| Timeline | ||
| Profile Picture | 160 x 160 px | Must be uploaded at least 180 x 180 px |
| Cover Photo | 851 x 315 px | |
| About Us | 255 Characters | |
| App Preview Image | 111 x 74 px | |
| Total Length of Apps bar (including gaps) | 350 px | |
| Timeline Profile Picture | 32 x 32 px | |
| Shared Image | 403 x 403 px | Photos can be viewed up to 960 x 720 px in the lightbox and expanded up to 2048 x 2048 px. |
| Shared Facebook Video | 403 x 226 | |
| Status Update | 63,206 characters | |
| Shared Link Preview | 156 x 116 px | Editable, can be set with the og:type meta property |
| Shared Link Title Tag | Up to 100 characters | Editable, can be set with og:title meta property |
| Shared Link Metadescription | Varies based on available room | |
| Highlighted Post or Milestone | 843 x 403 px | |
| Highlighted Video Post or Milestone | 843 x 475 px | |
| News feed | ||
| News feed profile picture | 50 x 50 px | |
| News Feed Status update | Up to 5 lines of text before Facebook truncates & appends ‘See More’ at the first break after the fifth | |
| Shared Image | Landscape | 398 x 296 px |
| Portrait | 296 x 398 px | |
| Square | 320 x 320 px | |
| News Feed Sponsored Story Profile Picture | 32 x 32 px | |
| News Feed Sponsored Story Image | Landscape | 358 x 268 px |
| Portrait | 268 x 358 px | |
| Square | 300 x 300 px | |
| Shared Facebook Video Preview | 403 x 226 px | |
| Shared Video Link Preview | 130 x 73 px | |
| Shared Link Thumbnail | 90 x 90 px | |
| Shared Link Title | Up to 100 Characters | Editable |
| Shared Link Description | Varies based on Thumbnail & Title Size | Editable |
| Ads | ||
| URL Ad Title | 25 Characters | |
| URL Ad Copy | 90 Characters | |
| Page Ad Profile Picture | 50 x 50 px | |
| Page Ad Title | Page Name | |
| Page Ad Copy | 90 Characters | |
| Page Post Ad Profile Picture | 32 x 32 px | |
| Page Post Ad Title | Page Name | |
| Page Post Ad Copy | First 90 characters of selected post | First 120 characters if post is text-only |
| Page Post Ad Image | 90 x 118 px | |
| Page Post Ad Video Preview | 128 x 72 px | |
| Page Post Ad Link Thumbnail | 50 x 50 px | |
| Sponsored Story Fan Picture | 50 x 50 px | |
| Sponsored Story Profile Picture | 32 x 32 px | |
| Premium Page Post Ad Profile Picture | 50 x 50 px | |
| Premium Page Post Ad Video Preview | 185 x 104 px | |
| Premium Page Post Ad Image | 168 x 128 px | |
| Profile | ||
| Background Image | 90% of visitors see first 78 px of the background | |
| 67% see 204 px | ||
| 43% see 247 px | ||
| 21% see 284 px | ||
| Recent Image Preview | 90 x 90 | |
| Profile Picture | 81 x 81 px | 4 px border |
| Tweet Length | 140 Characters | |
| In-stream | ||
| Profile Picture | 48 x 48 px | |
| Shared Media Tweet Length | 140 characters, including link | |
| Shared Link Preview | 120 x 120 px | Must be at least 60 x 60 px |
| Shared Link Title | First 70 characters of twitter:title tag | |
| Shared Link Description | First 200 characters of twitter:description tag | |
| Shared Image | 375 x 375 px | |
| Shared Video Preview | 435 x 244 px | |
| Video Details | Video Title and first 160 characters of video description | |
| Google+ | ||
| Company Profile | ||
| Cover Photo | 890 x 180 px | |
| Profile Picture | 250 x 250 px | 5 px border |
| Horizontal Profile and cover photo gap | 614 px | |
| Status Update | 100,000 Characters | Can include hash tags |
| Shared Link Thumbnail | 150 x 150 px | |
| Shared Video Preview | 497 x 279 px | |
| Shared Image | 497 x 373 px | Can be uploaded and viewed up to 2048 x 2048 px |
| YouTube | ||
| Branded Channel | ||
| Content Container | 970 px wide | |
| Mappable Header | 970 x 150 px | Can map links off of YouTube |
| Profile Picture | 55 x 55 px | |
| Featured Video | 640 x 390 px | |
| Video Thumbnail | 288 x 162 px | |
| YouTube Brand Channel Background Size | 90% of users see 8 px on either side of the content container | Up to 1 mb in size |
| 67% see 136 px | ||
| 43% see 180 px | ||
