Jessica Knobbe

For me the first step in establishing my personal brand was LinkedIn. If you are not familiar it’s a site that falls under the social media category but specifically focuses on building professional relationships and connections. Think of your profile as a giant expanded resume that anyone can search and see. Filling out the basics are standard and easy to follow- current and past employment, education and a summary of what you are all about so I will assume that you can get through that portion. I will just give you some additional tips on extras that you can do to make your profile stand out.

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  • Basic SEO principles- use keywords whenever possible in your content. Words like SEO, Internet Marketing, Targeting and Social Media are included in my content to really help my profile pop in the LinkedIn search directory.
  • Public Profile – Change the URL to your name instead of gibberish- http://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicaknobbe is so much cleaner than http://www.linkedin.com/3sc29/knob3/23ksn3/profile
  • Additional Information: Websites- Instead of letting them default choose “other” for each one type in the name of your website, your twitter handle and any other specific sites you want to include. I have “My Website” direct to my resume page of JessicaKnobbe.com, and I have “My Blog- Marketing On Target” direct to the blog section of JessicaKnobbe.com. My third option I typed in “Follow Me on Twitter“ that leads right to my Twitter profile.
  • Additional Information: Groups – Join groups to participate in the networking aspect of LinkedIn. This area could warrant an entire blog post on its own so I will just keep it at that for now.
  • Add Applications- this allows you to insert a feed of your blog directly onto your profile. There are many applications to choose from that range from what you are reading, where you are traveling to polls.
  • Recommendations- Try to get some really good, solid recommendations on your profile. Most jobs that are posted on LinkedIn boards require that the applicant have recommendations and if a potential employer is looking at your profile, it never hurts to show them how much you rock.
  • Network Updates- similar to Facebooks status update I keep my contacts abreast of my professional happenings. It is a great way to keep your profile appearing on their main log in page and it lets them know what you are up to. Think less “Man, the 151 bus smells funky today” and more “Just bought my pass to South By Southwest Interactive Fest in Austin” or “Who was surprised that Family Guy is not a great brand spokesperson” with a link to a blog post included.

I know that there are tons of other great things on LinkedIn that you can explore- Q&A, job boards, event searches, but I want you to remember one of the most important- creating a network. Connect with everyone you know and make a solid base group of connections. If you see a person that you want to know and they are a 2nd or 3rd degree connection don’t be afraid to ask for an introduction. You have access to people that you might not otherwise so take advantage of this opportunity. If someone is not an open networker then they can relay that message to you but I have found that most people are very willing to help out whenever they can.

Think about it this way- I have 133 direct connections which puts me 2nd degree to 30,900 professionals and 3rd degree to over 2 million people. That’s 2 million people that have the opportunity to see what I’m all about- why not build a brand that makes you stand out in the crowd.

Added Bonus: Mashable just had a post today about some sprucing up that LinkedIn plans on implimenting!

When most people think of social media they think “Free Advertising!!”  Not so fast there buckaroo!  You need to stop and consider a few things:

• What are your marketing goals?  Just saying “I want to be on Facebook” and “Everyone’s on Twitter- why am I not on Twitter?!” is worthless unless you set a benchmark and these tools actually help you achieve that goal.  If your target demographic is Adults 45-64 being on Twitter is going to miss that audience by a mile.

• Are you going to hire a consultant to help you lay this out?  If you want to do it right I would say yes you are because there are tactics and strategies involved.

• Once this is all set in motion, who is going to keep it running?  Are you going to do it? Do you have time to do 3 blog posts a week and a monthly newsletter?  I was at a round table last night and one consultant panelist put it brilliantly “I am not selling you a goose that lays golden eggs, I’m building you a crank, you still have to turn it to get results”

Social media is a great option for so many businesses as part of a full marketing arsenal.  Listening to your audience online is a huge asset and can really help you get a feel for the sentiments of your brand and it’s strength’s and weaknesses.  Just make sure before you dive in you know how deep the pool is and that you can stay afloat.

Admittedly, when I think of Estee Lauder, social media is not really the next thought in my head.  But a new promotion brings them together in a fascinating way.  AdAge reported yesterday on a new campaign aimed at bringing Estee’s target demographic into the social media groundswell and are “offering free makeovers and photo shoots at its department-store cosmetics counters coast-to-coast to produce shots women can use for their online profiles.”  Can you say awesome?  Not even technically in their target demographic of women 35-55 they have me intrigued as I can’t seem to find a decent picture of myself to use on my professional social media profiles.  I will be interested to see how they measure ROI.  Will it be based on an increased number of fans on their Facebook page? Will it be the number or photos or the amount of merchandise that they sell because of increased traffic to the counter?  The host department store gets the fringe benefit of increase traffic in the doors as well.  Are they going to piggyback this with a promotion as well? 
What do you think?

“Friend of the Day”, “What 60’s Movie Star Are You” or “Which Candy Bar Totally Represents Your Entire High School Career”- Facebook quizzes are all the rage.  Polls have always been a way to find out about audiences for marketing and Facebook is no different.  The big one going around right now is called “My Friends On Facebook”  The basis is it takes all of your friends’ stats and it breaks out the information into pretty shiny pie charts and percentages- 19 of my friends are Virgos and 69% are Democrats!

Here is the amazing part about this and all quizzes on Facebook- you give it permission.  You say ALLOW and this little unassuming quiz suddenly collects immense amounts of geographic, demographic and psychographic information about you and your virtual social circle.  And who is it that gets this info? Well, my guess is based on the 20 second spot right before you get your results is Mobil 1.  Yes Mobil 1, the worlds leading motor oil, suddenly has information that the US Census is jealous of.

Now most likely reading this you are not surprised by this or at least you shouldn’t be.  I think the most interesting part is what are they doing with this data? Are they creating fan pages to bolster brand loyalty?  Are they finding geographic areas that match their target demographic and bumping up Internet or broadcast spend?  If your company or group is using Facebook polls to target your marketing efforts tell us if it’s working or what challenges you face in this social media space.