In the middle of the night, I woke up. I had arrived in Atlantalate yesterday and made the fatal mistake of going to sleep early. Mostly because I felt the need to be fresh today.

LinkedIn has about half a billion users worldwide and the chances that your next client are scrolling through their feed right now is likely. The largest B2B social platform in the world has came out with more feature updates in the first half of 2017 than the entirety of 2016. 

The point: LinkedIn is catching on like wildfire! (not a Game of Thrones reference either!)

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I'll have to admit, I've been a big time skeptic. There’s a conversation going around that cold calling is dead, and I just couldn’t bring myself to believe it.

I mean, what happened to being “held to the flames”? My first sales job I was on the floor making cold calls and closing big contracts within a few weeks.

It's been a long time coming, but the moment is finally here. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had great videos to share with my LinkedIn network, but haven’t been able to post them until today! 

We can thank LinkedIn, as they just released the newest update, allowing users to directly upload videos to their newsfeed. So, if there’s a surplus of exclamation marks on this blog, just know that I’ve been waiting for this for a while now.

Almost everyone knows about Twitter and Facebook. Most might know LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest. But, does using any of these Social Media platforms to promote your business seem confusing and not exactly intuitive to you?

You’re not alone. It seems like there's a new hot platform every day. You feel like you barely know how to use Facebook or Twitter in your personal life. And now, some millennial is going to tell you that you need to be using social media to market your business?

The world is changing and social media hasn’t faded away. Blogs are more popular than ever, and everyone who is a part of that world or wants to get into it needs to be using social media. It isn’t just for bloggers though, if you have a small to medium business – it will help you too.

Social Media helps your business gain exposure, generate traffic to your website, and promote your blog. I know it seems difficult, but really it’s easy and inexpensive. They’re generally free to join and give you a wide audience to reach.

I attend many networking events.  While I always being the "authentic me," my tone differs at a breakfast networking event at 7:30 am vs. a happy hour at 7:30 pm.  With social media, your tone should change as well from one platform to another. So what is the difference between your company's voice and its tone and what tone is appropriate to use on each platform?

Social Media is a series of ever-changing algorithms that are supposed to help customers better find the product or service for which they are searching.  However as entrepreneurs, social media can be a frustrating marketing tool that changes the minute you figure it out.  It is also becoming more clear that social media is not about how many posts, but what you post that will make the difference.

At Marketing Eye Dallas our job is to watch these changes and determine the best means of keeping your product or service in front of your target market.  Similar to the job of a financial advisor who watches the stock market, Marketing Eye Dallas guides its clients on when to adjust your marketing strategy, when to be patience, and when to try something new based on changes in marketing channels and tools.

If you haven't been watching every new article on the changes for each social media platform, let us fill you in on what is new.

Getting the most out of LinkedIn extends beyond just making connections. Think of your LinkedIn as a true networking tool where you can participate from your laptop or mobile device. If you go to a networking event and then never follow-up, engage in any additional events or discussions, you will be forgotten after your business card lands in someone's pocket.

If you are not comfortable making connections on LinkedIn, visit my previous blog on generating leads on LinkedIn. If you are making connections and sending follow-up messages, take the next steps to engage with your contacts through LinkedIn Posts.

I get it, marketing is frustrating.  It's not fast, it can be unpredictable and even with modern analytics it can be difficult to measure.

What I can tell you is that if you don't put together a marketing strategy, you are as good as hiding.  If your website isn't mobile friendly and optimized, it can been like finding a needle in a haystack on Google.  Yes, people can type your business name in, but what if people don't know your name or they misspell your business name? Then what?