| 21% see 216 px | ||
| Video | ||
| Title | Up to 100 characters | |
| User Banner | Up to 170 x 25 px | |
| Video Preview | 640 x 390 px | |
| Description | Up to 5000 characters | |
| Tags | Up to 500 characters | Hidden, can be found in page source under “meta:keywords” |
| Recommended Playlist Details | Playlist Title | |
| Recommended Playlist Large Thumbnail | 120 x 67 px | |
| Recommeded Playlist Small Thumbnail | 40 x 25 px | |
| Recommended Video Details | Video Title, Author, and Views | |
| Recommended Video Thumbnail | 120 x 67 px | |
| Overview | ||
| Horizontal Logo | 100 x 60 px | |
| Cover Photo | 646 x 220 px | |
| Company Square Logo | 50 x 50 px | |
| Company Comment Logo | 30 x 30 px | |
| Shared Link Thumbnail | 180 x 110 px | |
| Shared Link Details | Shared Link Title and up to 230 characters of description. The description is editable. | |
| Careers | ||
| Careers Cover Photo | 974 x 238 px | |
| Products and Services | ||
| Products and Services Banner Image | 646 x 220 px | |
| Product Image | 100 x 80 px | |
| Product Details | 100 character title and 2000 character description | |
| Profile | ||
| Profile Picture | 160 x 165 px | |
| About Section | Up to 200 characters | |
| Boards | ||
| Board | 222 x 207 px | |
| Big Thumbnail | 222 x 150 px | |
| Small Thumbnails | 55 x 55 px | |
| Pins | ||
| Profile Picture | 32 x 32 px | |
| Pin Image Preview | 192 x scaled height | |
| Pin on board | 222 x scaled height | |
| Pin | ||
| Profile Picture | 49 x 49 px | |
| Pin | 600 x infinity |
Showing posts with label LinkedIn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LinkedIn. Show all posts
Tuesday, 12 February 2013
Twitter-Facebook-Google+-LinkedIn-Image-sizes-cover
Tuesday, 27 March 2012
‘People You May Know’ Feature Updates by LinkedIn
The update, announced on LinkedIn’s blog, has also made it easier to filter results by company or school. To do so, you merely click on a logo to narrow the recommendations. Such search filters have been around since 2010, but the old interface was based on a checklist on the left-hand side of the page. LinkedIn is rolling out the enhanced feature over the next few weeks, but users can click on this link to access it now.
Another new feature is an “endless scroll” — a la Tumblr — that presents your recommendations in a seamless two-column flow. (The list may not actually be endless right now, but the goal is to make it very long.) As is the current trend, the new site is redesigned to be more photo-heavy, like Pinterest and Facebook Timeline. The pictures on the new page are not only bigger, but they run in two columns vs. the previous single column.
For comparison’s sake, here’s the old version:
And here’s the new version:
What do you think of the new look? Have you tried the new version? Does it yield better results? Let us know in the comments.
Thursday, 23 February 2012
LinkedIn’s Mobile Site tips by SagarGanatra
Have you checked out LinkedIn‘s mobile site yet? No, not the mobile app — the in-browser mobile site. It’s very powerful and very useful for connecting with LinkedIn’s 135 million users. After all, mobile page views account for over 11% of total visits to the social network for the professionally-minded.
LinkedIn released the updated mobile site (along with iPhone and Android apps) last summer. Mobile usage of LinkedIn has been growing quickly.
“We are seeing mobile grow at a very rapid pace, as high as 400 percent a year,” Joff Redfern, mobile product director at LinkedIn told The New York Times in August of last year.
Want to know more? Check out these five tips for using the mobile site.
1. Share Useful Links and Information
Did you just read an interesting article on your mobile device and you think that it’s something your LinkedIn contacts should see right away? That’s easily done with LinkedIn’s mobile site. The upper right-hand corner of the site has a speech bubble. Tap that, and you’re redirected to the update screen.
