Blog | Lead Generation, Online Marketing

Are you missing these 7 ways to find leads on LinkedIn?

connection request We all know that LinkedIn is a virtual ocean of potential leads for your business, and that if you find the right contacts, you can transform your company.

But how do you find those new, useful contacts? Today I’m going to take you through some of the less obvious ways (plus a couple of basic ones which many people miss anyway).

Ask for them. Are you looking to connect to recruiters who specialise in pharmaceutical reps in the north of England? Or perhaps you need to reach marketing directors at companies with over 1,000 employees in the electronics industry? Spell it out on your profile, and make it clear that you will welcome people getting in touch!
Follow up with people who have viewed your profile. LinkedIn now tells you who has visited your profile. Some will clearly be of no interest to your business. Others might be, but didn’t ask to connect with you.

2 pharma LinkedIn company pages that rock

Miriam ShavivContent Marketing, LinkedIn, Social media

Good LinkedIn company pages are few and far between. In fact, bad ones are few and far between as well! Most companies simply don’t seem to bother completing the basic information on them, let alone updating them frequently.

It’s a big mistake. LinkedIn has by far the biggest visitor-to-conversion rate of any of the major social media platforms, and a good company page is a terrific way to showcase everything your company is good at. If you don’t have a company page, your business doesn’t exist on LinkedIn (and it doesn’t matter if every employee has their own profile; these are personal pages, highlighting personal achievements, and not about the company).

Take the pharmaceutical industry in the UK. I set out to write a post highlighting three examples of great company pages – but couldn’t find enough to write it!

There are two possible reasons. One is that pharma is generally behind the curve when it comes to social media. But LinkedIn is the one platform where its executives generally do have a strong presence, so one might have expected them to develop their company pages.

5 things every content marketer should learn from Facebook’s ‘Look Back’ videos

Miriam ShavivFacebook, Social media

To celebrate its 10th anniversary this week, Facebook produced a free video for most users, which highlighted some of their biggest moments on the social media network since they joined.

It was a runaway success. Hundreds of millions immediately accessed their personalised video and then shared it with their friends. The internet was swamped with people getting emotional over the memories – their own, their families’, their friends’.

One bereaved father even issued a tearful video plea for Facebook to send him a personalised video for his late son, who died a couple of years ago. Facebook said it would.

Think employees on social media is a minefield? 4 reasons you should encourage it anyway

Miriam ShavivSocial media

Do you trust your employees enough to let them promote your business on social media? They could be sharing your blogs on Twitter and LinkedIn, giving insights into interesting (non-confidential) parts of their job, and interacting with prospective clients – in short, building up relationships and drumming up work.

For many businesses this is a horrifying prospect. The risks are real – if you give employees permission to talk in your name, there is a chance that at some stage, someone will say something harmful publicly. Social media may be better off siphoned off to the communications department, where it can be handled safely.

9 features that would dramatically improve LinkedIn

Danny BermantLinkedIn, Social media

social network How easy do you find it to use LinkedIn? Is it as intuitive to use as Facebook and Twitter, for example, or do you struggle with some of its features?

I spend a lot of my life on LinkedIn, both building my own business and showing clients how to generate new leads, and new custom, for their own companies. And there is no question that it is one of the most unbelievable tools for executives who want to grow their companies faster, faster, faster.

But I spend a lot of time on Facebook and Twitter as well, and when it comes to ease-of-use, LinkedIn just feels clunkier than its social media siblings.

Inspired by this post, here are the features I’d love to see LinkedIn bring in (or in several cases, restore). These little fixes would make such a difference!

I’d love to hear whether these things bother you too, and what suggestions you have to make LinkedIn even better!

8 key elements your Pharma social media strategy MUST include

Miriam ShavivPharma, Social media

strategy Talk to executives in the pharmaceutical sector about social media, and there is still a lot of fear, confusion – and disinterest. Many executives are aware that social media has been a powerful marketing tool in other sectors, but are unsure how it can be applied in their own regulated industry, and don’t know where to start.

Indeed, the top digital challenge for pharma companies in 2014, according to a recent survey by Digital Futures 2014, is “unclear strategy”. Working this out must be a top priority both for the sector as a whole and for individual companies, as no headway can be made without a well-thought-out plan of action; dabbling in social media hoping to stumble across a tactic that works is a colossal waste of time and money.

3 social media stories you can’t afford to miss this week

Miriam ShavivSocial media

This week’s crucial social media news round-up:

Facebook ads much more targeted. Next month Facebook is going to start testing a new system for its ads, which will allow marketers to target people by workplace, education, job titles, a recent life event and past purchasing behaviour. It will be tested in the US and will be released more widely towards the end of Q1.
Why this matters to you: If you are trying to promote your business on Facebook, this allows you to reach the right people much more easily, making Facebook a far more effective marketing tool.
Why this matters to Facebook: It’s another step in its strategy of convincing people to pay for advertising. Will allow it to compete better with LinkedIn.
More information: Here.

11 ways to save time on your social media marketing

Miriam ShavivSocial media

multi tasker No matter what size your business is, finding time for social media is hard.

If you run a small business single-handedly or with a limited team, there are many other priorities pressing on your time. If you are the head of comms or sales at a multinational – well, guess what, there are many other priorities pressing on your time, too, and you do not necessarily have the manpower either.

So how do you find those elusive hours? The first thing to realise is that not finding time is not an option. Social media is crucial to business development nowadays, and if it constantly gets pushed to the bottom of your priorities, your business is going to suffer.

8 tips for Pharma companies struggling with social media strategy

Danny BermantPharma, Social media

“We really need to make a start on social media, but have no real direction.”

“We have a social media programme, but it’s not accomplishing anything. We’re wasting our resources.”

If you work for, or head, a pharma company, those words may sound very familiar. According to Digital Futures 2014, an online survey of people working in the industry, the biggest digital challenge in pharma this year is formulating a clear strategy.

This is true for pharma as a whole – and also for individual companies. It’s not altogether surprising. Many are still at the very beginning of their social media journey (if that), and strategy is the very first thing you need to work out.

For pharma in particular, the challenges of entering the social media arena can be serious, and therefore many companies are still feeling their way very cautiously. For others (and this happens in all industries), social media is a box-ticking exercise rather than a well-thought out plan.

Should I advertise on YouTube?

Danny BermantSocial media, Youtube

video YouTube attracts a mammoth amount of traffic – in fact, more searches are made on YouTube than an all of Yahoo. And yet, companies do not think about it enough as a marketing platform.

Time to learn about Google’s AdWords for video programme! It allows companies to place video adverts on the site, leading back to their own website or YouTube page.

You can choose to have YouTube play your video before, during or after another, related clip – just like a traditional television advert. Alternatively, you can have it displayed on the YouTube site and on other sites that use Google ads, such as newspapers or private blogs.

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