A brief explanation:

“A hashtag is a word or a phrase prefixed with the symbol #. It is a form of metadata tag.” (Source: Wikipedia)

In a nutshell: hashtags essentially allow people to follow a conversation or a “thread” when everyone uses the same word.

This visual example of how a hashtag works is from Ignite Social Media:

According to Wikipedia, hashtags started in IRC (Internet Relay Chat) in 2007, but didn’t gain popularity until it was used in tweets in 2009.

Threads such as #olympics or #michaeljackson, can often be seen “trending” and when you search or follow a specific keyword (which may just be letters/numbers #SSCTO13 for a conference).

Hashtags are particularly useful at conferences and events where you can read what is going on in a separate breakout session or connect with people at the event itself.

According to an article on allthingsD.com, one reason Facebook has adopted the hashtag is for the future use of “Second Screen”.

Second Screen is a term used for people who watch TV and are also connecting and posting via Social Media at the same time.

The hashtag on Facebook would allow brands to sponsor a specific word and get “in front” of a conversation for branding and exposure. Twitter is already capitalizing on sponsored tweets and hashtags.

According to Facebook.com:

“Hashtags are just the first step to help people more easily discover what others are saying about a specific topic and participate in public conversations. We’ll continue to roll out more features in the coming weeks and months, including trending hashtags and deeper insights, that help people discover more of the world’s conversations.”

I suspect that since Facebook is a “walled garden” (requiring log in and password to get access to information) with many users locking down their security settings, that hashtags will only be useful for those who have their settings set to public.  This means, brands and marketers won’t be able to get full access to hashtag conversations. This will certainly be a barrier to getting full access to marketing data from its users.

It will be interesting to see how well hashtags will work in the context of Facebook, which is much different than the “real-time” public sharing done on other social media networks.

I think Twitter as a virtual “water cooler” is much different than Facebook and will be curious to see if hashtags actually useful here.

As we know, Social Media is constantly evolving, and until businesses and people experiment with hashtags, we won’t really know whether including this in your Social Media strategy is worthwhile.

Remember, it’s important to think about the retun-on-investment you will get as a result of implementing this into your program.

If you are interested in experimenting, here are a few ways your business can leverage hashtags on Facebook:

1) Extend your brand awareness

On Twitter, anyone can create a hashtag, so if you can rally your community of passionate followers to all use a specific hashtag to promote your business and event, you will extend awareness of your conversation or event

2) Help you research your potential clients

Discovering and researching keywords and interests that your ideal client uses makes it much easier to create a more personal and intimate relationship with your audience. You can talk to your audience in the language they use amongst their peers.

3) Locate your tribe

Similar to point #2, if groups of people who fit within your target demographic are congregating together online, you will be able to find them more readily.

ACTION ITEM: What do you think? If you’re a Twitter user, do you think hashtags will be adopted and be useful in the same way?

Answer with your thoughts below.

The post Facebook Hashtags: What does this mean? appeared first on PUNCHmedia: Powerful Social Media Training So That You Can Convert More Sales.

It’s important to stay focused on your strategy and also because you don’t exchange business cards without a conversation, so why would you accept a LinkedIn connection without knowing them?

Building quality connections is something I’m quite passionate about.

But you may be wondering, “How do I reply when someone doesn’t send a personalized introduction?”

Good question!

I often reply with the following polite response:

“Thanks for your invitation to connect. Can you just refresh my memory as to how we know each other?”

This way, we can either start engaging in a dialogue and get to know each other better or those who don’t reply weed themselves out as non-participants anyway!

LinkedIn used to make the process of replying without accepting the connection MUCH easier.

Today, I logged in to find the process quite cumbersome, but I still believe responding without accepting people is still an important “how-to”, so I”m sharing the steps here:

Step 1: Click on Inbox and then the drop down menu that says “Accept Invitations:

Step 2: Click the drop down arrow on the “Accept” button, which will prompt you to “Reply (don’t accept yet)

Then you can reply politely and pre-qualify your connection without having to ignore or accept their connection request.

If you like this tip, please be sure to share it with your friends/colleagues and sign up to the PUNCH!media newsletter to get invited to “insider training” days and other great information!

Sign up at http://www.punchmedia.ca/email.html

Do you have another way to respond or add people into your LinkedIn “rolodex”? Do you add anyone who requests a connection? Share your answer in the blog below! 

The post How To Respond To LinkedIn Invitations appeared first on PUNCHmedia: Powerful Social Media Training So That You Can Convert More Sales.

