A “bot” is a computer program that operates and impersonates a human on the internet. They feature artificial intelligence to varying degrees and are not always necessarily a bad thing. Google and Bing use bots to comb the internet. It’s part of how organic SEO is constructed.

LinkedIn bots work similarly but not entirely to the same ends. LinkedIn bots are often used as part of a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and are sent on full automation to comb LinkedIn for leads. Here is an almost nearly comprehensive article breaking down the best consumer-grade bots to let loose on LinkedIn.

However, if you are not in the lead generation mess that is CRM you could fall prey to getting combed by a fake sales representative looking to peddle who knows what to you unwittingly. Here are some helpful tips to help break down who or what exactly you’re talking to on LinkedIn.

Account Frequency and Activity

LinkedIn bots can post frequently and without fault. A normal person may post often, however, it is unlikely they will be posting excessively, multiple times over the course of a day. Given the hours and nature of the content, it can reveal much about the nature of the entity on the other side of the screen.

The higher the frequency, time of day, and subject matter can give you clues. Yet ultimately, the higher the number of posts the more likely an automated response software or bot is behind the account.

The Flow of the Conversation

Bots are typically punchy, short, and to the point. While they have gotten their hold on more capable AI in recent years, they are often still clunky and repetitive. They tend to pull from a list of discernible targeted responses and will lack the nuance to have a slight change.

The greater the similarity of the individual’s comments may indicate that you are dealing with an automated response bot. Try asking the same question in a slightly different way. As the program has to elect to operate any given number of responses to filter into a given answer it is likely the entity – if it is a bot will respond with the exact same answer.

Two-Step Disassociation

Have question a, lead to question b. And have the context for that second question rooted in the first. Think,

Q: Where are you working?

A: Seattle

Q: What is the weather like outside?

A: Can you please rephrase the question?

This is indicative of bot behavior; a human would likely understand the nature of the question and comply; however, a bot cannot logically jump between the two at this point.

The Profile

It is unlikely that bot profiles will detail a rich and well-lived history. Most people give at least a general overview of their life. Where they’ve worked, their professional accolades, and so on. A bot will typically only have a profile image and a company, with maybe a school they went to or so on. Bots typically only have the most essential necessities to appear passable. Again, think of nuance and personality to discern humanity.

The more the “life” feels “lived” and the greater the personality the account has, the more likely it is in fact a real person. With bots, it can be handy to revert to the overall feel of the conversation. Once again, think Justice Stweart’s, “I know it when I see it.”

The post How to Identify Bots on LinkedIn: Fake Sales Representatives appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

As a small business owner on LinkedIn, you may question how you can stand out among the masses. Here are a few tips to make the most out of LinkedIn’s free resources.  

Your Personal Profile

The most important thing you need to do to stay relevant in an ever-changing social network is to continually keep your profile up to date. This includes any information you provide such as

• A professional picture,
• Contact information,
• Resumes,
• Portfolios,
• Your website,
• Associations, the list goes on…

If you are able to write well, put together an article about your business specialties (more on this below). If writing isn’t your thing, post updates to keep your audience abreast of what you’ve been up to.

Your Company Profile

First things first, get your logo and description up on your LinkedIn Company profile. Make sure all data is accurate, and create a keyword rich description of your business to entice potential customers– but this isn’t the place to be too sales-y. Next:

• Be sure you have a branded hero image,
• Create a calendar of company updates (this is a great place to share articles, your blog posts, industry-relevant pieces, etc),
• Encourage your employees to join your company page on their LinkedIn profiles,
• Encourage employees to engage with your posts & post their own updates about your company.

Connecting with Professionals

All the big names are on LinkedIn, from Bill Gates to Richard Branson. The unique nature of LinkedIn allows you to connect with the big fish of the business world. But, when you’re connecting with others be sure to:

• Do your research before ever sending a connections request. If you’ve never met someone and they just send you a request out of the blue, are you likely to accept? Be sure you have a general idea about the person or business you are hoping to connect with.
• Make your request message personal and set the tone for your brand and company within your first message. This is your first impression, so make it count. Keep your message short and sweet.
• Connect with people you actually know! Sure, it’s fun to have a connection with Barack Obama, but you should also connect with John Smith who you met at your recent Tech conference.

