agony uncle • Tags •

Dear Digital Grandad: get the best out of LinkedIn

Dear DigitalGrandad…

Righti-o Grandad! Here’s my question:

There’s a lot of buzz about LinkedIn but I can’t decide if its a good place to do social-media marketing. I have about 350 plus connections on LinkedIn and although I don’t get a lot of referrals from it, these people do spend more time on my site if they come from LinkedIn.

It does suggest this is a good place to be active (and all my posts go to my LinkedIn timeline) but LinkedIn itself is quite counter-intuitive in its design. I find LinkedIn hard to navigate and, therefore, time consuming. What are your tips on how to get the best out of LinkedIn as a marketing tool for a website? (The endorsing of skills is particularly irritating. Should I be endorsing connections back? That will be very time-consuming. Will it be worth it?)

Regards and thanks very much!
Gill Moodie, Grubstreet

Dear Digital Grandad: LIKE-it or not – Facebook Page success can not just be attributed to LIKES

Dear DigitalGrandad…

How do I get 10 000 likes on our brand’s Facebook page? My MD told me it’s embarrassing when his kids ask him why only 98 people like our product. I manage an FMCG brand and we fired the PR agency that set it all up for us a while ago.

Brand Manager FMCG

Dear Un-popular

My grand-daughter got more likes on her 6th birthday party Facebook page in 1 day. So yes the MD’s kiddo has asked a valid question and just put the nail in your social media coffin! So you should be “embarrassed” or wake up and take this thing seriously like any other marketing activity.

So to be serious for a second, 98 fans depending on who you are as a business may not be that bad as a starting point. If you’re a small business selling cuddly toys from home – great start I would say!

But as you mentioned you are a FMCG brand, then it sounds like you have a problem and not thought this through!

Dear Digital Grandad: Should my agency have a blog?

Dear @DigitalGrandDad, One of the kids in the office asked me why our agency don’t have a blog. I need an answer that doesn’t make me seem old or lazy.

Dear Old and Lazy

As the saying goes, It’s never too late to teach an old dog new tricks, as I am sure you are not Lazy!

I think it is great that you have people in your company that are asking questions about how to further market your company and/or share what you are doing as a cutting edge agency with your intended target market. So without sounding lazy or old, you can share your wisdom, teach and mentor the young enthusiastic kid that ‘LIKE’ anything in Marketing, you can’t just say yes without having a strategic plan? Your answers ‘Old Dog’ should be around planning for example:

Great Little One! I am so glad you asked that question. It is something I have been meaning to look into for ages. However, we don’t have a plan yet.