Bombay-Fox

7 SIMPLE WAYS TO OPTIMIZE YOUR LINKEDIN BUSINESS PAGE ORGANICALLY

by CareersFox Tales

If you are an entrepreneur or business owner, is your company’s LinkedIn page active and optimized for engagement? If not, you are missing out an easy (and free!) way to enhance your brand’s digital footprint!

While many of you may engage with others on LinkedIn on a personal level, do not overlook the potential of your brand’s official LinkedIn page. Whether you’re looking to recruit talent, build brand awareness, or simply engage with your target audience, your company’s LinkedIn page can serve as a handy tool to communicate and interact with your community. Additionally, LinkedIn is constantly adding valuable new features for business pages, which makes it a useful tool to have in your digital communication kit.

If you’re looking for ways to optimize your company’s page on LinkedIn, we’ve got you covered! Here are 7 easy tips to follow:

1. Perfect your pictures- upload a high-resolution profile picture and cover photo:

One of the easiest ways to spruce up your LinkedIn page and generate new leads is to make it look aesthetically pleasing! Be sure to use  high-quality images for your profile picture and cover photo. The recommended size for your profile picture (should be a high-res image of your logo) is 300 x 300 pixels. The recommended size for your banner/ cover photo is  1128 x 191 pixels. The images on your page are representative of your brand and its offerings, therefore it is important to ensure they highlight your brand and value in a creative manner.

2. Spruce up your “About Us” section:

Aesthetic images will make your page look great but what really interests prospects are the words you use to describe your brand. A great “About Us” section is direct and concise and tells visitors all they need to know about your company and its offerings. To optimize your “About Us” section write a brief paragraph about your company (2000 characters or less) and use simple language and relevant keywords to explain your brand and services to the audience and tell your company story. The ideal “About Us” section tells readers who you are (as a brand), what you offer, what your brand values are, and how they can get in touch with you to learn more.

3. Leverage your personal network- grow your audience by inviting people to follow your page:

A few years ago, LinkedIn introduced a great feature that allows you to invite people to follow your company page on the platform. After a few updates, this feature now allocates 100 free ‘credits’ per month to each company page. This allows you to invite 100 people to follow your company page per month. The credits do not roll over, and if you exhaust your monthly limit earlier, you must wait for the next month to invite more people to follow your page. This is a fantastic tool for business owners/admins to utilize as it allows you to leverage your personal network to grow your company page’s audience!

4. Content matters- Share relevant and interesting content on your page often:

Another sure shot way to optimize and grow your page is to post regularly. Research from LinkedIn shows that business pages that post weekly see a 2x increase in engagement. So be sure to post frequently (we recommend 2-3 times a week) on your company page. Also remember that the content you share should be relevant to your niche and industry and should bring value to your audience. Share important news updates, relevant articles, static posts, carousel posts about your business, and videos (which get 5x more engagement on LinkedIn than static posts) regularly on your company page to grow your audience and build your reputation on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn also offers extensive analytics to help you keep track of what is working, so adjusting your content strategy based on insights from analytics is another great way to optimize your company page!

5. Use LinkedIn’s features to engage with your audience:

LinkedIn continues to enhance its features to help content creators and brands push out more engaging content on the platform (read more about it here). Embrace these new features to grow your audience and make your company page more dynamic and interesting.

LinkedIn Live Video, much like Instagram Live, allows you to live stream videos, discussions and other key events for free. This really is a great way to interact with your audience in a more personable way and build a digital community for your brand. LinkedIn Polls is another fantastic new feature to garner quick engagement!

6. Join groups and engage as a company to expand your reach and build your online reputation:

LinkedIn Groups provide a place for professionals within in an industry to share their thoughts, and opinions on the platform, and allows them to network and build connections easily. Unfortunately, LinkedIn still does not allow you to join groups with your company page. You must use your personal page to join a group. However, most Groups on LinkedIn allow you to share page content, so it is still a valuable way to expand your reach and network.

To optimize your company’s LinkedIn page, find groups within your industry and post relevant content (thought leadership opinions, news updates, etc.) regularly.  You can find groups to join by searching at the top of your homepage or viewing the groups you’ve already joined. You can also create a new group focused on a specific topic or industry.

7. Cross-promote your channels across social media:

Last but certainly not the least, remember to cross-promote your channels on social media. Especially if you have a large following on one platform, a quick and easy way to promote your LinkedIn page is to share it there! For example, if you have 10K followers on Instagram, link your LinkedIn page in your Instagram bio or share posts in your stories and link them back to your company LinkedIn page.

Similarly, if you have a large email marketing list, be sure to link your LinkedIn page to each newsletter you send out.

Following these tips will help you optimize your company’s LinkedIn page and ultimately enhance your brand’s digital footprint. If you found these tips useful, we’d love to hear from you! Let us know what worked for you in the comments.

