1. Join Groups.

This in itself is nothing new:  Nor is the notion that you should join Groups related to your industry. The big mistake too many people make, however, is in joining Groups whose focus is too narrow. Let me explain:  Say you are a copywriter.  You join six Groups whose sole focus is “copywriting”.  And you stop right there.

That is not making the most of Groups as a lead-generation strategy. You need to ask yourself:  “What else do all copywriters do?” You might find yourself musing:  “Well… they’re freelancers.  They are entrepreneurs.  They are coaches. They need to know about project management.”

Just in those few seconds you’ve identified three types of Groups totally related to your field of interest that could also interest potential clients:

• Freelancing
• Entrepreneurship
• Coaches
• Project Management

Of these three topics, Project Management is going to be important to your ideal client.  He wants to hire someone who knows how to get things done on time – who is passionately concerned with Project Management (and saving him money).  So if you have to make a choice, find that group on Project Management and add yourself to its membership… where project managers can find you and either recommend you to their employers; or contract your services directly, if they are business owners.

But wait:  Once you’ve joined these Groups, you need to take it a few steps further…

• Keep your eye on each Group you belong to on a daily or every other day basis, as a matter of routine
• Read all posts
• Listen.  Take note of, and be sure you thoroughly understand, all concerns
• Answer questions… but only if you know the answer inside out.  (Never just answer for the sake of making a Big Noise.)
• Be truly helpful
• Provide links to resources on your site (this is a big deal!)
  

2.    Create Your Own LinkedIn Group.

Once you’ve grown comfortable on LinkedIn, made connections and feel you really have a handle on what your potential clients or subscribers are looking for within its environment, it’s time to create your own LinkedIn Group – targeted directly to their needs.

Here’s how to make sure your Group becomes an active, growing success…

Give your group a clear, strong name.

Include your best keyword – the one that seems to get the most LinkedIn responses for you.  Keep it short and avoid names that are obscure.

For example, if your group is all about self-growth and creating best choices in one’s life journey, avoid flowery names like “Architects Unchained” – because if you go with a name like that, I guarantee droves of really annoyed architects, renovators, builders and engineers will be clicking away in disgust… while the people on journeys of self-growth will remain happily unaware of your existence.

Make sure it’s a name that will translate well into an URL.

This means no names that:

• Are capable of having multiple or double meanings
• Can be pronounced different ways
• Are hard to pronounce
• Use initials or acronyms
• Consist of foreign terms, phrases or words

And do test your Group name out first – even if that just involves a Facebook poll giving people three to five choices.  Even people with no intention of joining your Group can often be quick to point out potentially embarrassing or confusing aspects you’ve overlooked.

Create a logo for your Group.

Remember that it will be automatically resized, and end up small, wide and not very high.  This is what a typical LinkedIn Group logo looks like, as far as shape or size goes:

LinkedIn specifies that your Group logo should be no more than 100kb, and suggests dimension of 100 X 50 pixels (“large”) or 60 X 30 pixels (“small”.) Keep your design striking and simple.  Keep elements in it to a minimum. Your logo will help brand your Group within LinkedIn.

Create the Group around your Keyword – not your Company.

This one should be obvious, but judging by the company-based groups that try to reach niche members, it’s not.

If people see a Group with your business name – and especially logo – they will assume that it’s an internal group for your employees and/or shareholders.

Create a website for your Group

(or else create a section on your existing website).  That way, you can post updates, resources – and helpful articles.

Having its own website or web page will strengthen your Group’s identity as an entity.  And building a community is what it’s all about.

• Promote your Group.  Blog about it.  Talk about examples from it.  Invite people to join it.  But always remember content on LinkedIn is supposed to be strictly confidential, so never share anything that Group Members could object too, and don’t identify people by name unless they are okay with that.
• Reward your Group.  Create special resources for your members that they can pick up from your website:  Tip sheets, survey results, templates, “how to” lessons… If they need it – provide  it.
• Add your Group to the Groups Directory, if it’s a “membership only” closed group.  (If it’s an open Group – meaning anyone can join – it will automatically show up there.)

To do this:

• Click “Groups” in your Menu bar
• Select your Group Name
• Click “Manage”, then “Group Settings”
• From the Membership section, choose:  “Display this group in the Groups Directory”

3.    Use LinkedIn Rich Media Linking Capability

This has (for the moment) replaced LinkedIn Apps as a “limited rollout” feature.

Since this is currently in flux, your best bet is to click straight through to the new Help section and simply click on what you’d like to learn about in the right-hand, vertical menu.