You can share a text update or drop in a link to content you’d like your contacts to see. Then, you can toggle whether or not that update will be sent out as a Twitter message as well. Finally, you have control of which of your contacts can see the update. That’s good, because you might want to send an update to your co-workers and not your entire network.
2. Get Updates
That smart design saves precious mobile bandwidth (and money, for those not on an unlimited data plan). If you decide the article is worth loading, you can then decide to launch it in a new browser window. When you’re done enjoying the article, remember to share it!
3. Connect With a New Acquaintance
The mobile site takes users’ full-page profiles and compresses them into easy-to-read miniaturized versions. There’s no feeling of profiles being stuffed or crammed into place — it’s almost like profiles were designed with mobile browsers in mind.
4. Spend Time With Your Groups
Even your LinkedIn groups are easily accessible on the mobile site. Want to follow the discussion on your favorite groups while you’re on the go? That’s easy.
After clicking the LinkedIn logo on the top-left of the screen, then “more.” Boom, there are your groups. Discussions are easily read, and adding your own comment is next to effortless. LinkedIn’s mobile site makes it easy to keep up with your professional organizations and societies.
5. Get Invited
Do you find yourself getting overloaded with invitations to connect every time you load LinkedIn? With LinkedIn’s mobile site, you can manage those invitations on the go.
The site’s interface makes it easy to see how many invitations you’ve got and learn more about who sent them to you. Just tap the LinkedIn logo, then the “inbox.” If you’ve got new invites, a notification will appear that lets you know how many new messages are in your queue.
Going Mobile
LinkedIn’s mobile site is found at http://touch.www.linkedin.com. Point your smartphone’s browser over there and dive right in. Do you think that LinkedIn’s mobile website helps with sharing? Let us know in the comments.
Wednesday, 14 December 2011
Polling for Groups Rolls Out By LinkedIn sagarganatra
Aiming to spur more conversation among its one million Groups, LinkedIn on Wednesday announced Polls, a new feature that’s designed to get a quick read on an issue.Ian McCarthy, principal product manager at LinkedIn, wrote via the LinkedIn Blog that the feature came about after Group Moderators shared that they were looking for “easy, time-sensitive ways to generate conversations within the group.” Apparently, such conversations weren’t happening quickly enough after Moderators posted articles or blogged their thoughts. Polls was devised to get more conversation flowing.
Although McCarthy addresses Group Moderators in his post, anyone in a Group can create a poll. However, Moderators can restrict the creation of new polls from their Group Settings.
LinkedIn is trying out Polls out in Harvard Business Review‘s Group of 150 and as of press time, received 64 responses. That number is a strong participant-to-non-participant ratio, but the results were no doubt influenced in part by the novelty of the experiment. However, adding the Poll function addresses what’s perceived to be a major issue for LinkedIn: The lack of activities there beyond networking and job seeking.
The ability to poll on LinkedIn is not new. However, until now, such polls have been public rather than aimed at Groups. The enhancement is the latest for Groups, which has evolved from merely a badge with no real functionality to small communities within the site.
What do you think? Do you use Groups? If not, will polling engage you more? Sound off in the comments.
Polling for Groups Rolls Out By LinkedIn sagarganatra
Aiming to spur more conversation among its one million Groups, LinkedIn on Wednesday announced Polls, a new feature that’s designed to get a quick read on an issue.Ian McCarthy, principal product manager at LinkedIn, wrote via the LinkedIn Blog that the feature came about after Group Moderators shared that they were looking for “easy, time-sensitive ways to generate conversations within the group.” Apparently, such conversations weren’t happening quickly enough after Moderators posted articles or blogged their thoughts. Polls was devised to get more conversation flowing.
Although McCarthy addresses Group Moderators in his post, anyone in a Group can create a poll. However, Moderators can restrict the creation of new polls from their Group Settings.
LinkedIn is trying out Polls out in Harvard Business Review‘s Group of 150 and as of press time, received 64 responses. That number is a strong participant-to-non-participant ratio, but the results were no doubt influenced in part by the novelty of the experiment. However, adding the Poll function addresses what’s perceived to be a major issue for LinkedIn: The lack of activities there beyond networking and job seeking.
