strategies, that strategy was regularly reviewed and once I had a large enough network I changed and currently my connection strategy is far more selective.

Well, I am not alone in reviewing my connection strategy, as LinkedIn have done the same ... Imagine my delight, where I lead, LinkedIn follows.  I know, in my dreams I should be so influential, but hey - its my blog, the sky can be any colour I like  ;)

So what have LinkedIn done?  As far as I can tell, as at the time of writing I can't find any announcements, LinkedIn have radically changed their policy on who you can send invitations to connect too.  Before, when you wanted to invite someone else on LinkedIn to connect with you a pop up box would appear and you had to give LinkedIn evidence for how you may know the target... choose from ...
     We worked together
     We studied together
     We share a group
     Were friends in the real world and here is their email address..... etc

Well, that barrier / gate keeper to sending invitation to connect has gone away.  Now you can connect with anyone... You do not need any prior association at all.  That's people that you are 2nd or 3rd degree connections with, and people entirely outside you network.

Now when you visit a profile there's a blue button "Connect" - hit that button and a default invitation has been sent.  You can customise these invitations, its not obvious how - next to the connect button there's a 'Send Mick Inmail' button and next to that a drop down menu with an option to send a customised invitation.

So - LinkedIn gets all promiscuous and is letting us all connect, at least for now :D

What's your LinkedIn Connection strategy ?

It's a lovely sunny Monday morning, I love my job and have an exciting week ahead.  I have my coffee and my diary tells me its time for tending to my social media .... for me that's fun not ever a chore...

All in all i'm in a good place for early on a Monday morning, you just know some some rotter is going to come along and ruin it all for me ... so did they ?  No, that would be to cliche' for me.

But I did get inspired to create this blog.  I was in LinkedIn mode, 11 invitations to connect came in over the weekend, which was nice.  But then, not one had included an introduction of any sort, and not one had visited my profile before sending the invite.  <sigh>

But I am a player, in the networking / LinkedIn sense !!  I understand were all on LinkedIn to network, so I persist and check out all the profiles and where there was some synergy, interest or value I quietly accepted.  Which is in keeping with my 'current' connection strategy, in the early days I was extremely promiscuous, in the networking / LinkedIn sense (stop making up your own punch lines!!) and I would connect with anyone and everyone.  I was keen to grow my network, fair enough.

But strategies need to be reviewed and 18 months ago I decided my network was vast enough so I became selective over who I connect with and always check out profiles of invites I receive.  Also, I always visit someone's profile to decide if I wish to invite them to connect with me.  And always, ALWAYS send a custom invitation - if they are worthy of connecting with they are worthy of my time and attention and ... its professional and ooh getting radical... its polite!

One of the reasons for the change in strategy from 'connecting to anything with a pulse' to being selective was to help LinkedIn understand more about ... 'me' so LinkedIn can profile me better.  Which will help them more accurately filter 'Pulse' news, blogs (now linkedIn is a publishing platform), suggest companies to follow, groups to join and suggest people I may wish to connect with.  LinkedIn have invested millions in search and selection software that 'profiles' you so they can connect you with other LinkedIn members, groups, posts, news and now blogs.  I will be blogging on the whole 'Big Data' scene shortly.  Remembering LinkedIn started as a recruitment platform, so they have been good at vacancy / candidate matching for some time, and no doubt are continuing to apply this software to match vacancies with candidates ($'s)

And its working.  I get presented with excellent, relevant content, and some well aimed introductions to other members too.

So what's your Connection Strategy, is it working for you, and when was the last time you reviewed it?