(The Author of this article is Nikita D’Souza, Sr. Social Media Manager, Bombay Fox)

Bombay-Fox_Instagram-1

6 TRIED & TESTED TACTICS TO ATTRACT MORE FOLLOWERS ON INSTAGRAM

by Fox TalesSocial Media

That Instagram is one of the most popular and effective social media channels is an understatement. With over one billion active monthly users, Instagram features at the top of the list of most popular social networks worldwide. In the last few years, models and influencers have built highly successful careers here, thousands of new ventures have launched on the platform (from home-cooks and budding designers to consultants and engineers), and Instagram has become the cornerstone of many brands’ social presence. The innovations on the app over the last couple of years have helped create a digital ecosystem that includes everything from social commerce (read our article about social commerce here!) and content marketing to driving profitable traffic to website landing pages, growing leads and conversions, and building an engaged audience.

On Instagram, the bigger your audience, the more opportunities you will have to engage with your followers and create connections with them.  But remember, while a huge following on Instagram is great, it does not mean much if you do not have an engaged audience that interacts with your brand, makes purchases, visits your website, and ultimately advocates for you to their own followers. If your brand’s Instagram presence and strategy isn’t quite as robust as you’d like it to be, it is time to pay attention and learn about strategies that will help you get real, organic followers on Instagram. We’ve got your back! Start implementing these tips to build and optimize your presence on Instagram:

1. Optimize Your Instagram Bio: As you start to work on your profile to gain more followers, one of the most important steps is to optimize your account and bio. Just like the homepage on your website, your Instagram bio is the first thing that followers will see. Your bio and profile image form the foundations of your brand identity on Instagram- they tell users exactly who you are and what you offer. The link option in your bio is super important as it helps drive Instagram traffic to your website, so be sure to optimize your account with this. If you’d like to offer a more cohesive experience for Instagram users, using an Instagram link landing page such as Linktree to host relevant links such as your website, content pieces mentioned on your page, or your portfolio is a great idea! If not a landing page, include clear contact details in your bio so that the audience has as much information as possible. Also note that Instagram is increasingly search-friendly, so make sure you use appropriate keywords in your bio and username to show up as much as possible.

2. Consistency + Content Calendar: A big mistake you can make while building your Instagram presence is posting haphazardly and inconsistently. Even if you have a decent following already, you want to remain in their minds, so having a clear content strategy and a detailed content calendar can really help boost engagement on Instagram. This is not to say that you should continuously spam your audience. Experiment with posting times and content formats (a few stories a day, a post every alternate day, reels once a week etc.) and find what works for your brand, then stick to it!

3. Brand Advocates + Influencer Marketing: Remember that on Instagram, your audience is your biggest asset. Few things are as convincing as brand advocates and word-of-mouth marketing. So, make sure you create a community of engaged users that can help spread the word about your product or service on the platform. The bigger your follower count grows organically and the more engaged your audience is, the more interested customers you will have. Feature user generated content (a fantastic way to build a community!), interact with your followers, respond to enquiries and DMs, answer questions, and share stories of your mentions to remain in front of people on the platform. Partner with relevant influencers, host giveaways or contests and do your best to create advocates for your brand on Instagram- it’s the easiest way to grow your audience.

4. Embrace Analytics: Embrace the insights and analytics tools on Instagram quickly! The platform’s dashboard, analytics and metrics provide fantastic data that can help you make smarter decisions and inform your content marketing strategy. Use Instagram analytics consistently to track your page’s progress, identify trends, and evaluate your target audience in more detail. Instagram analytics provides valuable data about which hashtags work well, which posts/ content formats receive more interaction and attention, and which times work well for posting. Use this to your advantage!

5. Pay Attention to Hashtags: An effective way to get followers on Instagram is by using hashtags. For several years now hashtags have been an essential tool for discovery and have allowed brands to extend their social reach. Use hashtags to build your community! Pay attention to the kind of hashtags you use- you do not want to use hashtags that are too populated. For example, #fun has 442 million posts associated with it. So, it will be very hard to stand out by using just this hashtag. Focus on finding hashtags that are relevant to your brand and offering, and ones that your target audience are more likely to check.

Also pay attention to make sure you avoid using a list of hashtags that are banned by Instagram. These may cause your account to be shadow banned, meaning your posts and stories won’t show up in people’s searches.

6. Use the Full Range of Instagram Features: From posts and IGTV videos to reels, reel remixes and stories, Instagram has an extensive range of features and content formats for you to use. A great way to keep the Instagram algorithm happy is to use all the features periodically and remain active on the platform. This in turn will help you grow your audience and gain more followers on Instagram.

