It's holiday season, and you may wonder where all your followers/users are. Well wonder no more, they are NOT online and they don't care about you or your brand or anything you have to post (unless you are a retailer and they have a complaint about a product they bought or got as a present). So this holiday season for the love of sanity, get offline and go enjoy your family time.

Seriously though, I own a social media agency, mainly B2B, and NOT ONE of my clients showed more than 10% of their average daily engagement from December 25 - Jan 3 last year.

See below - the magic starts to happen in January. I know you will look at this chart and say but still 60,000 views - let's not sniff at that. But I just checked the same company's stats for Dec 2021 so-far and they have only had 30,000 views as of 11 Dec. Only 13 more days until end of the active month and they will be lucky to hit 70,000 in total - that is a HUGE drop, and consistent with last year, where most of the visitors were from Dec 1 - 23.

LinkedIn Company Profile Visitor Metrics: 

I often say that the world will NOT stop turning if you don't post to social media - and I honestly hold to that.

If you want to know what our recommendations are for this holiday season. Here's what you CAN do:

1. Post your holiday message, or at least anything important, at least 1 week before the holiday, be realistic that scheduling it on the actual holiday day no one will see it, if you want them to see it that is.
2. You can pre-set some content to run over the holidays, but don't stress about it, no amount of posting is going to make that much of a difference.
3. Which leads me to my next point. Why not try creating a new trend and #gosilent. It's time for people to be with their families and friends, not tempted by anything you think worth posting online. Imagine how nice for those who care enough about your brand to be given a breather... I mean, I know most holidays mean an almost naturally quiet 48 hours, but nothing wrong with making it a social policy to let people get back to what matters. Make it part of your company social manifesto.

​
​Even if you are a consumer brand, why not post a message saying something like, "we are here today because we care about you, no noise, just us... let us know how we can be helpful."

For B2B brands where constant social customer service is not so much an issue, simply say, "We are going silent this holiday to give you time to get back to what matters. See you after the holidays and wishing you and all your family and friends a peaceful and joyous time." #Gosilent

There is nothing wrong with us using social media to set industry-wide etiquette for how and when social media should be used. So take a stand with me, and let's all #gosilent this coming Xmas and New Years holiday season.

​Happy Holidays from #TeamZoecial and Happy New Year.


​

It was Social Media Kindness Day on the 9th of November. I cannot think of a more fitting day to bring up the topic of internet trolls and offer some practical advice for how to deal with them. Unfortunately trolls exist. It's true! I am not talking about the cute, colorful, furry, sparkly, farty type! In fact, the real trolls resemble the big, gooey, hairy, smelly, gobby, Harry Potter-esque type, at least in behavior.
​
Unfortunately, we’ve all had the unpleasant experience of being trolled on social media. A troll may take advantage of someone else’s post to promote themselves or their product in a self serving way. A troll may also be someone who tries to provoke arguments with often-times rude or controversial comments. Or someone who sends sexually explicit or unwanted advances. It is NEVER, repeat NEVER appropriate on a social channel (unless on Jdate or Tinder) to proposition someone, comment on how they look or make overt sexual references.

Here is just one example from someone who spammed someone else's post with their own self-promotion. Someone from Live-English.net posted about her English training workshops, and someone trolled it, trying to sell the exact same service on the back of a competitors post. YUCK!

On what planet is it morally or ethically acceptable behavior to solicit business on the back of someone else's completely legitimate post about their business? Who on earth would trust a person who does something like this with the services they provide? What "lucky-dip" school of dumb-arse business and marketing did this person attend where they are taught that, "hey, I do that too, let me just comment here that people should trust me to do it better, oh and I will sweeten the deal with a walk by the creek and some tea." is a good marketing or sales strategy. MORON ALERT!

How about this example... Where a stranger sent an unsolicited message on LinkedIn and signed it "LOVE". 

• DO NOT engage with this person. They are either there to goad you or they don't care about you and your ethics, so engaging them only draws attention to them and feeds into their narcissistic tendencies.
• DO NOT post publicly about this person or name and shame them anywhere. In most countries this is an offense punishable by law and just brings you down to their level. You need to take the moral high ground.
• KEEP on pushing and promoting yourself, if you do it right, you win and the trolls won't!