4.    Create a Company Page

Again, this strategy depends on your particular circumstance.  In order to create a Company page, you have to have a dedicated email address on your Company’s domain:  A Gmail address just isn’t going to cut it.

Download LinkedIn owns Company page guide.

Consider again that you are branding you – if you are strictly a sole-proprietor, B2B, service provider you can put creating a Company Page on the back burner until:

a)    You meet LinkedIn’s Company Page criteria

b)    You have something significant to sell – that is, a sign-up page to drive LinkedIn traffic towards via your URL

On the other hand, creating a LinkedIn Company Page shares public information about your Company via LinkedIn and is searchable via Google (and other search engines).

You can also showcase individual products, rather than a generic whole.

And you can post URLs to your sales pages without worrying about whether or not you are violating some guideline.

Go to the Help Section to  create a Company page.

The final big advantage to creating a Company page:  It provides you with an “Insights” tab (formerly “Analytics”).  You can display extra details and company profiles here. Just so you know what a well-designed-and-optimized LinkedIn Company page looks like, let’s take a look at one of LinkedIn’s “top ten” picks for Best Company Page:

Notice the use of Featured Updates to create engagement, curiosity and activity, as well as rich media (the video).  You can also browse through their products and check out careers.

And on any of these pages, you can insert your customized links.  And you can even add a banner to your Company page….

• Open your Company Page
• In your Home page, look for a gold horizontal bar under Page Insights
• Click on the “Upload an Image Now” link within that bar
• When the Image Text area box opens, click on “+Add image” underneath the empty box
• Select your 646 pixel X 220 image from your computer
• Press “Upload” and “Save”

Banner Optimization Tips

There are small tweaks you can do and details you can incorporate to give your Banner images even more power…

• Put your most important image first (people have to click on them to scroll through your collection)
• Create landing pages for each Banner image
• Include a call-to-action for your Banner image
• Make sure your image is totally relevant to your message
• Keep your image as simple as possible.  Don’t use images with lots of distracting detail
• Make sure your Banner image is dramatic, with strong contrast
• Use a professionally-produced image.  Your message is important!

You can upload a maximum of three banner images to your “Products and Services” section.

5.    Consider LinkedIn Advertising

Once you’ve created your Company page, you can then add an advertising campaign.

This strategy isn’t for everyone.  It can quickly become expensive, and should be used only if you’re looking to make big-ticket prices on product, membership or package conversions.  Consider also your demographic.  If your market is predominantly female, you should remember that LinkedIn statistics still show its users as predominantly male.

The younger demographic (25-34) is making a notice rise above the median, as is the 45-54 range, while the original LinkedIn typical age group of 35-44 has fallen slightly (though it is still over-represented).

You can study general graphs and audience details at stats sites Alexa and  Quantcast:  Just enter LinkedIn’s URL into each site’s search bar and click through on results for even more details.

To sum up:

• Use advertising only as a brief introductory campaign
• Be aware that advertising is often considered too aggressive and counter-productive among the online marketing community
• Only use it if you are actively selling a big-ticket item (otherwise it’s not worth your while)
• Make sure it fits your particular demographic

For example, up until literally a day or so ago, LinkedIn provided a selection of Apps to help you enjoy your LinkedIn experience – and enhance your Profile appeal.  If you go to the App Directory, this is what you will now find…

Why LinkedIn seems hell-bent on removing every useful feature it had (Answers, Events and now Apps) is a mystery:  One can only hope they plan to replace these with much better options in the near future.

True, it does offer an option to people who already had an App installed, announcing that it is replacing Apps with “a preview of a new feature that lets former LinkedIn Application users add media links to images, presentations, videos, and documents to their profiles.” But it then goes on to say you can only do this if you had Apps installed.  (If you are one of those LinkedIn members who used the SlideShare or Portfolio App, you’ll find them moved to your Summary.)

If you need to add new ones, click to edit your profile and scroll to the Summary section to add the link to that presentation.

LinkedIn Ads

If you have taken out a LinkedIn ad, you will be able view Ad Performance reports:

1. Move your cursor over “Home” on your Company Page and click “Ads”
2. Click “Reporting” tab
3. Select:

• Report Type
• Date Range
• View.

4. Download your CSV file containing the results

Company Page Tracking

While the general FAQ page seems to have disappeared, there is still a link to specific Company Page and tracking FAQs.  To learn more about Company Pages and find more ways to track your results (e.g. “How do I see who’s been viewing my Company Page?”) visit the Company Page FAQ.