Join & Contribute to Groups

By joining or creating groups on LinkedIn, you are connecting with people that have similar interests or goals. This could be people from your real life, those with similar paths and backgrounds, or even people who are currently in positions which you are interested in one day having for yourself.

After making connections and joining groups, don’t just go into self-promotion mode. You need to provide value and share insight. Any good relationship starts with back and forth and exchanging of information. You don’t want to get kicked out of the group before you even get started.

LinkedIn Groups Directory: LinkedIn now has a Group Directory which allows you to find groups based on similar interests or specific topics so that you can broaden your outreach and expand your knowledge. This is great for the small business owner who needs to expand their pool of resources and connections for future references.

LinkedIn Articles

Do you have vast knowledge on a certain topic? Or maybe you have a tutorial or a great tip for a certain area? By writing a LinkedIn Article, you can share your knowledge with others across the social professional platform. Once an article is published, you can share it with your built-in audience: your connections. The article stays on your profile under the ‘Articles and Activity’ section. You can monitor how many views, likes, and comments your article has.

The better received your article is, the more it will be exposed to others, expanding the number of people it will reach.

LinkedIn Articles can help you drive people to your personal profile as well as your website.

LinkedIn SlideShare

LinkedIn offers the opportunity to share slideshows through their SlideShare platform. SlideShare allows you to upload clips of a presentation to help drive interest to your page. By adding these clips or images, you will automatically boost the recognition of your brand or company by leaps and bounds. To make sure you’re making the best presentation possible, be sure to add

• Images
• Bullet Points
• Backlinks

White Label SEO sure to proofread and use the appropriate keywords to optimize views, shares, and clicks.

The post 6 Ways to Make the Most of LinkedIn’s Free Resources for Small Businesses appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

Retooling an important feature

Along with the retooled Pages, LinkedIn also added two partnerships. One with Hootsuite and the other with Crunchbase. The Hootsuite partnership works with the LinkedIn’s Notifications API, which lets users receive notifications when they have new activity on their Pages. Geocode API is powered by strong infrastructure to return results in realtime. The Crunchbase partnership gives LinkedIn members the ability to see insights on their Pages, as long as they have a Crunchbase profile.

These new integrated features give LinkedIn members more knowledge about the way that users engage with their Pages. Ryan Holmes of Hootsuite said:

“We are thrilled to be the first social media management solution to build off LinkedIn’s new Notifications API so our customers can more effectively drive engagement on LinkedIn.” 

Building a stronger community

LinkedIn has made these changes to build a stronger community for its 590 million members. With LinkedIn Pages, communities are easier to build because there is one location to interact with employees and customers. The enhanced social media platform also gives job candidates easier to access to information about potential employers.

Enhancing daily posts

On a daily basis, LinkedIn has over 2 million posts. As the LinkedIn community continues to grow, so do the daily posts of videos, articles, and other useful information. Pages is designed to enhance that growth so that real interactions continue to happen. Through Pages, users grow their audiences by:

• Managing interactions
• Posting updates
• Replying to comments
• Using the mobile app
• Using hashtags
• Researching topics
• Posting images and video
• Sharing documents

With all of these capabilities, the struggle that some users have is developing content. But, don’t worry – LinkedIn can help with that, too. With Content Suggestions, users can keep stay up-to-date with the latest topics and trends. As creating content is challenging, this is an extremely useful features that is unique to LinkedIn.

The updated Pages and all of the new features makes LinkedIn more effective for community building. It resembles another popular social media platform that also has pages and plenty of add-ons to enhance the experience.

The post LinkedIn Announces Enhanced Pages for Brand and Organizations appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

According to a recent Facebook post from Mark Zuckerberg, over 2.6 billion people all over the world use the platform to find new employees. While Facebook wasn’t originally designed to be a site for job hunting, it is easy to see how that feature evolved.

What is Facebook Jobs?

In 2017, Facebook created a special section called Jobs, which works similarly to Marketplace. Users can search full-time or part-time jobs, industries, and location. When users find a job they like, they can apply directly on the site by clicking on the “Apply” button. The link shares the applicant’s name, phone number, email address, and experience.

