Browse Tag: LinkedIn Marketing

LinkedIn VS Facebook- From A Marketer’s Perspective

With the increasing number of social media platforms, as a marketer, we need to make a crucial choice of focusing our social media efforts on a limited number of platforms. This decision is vital to the existence of a brand and can make or break it as well.

In this blog post, we will discuss the difference between LinkedIn and Facebook and which platform will best help you achieve your goals and objectives.

A brief introduction of our two contestants for today:-

Facebook– People tend to spend more time on Facebook than on LinkedIn for the simple reason that it is perceived as a more ‘fun’ platform where friends are able to get together and share their thoughts and opinions over a casual post like a meme or joke. Facebook is clearly in the quantity win with over 2.07 billion monthly active users.

LinkedIn– LinkedIn, however, is a more serious platform where users log in for a specific purpose, be it recruitment, job hunting, connecting with colleagues or sharing their professional expertise on specific industry related topics. LinkedIn is far behind Facebook when it comes to the numbers game, with around 467 million members.

1. Audience Profile

Facebook– General consumers. Facebook is primarily a platform where friends and family get together to de-stress or connect with known persons. Marketers on Facebook need to keep their audience interests in mind, keeping the tone light and friendly. Create content which your audience would like to consume.

LinkedIn– Companies/organizations/businesses. LinkedIn allows users to create a professional, job-oriented profile, offering a variety of ways for a marketer to target based on seniority, job function, industry and more. Marketers on LinkedIn should keep the tone serious and professional, industry-specific and to the point. LinkedIn is primarily used by B2B businesses to connect with users in the same industry segment.

2. Analytics-

Facebook- Facebook provides real-time, built-in reports consisting data of the type of audience, their country of origin, and others ranging from likes, reach, visits, posts, people, events, videos, messages to a lot more. This data is very useful to a marketer as their job hardly ends after an advertising campaign is created. They constantly need to optimize it to achieve the best results at the lowest cost.

LinkedIn- LinkedIn does not provide extensive insights on page performance limiting to updates, interactions, clicks, impressions, reach, followers and visitors. This makes it difficult for a marketer to analyze and extract data on the performance of a LinkedIn campaign. 

3. Cost-

Facebook- Facebook gives the option to adjust how much you’re willing to pay per day (starting at Rs.40 per day), which corresponds to the number of users you reach out to. Overall, Facebook is a much cheaper option, with the average CPC of Rs. 5, being the lowest across all social media platforms. As a marketer, a lower cost is of vital importance in determining the success of an advertising campaign  

LinkedIn- LinkedIn offers a specific way to reach an audience but the cost is higher than Facebook’s. LinkedIn is said to be one of the most expensive advertising platforms in terms of average CPC of Rs.150. The minimum amount that LinkedIn will generally require you to allot for your CPC and CPM bids is Rs.100 (for either). And the minimum budget generally allotted by LinkedIn for your daily budget is Rs.500. The huge difference in cost from that of Facebook, shy away many marketers, making LinkedIn a secondary consideration. That being said, there a number of successfully launched campaigns on LinkedIn as well,  like the Volkswagen Campaign, where the results were far greater than the initial cost.

4. Branding-

Facebook- On Facebook there is a strong distinction between a user’s personal profile and a brand’s page. The content posted on a personal profile and a company’s page is completely different and unrelated. A marketer must build his company’s brand and his personal brand separately and simultaneously.

LinkedIn- On LinkedIn there is no distinction between personal and professional branding as it seamlessly integrates with each other in the form of a common profile. Through a user’s profile, it enables the audience to connect with the brand. Vice-versa if a brand posts valuable content then the employees of the brand are known as well. A marketer needs to be able to sell himself as well as his company through the use of one single profile.

5. Thought Leadership-

Facebook- Facebook is not a platform where users generally express their professional opinion but rather a light and casual conversation amongst friends. Marketers cannot hope to get their audience to pour out their expertise and insights into their industry or job.