The ability to poll on LinkedIn is not new. However, until now, such polls have been public rather than aimed at Groups. The enhancement is the latest for Groups, which has evolved from merely a badge with no real functionality to small communities within the site.
What do you think? Do you use Groups? If not, will polling engage you more? Sound off in the comments.
Wednesday, 30 November 2011
Quick and Easy Ways to Re-package Your Content into a Viral Image by sagar ganatra
5 *Quick and Easy* Ways to Re-package Your Content into a Viral Image
This is not the first time I am doing a post on content re-packaging in different forms and types. Thus, I have already shared why giving your great articles a new life is so effective for content marketing:✔ It brings traffic to your old content (and reanimates your old linkbait);
✔ It lets you share your guest post at your own site creatively;
✔ It brings links to both old content and its re-packaged version (which means at least twice as many links);
✔ It spurs your creativity and lets you test different types of content link bait (without the need to create new content and conduct any additional research).
This post looks at one type of content re-packaging: turning your old content into an image (and thus allowing it for download and easier spreading).
The Evolution of Three Home Pages: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
I haven’t watched MySpace or Digg evolve, however I can proudly say that I’ve witnessed the three other giants develop: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn – and moreover, I’ve been an early adopter.It’s fun to look back one day and remember how it has started and unfolded. It’s impossible to remember and describe everything that has happened in one post but at least we can watch their designs evolve. The three sites have much in common:
- At the beginning, the home page had to explain the concept;
- The sites are total mysteries for the outsiders (unregistered users);
- They are all user-generated and have been growing (in terms of features and options) together with the user base.
Update: Looks like Slideshare decreased the quality of the screenshots (they are a bit blurred in full-screen view), so please preview there and download the original presentations here: Facebook evolution, Twitter evolution and LinkedIn evolution (all .pptx files)
Free Formatting Checklist for Guest Authors and Paid Contributors (Download)
One thing I have clearly realized while being a full-time guest post editor at SEJ is that most (guest) contributors (no matter how much we love them) are terrible at formatting.It very seldom happens that a guest blogger will browse your blog for a few minutes and copy your obvious formatting preferences to his own post. Or even that he tries to make the article formatting web-friendly at all.
While your guest post style guide is up to you (by “style guide”, I mean the required article length, preferred topics, writing manner, good article samples, etc), formatting is usually similar across the blogs: we need clear code, readable paragraphs, working links, etc.
A properly written formatting guide won’t let you fire your editor: most contributors will still fail to follow all the steps properly, but you’ll be amazed at how easier your editor’s (or your own) work will become.
A good formatting checklist should be:
- As short as possible (The longer it is, the more chances there are that none of your contributors will follow all the steps);
- As concise as possible (Avoid explaining the reason why you want it to be formatted that way. The more you explain, the less obvious your point becomes. Just list your requirements)
- As easy to understand as possible (Add a few screenshots, bold most important points, etc).
- Guest-contributor-driven blog;
- A blog network with multiple co-authors;
- A business managing multiple paid contributors;
- A business owner outsourcing content to ghost writers, etc.
*Download the formatting guidelines here. Read some explanations below*
Special Symbols (Wingdings) for Social Media Branding (Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus)
When I click through the email notifications of my recent Twitter followers, I can’t help noticing one trend: people have widely started using special symbols – Wingdings – to grab viewer’s instant attention.Wingdings are a series of dingbat fonts which render letters as a variety of symbols.That being said, a “winding” is a tiny
While, essentially, there’s nothing new in using them, when it comes to social media profile branding, it appears you could achieve some positive results (there’s no substantial testing behind this assumption, by the way. I only rely on my own impressions).