Success Story #1

For small businesses, Facebook Jobs is a useful tool for finding employees. One of those businesses is Bella Bridal Boutique in Minnesota. After sifting through 60 applicants, the hiring manager found three employees. Bella Bridal Boutique has a 13-person staff, so those new employees needed to be just right. To communicate with candidates, Bella Bridal Boutique used Messenger, Pages, and Page Publishing. There was a small fee to boost the post, but according to the co-owner Kirsten Walfoort:

“We spent money on all the job sites, but Facebook was the only tool that brought a diverse pool of applicants which gave us more choices.”

Success Story #2

Another small business that saw success using Facebook Jobs is Striper Sniper Tackle. In fact, the fishing tackle business can attribute 75% of its sales to Facebook itself. Instead of using Facebook to hire traditional employees, Troy Robertson – the owner – used it to attract brand ambassadors who loved to fish and did so in popular locales around the country. Robertson narrowed down his applicants to 27 and hired 15 of them, and many were professionals in the fishing industry. He found better applicants on Facebook than any other site.

To keep his ambassadors on the same page, he held meetings through Facebook Groups. On a regular basis, he meets with his group so they can share fishing strategies, tips, and more. They also speak to each other via Facebook Live. Facebook not only helped him sell products, but he was able to use it to build far-reaching community so he could build relationships and sell even more products.

Other Business Tools on Facebook

Even though the Jobs section of Facebook is relatively new, the site’s investment in helping local businesses is not. According to Dan Levy with Facebook, the company has invested over $1 billion to help local businesses and that includes helping them find quality employees. Many of the solutions that Facebook offers to businesses are completely free:

• Pages: Where businesses can share their profiles. There are 90 million business pages.
• Groups: Where businesses can interact with smaller communities. 200 million people belong to at least one Facebook Group.
• Events: Where events can be shared and publicized to the Facebook community. 700 million people post or show interested in Events.

Despite the grief that Facebook gets for outages, trolls, and analytics, there are good things coming from this massive social media platform. It makes the world smaller, so small that small businesses can grow and succeed.

The post Move Over LinkedIn: Facebook Jobs Is Here to Hire appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

With the newly added updates and capabilities, Groups on LinkedIn can be vital sources for:

• Driving traffic to your website (sharing articles, updates, etc)
• Growing your LinkedIn Company Page following
• Sharing Industry Insight/Expertise
• Getting a pulse of the industry
• Connecting and networking
• Compiling survey results

When interacting in LinkedIn Groups, whether they’re your own or other industry groups, be sure you are being a good “social citizen”. ‘Like’ other’s posts, comment on things you find interesting, and share when you see fit. Below are a few updates to LinkedIn groups which will enhance your user experience.

Group Conversations

Previously, LinkedIn groups we’re often overlooked. You would have to navigate to the group section of your profile to access the conversation. If you had notifications turned on for groups, you would receive a number of emails, or group digests, however, if you’re anything like me, you deleted them and turned off all email notifications.

Now, LinkedIn is making it easier to access your Groups from your homepage. Visibility of groups has improved and conversations will be more easily accessed.  

What does this mean for small business: Instead of taking 5 extra steps to communicate in groups, you can now join the conversation right from your homepage. Small business owners are always running low on time and this makes life just a bit easier.

iOS & Android Apps

LinkedIn has had an app for years. However, their app was missing some key functionality, especially when it came to accessing their groups. If you are a group owner, you can now access and manage your group with a few thumb clicks.

What does this mean for small business: If you need to moderate a comment, jump in on a conversation, or post something on the fly (event insights or photos), the app will be endlessly helpful.

Rich Group Posts

LinkedIn Group posts have always had slightly limited functionality. Make a mistake? You have to delete the post. Want to reply to a comment? No way. Want to post a video? Sorry.

But now, LinkedIn has created richer group posting capabilities. Users are now able to reply to comments directly on posts, edit their posts after they’ve been posted, and even post native videos.

What does this mean for small business:  The more comment and post capabilities offer more in-depth ways to communicate with your audience and peers.

Streamlined Admin Roles

LinkedIn groups used to have a whole host of roles from editor to manager and admin. Now, Groups will just be offering owner and manager roles. The former roles were a bit confusing and often led to many back and forth conversations. Now, the choice is a bit easier.

LinkedIn Groups have always been a great resource for small business, and now they are upping the ante. As a free resource, LinkedIn groups are a no-brainer to include in your marketing strategy. It’s time to take advantages of the new updates LinkedIn groups have to offer and join in on the conversation.