LinkedIn- LinkedIn is the primary platform where users come together to influence others through their professional opinions. The most common place of thought leaders is LinkedIn groups where experts speak about their opinions with respect to a specific industry.

6. Marketing Objectives-

Facebook- As a marketer, Facebook provides a number of opportunities to achieve objectives such as Awareness, Consideration and Conversion but is more suitable for Direct Sales and Traffic. The level and detail of targeting on Facebook is world’s apart that of all other social media platforms, making it ideal for marketers to grow their brand.

LinkedIn- As a marketer, LinkedIn cannot be used to directly sell to your industrial buyers as users on LinkedIn login for their own personal and professional development rather than to outright buy a product or service. It will lead to a very low conversion rate and more often than not, a poor brand image.

Conclusion-

The controversy of which platform is better for marketing has been chewed over and over in the last years by marketers, entrepreneurs and bloggers.

Lately, Facebook is focusing on improving their paid marketing campaigns and continue to develop new and innovative features appealing to B2B companies and marketers alike, in a strive to reach above LinkedIn in the B2B space.

Having a deep understanding of who you are marketing to (your buyer personas) and how they use these platforms at each stage of the buyer’s journey, will enable you to become more customer-centric in your marketing.

Instead of focusing on which platform is better for your marketing strategy, simply being aware of how and when to use each on the potential journey your prospects go through before they decide to buy from you can make a dramatic shift in your marketing strategy.

 

To know more about effective ways to maximize Facebook conversions, check out ‘8 Types Of Facebook Content To Drive Engagement‘.

Image Source- Hootsuite, Pear Analytics, Pinterest, Social Media Examiner.

LinkedIn VS Facebook- From A Marketer’s Perspective

With the increasing number of social media platforms, as a marketer, we need to make a crucial choice of focusing our social media efforts on a limited number of platforms. This decision is vital to the existence of a brand and can make or break it as well.

In this blog post, we will discuss the difference between LinkedIn and Facebook and which platform will best help you achieve your goals and objectives.

A brief introduction of our two contestants for today:-

Facebook– People tend to spend more time on Facebook than on LinkedIn for the simple reason that it is perceived as a more ‘fun’ platform where friends are able to get together and share their thoughts and opinions over a casual post like a meme or joke. Facebook is clearly in the quantity win with over 2.07 billion monthly active users.

LinkedIn– LinkedIn, however, is a more serious platform where users log in for a specific purpose, be it recruitment, job hunting, connecting with colleagues or sharing their professional expertise on specific industry related topics. LinkedIn is far behind Facebook when it comes to the numbers game, with around 467 million members.

1. Audience Profile

Facebook– General consumers. Facebook is primarily a platform where friends and family get together to de-stress or connect with known persons. Marketers on Facebook need to keep their audience interests in mind, keeping the tone light and friendly. Create content which your audience would like to consume.

LinkedIn– Companies/organizations/businesses. LinkedIn allows users to create a professional, job-oriented profile, offering a variety of ways for a marketer to target based on seniority, job function, industry and more. Marketers on LinkedIn should keep the tone serious and professional, industry-specific and to the point. LinkedIn is primarily used by B2B businesses to connect with users in the same industry segment.

2. Analytics-

Facebook- Facebook provides real-time, built-in reports consisting data of the type of audience, their country of origin, and others ranging from likes, reach, visits, posts, people, events, videos, messages to a lot more. This data is very useful to a marketer as their job hardly ends after an advertising campaign is created. They constantly need to optimize it to achieve the best results at the lowest cost.

LinkedIn- LinkedIn does not provide extensive insights on page performance limiting to updates, interactions, clicks, impressions, reach, followers and visitors. This makes it difficult for a marketer to analyze and extract data on the performance of a LinkedIn campaign. 