​
I hope that this has been helpful. If you need help with other social media dilemmas or have any questions, reach out and ask - that's why ZoecialMedia is here.

Imagine this... In the last 5 months I've...
Tried to help a charity whose Facebook page was accessible only through a disgruntled ex-employee who was not returning calls or emails.
Had to shut down 6, that's right 6, Twitter accounts that used some variation of one company's branding/name, but were inaccessible and unused for more than 3 years. Now going through a similar process with a different company.
Had three companies unable to access their Instagram accounts because they were opened by ex-employees using now defunct company email addresses. Only one was able to successfully re-instate the email address and access their Instagram account.
Shut down 2 LinkedIn groups and 4 showcase pages for a company who felt that their brand was too diversified and they needed to concentrate on one important channel for each platform. It took us 3 weeks just to get control of all the groups and channels just so we could shut them down.

If you are responsible for your Brand on social media, here are some important questions you need to consider:

1. Who holds the key to your social media and WHY???
2. Do you have a company-wide policy for who has access, who is allowed to be an admin or even eho is allowed to open a company social media asset.
3. Do you have a protocol in place, such as:

• There should always be a minimum 2 top level admins on any account, and as soon as one is removed, a new person is assigned 
• Always use a generic marketing email address to assign as admin of corporate accounts. That way it does not belong to someone who may leave and take the key with them.

Here are some more best practices for opening new social media assets:

1. ALWAYS keep a record of what pages/accounts are open, who has the key, links to relevant pages and 2 factor authentication details (such as backup email addresses or phone numbers.
2. ALWAYS have a generic email account set up that at least 2 senior marketing people can access at any given time and make sure you only subscribe to marketing related services and products with that email address.
3. MUST HAVE: a company-wide policy that NO ONE is permitted to open and run a corporate branded social asset and that if someone wishes to open a new page or account, they need to do so by filling in a form and then you will do it for them and provide them 3rd level access (never admin access - except on LinkedIn where you can only give admin level access).
4. ALWAYS but always have a minimum 2 top tier admins, in case one is unavailable for some reason.
5. MAKE sure you set up and maintain your 2 factor authentication methodologies. Either by using a backup email or phone number. Make sure there is a clear way for key stakeholders to have access to this information in your absence.
6. CHECK your admin tools regularly and remove or revoke access from people who are no longer relevant. You should be very aware of who has access at all times and what their role is on your pages/accounts.
7. CHANGE your passwords anytime someone leaves your trust circle, you just never know what they might do if they still have access. Better to be safe than sorry.
8. If this advice is too late and it's already a big mess. Clean it up! There's no excuse to keep it that way.

Go be the best #gatekeepers you can be!

​To say this year has been hard is an understatement. It was unprecedented, uncertain and down right bloody difficult. But one positive thing that you can take with you into #2021, is the growth in digital marketing, and specifically social media channels this past year. Here is our summary of the good, the bad, and the ugly for LinkedIn, and our predictions of what will trend next year.

THE GOOD:

LinkedIn has really rocked this past year. Many people have been complaining of huge drops in algorithmic reach and engagements. At ZoecialMedia we are a bit skeptical about this for a few reasons. 1) Our data tells us differently. Across all our client accounts we see continued YoY growth, even with the difficulty presented by the pandemic.
2) We believe there are just many many more people online, pushing content and consuming content, so your share of visibility just got harder, that is all. But that is why you need to be engaging and engage more to be seen. 

Some of the reasons LinkedIn has really upped its' game are:

- HASHTAGS: #hashtag #hashtag #hashtag - the first 3 you use in every post are the most important ones. In fact when you copy link to post and paste it in WhatsApp or another forum, LinkedIn now includes these hashtags as part of the link. It's how you find interesting people and content, and how you optimize your feed, and how you filter what you see. HASHTAG!!!!
- DOCUMENT UPLOAD: Swipe through carousels  are the bomb! We love them, people love them, and the ROI on visibility and reach is huge!
- PRODUCT PAGES: This feature is still a WIP but we believe these are really going to be a game changer next year and it starts with those companies who are already have them.
- EVENTS: They started out really badly, but now LinkedIn have really invested in the feature, not only do you get real lead generation with them, but some of our clients are reporting 3-5x the event registrations using this feature.
- POLLS: Do it! try one but remember to be engaging. 