“If you’re a Company Page administrator, you can view the Page Insights or Follower Insights page to see who’s visiting your Company Page, which areas interest them, and how your data compares against similar companies. Graphs also provide monthly data on page traffic and show how users interact with your content. There’s also data on which industries, companies and functions make up your followers.

To view this data:

1. Go to your Company Page.

2. Click the down arrow next to the Edit button in the upper right.

3. Select View follower insights or View page insights.

Another way is to track visits from your website. You’ll need your web designer or a way to add the code yourself. You can visit the LinkedIn developer’s page for more information: https://developer.linkedin.com/plugins/share-plugin-generator

You can also track results on your website through your cPanel, to see where your traffic is coming from:  And over time, you may even see results via Alexa and Quantcast details.

One artist shared her favorite connection request “of all time”.

“I got an invitation from someone who told me she had loved a particular magazine article, which she named, because it had such beautiful illustrations, citing three reasons why these really resonated with her.  She said she had recognized my style in my logo on LinkedIn, and wanted to connect with me so she could keep up with my work.

“I was particularly proud of those illustrations and flattered that she recognized my style from my logo.  That was the most pleasing invitation I ever had.”

The person sending the invitation followed the Golden Rule of making it all about the person she was seeking to connect with – from an informed standpoint.

What sixty-three per cent of LinkedIn members don’t respond to is the standard, default invitation, unedited:

That message is about as warm and inviting as a handshake from a wet fish!

Before you send an invite, make sure you can personalize the message. If you have not met the person in person at a networking lunch or through a co-worker, try to use these tips:

• Review the person’s profile and see what groups they are members of on LinkedIn. Do you share the same interests?
• Become a member of one of their groups ONLY if it is relevant to you. Group owners and other members can see your profession and can spot a fake.
• When you want to connect with that person again, an option will come up that you can select to explain that you are members of the same group.
• OR you can use the group to send a message to the person explaining why you would like to connect.

Once you have sent your invitation, LinkedIn will obligingly present you with a page full of headers under the excuse of “People You May Know.”  You can scroll through these forever, looking for people to connect with.  Don’t base this simply on who you know.  In fact, there may be people you know whom you choose not to connect with.

The question you should be asking yourself, when picking and choosing, is: “Who would I hang out with and talk to at a local networking lunch or industry conference without even noticing the time pass by?” In other words, who would you have things in common with?  Who would you easily find subjects to discuss – enthusiastically.

Those are the people you need to connect with.

This can all be boiled down to one necessary action…Inspiring your contacts and readers to your website.

This is where making your URL seem like the next logical step – in fact, the only logical next step – for you to take.

You can include your call-to-action and URL:

• In your Summary
• In your answers (comments)
• On your Company Page (more on that later)
• In videos you share
• In posts

Without that all-important call-to-action and web page link, all your lead generation preparation won’t make a dollar difference!

And without readers to read your call-to-action and click through to your web page, you won’t generate a single lead.

Adding People to your Network

Now that you’ve spent time on your personal profile, now think about making connections with others. When you make a connection, make it personal. Talk about them – not you.

One artist shared her favorite connection request “of all time”.

“I got an invitation from someone who told me she had loved a particular magazine article, which she named, because it had such beautiful illustrations, citing three reasons why these really resonated with her. She said she had recognized my style in my logo on LinkedIn, and wanted to connect with me so she could keep up with my work.

“I was particularly proud of those illustrations and flattered that she recognized my style from my logo. That was the most pleasing invitation I ever had.”

The person sending the invitation followed the Golden Rule of making it all about the person she was seeking to connect with – from an informed standpoint. What sixty-three per cent of LinkedIn members don’t respond to is the standard, default invitation, unedited:

That message is about as warm and inviting as a handshake from a wet fish!

Once you have sent your invitation, LinkedIn will obligingly present you with a page full of headers under the excuse of “People You May Know.” You can scroll through these forever, looking for people to connect with. Don’t base this simply on who you know. In fact, there may be people you know whom you choose not to connect with.

The question you should be asking yourself, when picking and choosing, is: “Who would I hang out with and talk to at a local networking lunch or industry conference without even noticing the time pass by?” In other words, who would you have things in common with? Who would you easily find subjects to discuss – enthusiastically.

Those are the people you need to connect with.