3. Cost-

Facebook- Facebook gives the option to adjust how much you’re willing to pay per day (starting at Rs.40 per day), which corresponds to the number of users you reach out to. Overall, Facebook is a much cheaper option, with the average CPC of Rs. 5, being the lowest across all social media platforms. As a marketer, a lower cost is of vital importance in determining the success of an advertising campaign  

LinkedIn- LinkedIn offers a specific way to reach an audience but the cost is higher than Facebook’s. LinkedIn is said to be one of the most expensive advertising platforms in terms of average CPC of Rs.150. The minimum amount that LinkedIn will generally require you to allot for your CPC and CPM bids is Rs.100 (for either). And the minimum budget generally allotted by LinkedIn for your daily budget is Rs.500. The huge difference in cost from that of Facebook, shy away many marketers, making LinkedIn a secondary consideration. That being said, there a number of successfully launched campaigns on LinkedIn as well,  like the Volkswagen Campaign, where the results were far greater than the initial cost.

4. Branding-

Facebook- On Facebook there is a strong distinction between a user’s personal profile and a brand’s page. The content posted on a personal profile and a company’s page is completely different and unrelated. A marketer must build his company’s brand and his personal brand separately and simultaneously.

LinkedIn- On LinkedIn there is no distinction between personal and professional branding as it seamlessly integrates with each other in the form of a common profile. Through a user’s profile, it enables the audience to connect with the brand. Vice-versa if a brand posts valuable content then the employees of the brand are known as well. A marketer needs to be able to sell himself as well as his company through the use of one single profile.

5. Thought Leadership-

Facebook- Facebook is not a platform where users generally express their professional opinion but rather a light and casual conversation amongst friends. Marketers cannot hope to get their audience to pour out their expertise and insights into their industry or job.

LinkedIn- LinkedIn is the primary platform where users come together to influence others through their professional opinions. The most common place of thought leaders is LinkedIn groups where experts speak about their opinions with respect to a specific industry.

6. Marketing Objectives-

Facebook- As a marketer, Facebook provides a number of opportunities to achieve objectives such as Awareness, Consideration and Conversion but is more suitable for Direct Sales and Traffic. The level and detail of targeting on Facebook is world’s apart that of all other social media platforms, making it ideal for marketers to grow their brand.

LinkedIn- As a marketer, LinkedIn cannot be used to directly sell to your industrial buyers as users on LinkedIn login for their own personal and professional development rather than to outright buy a product or service. It will lead to a very low conversion rate and more often than not, a poor brand image.

Conclusion-

The controversy of which platform is better for marketing has been chewed over and over in the last years by marketers, entrepreneurs and bloggers.

Lately, Facebook is focusing on improving their paid marketing campaigns and continue to develop new and innovative features appealing to B2B companies and marketers alike, in a strive to reach above LinkedIn in the B2B space.

Having a deep understanding of who you are marketing to (your buyer personas) and how they use these platforms at each stage of the buyer’s journey, will enable you to become more customer-centric in your marketing.

Instead of focusing on which platform is better for your marketing strategy, simply being aware of how and when to use each on the potential journey your prospects go through before they decide to buy from you can make a dramatic shift in your marketing strategy.

 

Image Source- Hootsuite, Pear Analytics, Pinterest, Social Media Examiner.

Top Ways To Promote Private Businesses on Social Media

WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING?

Social media marketing is the method of achieving marketing goals for businesses through social media sites. It includes activities like text, photo and video updates.

WHY SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING?

It is a very effective and powerful way for businesses of all sizes to reach desired customers. Since social networks are one of the fastest growing industries in the world, social media marketing creates a platform to build a brand and increase a brand’s popularity, through building relationships and communicating with potential customers.

CHOOSING THE BEST PLATFORM FOR MARKETING

There are various SMM sites available nowadays and each SMM site requires a different approach. Allow us to illustrate how these different SMM sites can be used to achieve your marketing goals.