The post Behold the Power of LinkedIn Groups for Small Business appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

As a marketer, and former recruiter, my favorite social media platform is LinkedIn. Mostly because I know it so well. I always recommend LinkedIn for clients who are looking to market and advertise their services and products to professionals. It’s important to note: LinkedIn is not the ideal platform for promoting every business. You need to make sure you’re putting your advertising dollars where they matter. If you have a younger audience who uses Instagram or SnapChat, invest your money there.

The problem with small businesses advertising is the small budgets that go along with them. A client of mine once told me:

“A small advertising budget is like winking in the dark… nobody sees it.”

Now, just because you have a small budget, doesn’t mean you can’t take advantage of the advertising options LinkedIn has to offer.

First, What are the Types of LinkedIn Ads

There are four general types of LinkedIn Ads:

1. Sponsored Content – When you open up LinkedIn and are cruising your homepage, you’re going to see a ton of content. A great deal of this content is Sponsored.

Why: Sponsored content works to drive users to your website.

What: In these posts, you can include text, an image or video, a link, and a ‘Follow’ button to increase your connections through the ads.

• Tips: Sponsored content should lead to a landing page where users are encouraged to add their contact information. (Either to trigger an automation campaign, download a whitepaper/freebie, schedule a call, etc)
• Don’t go too niche on your audience. You want to make sure enough people are seeing the post and you don’t want your Cost Per Click (CPC) to be astronomical (the more targeted the higher the CPC).

2. Dynamic Ads – You’ll find these ads on the right-hand side of your Desktop Version of LinkedIn. These types of ads use profile information such as photos, job titles, and company names to personalize ads. These targeted ads allow you to more quickly launch your advertisement campaign.

Why:  Dynamic Ads can either drive users to your website or can serve to increase the following of your LinkedIn Company Page. They can also be used to increase awareness and brand recognition.

What: Ads include a  headline, photo, and company logo.

• Tips: For your first campaigns, try a number of different versions to see what sticks and what resonates with your audience.
• Don’t send people to your LinkedIn company page unless you have it optimized with a keyword rich description, a high-res logo, and a header image. Also, you should make sure you’re posting consistent content for at least a week or 2 before you try and get more followers.

3. Text Ads – As a tool to increase brand awareness, text ads are cheap and to the point. Texts ads typically appear at the top of your LinkedIn homepage, or on the right-hand side of your screen with a small photo.

Why: These ads are pay-per-click and are a great add-on to a LinkedIn Campaign. I use Text Ads to drive home messaging, so if you’re already running an InMail Campaign or a Sponsored Content campaign, you can target the same people so they are seeing your messaging again.

What: Ads include minimal text, and some include an image/logo.

• Tips: Ads that ask questions tend to be the most impactful.
• Don’t run a text ad only campaign– you likely won’t see results. I recommend using these as a complement to another campaign rather than a stand-alone ad campaign.

4. Sponsored InMail – This type of sponsored content is sent directly to a user’s inbox. Depending on the LinkedIn user’s individual settings, InMails may double as an emailed advertisement. However, many savvy LinkedIn users have this feature turned off.

Why: In this inbox advertisement, you are able to create a more detailed message that can be longer than other forms of ads. It’s like an e-mail campaign without having to buy a list or hunt for addresses.

What: These ads can include text and some personalization to help with brand recognition in both physical banner ad design and electronic ads.

• Tips: Short, sweet, and to the point. People get a lot of InMails, you will need to really grab their attention and quick.
• Include an image and make it as personal as you can.

Now, How Do I get the biggest bang for my buck?

Cheap, fast and impactful: If you’re looking to hit the ground running, start with dynamic ads. They’re easy to get started and they are automatically personalized. We all love seeing our names, and with dynamic ads, LinkedIn does the heavy lifting for you. You can start with a budget as low as $100 per month to either:

• Drive traffic to jobs pages,
• Increase brand awareness,
• Grow your LinkedIn Company Page following.

Affordable and Impactful: With a budget around $250 you can get started with a Sponsored Content campaign. Create 4-5 different pieces of sponsored content, all with pictures and links. Leave the hashtags out. With this campaign, you can drive traffic to your landing pages and can couple the content with a small investment Text Ads.