Social Media is obviously here to stay. From Facebook “LIKES” to Twitter’s “hashtags” we are seeing Social Media go from strictly online communication to part of our daily vernacular.

But you don’t like Social Media because:

• You’re scared of looking stupid
• You think everything other people publishes is stupid
• You think “it’s all been said before”

Here’s the rub:

• Your clients are using Social Media
• Your clients are Googling solutions to their problems
• Your competition is probably using Social Media
• Your competition is talking with your hot prospects; providing them with advice and solutions

I may be bold by saying: You need to buck up, buttercup.

We are all afraid of looking stupid.

We are all afraid of failure.

We all think we’re not saying anything new because “it’s all been said before”

But guess what?

 No one has heard what you know from YOUR perspective.

People buy from you because they know, like and trust YOU (and your business).

So take the leap. Start small. Listen and learn.

Be strategic:

• What are your business objectives?
  (and if they don’t involve helping your customers by selling a superior product/service, you need to re-visit your objectives)
• Who is your ideal customer and where are they hanging out online?
• What are the keywords they are using on their LinkedIn profile?
• Listen first. Join the channel(s) they are using and see what you can do to contribute to the conversation.

Did you know that 78% of salespeople using Social Media outsell their peers?

It’s because they are listening, engaging and finding creative ways to stay top-of-mind through online conversations and status updates.

So get comfortable with Social Media. It’s not going away.

You, your “voice” and your perspective are important.

Remember, Social Media is not the “end all, be all”. It’s just another tool in your toolkit. You still need face-to-face meetings. You still need to have various “touchpoints” and build trust before people will buy from you.

Get focused. Get strategic. Get over your fears. Get posting

The post Scared of Social Media? GET OVER IT. appeared first on PUNCHmedia: Powerful Social Media Training So That You Can Convert More Sales.

The overall theme seemed to encourage us all to express ourselves and be creative, whatever your “medium” may be.

DAVID USHER

Lead singer from the band Moist, David Usher was utterly delightful and engaging, insightful and inspiring. A truly amazing performer and speaker. He sang and interacted with the audience and encouraged us to:

• Challenge yourself in public spaces to exceed and be creative.
• Get over the fear of failure.

And said that creativity isn’t a risk, it’s a necessity. That creativity is a muscle that needs to be used often.

He took us on a journey using storytelling and his songs such as “St. Lawrence River”, “Push” and “Black Black Heart” to share his creative process.

Talked about going beyond the rules and drawing outside the lines.

In addition to capturing all my thoughts via Twitter, I also tried out the video capture app Vine for the first time!

@davidusher wraps it up #theartof. Amazing. vine.co/v/b39Mzi0v2mI

JONAH BERGER

Associate Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Jonah Berger talked about his book “Contagious: Why do things catch on”.

He said:

• Word of mouth (WOM) is 10x more effective than ads. Its trusted & targeted
• Online WOM is only 7% because we share more face-to-face
• Technology may come & go, we must focus on psychology (I totally agree!)
• Six key stepps: social currency, triggered, emotion, public, practical value and stories
• Stories are the currency of conversation
• Really good stories & morals have beginning, middle & end and keep people engaged

What was even cooler is that Jonah Berger actually spent the time reading the tweets after his speech and favourite one of my posts to acknowledge he had read it. (As a social media geek, I always find it pretty cool when the speakers “listen” and engage)

SETH GODIN

As a long-time follower of Seth Godin, I was UBER-excited to see him speak.

He discussed many of the ideas from his books including:

• Boss’s four letter word is MORE…more profits, sell more, do more, get us more
• If failure is not an option then neither is success
• Mass marketing has lead to clutter, which makes more clutter. It’s not working anymore, we are branded to death
• The Industrial Age is ending, revolutions go from perfect to impossible. Every industry does this.
• Connection economy is replacing industrial economy
• Old industrial economy is based on scarcity. Information economy is based on abundance
• Coordination, trust, permission & exchange of ideas are supported by generosity & art

We are now all the “weird ones”, he said. We no longer have a bell curve of normal.

I skipped out of the Q & A period to be first in line to meet the man himself at the book signing. Can you see the glee in my eyes?!

I was SO nervous and told him so.

His quick and clever response was “Don’t cause a ruckus”.

CHARLES DUHIGG

New York Times reporter, author The Power of Habit, talked about the science of habit formation.

He shared examples about how every habit has 3 components: CUE –> ROUTINE –> REWARD

and that 40% – 45% of our daily activity are habits.

