LinkedIn is a professional oriented social media platform that everyone should be on, even if you are not a “professional”.
Over the weekend I Googled myself using the “incognito” mode of Chrome, and Safari, (which I never use anymore) and the results where the same.
My LinkedIn profile is on the first page of Google Search Engine Results. It is the first listing for Scott Howard that pertains to me. It has been a few months since I checked, and now also appearing on the first page for Scott Howard is this website, and my Twitter account @ScLoHo.
But let’s focus today on LinkedIn. One of the really cool features is the ability to write and receive recommendations for and from your contacts and add these to your public profile.
So my recommendation for all of us is to write recommendations for those who we know that we can recommend.
Do it on a regular basis. Once a week is my goal for 2013, even though that will be the average since I plan on doing 4 or 5 once a month.
Last year LinkedIn added another feature, Endorsements which don’t take as much effort, so they probably don’t carry as much weight but they are valuable too.
Want to know more about LinkedIn?
While I’ve authored several articles in the past, my recommendation is to follow my friend Anthony Juliano who has started a website featuring a continuing series on LinkedIn Best Practices.
A couple of hat tips for the inspiration for this article go to Robby Slaughter who posted on Facebook last week,
2013 Creative Pay-It-Forward: The first five people to comment on this status will receive from me, sometime in the next calendar year. A gift – perhaps a book, or baked goods, or a candle, flowers, or a surprise (hint hint)! There will likely be no warning (except to comply with local and federal law) and it will happen whenever the mood strikes me (but I won’t be too creepy). The catch? Those five people must make the same offer in their FB status. Who’s in? (Feel free to modify this post.)
And to Kevin Mullett who started his own Twitter campaign for 2013 which he has hashtaged: #ItsAboutOthers
Do you have more than one computer? By installing Dropbox on each of your computers you can:
Save a file to all your computers at once.
Start working on one computer, and continue working on another.
Get to your photos, docs, and videos from anywhere.
You’ll get 2 GB of space free, and if you really need more you can buy more space.
Dropbox actually has many ways to earn more free space. My primary account has 6.75 GB of Dropbox storage.
Now here’s my updated recommendation for you for the new year which I just did recently…
I have my personal laptop which is a Toshiba Ultrabook with Windows 7 and my work computer which is an old beat up laptop with Windows XP. When I am at the office I need to use my work computer as it has some special programs that I cannot install on my personal laptop.
However when I’m outside the office, I use my personal laptop for work too with the exception of those few special programs. Dropbox has been a time and lifesaver in keeping everything organized.
But, I was using my primary Dropbox account on both computers, and due to the way Dropbox syncs your stuff, my work computer was filling up with non-work stuff from my primary Dropbox account.
Here’s the answer and what I did this week:
I set up another Dropbox account using my work email as the primary owner.
1st step on my work computer was to uninstall the Dropbox program. This did not delete the flies.
2nd step was to sign up for another Dropbox account from my work computer and install the Dropbox program again.
3rd step was to delete all the leftover old Dropbox folders and documents from my work computer to free up 4GB of space on that old machine.
Step 4 was to sign into my primary Dropbox account online from my personal laptop. Here I was able to share access to my work folder with another account or email address. I shared my work folder with my work email account.
5th step was to check my work email for the invite I sent myself and accept.
NOTE: Be sure you follow these steps in the above order or you may accidentally delete your stuff you have saved in your primary Dropbox account, since it will sync automatically across all your computers and in the cloud.
Now I have a second Dropbox account that is strictly work related and I can still share my work between my computers.
Other benefits include:
Keep my personal stuff personal, since it’s no longer on my work computer.
Extra cloud storage and backup in case a computer crashes.
The folks at Twitter put together a Tweet Review for the year we are still in.
They posted it last week on my birthday which means they are not counting the final 3 weeks.
For their sake let’s hope it’s a quiet, non-eventful December.
But it isn’t. There’s all kinds of political stuff going on both in the USA and around the world. And they missed the Newtown, Connecticut tragedy, which occurred just last week.
For those who are true “Tweeps”, we get a significant amount of our news, or at least newslinks from our Twitterfeed.
Over 100 predictions from 80 marketers are included including:
Jason Falls, page 13
Paul Dunay, page 15
and dozens of others.
My prediction is on page 16 of the downloadable pdf.
My 2012 prediction for 2013:
Smart Marketers will need to be on top of their game with fresh content on their website to build authority, active interaction on social media, especially in terms of customer service and a continuous collaboration between these elements.
Everything needs to be mobile friendly. Customers will continue to expect higher levels of engagement than ever before. Smart Marketers will also keep an eye on reviews on Social Sites such as FourSquare and Google+ in 2013.