Biggest Investment, Biggest Bang!: If you want to write long-form content and you really want a well-rounded approach, I would recommend:

• InMails
• Sponsored Content
• Dynamic/Text Ads

I wouldn’t recommend starting with less than $300, though. You’ll want to put the biggest sum of money in InMails and then trickle the rest down as you see fit. Text Ads should get the least investment as they are the least expensive.

As a professional platform, LinkedIn offers a variety of resources for small business owners, both free and paid. It’s important to promote your business while also providing industry insight, share content from other industry experts, and provide value. By using these tools and features along with strategically incorporating ads, small businesses can promote their products, services, and benefits without feeling like the pushy social media friend we all love to hate.

Whether your budget is minimal or non-existent, LinkedIn has options for you. If your message is strong and you know your target audience inside and out, they will come clicking.

The post How to Make LinkedIn Ads Work on Any Budget appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

The Reasons Behind the Deal

The purchase of LinkedIn was the first acquisition for Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. In an email, he explained the move, saying:

“With the new growth in our Office commercial and Dynamics businesses, this deal is key to our bold ambition to reinvent productivity and business processes. Think about it: How people find jobs, build skills, sell, market, and get work done and ultimately find success requires a connected professional world. It requires a vibrant network that brings together a professional’s information in LinkedIn’s public network with the information in Office 365 and Dynamics.”

Others say that Microsoft sees LinkedIn as a way to access a professional network of over 433 million members, and if they can leverage that platform then they can drive usage for their many business apps and programs. Some say that this is part of a broader shift that has been taking place for a while but had gone relatively unnoticed by consumers – a shift away from PC software to online services for business owners.

The Future of LinkedIn and Microsoft

Although LinkedIn will operate as “a full independent entity within Microsoft” we are sure to see integrations in the months and years to come. However, experts say that these integrations will likely roll out slowly, for fear of alienating LinkedIn users.

Many of the possible integrations were outlined in a presentation to investors. This includes:

• Gathering data to create complete professional profiles, which you can call up using Microsoft products like Outlook or Cortana.
• Creating a more intelligent newsfeed so professionals can stay connected with what is happening in their network, industry, and profession – and integrating the LinkedIn newsfeed with Office 365.
• Connecting the LinkedIn Sales Navigator with Microsoft’s Dynamics CRM to improve social selling.
• Providing insights about your employees and team members to better understand their capability and productivity.
• Integrating LinkedIn Learning (Lynda.com) with Office to provide educational experiences and on-demand courses.

What The Microsoft LinkedIn Deal Means for Businesses

First and foremost, the acquisition demonstrates Microsoft’s shift away from the consumer market and toward business customers. It reaffirms that Microsoft is putting businesses first in product creation, so we should see even more online and cloud-based services that improve productivity, efficiency, and connection.

While those who don’t like Microsoft products may find the acquisition annoying, many experts say that the move will be good for businesses. For example, Lee Odden, the CEO of TopRank, says,

“I think the combination of Microsoft, especially Office 365 and Dynamics, with LinkedIn’s network will create opportunities for companies and marketers on several levels. Empowering individuals with customized news, learning and access to relevant professionals, to increased advertising options and sales through Dynamics CRM and LinkedIn Sales Navigator, are a great start.”

The Wall Street Journal echoes this sentiment, saying, “We now work by toggling between our productivity software and our social networks. But why should the two be separate?”

When announcing the acquisition, the presentation to investors pointed out that Microsoft and LinkedIn share a common mission of empowering people and organizations. If the acquisition plays out correctly, it should create several products, services and features that empower small businesses and improve business operations.

The post What the Microsoft LinkedIn Deal Means for Businesses appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.

LinkedIn made an interesting acquisition recently. It purchased a company Run Hop, which helps companies provide more relevant content to their users.

According to the WSJ, “Run Hop, founded in 2014 and based in San Francisco, developed services designed to show users articles, videos and other content tailored to their interests. Its services weren’t widely released.”

Expect, in the coming weeks (or months) for LinkedIn to continue to serve as a base for not only finding your next job or making one to one connections but always as foundation to publish CONTENT to your network.

The post LinkedIn Expands Content Options. So Much More Than Jobs and Networking. appeared first on SmallBizTechnology.