Let us know if these tips work for you in the comments! If you have other ideas, we would love to hear them. Write to us in the comments or at hello@bombayfox.com

(The Author of this article is Nikita D’Souza, Sr. Social Media Manager, Bombay Fox)

Voice-Marketing_-Bombay-Fox

VOICE MARKETING ON SOCIAL PLATFORMS: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW

by Fox Tales

For several years now, the voice trend has been steadily growing; from the popular voice assistants (Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant), podcasts, and voice search industries to the newest voice-based social platforms, voice marketing is one of the most trending social segments online and is growing in popularity every day. Audio-social platforms are the hottest trend right now, and we’re here to explain to you what voice marketing on social platforms is, who the key players are, and how you can use it to build your brand. (You can thank us later!)

Hey Google, what is Voice Marketing?

In simple terms, voice marketing is a way for businesses, entrepreneurs, brands, and influencers to reach their target audiences through live or recorded audio content. Originating from the Radio, the audio marketing segment has exploded in the last couple of years and is showing no signs of slowing down.

Why is Voice Marketing So Popular?

Screen Fatigue is VERY real. Especially today- in the pandemic where the work and personal boundary lines are blurry, people are spending so much more time in front of a screen. Podcasts and audio-social platforms allow you to listen to or participate in conversations that interest with without having to stare at a screen. They are the perfect entertainment option for busy, multi-tasking individuals who prefer not to constantly scroll or be on camera. Voice social platforms actually take podcasts one step ahead, as they allow you to discuss topics of interest with like-minded individuals from the convenience of your home.

What are the Trending Platforms?

1. Clubhouse: One of the most popular audio-social platforms (Instagram is filled with people asking for invitations), Clubhouse is an invitation-only social media app for iOS that facilitates audio communication through rooms that can accommodate groups of up to 5,000 people. This app hosts virtual rooms for live discussions, all provides opportunities for individuals to participate through speaking and listening. It also lets you follow individuals and clubs based on your interest, start your own club, and hop in on conversations ranging from technology and finance to music and astrology!

How can brands leverage Clubhouse? As of now, Clubhouse does not allow advertising of any kind on its app. But there are other ways to get involved and create a presence on the platform. Creating a club for your brand, product, or cause, is a good way to build your community on the platform. To engage with their audiences, brands can host discussions (product usage, testimonials, Q&A sessions, etc.) and speak directly with their end consumers. Brands can also create profiles and add specific interests to their profile. Participating in industry rooms/clubs to understand conversations and trends prevalent in your domain is another way to use Clubhouse to your advantage. Sponsoring existing rooms/clubs is a also a good tactic to build your brand’s presence on Clubhouse.

2. Discord: The oldest of the audio-social platforms, Discord has over 200 million users and is hugely popular, especially among the gaming and tech community. Discord is a VoIP, instant messaging and digital distribution platform designed for creating communities online. Users communicate with calls, text messaging, media (image and video), and files in private chats or as part of communities called “servers”.

How can brands leverage Discord? In addition to the mobile app, Discord has a desktop app and a full suite of moderation tools for community leaders on the platform. While there are currently no display advertising opportunities on the platform, brands can still build a presence for themselves by creating communities to help foster conversation between users with similar interests. Another way to build an engaged community on Discord is to provide exclusive sales available only to community members. Discord does this themselves!

3. Twitter Spaces: Following the success and popularity of Clubhouse, Twitter recently rolled out a competing product in the audio-social industry called ‘Spaces’. Like Clubhouse, Spaces allows a user to create a live conversation which other Twitter users can join. All Spaces are public like Tweets, which means they can be accessed by anyone. They will automatically appear at the top of your Timeline, where you see Fleets, and each Space has a link that can be shared publicly.

How can brands leverage Spaces? Spaces is still in its infancy and is changing rapidly. Twitter announced that they have plans to roll this feature out to more handles as well as branded handles throughout 2021. Once branded handles are established, brands can use the feature to engage with their audiences vocally and enhance their presence on Twitter. If you already have an engaged community of Twitter followers for your brand, Spaces could be another avenue to interact with your community. There are speculations of advertising and brand opportunities on the horizon for Spaces, but no details are available yet.

Most of the audio-social platforms and features are very new and changing quickly. However, brands need to continue to monitor them and think about how they can establish a presence on these platforms. The goal of any good marketing strategy is to meet your audience where they spend time. If audio-visual platforms are where your audiences are, you need to focus on them and develop a strategy for your brand tone, presentation, and audio content. Building a profile and optimizing your presence for potential followers to find you easily is a very important aspect of building this part of your marketing strategy. It is time to start thinking not just about how good your brand (and branding materials) look, but also how they sound!

Let us know if these tips work for you in the comments! If you have other ideas, we would love to hear them. Write to us in the comments or at hello@bombayfox.com

(The Author of this article is Nikita D’Souza, Sr. Social Media Manager, Bombay Fox)