I decided to look back at previous years predictions I made that were published by Joe.
At the end of 2008, as one of the 42 original contributors, I said about the new year:
Prediction: In 2009 the smart brand marketers will reach out via text offers and Twitter offers to the college aged crowd, money saving offers that they can use repeatedly to build brand preferences for the future.
Smart Marketers will be the ones who understand and use Twitter and Facebook with hyperlinks to pull potential clients to their websites and blogs.
Smart Marketers will understand the power of real conversations via Twitter and Facebook and use these as communication tools, not just P. R. machines.
Smart Marketers will insist that their Marketing Messages are using Social Media, Traditional websites, and Traditional Media in a cross-platform culture that includes everything from SmartPhones to HDTV screens.
Questions consumers are asking themselves, ”Is
there a value to me if I follow you on Twitter or Like
you on Facebook?”
Business owners are asking themselves, ”Is mass
discounting via Groupon (and similar sites)
providing me with customers that I value, or am I
just offering loss leaders without any true long term
value to my business?”
Social Media skeptics will place little value on
Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, etc because
they haven’t grasped the social interaction value of
the media.
Social Media users and believers will continue to
grow and increase their value to their friends and
followers because they understand that despite the
track-ability of the web, relationships are not as
easily measured in simple R.O.I. terms.
Every decision made in 2011 will be based on the
value each of us as individuals assign to the choices.
Smart Marketers will stay on the leading edge of emerging social media trends and platforms and invest the time, money and manpower into the efforts required to be where their customers are.
Social Media will slowly replace old style internet marketing methods such as banner ads, pop-ups and other annoyances that are driving customers away from websites.
Because of the increasing importance on the most current, relevant content by Google, the marketers that are producing and publishing content that meets both the requirements of Google and the interests of their customers will win over those that are ignoring these trends.
However only a small percentage of companies will connect all the dots from outreach via social media, inbound via search to creating a website that effectively answers website visitors questions, pulls them through the entire buying process including the appropriate call to action, followed by order tracking, customer data collection and personalized follow up after the initial visit.
As I review my own words, I see that it was not just a prediction but a passing along of advice. Also at the time, I was working for a website development company and some of my views have since changed.
What predictions and/or advice would you make as we get ready to enter another year?
Close to two years ago I gave my daughter Tiffany a challenge.
Tiff was going to have her first baby and the challenge was to take a picture every day and post it online.
I suggested using Blogger, which is owned by Google. I used Blogger as my host for multiple blogs and its interface is easy to use.
So Tiff posted at least one pic a day of her 1st born, Calvin for over a year. When her second child came around, the pictures were a little more sporadic.
Tiffany recently came across a problem and was looking for advice.
I have a little problem… apparently I’ve used all of my allotted 1 GB of space in my Picasa web album, which is where all my blog photos go. So I either have to pay for more storage or find a different place to host my blog. Do you have any suggestions for me? I would like to be as cheap as possible but I obviously will need a LOT of storage capabilities. Thanks.
Picasa is owned by Google and as Tiffany states, they only allow 1 GB of storage.
I came up with a couple ideas:
Flickr, which is owned by Yahoo! has unlimited storage, with a few limitations. With Flicker you can upload 300MB every month; http://www.flickr.com/help/limits/#65 .
Instead of uploading to Picasa, you can embed the html code into your blog. Here’s where I found info on getting the html embed code on blogger: http://www.flickr.com/help/photos/#2265887
My other idea involved Google Accounts was to start a second Google account, which includes Google Drive, G-mail and everything else Google related. Blogger allows you to have more than one person as administrators of your blog, so after you create a second account, you use that second account to add more pictures because you have another 1 GB of free Picasa storage with the second account.
You can have up to 100 team members per blog, which means you could have up to 100GB of free Picasa storage, in theory at least. Check out the Blogger limitationshere and Happy Posting!
Twice I have worked for radio stations that offer some form of online deal.
Radio listeners go to the station websites, click on the link and buy the deal that is offered. It could be something like a $50 gift certificate for $25, or some similar offer.
Radio does it, TV does it, Newspapers do it.
A couple of online sites do it too.
The offer is usually good for the consumer.
I have bought a $10 Starbucks card for $5 a couple of times.
There are pros and cons of the benefit for business owners.
If you own a business and have been approached to take part, be sure you understand what you are agreeing to honor.
Every company I have worked for the past 15 years has had downsizing and hiring as part of their adjustment to their changing needs. So that really isn’t news.
What did catch my attention was the 400 jobs cut by LivingSocial only represented 9% of their 4500 member staff.
Wow, I never would have guessed that they were that large.
70 million members getting email from LivingSocial every week.
I guess this web thing might stick around (snicker).
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