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#Eyemails: Five Benefits of Using LinkedIn to Grow Your Business and Your Career

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Five Benefits of Using LinkedIn to Grow Your Business and Your Career

If you are like most digitally minded people, you are probably aware that LinkedIn is the social network of choice for working professionals looking to make connections. Many tech-savvy business professionals, possibly even a majority of the business workforce, have profiles on LinkedIn and are connected to the social network a majority of the time through their computer or mobile device.

Since there is every indication that more and more business will be moving to social media, taking advantage of the free exposure provided by a network like LinkedIn simply makes sense. Check out the following advantages of taking an active role in managing your company’s LinkedIn profile, and then get to work!

1. B2B Networking

Finding vendors, suppliers, manufacturers, and other third party resources is a breeze with LinkedIn. The platform is designed to connect people and companies with like interests, after all, and your chances of finding a partner you can trust are greatly increased with the power of the network. Rather than combing through a phone book and comparison price shopping for days or even weeks before choosing a vendor, you can send a couple InMails and be done in just a few hours. In addition, seeing the vendor’s online presence gives a more complete picture of a company than just speaking to someone on the phone might, so you can see if other businesses have had good experiences working with the vendor.

2. B2C Networking

Brand building is a vital part of any business plan, and a well-managed LinkedIn profile can serve as a flagship for your brand. By keeping active and posting often on the site, you can build your brand bit by bit, increasing likeability and gradually building the trust of your potential customer base through timely, relevant, and interesting posts. Your brand is how you identify with your customers both current and future, and LinkedIn provides a perfect way to shape that brand image the way you want it.

In addition, LinkedIn can be a great avenue to promote new products and services without resorting to traditional advertising campaigns. By contrast to an expensive ad campaign, generating buzz on the social network is affordable, flexible, and totally in your control.

3. Lead Generation

Networking with possible consumers by optimizing your account profile and company page, as well as consistently posting relevant and unique content, are both key elements of getting the most from the social network, as discussed in point #2 above. A direct result of continuing to build a more coherent and focused brand is the generation of new leads that will come about organically as people find you on LinkedIn and like what they see. This method combines all the best aspects of traditional word-of-mouth lead generation with the control of showing customers your best side by choosing what to include in your profile.

4. Staffing

Your dynamic and consistently relevant LinkedIn profile is sure to attract enquiries and applications from top talent who are using the network to find great job opportunities. Take advantage of this by keeping an active list of open jobs and positions attached to your own company page, to be easily found by someone who may be looking to join your team. Since LinkedIn is the social network of choice for business networking and career advancement, top tier talent is likely to come your way based on the quality of your company profile alone.

5. Customer Satisfaction

Finally, LinkedIn offers a perfect avenue through which to interact with your customer base, with surveys, messaging and comments. If done right, this can provide a perfect means for achieving great customer satisfaction levels and showing you are a company that cares. Customers truly appreciate feeling like their voice is heard, so interacting with customers via the public and private messaging options on the social network is a great way to resolve any issues and show that you are listening to your customers, as well.

Many business professionals assume that LinkedIn is just a networking site for job hunters and recruiters, and as a result, miss out on the broader benefits of the platform. As with any social network, the benefits of a well-maintained profile centered on outreach – whether to new customers, new vendors, or even new recruits. LinkedIn’s many benefits as a social platform make the site a vital part of any business’ web strategy and social media presence.

http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/five-benefits-using-linkedin-grow-your-business-and-your-career

Facebook

#Eyemails: Using Facebook for your Restaurant

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With Facebook becoming such an integrated and assumed part of daily life for the average person, most businesses recognize the value of using Facebook to increase their business and brand reputation. Restaurants are no exception.

As the owner of a restaurant, bar, or eatery, it is critical that you put the power of social media to work for you!

Here are Key ways Restaurants can use Facebook Effectively:

1. Offer Interesting Content on Facebook

You need to connect with your community.  By this we mean the physically community where your restaurant is located and the radius your restaurant serves!