We put together a guide for LinkedIn Product pages and one for Polls that will help you be strategic with them next year. Here you go!

THE BAD:

Growing on LinkedIn is HARD. If you want thousands of new followers for your company profile each month on LinkedIn - STOP ... doing this one thing!!
.
.
.
Expecting to get thousands of new followers on #LinkedIn each month. The harsh reality is that there is no "magic follower pill" you can swallow. It takes:
PERSISTENCE: Regular cadence of good and engaging posts.
DEDICATION: You need dedicated advocates and followers who will engage with your brand and like, share and comment to get you more visibility.
TIME: With more visibility comes more followers. You cannot buy them and if you think you can, you might be in for a shock. We ran a $3K campaign for brand awareness for a client in India, the goal we set was "engagements" which is one of the few LI goals that has a "follower" button on it. Guess how many followers came from that $3K spend?? LESS THAN 500!!!!!?
Change your goals, align your expectations, put in the effort to engage and build a dedicated following and stop expecting it to happen overnight. Unless you are Microsoft or Apple, which you are NOT!


THE UGLY:

STORIES: Our initial few observations about the new #linkedstories feature. after posting consistently for days on end....

1. You still cannot save a story.
2. About 30-35 unique views of each story, but all except one person were in my 1st degree connections, so not really getting outside my existing following.
3. There is still no way for people to like a story.
4. You can still only write a private message to the story author. You can also "unfollow" them
5. The "mention" feature only currently allows mentioning people, NOT COMPANIES.
6. Still only available on mobile, not on desktop.
7. Still no hashtag support on Stories.
8. The stories expire after 24 hours, and no way to see "old stories"
9. Still almost no analytics on story (other than how many people and who viewed it).
10. No live links

For Company Profile Stories:
1. You cannot like a story.
2. The share button allows you to send the story via messenger to people.
3. You cannot save a message
4. You cannot tag another company
5. Also only available on mobile.
6. If you go to the company profile, no way to view their stories (this to me seems the most illogical of all the non-features).

The point is, no need for #FOMO if you don’t have it yet, it needs some work.

NOW, WHAT SHOULD YOU EXPECT IN 2021:

- MORE P2P: People-to-People marketing will be the buzz in 2021. We are already seeing companies, and more importantly C-suite execs buying into the importance of active, engaged and thought-leading LinkedIn accounts this year, and it will only get stronger next year. 

- PROFESSIONAL BRAND MANAGEMENT: With the need for more P2P marketing,  comes the need for professional services to help you do this. We are currently managing 57 LinkedIn stakeholder accounts. From A-Z writing and posting content, engaging daily, strategically growing the network and connecting to new industry and ABM targets.

- LESS AUTOMATION: DON'T BOT!!! The appeal is real, and we understand, you are worried that investing in your employees is a waste of time and money, and they may walk out the door one day. So you set up fake accounts and bots on those accounts, or even WORSE, you run the bots on your employee accounts. But a robot can never properly emulate a thinking human. We are currently dealing with one client who has 6 blocked accounts of senior sales people on LinkedIn because they ran a bot on the accounts. The pain is real, those people can never ever connect to a potential client or person again, without first having to put in the person's email address. 

- MORE VISIBILITY and CREDIBILITY. How? STOP LIKING 
START Commenting!

Don't be a 'like bunny' [Trademark ZoecialMedia], take the extra few seconds to really engage and show people your expertise, compassion, share your knowledge, friendship, support, shared interests, along with some respect.

Why?

Watch those visibility reach numbers climb for:
- more profile views
- more connect requests/follows
- more visibility
- more trust in your personal brand
​
- MORE ROI: Use Shield Analytics app. A full 360 degree view of your growth, engagements, reach. Like you have never before been able to get from LinkedIn. The ROI is there!

GOOD luck in 2021 and reach out if you need a hand!

