Is YouTube about to take on Spotify with a subscription music service of its own? That's what a report from Billboard magazine claimed Wednesday, citing "several sources familiar with the plans."
Like Spotify, the report said, the music service will have a free tier (with ads) and a premium tier (without ads). This would push the Google-owned
video service in a new audio direction, with music available for
streaming or caching on all platforms; however, YouTube would still hold
on to its roots by offering music videos as part of the service.
YouTube sent out this canned response to multiple news services,
whether they'd asked about the report or not: "We’re always working on
new and better ways for people to enjoy YouTube content across all
screens, and on giving partners more opportunities to reach their fans.
However, we have nothing to announce at this time."
Fortune reported a similar story in March, and said that the service would be launching "later this year."
Would you sign up for a Spotify-like YouTube music service? Let us know in the comments.
In this article, I’ll show you how to get the most from your LinkedIn company page, in five easy steps.
Why a LinkedIn Company Page?
The benefits of a well-oiled LinkedIn company page include engaging followers with company news, updates, events and relevant content.
There’s also the improved search engine rankings as LinkedIn pages often perform well in company searches. And let’s not forget lead generation opportunities from your content marketing.
Here’s how to make your LinkedIn company page work for you:
#1: Optimize Your LinkedIn Page
Showcase what your business has to offer. Smart marketers who build out their products and services page tend to attract twice as many company followers than those who don’t.
Use this page to tell members what you do best and give them compelling reasons to follow you.
Remember that you can link to just about anything from your products and services page, including your latest and greatest white papers, case studies or how-to content.
You’ll best attract customers when you turn your products, services or anything else relevant to your business into focal points. Here are just a few examples of what to feature prominently:
Products: The software you sell or the apps you’ve built
Services: A list of your résumé writing services or your tax consulting brochure
Other: Webinars you host or your company’s white papers or ebooks
Use the products and services page to raise awareness of your brand, promote career opportunities and educate potential customers on your products and services.
Company pages are also very SEO-friendly. Google previews up to 156 characters of your page’s text. Be sure to edit your description so that it leads with powerful, keyword-rich sentences. Plus, members can search for companies by keyword on LinkedIn, so include words and phrases that describe your business, expertise and industry focus.
Finally, remember to include your company contact information, descriptions of offerings and your areas of expertise. Your primary attributes can also function as keyword tags.
Once you’ve done that, ask your customers to recommend the products and services they favor. Authentic advocacy equals credible endorsement!
For example, your company page admins can like and respond to member comments that are made in response to something you post on your company page.Consider sharing your customers’ and prospects’ content—from their corporate blogs, product updates and company posts—to get these kinds of interactions going. And don’t forget content from their employees! You’ll develop trust with buyers while developing a more professional corporate brand identity.
Hands down, content that’s customized to your followers’ and customers’ professional interests resonates the most.
With LinkedIn’s targeted updates, you can easily tailor your message to your audience. For example, when you create an update, you can choose to share it with “all followers” or to a “targeted audience.”
Choose the latter to send your update to a subset of followers based on geography, industry, company size or level of seniority. Just as with any social network, LinkedIn is a community where targeted engagement is essential for success.
Company updates allow your administrators to directly engage with viewers and followers of your company page. You can post and share items like company news, promotions, relevant industry articles and YouTube videos.
When you update from your company page, use these two essential tips for creating compelling content:
Think like a journalist. Don’t bury the lead! Concise intros and snappy headlines are more likely to result in higher engagement than long, dry copy. You have only moments to show your audience why they should care, so being succinct is crucial. Grab your readers’ attention right away by starting your update with your most important thought.
Make your content valuable and “snackable.” Develop quality content that is quick to consume, so members will want to share it with their connections and networks. In fact, our data shows that the most successful updates include a picture, chart, video or link to an article. When you do not have a link or image to include, engage your audience by asking a question.
Lastly, keep in mind that professionals will check your updates on multiple devices.
#3: Attract More Followers
The more the merrier on the social merry-go-round. Here are some simple, effective strategies for attracting more followers with your company updates:
Cultivate a larger following with a multi-channel approach. Encourage your teammates to add a link to your company page in their email signatures. If needed, ask your designer for help creating a customized banner or button.
Add a Follow button to your website. Your web team can pull code for a Follow button from developer.linkedin.com to add to your blog or website. This lets LinkedIn members follow your company with a single click.
Add a Follow button to your website, making it easy to grow your LinkedIn company page follower base.
“For every one self-serving tweet, you should retweet one relevant tweet and most importantly share four pieces of relevant content written by others.”
Consistent posting: Create an editorial calendar of updates within your company, and highlight relevant third-party material. Then share it with company followers. Image Source: Tippingpoint Labs.