1. How to Insert Wingdings on Your Social Media Profile
Here are a few noteworthy examples of Wingdings which can be used both in your “Name” and “Description” fields of your social media profile (we’ll see the actual examples of that below).**** To use any of them in your Twitter description or LinkedIn display name, just copy-paste:
| Hands | ☚ ☛ ☜ ☝ ☞ ☟ |
| Music | ♪ ♫ ♩ ♬ ♭ ♮ ♯ |
| Arrows | ← ↑ → ↓ ↔ ↕ ↖ ↗ ↘ ↙ ⇐ ⇑ ⇒ ⇓ ⇔ ⇕ ⇦ ⇧ ⇨ ⇩ ⇽ ⇾ ⇿ |
| Stars | ✡ ۞ ★ ☆ ⋆ ✩ ✮ ✯ ✰ ☆ |
| Writing | ✉ ✍ ✎ ✏ ✐ ✑ ✒ ⌨ |
| Check | ✓ ✔ ☐ ☑ ☒ |
| Smilies | ☺ ☹ ☻ |
| Zodiac Signs | ♃ ♄ ♅ ♆ ♇ ♈ ♉ ♊ ♋ ♌ ♍ ♎ ♏ ♐ ♑ ♒ ♓ |
| Cards & chess | ♔ ♕ ♖ ♗ ♘ ♙ ♚ ♛ ♜ ♝ ♞ ♟ ♠ ♡ ♢ ♣ ♤ ♥ ♦ ♧ |
| Contact! (phone / email) | ✆ ☎ ☏ / ✉ |
Do You Optimize Your Title Tags for Twitter?
I know, I know, that sounds so awfully familiar. But this post is *not* about using your keywords in title tags. We’ve talked enough about title tag SEO (and most of those old tips still apply btw!)Today’s post is about making your title tags retweet-friendly, about encouraging Twitter comments and making it to Twitter trends.
1. Simple Mathematics
This one is pretty simple and obvious: be short, be catchy.We only have as many as 140 characters to fit the title + URL + your credit to the twit without it to be stripped. And the more character are left, the more flexibility your promoters have! Read on: Do You Optimize Your Title Tags for Twitter?
The *Working* Guide to Reaching out to Influencers Using Social Media
You may know that I do business from far away, I have no way to meet my business partners and contacts in the real world, but despite that I am fairly well-connected.I am back.
There are a lot of things going on in my professional and personal life: the main thing, I have resigned from editing SEJ to focus on my own personal projects. I am now a full-time solo entrepreneur!
In the middle of it, I have managed to have an unforgettable time in Paris, contribute to Search Marketing Standard and grow the team of MyBlogGuest.
I am full of inspiration and have plenty of plans – and I am back with my blogging here with my short (but hopefully actionable and useful) pieces of advice.
So here’s my recipe to building connections online: reaching out to niche influencers through social media.
Whether you are trying to pitch a guest post idea, get a review of your book or discuss a potential partnership, here’s the most efficient way to start a working relationship with your niche influencers: Read on: The *Working* Guide to Reaching out to Influencers Using Social Media
How Blocking Users on Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus Works
I am sure you have noticed that you have an option to block anyone on your favorite social media network.Have you been wondering how blocking actually works?
Have you ever wanted to know what the person you blocked sees on your profile? Which of your information can he still access?
I’ve been wondering about that too. So I’ve been playing around making some tests and managed to make it more or less clear.
Quick and Easy Ways to Re-package Your Content into a Viral Image by sagar ganatra
5 *Quick and Easy* Ways to Re-package Your Content into a Viral Image
This is not the first time I am doing a post on content re-packaging in different forms and types. Thus, I have already shared why giving your great articles a new life is so effective for content marketing:✔ It brings traffic to your old content (and reanimates your old linkbait);
✔ It lets you share your guest post at your own site creatively;
✔ It brings links to both old content and its re-packaged version (which means at least twice as many links);
✔ It spurs your creativity and lets you test different types of content link bait (without the need to create new content and conduct any additional research).
This post looks at one type of content re-packaging: turning your old content into an image (and thus allowing it for download and easier spreading).
The Evolution of Three Home Pages: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
I haven’t watched MySpace or Digg evolve, however I can proudly say that I’ve witnessed the three other giants develop: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn – and moreover, I’ve been an early adopter.It’s fun to look back one day and remember how it has started and unfolded. It’s impossible to remember and describe everything that has happened in one post but at least we can watch their designs evolve. The three sites have much in common:
- At the beginning, the home page had to explain the concept;
- The sites are total mysteries for the outsiders (unregistered users);
- They are all user-generated and have been growing (in terms of features and options) together with the user base.