Here is a sampling of 21 tips you can try out for yourself…

1.    Upgrade Your Account

Having an upgraded pro account allows you much more access to features that can significantly increase lead generation opportunities. You can take advantage of options such as:

• Using InMail to contact anyone, without restriction
• The ability to see all expanded profiles (1^st,  2^nd and 3^rd degree)
• See complete details on who has viewed your Profile
• Expanded selection of search filters
• Expanded selection of results
• Access to OpenLink, which allows anyone on LinkedIn to message you for free
• The ability to save Searches
• Notifications when new Profiles fit your Search criteria

The ability to search references is a handy feature, if you are a Company that hires employees. There are three versions of Upgrade, each with more features than the next.  Check them out by pressing the “Upgrade” link in the top-left corner of your LinkedIn menu, beside “Account Type”.

2.    Upgrade Your Company Page “Career” Page

Did you know you can upgrade this section to “Silver” or “Gold” status?

Silver allows you to access a “full suite of features” such as clickable banner functionality, analytics, video content.

Gold allows you to create up to five custom version of your Career page to show content targeted to the viewer’s specific profile

Upgrading is something to consider if you’re not just looking for leads, but employees or contractors.  On of its biggest benefits, however – it allows you to control which ads appear on that page:  Otherwise, you have no control

3.    Make Full Use of Your Company Page “Products and Services”

There are many ways to use your Products and Services section to increase leads and click-throughs.

• Ask for product recommendations.  (Note:  You need a company email address from the domain used to create your Company page for this to work.)
• Choose the “Targeted Audience” feature to help customize and fine-tune content for your banner ad to the exact client you want to attract
• Include promotional videos to show how your product or services can benefit your exact target client or customer
• Link to other rich media content.  This option is still in a beta stage, but if you’re creating an ad or showcasing your products and services, see which third-party platforms you can link to.
• Cross-promote to your other social networks right from this page

4.    Share your Profile on Facebook and Twitter.

But DO personalize the default message!

You can share your Profile any time you like.  Doing so is easy:

• Select your “Profile” tab
• Hover over the arrow beside “Edit”
• Select “Share Profile” from the drop-down menu
• Share on either or both Facebook and Twitter

5.    Use LinkedIn Mobile.

Do this especially if your target market are heavy mobile users… but be aware that the amount of people using the LinkedIn Mobile app is still – surprisingly – very small, proportionately.  In fact, one survey showed that 95% of all LinkedIn users still like to access it on their PCs, rather than their mobiles.

6.    Use the “Lead Collection” feature when crafting or tweaking your ads.

(You can turn it on and off.)

7.    Update your Profile regularly.

Whenever you do, an “activity broadcast” is sent to all your LinkedIn connections.  (By “regularly”, not too often, not “never”, and always at consistent intervals.)

8.    Promote your Public Profile

And don’t forget about it, once you’ve created it.  (Remember:  Google loves regularly updated content.)

• Update your head shot
• Create an email signature containing your Public Profile URL
• Make sure you do create a Public Profile custom URL!
• Add a LinkedIn “View My Profile” button to your CV, website or blog

Note:  You must display your full surname in order to create a Public Profile

9.    Ask for – and give – quality recommendations.

When people give you specific recommendations showcasing your values, skills and the benefit of using your services, it’s like getting a five-star restaurant review appearing in Google Plus Local results. It can boost click-throughs and entice people not just to subscribe or follow – but to try your services.

• Be specific, when giving recommendations.  Tell exactly how the person’s services or product made your life better, boosted your business, or provided you with inspiration.
• Thank people for their recommendations
• Reciprocate – but only if you genuinely do know what their own services or products are like; or you have known them in a co-worker or team capacity.  Never fake recommendations to please someone.

Your recommendations should be like rare jewels, highly prized and savored with delight by the recipient.

• Get into the habit of giving recommendations on a regular basis – not too many; but don’t let the better part of a year go by, before you recommend someone new

10. Be sparing and specific with endorsements.

Otherwise they will lose their value.  Only endorse people for skills you know they wish to be known for particularly.

11. Use OpenLink to message those with Premium accounts.

Look for the row of dots after their names, indicating they have enabled OpenLink.  This means they accept messages. (You can find more information about OpenLink in the LinkedIn Help Section.)

12. “Follow” industry movers and shakers.

Even if you think they’re too far up there in the stratosphere to accept a connection request, you can still follow them and receive their updates.

You will often get great lead generation tips and examples this way, as well as breaking news – and you can also sometimes gain visibility and leads from making intelligent and useful comments on their posts. To find top people in your niche or industry to follow, just visit the LinkedIn Who To Follow Page.

