LinkedIn creates networks of individuals in a way that is intended to link people who know or have had contact with others in reality, not just online. However, due to the nature of social networking and online connections, your profile plays an important role in connecting with others. Making smart choices when you create your profile will help you send the right message to your network and potential social media connections on LinkedIn.

Tips for wisely managing your LinkedIn Profile

1.  Include a picture. It may not be your favorite part of your profile, but a faceless profile is that much easier to forget. When potential employers or customers are deciding between two options, the one with a picture can create a valuable connection that gives you an advantage over a potential competitor.

2.  Choose your picture wisely. It is important to have a picture on your profile, but it is even more important to choose the right type of picture for a professional profile intended for business-oriented networking. The picture should be professional, well lit, on a neutral background, and recent enough so that people are not surprised when they meet you in person. If you have the ability to do so, you may want to consider hiring a professional photographer.

3.   Personalize the URL for your profile with your name so that you are easier to find. It is much easier to type in words than it is to find, remember, and correctly type a series of numbers, so make it easier for people to find you by personalizing your URL.

4.  Don’t forget to include keywords. Consider what people search for when they are looking for someone like you and include those phrases and words to make it easier for them to find you.

For anyone under the age of 40, and for lots of people who are older than that – social media sites like Facebook are now a way of life.  Sadly though, as familiar as everyone has become with sites like these, we still hear regular stories of personal lives being negatively affected (or worse) by not using these sites properly.

2 Bad Stories in 2 Days

Yesterday a friend told me that they are having privacy problems with Facebook where family members and other people are seeing updates they aren’t supposed to and posting unwanted comments on their wall.  As we took a look at her privacy settings, she was not happy to learn that some of her activity was visible to anyone who logged into Facebook whether or not they were a friend.

Needless to say these settings were changed immediately but some of the damage was done.

And this morning, I read an article about a Cleveland woman who found out via Facebook that her husband had just married ANOTHER woman!  That’s right…she searched the name of the “other” woman suspecting that something might be going on – and what did she find?  She found a full wedding photo album that had just been uploaded of her husband, dressed in a Prince Charming outfit, getting married in Disney.  His new wife, a pretty blonde, was a glowing Sleeping Beauty, surrounded by footmen.

Needless to say the rest of the story is sad but quite entertaining.

The Moral – Check Your Privacy Settings

Within your Facebook profile, you should review your settings to make sure that your privacy is protected.  You can choose a lot of settings such as who sees your profile, updates, comments; and whether or not someone has to be a friend in order to view your information.  You can control who posts on your wall and there is also a tool to block certain people from seeing information.

The bottom line is – if you your privacy is important to you – social sites like Facebook are a tricky place to be hanging out.  But if you’re going to participate, make sure you check the privacy settings so you don’t wind up on the Today show.

If you have any questions about your privacy settings, or would like help understanding social media and how it applies to your business contact us today.

Creating a baseline

One of the key elements to the testing process that WSI follows when assisting our clients in creating an effective marketing strategy is benchmarking. Benchmarking refers to a way of comparing two elements using one as the standard and the other as the variable.

When you compare three variables to a single standard, you are using that standard as the benchmark to measure the relative performance of each variable.  For internet marketing, that means that you can create one set of data from your standard variable whether that is a color, a format, or a graphic, and then compare other options to that data to determine if they are more effective at driving traffic and improving your conversion rate.

In order to use benchmarking to ensure that your marketing program is functioning as well as possible, there are five steps to follow.  We’ll explain here:

5 Steps to Internet Benchmarking

1.  Carefully choose the question you will investigate. This is often the most difficult step for many of our clients because they are not sure where

2.  Develop the testing procedure that will answer this question.

3.  Decide how you will measure the results of your test. Are you looking at conversion rates? Membership subscriptions? The success of one

4.  Make sure that your results are valid and relevant. At the very least, this means testing with a sufficient sample size.

5.  Interpret your results with care. Do not rush to conclusions about your data because the purpose of testing is to use this data to design the best possible campaign, and that cannot be done based on incorrect interpretations.

With benchmarking, it is possible to get a better idea of what influences customers as they interact with your marketing campaign online. And if you are not setting a benchmark of data for evaluating your progress – how can you really evaluate if you are going forward or backwards?