FACEBOOK

Facebook is the biggest social network in the world with an average of 2.07 billion monthly active users. Hence it only makes sense that one needs to be on Facebook to achieve results.
Here are some ways you can market of Facebook:

1. Create your company page

Pages are the simplest way to start marketing on Facebook. They are very easy to set up and moreover its free. Pages are similar to profiles, but its used to promote businesses and organizations. They do not have any restrictions on how many people friends they can have. A unique feature only offered in Pages is Page Insights. This allows the administrators of the Page to see what activity the Page has been receiving during a period of time, even in a graphical representation.

2. Create Ads

Facebook Ads are the best way to reach desired audience. You can create ads targeted at specific geographic areas, ages, education levels, and even the types of devices used for browsing. Unlike pages, Ads aren’t free on Facebook but provide powerful targeting parameters.

There are two ways by which ads can be run, pay per click or pay per impression. Facebook helps you decide a budget that is most suitable for your ad. You can even set daily limits so that you don’t end up blowing your entire budget.

3. Create Groups

Facebook groups acts like a discussion forum. It provides a platform for free communication between service provider and the consumer. Restrictions can also be placed on the groups to filter who all can visit the page. Groups are sometimes preferred over pages as it gives the audience the freedom to interact with the organization and get their queries and complains heard.

LINKEDIN

LinkedIn is a professional networking site. With over 106 million active users, it is the go to place to meet different professionals from different fields. It is more focused on b2b than b2c.
Here are some ways you can promote your business on LinkedIn:

1. Create your company page

Your LinkedIn company page is your business’s LinkedIn profile. Creating a company page and linking it to your profile helps you to add more content and information which in turn offers customers to learn more about the business, know about the people who work there and interact with relevant content.

2. Post great content

The main aim here is to attract the right audience. Thus, posting content that targets the right kind of people is key. Get colleagues to share and like posts. This helps posts to reach a larger audience.

It is also important to note that you don’t lose the interest of the audience. So, update frequently. Posts with great visuals go a long way since LinkedIn isn’t a very visual network. More clicks, shares and comments are great indicators of great content.

3. Groups

Creating a group on LinkedIn helps you to hold discussions with the audience regarding the services your business offers. This helps engage the people and it makes sure that the members know what your business is about.

It is also important to participate in other groups. This helps to identify new audiences, interact with new users and create new relations.

4. LinkedIn Ad campaigns

LinkedIn ads helps you find what you want. Be it target executives, influencers, or job seekers, there are numerous ways to advertise on LinkedIn through different ad types, including self-serve, partner programs, and other options.

The benefit of using LinkedIn’s sponsored content is that is helps reach a larger audience, attract more company page followers and increase clicks on various platforms like desktops, mobiles etc.

TWITTER

With 330 million monthly active users twitter is one of the best microblogging social networking site available online. People follow (subscribe) to your Twitter account, and you follow other people. This allows you to read, reply to and easily share their tweets with your followers (retweet).

Here are some ways twitter can be used to promote your business:

1. Showcase your brand

Your Twitter profile helps tell your business story to the Twitter community. Tweets help convey messages and to communicate with your audience. So, open communication is key. Respond to tweets about your business. You can retweet posts that are positive and address negative tweets in a respectful manner.

Even though Twitter offers us a 140-character word limit, it’s better to keep tweets short and sweet. The key is tweet often and not tweet long. An ideal length of a tweet would be around 20-25 characters. This encourages others to retweet or add additional content.

2. Mentions and Tagging

A great way to increase social ties with other businesses is to retweet their content. This will lead to others retweeting your content.

Another way of mentioning others in your tweets is by using @username. This is called tagging. Tagging is used when you want to include someone who was at a particular event, to give credit when credit is due or to increase the reach of tweets by encouraging others to share it.

3. Using Hashtags

#Hashtags is a way to organize your tweets around a specific events/keywords/topic. They act as hyperlinks to tweets associated with the hashtag. It’s also a good way to find prospects who may have an interest in your business, products. Be sure to not use more than 2 hashtags per tweet. Tweets with not more than 2 hashtags have 21% more engagement than those who have 3 or more hashtags.