Offer new and relevant content continuously about not only your restaurant, but about your team, and your local area.  Special dishes, interesting information about menu items, or even loyalty discounts are a good starting point and should be part of your mix but go beyond that to what is happening in the community.

Did the local high school team just make it to a state championship?  Congratulate them!

Is their a community parade or event coming up?  Help promote it!

Is their a local non-profit you support?  Help get the word out about their work!

It’s NOT all about you.  An interesting Facebook Page connects with the heartbeat of your patrons.  What interests them?  This is what you can talk about on Facebook.

2. Post more. Plan Posts.

Post Fresh Content Daily! You really should post at least 3x a day!  Work ahead 1-3 days by planning and scheduling posts most of the posts.  Then mix into that spontaneous posts each day that are current and relevant.

For the scheduling ahead, you can use tools like Buffer, HootSuite, or Post Planner.

Space your Posts out! No one wants to get bombarded by a page with 4 posts in an hour.

Instead space out your posts for optimum times when your fans may be on Facebook such as mid-morning, just before or after lunch and early evening!

3. Identify Your Uniqueness

You need to answer this question: What makes you unique?

Once determined, make sure you use this in your messaging!

This is your voice, or put another way, your “style” of posting! Tailor your social media posts and updates accordingly. For instance, if the restaurant positions itself as a hangout place for pro basketball fans, actively reach out to area sports leagues and post about upcoming games and results from recent games.

4. Encourage Facebook Check-Ins

Make sure on Facebook your restaurant is a “Place” location in the category selections so that visitors can check-in.  This gets seen by their friends!

Need a Facebook Page Tune-Up?  Check out our Free eBook with 12 Steps to Update your Page!  Access Facebook Page Tune-up Guide >>

Facebook is popular because it shares authentic information from real people. A check-in or a great review by a friend carries credibility.

5. Share your Menu

In addition to having your menu on your website, make it pieces of it available in your social sharing of content and also make it available on a tab on your Facebook Page.

The goal is too make it accessible and easy to find wherever visitors are finding  you.

By posting about a new item on Facebook and then linking to the Facebook Page Tab, restaurants can draw in fans and visitors to their Facebook page.

6. Offer Deals and Contests to Grow your Email List and Create Buzz

Deals and contests can create engagement and attract visitors.  By then converting visitors to email subscribers by offering a discount coupon for joining your email list or hosting a random drawing of a Gift Certificate from those who enter, a restaurant can both help gain short-term attention and interest but also server longer term marketing goals.

The deal or contest offers quick incentive while the ability to utilize this to capture email addresses means your restaurant can then drip market to these folks over time to build further awareness, interest, and loyalty.

7. Eavesdrop

Well, I mean monitor and listen socially!

Closely related to asking for feedback is to proactively keeping track of what is being said about your restaurant on social media. Literally hundreds of applications like Hootsuite, ViralHeat, Sendible, and more and allow business to do exactly that, scouring blogs and social network posts, and extracting relevant items.

8. Be Visual!

Images communicate better and spark greater interaction than simply text posts.

Restaurants can reach more people by have a strong presence and posting great images of food and photos that tell stories on your Facebook Page.

An photo of your team celebrating, or of a new dish is soooo much more appealing than a long paragraph about it!

9. Enable Easy Social Sharing on your Website

Yes, your website is your “home base” and social media does not replace that.  Social media augments your site and by enabling fans to easily share information from your website, you empower fans to increase their social sharing and chatter about you!  Using WordPress? Add tools like the Digg Digg Plugin that easily adds social sharing buttons to each page and blog post!

Be sure to add your Facebook Page “Like us on Facebook” box to your website, as well as relevant buttons including “Follow us on Twitter” and more!

10. Ask for Feedback

The best way to increase engagement and keep the social pages ticking with fresh content is by asking for feedback.

The feedback could be on anything, ranging from the band who played last night to the new breadsticks.

Make sure, however, to interact with and respond to feedback, even negative feedback.  This can go miles in building trust and loyalty.  As well, identify how you have followed up afterward as well so that fans and followers know you acted on the feedback!

So there you have it!  10 ways to taste great success on Facebook with your restaurant!