Don’t be indiscriminate with your Follows and get “click-happy” – be selective. But the more people you select to Follow, the more LinkedIn seems to tailor its suggestions.  (And you can always Unfollow people too.)

13. Don’t post sporadically.

Make sure your presence – and activity – on LinkedIn is consistent, regular and habitual. People will become quickly disheartened if they send you a message or take the time to comment on one of your posts… and there is silence from you for more than a few days.

14. Don’t post too often!

Some top industry leaders actually have to learn this lesson.  There was a recent group discussion about who people had Unfollowed for bombarding them with posts.  (Posting every 1-3 days is enough!)

15. Don’t neglect your Groups.

Do keep up on active threads, and vie for the role of most active participant, answering questions and generally chatting (relevantly, of course). The more energy you put into a Group, the more the Group will generate… and the more looked-to for leadership you’ll become.

16. Recommend your best Resources.

Especially now that Apps such as the Amazon Reading List have disappeared. And by “best resources”, we don’t just mean your own offerings:  We mean books you’ve read that have changed your life, programs you’ve used, apps you’ve installed, plugins that have made a difference. Share generously, and your posts won’t be skipped!

17. Never post links or resources for the sake of posting.

If you ever find yourself looking up stuff on the net and muttering “what can I share today on LinkedIn?” – don’t.

Chances are that anything you share in this manner will feel as trite as all those links you’re constantly bombarded with yourself.  (When you share, you should be able to tell your reader exactly why you like the resource or link and what you think he or she will get out of it.  If you can’t answer that, it’s not worth sharing.)

18. Whitelist LinkedIn for your email filters

– especially if you have a “public” account such as Yahoo!, Gmail or AOL.

19. Turn off irrelevant updates you receive on your Home Page.

That way, you won’t find your LinkedIn feed so cluttered or tiring to go through.  (Just select “Settings” in the drop-down menu that appears whenever you hover over your name.)

You can choose which specific types of updates to suppress:

(You can also choose how many updates you want to see on your page.)

20. Import both online and offline business contacts into LinkedIn.

This will give you more authority in LinkedIn’s algorithms – and can help increase lead generation.

21. Create a regular “Feature” and share it on the same day, every week.

For example, every Monday you could post a Case Study that is relevant to your audience; or a Worksheet link.  Or even just an inspiring photo.

Whatever you choose to make your regular “feature”, be consistent with it. Stockpile a few posts in advance, so that you are never caught short without your Feature for that day.

Make sure it gets extra attention and gives extra value.  If you’ve hit the nail on the head with your targeting, people will soon start looking for your update on that day; and you can add links they can subscribe to so they don’t miss it.  (And remember to analyze your responses – this will give you big clues as to what your target audience really enjoys.

Finally, remember to schedule your weekly Feature into your calendar!

You know how to pick the best keywords… but are you aware that you should exclude ones that distract?  Because LinkedIn automates so many functions, pulling data from Profiles to second-guess your preferences, it is unfortunately also liable to do things like try to get people to endorse you for “skills” that have nothing to do with your LinkedIn voice.

For example, say you wittily included a joke in your Summary about being a “cheesecake aficionado”.  Your original comment might make perfect sense and entertain the reader… within the summary:  But because LinkedIn now pulls keywords out of your profile and asks people to “endorse” your skills – their way of making “recommendations” less hard to obtain – your contacts are likely to be asked to endorse the following…

And probably also…

Okay, so that example is a little extreme – but making sure you don’t put any keywords you don’t want to rank for in your Profile is crucial.

You also want to come across with a strong “voice” – your personality.  Think about real life.  Better yet, go back to the schoolyard.  You are thrown together into a classroom with a bunch of other kids your own age, and as a child, you have no inhibitions about who you admire, who you feel comfortable with, who you’re indifferent to – and who actively repels you.

Your dislike might just be due to the fact that your interests are poles apart:  Mary Jane is into Barbies in a big way, and you’ve always been a total tomboy.  But you know who you want to hang out with.

Little Tara in the corner might be the most amazing person in the world – and if only you got to know her, the two of you would have one of the best friendships ever – but if she stays in her corner, quietly reading books and never talking, you won’t get the chance to find out.

Likewise, if she does her best to impress Mary Jane and her cronies by dressing in pink and conspicuously talking Barbies, you’re going to lump her in with people you don’t like.  That would be a shame, because really, she’d much rather hang out with you up a tree or build a mud dam at the little creek behind your house than hang out with Mary Jane.  But everyone’s told her that Mary Jane is the person she ought to be like.  (Get the picture?)