Update: Looks like Slideshare decreased the quality of the screenshots (they are a bit blurred in full-screen view), so please preview there and download the original presentations here: Facebook evolution, Twitter evolution and LinkedIn evolution (all .pptx files)
Free Formatting Checklist for Guest Authors and Paid Contributors (Download)
One thing I have clearly realized while being a full-time guest post editor at SEJ is that most (guest) contributors (no matter how much we love them) are terrible at formatting.It very seldom happens that a guest blogger will browse your blog for a few minutes and copy your obvious formatting preferences to his own post. Or even that he tries to make the article formatting web-friendly at all.
While your guest post style guide is up to you (by “style guide”, I mean the required article length, preferred topics, writing manner, good article samples, etc), formatting is usually similar across the blogs: we need clear code, readable paragraphs, working links, etc.
A properly written formatting guide won’t let you fire your editor: most contributors will still fail to follow all the steps properly, but you’ll be amazed at how easier your editor’s (or your own) work will become.
A good formatting checklist should be:
- As short as possible (The longer it is, the more chances there are that none of your contributors will follow all the steps);
- As concise as possible (Avoid explaining the reason why you want it to be formatted that way. The more you explain, the less obvious your point becomes. Just list your requirements)
- As easy to understand as possible (Add a few screenshots, bold most important points, etc).
- Guest-contributor-driven blog;
- A blog network with multiple co-authors;
- A business managing multiple paid contributors;
- A business owner outsourcing content to ghost writers, etc.
*Download the formatting guidelines here. Read some explanations below*
Special Symbols (Wingdings) for Social Media Branding (Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus)
When I click through the email notifications of my recent Twitter followers, I can’t help noticing one trend: people have widely started using special symbols – Wingdings – to grab viewer’s instant attention.Wingdings are a series of dingbat fonts which render letters as a variety of symbols.That being said, a “winding” is a tiny
While, essentially, there’s nothing new in using them, when it comes to social media profile branding, it appears you could achieve some positive results (there’s no substantial testing behind this assumption, by the way. I only rely on my own impressions).
1. How to Insert Wingdings on Your Social Media Profile
Here are a few noteworthy examples of Wingdings which can be used both in your “Name” and “Description” fields of your social media profile (we’ll see the actual examples of that below).**** To use any of them in your Twitter description or LinkedIn display name, just copy-paste:
| Hands | ☚ ☛ ☜ ☝ ☞ ☟ |
| Music | ♪ ♫ ♩ ♬ ♭ ♮ ♯ |
| Arrows | ← ↑ → ↓ ↔ ↕ ↖ ↗ ↘ ↙ ⇐ ⇑ ⇒ ⇓ ⇔ ⇕ ⇦ ⇧ ⇨ ⇩ ⇽ ⇾ ⇿ |
| Stars | ✡ ۞ ★ ☆ ⋆ ✩ ✮ ✯ ✰ ☆ |
| Writing | ✉ ✍ ✎ ✏ ✐ ✑ ✒ ⌨ |
| Check | ✓ ✔ ☐ ☑ ☒ |
| Smilies | ☺ ☹ ☻ |
| Zodiac Signs | ♃ ♄ ♅ ♆ ♇ ♈ ♉ ♊ ♋ ♌ ♍ ♎ ♏ ♐ ♑ ♒ ♓ |
| Cards & chess | ♔ ♕ ♖ ♗ ♘ ♙ ♚ ♛ ♜ ♝ ♞ ♟ ♠ ♡ ♢ ♣ ♤ ♥ ♦ ♧ |
| Contact! (phone / email) | ✆ ☎ ☏ / ✉ |
Do You Optimize Your Title Tags for Twitter?
I know, I know, that sounds so awfully familiar. But this post is *not* about using your keywords in title tags. We’ve talked enough about title tag SEO (and most of those old tips still apply btw!)Today’s post is about making your title tags retweet-friendly, about encouraging Twitter comments and making it to Twitter trends.
1. Simple Mathematics
This one is pretty simple and obvious: be short, be catchy.We only have as many as 140 characters to fit the title + URL + your credit to the twit without it to be stripped. And the more character are left, the more flexibility your promoters have! Read on: Do You Optimize Your Title Tags for Twitter?
The *Working* Guide to Reaching out to Influencers Using Social Media
You may know that I do business from far away, I have no way to meet my business partners and contacts in the real world, but despite that I am fairly well-connected.