Apply this simple rule to your activity on your LinkedIn company page, and you’ve struck gold. You’ll authentically engage in conversations, build awareness and interact with LinkedIn members without giving the impression that you’re a self-centered know-it-all.
For marketers, the 4-1-1 Rule is particularly useful when applied to building relationships with prospective customers. This kind of trust hinges on your ability tofoster an informative dialogue regularly. It also keeps you at the front of prospects’ minds as they move through the buying phase.
As Jay Baer says, “Sell something, get a customer for a day. Help someone, get a customer for life.”
#5: Analyze for the Prize
Company page administrators have access to LinkedIn Analytics that help them better engage with their followers and monitor their success. There is a goldmine of insights available to help you focus and refine your strategy, including:
Engagement % — Engagement = interactions + clicks + followers acquired. In other words, this metric answers the question, “Of those who’ve seen my update, how many are truly engaging with it?” Look at updates with higher engagement rates, and note the type of content, people targeted, date and time. Then you’ll know how to optimize future content around what’s proven to work.
Demographics — From seniority and industry to company size and function, demographics give you a snapshot of your followers. With this information, you cantailor the type of content you share on your company page, as well as the tone in which it’s delivered. Demographics will also help you determine segments to target with targeted status updates.
How You Compare — Knowing how your company page compares to your competitors’ pages is a great way to determine whether you should change your strategy.
Watch this video to learn more about the new LinkedIn company page analytics.
Bonus Tip
Host a company “Lunch & Learn” to evangelize the power of company updates, and share tips and tricks with your team. This can have a significant impact on your company page’s overall reach.
Consider third-party apps like GaggleAMP and Addvocate to show employees which updates are most important for your company and are pre-approved for sharing.
Over to You
What do you think? Are you using LinkedIn’s company pages to connect your business with the professionals you most want to reach? How do you update your followers on company news, products and services and job openings?Leave your questions and comments in the box below.
Welcome to our weekly edition of what’s hot in social media news. To help you stay up to date with social media, here are some of the news items that caught our attention.
What’s New This Week?
Twitter Allows Direct Messages From All Followers: Up until now, you could only send a direct message on Twitter when the other person followed you back. Now you can change your setting so that anyone can send you a direct message even if you do not follow him or her back.
Go to Settings on your Twitter account and check this box if you'd like to receive direct messages from everyone.
Twitter Announces Scheduled Tweets: All marketers who use “Twitter’s ad products can schedule organic or promoted tweets for specific dates and times up to a year in advance.”
"You can create and schedule new tweets from the blue Tweet button on the top right corner of the navigation bar at ads.twitter.com."
LinkedIn Unveils Recruiter Mobile: “A mobile app that helps recruiters interact with candidates like you when they’re out and about.”
Foursquare Opens Ads: “All a business owner needs to do is go to foursquare.com/ads and build their ad—by choosing a great photo of their space and either offering a special or highlighting a great customer tip.”
A business owner can now "tell if someone who saw their ad actually walks into their store."
Pinterest Updates Mobile App: Pinterest has “spruced up the look of the app a bit, and also added a simple way to browse through pins with just a flick of a finger.”
"To try it out, tap any pin in your home feed. Then swipe your finger from right to left to get a peek at the next pin in line. You can go backwards too!"
"With a single tap, tweets expand on the right side to show photos, videos and article previews."
Here’s some interesting news to note:
Facebook Lets Teens Share Updates Publicly: Now “when people aged 13 through 17 sign up for an account on Facebook, the initial audience of their first post will be set to a narrower audience of ‘Friends.’ This used to be set at ‘Friends of Friends’.” And teens will also have the choice to post publicly on Facebook.
"When teens choose Public in the audience selector, they'll see a reminder that the post can be seen by anyone, not just people they know, with an option to change the post's privacy."
Here’s some upcoming news to follow:
Facebook to Soon Roll Out New Custom Audience Features: “These new features expand the capabilities of Custom Audiences to allow marketers to deliver targeted ads to people who visited their website or used their mobile app.” These new features will roll out globally in the coming months.
Introducing Social Media Marketing World: 60+ pros help you master social media marketing! Join Chris Brogan (co-author of The Impact Equation), Mari Smith (co-author of Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day), Michael Hyatt (author of Platform), Jay Baer (author ofYoutility), John Jantsch (author of Duct Tape Marketing), Amy Porterfield (co-author of Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies), Mark Schaefer (author of Tao of Twitter), Michael Stelzner (author of Launch) and experts from more than a dozen brands as they reveal proven social media marketing tactics at Social Media Marketing World 2014—Social Media Examiner’s mega-conference in beautiful San Diego, California.