Be yourself.  That way, people most likely to become leads, and convert into loyal fans and clients will be able to identify and gravitate straight to you.

So don’t be a Tara.  Forget Mary Jane and everything “they” keep telling you.

Be unique.  Be yourself.

Finding Your UPP

You’ve heard of USPs – “unique selling positions”:  Now it’s time to find your Unique Personal Position.

For any lead generation strategy to work, it is absolutely vital to create a strong voice on LinkedIn.  Topics tend to be less chatty and more business-focused, making it harder to jump in while personality doesn’t often come across.  The big mistake many people make, when trying to create a strong LinkedIn presence?  Focusing on creating a polished business persona and ending up as yet another generic penguin among thousands of other immaculate, generic penguins.

You do want to fit into the penguin niche, the quintessential penguin in every detail.

But you also want to stand out.

To help isolate your UPP, ask yourself the following questions:

• What do people I know most like or love about me?
• What adjectives do people use most, when talking about me or describing me?
• What do I most love doing in the whole world?
• Why do I love doing it?
• What one skill or attribute do I possess that is different from my competitors’ skills and attributes?
• How do I help the most?

Make no mistake:  All the lead generation strategies in the world won’t help you if people expect you to be a certain type of person… and find out you aren’t.

There are those who insist you can’t generate leads on LinkedIn and there are those who aggressively attempt to do so.

Then there are those who quietly go about building their LinkedIn presence, using sound strategies, an understanding of their target subscribers – and of LinkedIn, its mission and its unique advantages.

This latter type of LinkedIn user is going to be you.  And here’s how to generate solid leads.

It won’t be overnight:  LinkedIn really is all about quality, relevant relationship building.  But if you know what to look for, you’ll easily be able to jump on opportunities:  For example, posting an irresistible link to a special page on your external website, if it holds the answer to a crucial question your fellow Group member is asking.

That’s just one example, but it’s no secret that any success you reap on LinkedIn all starts with your Profile.  If you neglect this area, you will miss valuable connections all over the place and people will not actively add you to their network.

There are two types of LinkedIn Profile:  Your internal Profile – the one your connections see – and your Public Profile, the one that is searchable and displayable by Google.

In addition, LinkedIn is heavily in the process of switching peoples’ Profiles over to a new layout.  Mashable and TechCrunch have already switched over to this multi-window format, so I think we can safely assume that whether or not you find it visually confusing or pleasing, the multi-window layout is a format here to stay.

Its big advantage?  You can move sections around, dragging and dropping to showcase elements of your Profile you think most important to your viewer.

The new Profile breaks down into the following sections:

• Header – Your Headline, Profile Photo and Description
• Activity – Your post
• Background – “Bring your experience, accomplishments and skills to life”  (Reads like a resume.)
• Connections – Displays clickable headshots of your network

Public relations can literally make or break any client or company. While all commercial entities strive for spotless online reputations, there are times when issues arise. These problems can stem from internal sources, along with industry mishaps and even common mistakes. Without proper PR management, these obstacles can leave a lasting negative impression for years to come. According to media experts, you must be careful when tweeting about your clients. In fact, if you can’t shed a positive light on any situation, I would recommend that you simply refrain from posting. Remember what your Mom said, “If you don’t have anything nice to say…” Also, never promote anything at the expense of another client or company’s failure. This is considered “cheap” and tactically low on the social media totem pole.

To secure positive PR results remember to:

• Understand the new rules of PR and social media engagement. This will help you stay ahead of the curve.
• Be aware of the current news client. If you are posting about your company’s new Michelin tire sale, be sure that there have not been any tragic accidents that name the brand you are promoting on Facebook or Twitter.
• While time is of the essence, do not respond immediately if a crisis erupts. In stead, anticipate damage control while you effectively analyze and assess the situation. Once a plan of action is formulated, simply implement it as professional as possible.
• Be transparent. Even in a negative situation, your honesty will be appreciated and respected in the social media sector.
• Post meaningful and respectful comments. Refrain from negative posts that can easily backfire on you, along with the client, company, or firm you represent. There is a famous story of an executive that wrote negatively about the home city of a client (that would be FedEx and Memphis) on his Twitter feed while he was traveling to meet the client. He was fired the next day.
• Use common sense and common courtesy. Never engage in “online wars” with those you disagree with. Simply be the bigger person.
• When disagreeing with others or certain posts, keep it civil and appropriate. By being polite, you can secure a true sense of professionalism