There are a lot of things going on in my professional and personal life: the main thing, I have resigned from editing SEJ to focus on my own personal projects. I am now a full-time solo entrepreneur!
In the middle of it, I have managed to have an unforgettable time in Paris, contribute to Search Marketing Standard and grow the team of MyBlogGuest.
I am full of inspiration and have plenty of plans – and I am back with my blogging here with my short (but hopefully actionable and useful) pieces of advice.
So here’s my recipe to building connections online: reaching out to niche influencers through social media.
Whether you are trying to pitch a guest post idea, get a review of your book or discuss a potential partnership, here’s the most efficient way to start a working relationship with your niche influencers: Read on: The *Working* Guide to Reaching out to Influencers Using Social Media
How Blocking Users on Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus Works
I am sure you have noticed that you have an option to block anyone on your favorite social media network.Have you been wondering how blocking actually works?
Have you ever wanted to know what the person you blocked sees on your profile? Which of your information can he still access?
I’ve been wondering about that too. So I’ve been playing around making some tests and managed to make it more or less clear.
Tips for Managing a LinkedIn Group by sagarganatra
Groups offer valuable networking opportunities for their participants, who gain access to resources and information that can be beneficial for their careers. If you are considering starting a LinkedIn group or want to increase the effectiveness or reach of your current group, the 8 tips below can help.
1. Use a Personal Touch
Most members would be pleased to receive a note congratulating them on an accomplishment, or to read your comment on a discussion topic they started. As Dharmesh Shah, co-founder and CTO of HubSpot observes, “LinkedIn groups are all about community and bringing people with common interests together.”
He should know: his group, OnStartups, is the fourth-largest on LinkedIn with a membership that exceeds 113,000.
2. Lay Some Ground Rules
Establishing posting guidelines and displaying them prominently (in a featured discussion) is an easy way to help new members get acquainted with your group. Such guidelines generally provide users with community contacts, encourage them to post information in appropriate sections, and specify conduct that can get them banned (spam or attacking other group members, for example).
Making everyone aware of the rules also gives you a reference point when you have to handle a difficult situation with a member.
3. Praise the Good, Deal with the Bad
4. Help Your Members Promote Themselves
One of the biggest complaints about LinkedIn Groups is the number of people who join simply to promote themselves or their business — and then hijack the group discussion boards to do so. They usually aren’t interested in engaging with others and can have a negative impact on your community. One way to manage these bombarders is by designating a place, like a Subgroup, for group members to promote their service offerings.
Subgroups are automatically available to all of your group members and are easy to set up. Highlighting this promotional opportunity satisfies those who want to self-promote and keeps your discussion boards open for business. You can also feature members in other ways, such as in your occasional emails to the group membership or in a featured discussion that you update regularly.
5. Add Some News Feeds
6. Facilitate Connections Outside of LinkedIn
It’s natural for members to seek to make non-LinkedIn connections after being active in your group for awhile. You can offer a range of options to help your members engage elsewhere on the Internet or offline.
Women 2.0, an organization for women entrepreneurs in technology, has a LinkedIn group founded by Angie Chang with over 18,000 members. This group provides numerous opportunities for members to connect apart from the group. Members can share their Twitter handles in a featured discussion, or participate in a Women 2.0 Startup Essentials Workshop for face-to-face interaction. Depending on the size of your group, you might consider starting a Meetup group for local interaction, hosting a webinar, or arranging a dinner or meeting at an industry conference or event.
7. Take a Poll
8. Promote Your Group
The sheer size of LinkedIn means that your group is likely to get some members without much effort on your part. But this shouldn’t be an incentive to neglect promotional tools. Some of the strategies you can use to promote your group include low-hanging fruit like inviting others in your network to join, encouraging members to invite their colleagues, and by highlighting your group to other, non-competing groups (LinkedIn members can belong to up to 40 groups simultaneously).
Shah took his group to the next level by promoting it on his standalone OnStartups blog as a static link, as well as in specific articles. He issued this call to action to potential members: “Are you passionate about startups? Then, connect with other like minded people in the LinkedIn OnStartups group”. He even created a custom URL (http://linkedin.onstartups.com) that was co-branded, catchy, easy to remember, and short enough to fit on Twitter.
Do you have any best practices for managing LinkedIn groups? Share your ideas in the comments.
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