People are often shocked when I advise them NOT to open a new Facebook page or start another LinkedIn Showcase page, stating "one is enough." But really, one is in most cases enough! It is hard enough to grow and get visibility for one page, and unless you have endless time and money, you do not need to have multiple multiple multiple pages for no reason. In this article I will explain why and also what you should be doing on your main company page so that you can optimize your posts to reach the right audiences:

​Why don't you need another company page?
Getting organic growth is actually harder than you think. Even pages with tens of thousands of followers struggle daily to get their content seen. It is no longer a game of "post and they will come." Now you need to stand out, be engaging, be creative. I can guarantee you that if you don't post at all, you are lost to the world. I had a client with over 100,000 followers. Their growth was wild, and viral. Some of their posts had 80,000+ likes and comments on them - I kid you not. They had funding issues at the beginning of this year and let us go, they downsized their teams to just R&D and stopped posting on Facebook altogether. From June to December last year they had 5,168 new followers on their FB page. Since January they have only had 883 new followers. In 2019 in total they had 13,679 new followers, and that was mainly due to the HUGE visibility they got, not from constant posting, but constant viral content! 
So let's for argument's sake say you manage 2 pages. Now you must create twice as much engaging and relevant content. What is your strategy? When you start with ZERO followers how does anyone see anything? If they aren't seeing it, do you have money to pay to play? Let's say you are one of those "Microsoft" brands, who can start a new page and have 10,000 followers in the first month - did you know that most of your posts will only reach a very small portion of your existing following, and ONLY if they engage with it does it get seen by people outside of your following, so now you don't only have to create content for 2 pages, you have to make it really GOOD and engaging content, so that people want to engage with it. NOW say you are neither popular nor do you have a willing gaggle of ready advocates who will all follow and engage with everything you post, do you have enough budget to "boost" or pay for a targeted audience to see your posts? If you answered NO to the above scenarios, read on to find out what you should do instead.

What should you do instead?
As you are able to geo-target by location all content on Facebook and LinkedIn, you are better off investing your time and money in bringing in a good/strong audience to your main profile so that you can simply post to your main page using audience segmentation. On LinkedIn you can even go further and segment by industry, job title, seniority etc... It means you have one really strong brand presence, but only people in that targeted audience will see the content that is relevant to them. NB: You need a minimum 300 people to be able to properly target on Linked in any specific audience, so rather spend your time and efforts bringing new followers to that main profile, so that you can utilize this feature.

Here is a short video I made that shows you how to post to LinkedIn using audience segmentation: 
https://www.loom.com/share/956ef7b072d343a3ae3e610da9fa616d

When DO you need another page or profile?
If you have multiple brands and they aren't all the same target audience, it makes sense to have a MAIN page for your company brand and showcase pages or separate FB pages for your sub-brands. For example you have multiple products, and one is B2B and one is B2C, they need different audiences AND different content. In this instance, be prepared and realistic - you need double the amount of time, effort and budget to make both successful. 

When do you NOT need another page or profile?
As stated above, language or geo-location is not enough of a reason to need a separate page. Use your main page together with audience segmentation. You also 100% DO NOT need a separate page for corporate social responsibility, or careers posts, or employer brand. They are all part of your company DNA, they should be part of your main brand, just use audience segmentation. Consider starting a group or community for employer brand or corporate social responsibility. That is a better place to have it, as you do not face the same growth and algorithmic limitations of a page, it is more interactive AND you can invite people to be members.

What else could you do to be smarter at optimizing your brand visibility?
People relate to people more than to brands. Your CSR, employer brand, careers updates are better spread by employees than just your company page. Onboard and launch an advocacy program and encourage, and incentivize your employees to be your brand ambassadors. I would recommend getting a tool like Sprout Social's Bambu, or Oktopost it allows you to manage your social media, measure success, and run and track results of an advocacy leaderboard. Speak to me and I can make a referral and explain why you need a tool like this.

I hope this article has given you food for thought. I cannot tell you the number of clients who are struggling to strategically grow their social media following and brand presence, and they are maintaining multiple pages at the same time. If it is hard with one, it is even harder with many! Focus on one, produce quality, put some money behind it and I guarantee you will have more bang for your buck and efforts!

Good luck! Reach out if you have any questions.