To change a habit (he talked about exercising), we have to reward ourselves with something like a small piece of chocolate.

He shared the marshmallow experiment video and explained that willpower is the best thing you can teach your kid for future success.

He discussed that Canadian Tire was one of the first companies to collect “Big Data” about their customers and also shared a story about Starbuck’s acronym for customer service: LATTE method: listen, acknowledge, thank, explain.

(My own aside, I think that from a marketing perspective, all this data collection is fantastic but at a time when trust is paramount for a company, stalking/creeping/mining us like Big Brother, there is a fine line between personalization and violation. But that’s a discussion for another time)

BIZ STONE

The hard core Social Media geeks in the room were delighted to see co-founder of Twitter present at this event. And the irony was not lost on us as we happily tweeted about the event and about Biz’s presentation.

He presented very casually using a lot of of “um whaaaats?” when recalling others reaction to some idea that seemed “stupid” but turned out to be wildly successful (like Twitter for example!)

He said that:

• Graphic design teaches you there are so many solutions to one problem and that we will never run out of our own creativity.
• Humanity will triumph with a little help from technolog; it’s just a tool.
• There is compound influence in altruism over time and the future of marketing is philanthropy

I loved to hear him say “Naysayers, complainers and people who said ‘this is stupid’ drive MORE people to check out Twitter and gain more exposure”

RON TITE – Master of Ceremonies

As always, the very funny and engaging MC, Ron Tite also captures all the clever moments in his blog: http://rontite.com/2013/06/my-name’s-not-bch-it’s-vicky/

SUMMARY 

Interestingly, most (if not all the speakers if I recall correctly) talked about their childhood and how as children we are just naturally creative and inspired and somehow this all “dies” as we grow into adulthood where we follow the rules and do the same thing day after day; not wanting to take the lead and be accountable.

The key messages that were reinforced by all the speakers today:

• Be creative
• Fail big and fail often
• Be weird

I think a lot of this is easier when you have power over the final say. It’s not easy for many of us to take risks for fear of looking stupid, or fear of failure, but as Seth Godin so aptly pointed out:

“If failure is not an option then neither is success”

Let’s be brave out there.

What do you think? How easy is it for you to take risks? Answer with your thoughts on the blog below.

The post The Art of Marketing Event: Be brave, be creative, fail often appeared first on PUNCHmedia: Powerful Social Media Training So That You Can Convert More Sales.

In this 45 minute webinar, you will learn:

* How Social Media is changing marketing
* What is LinkedIn? (Statistics)
* How LinkedIn benefits you
* How LinkedIn helps build relationships and convert sales
* Actionable steps you can take RIGHT now.

LinkedIn is the new business card – be sure to make the most of your presence to convert more sales.

Click here to download the ACTION plan as I mentioned on the webinar.

To access the first FREE LinkedIn Module from the webinar, click here 

The post LinkedIn Training LIVE (and FREE!) appeared first on PUNCHmedia: Powerful Social Media Training So That You Can Convert More Sales.

First there was “Ship My Pants”

Which is has reportedly become the 11th most watched online video ever.

Then there was “Big Gas Savings”

Remember the Old Spice ads in 2010? Adorable and sometimes nonsensical, we laughed and shared and talked about how clever this campaign was. This campaign translated into real dollars as profits rose 107%

But does a viral campaign automatically translate into dollars?

I haven’t come across any financial results or case studies yet.

In my humble opinion, a clever TV ad does not motivate me to purchase.

What motivates me is ongoing, consistent, stellar customer service, receiving value and price.

In this information age, we are empowered consumers who can comparison price shop and educate ourselves on why we should purchase one product over another.

What do YOU think?

Do ads like these change YOUR attitude about products?

Did you feel more compelled to buy Old Spice after their ad?

Answer with your thoughts below, or join in the already heated conversation on the PUNCH!media Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/punchmediadotca

The post Kmart’s “Ship My Pants” and “Big Gas Savings”: Does a viral campaign change your buying habits? appeared first on PUNCHmedia: Powerful Social Media Training So That You Can Convert More Sales.

These are all words LinkedIn uses to describe the new navigation bar.

I LOVE LinkedIn and am spending a lot more time working optimizing LinkedIn profiles and sales training.

My first instinct was nervous that by paring down the navigation, it would lose a lot of its functionality.

Looking at the brief overview in the video, it may actually make some of the functionality easier for new users who are trying to learn how to use it effectively.

For more advanced users, who are used to quick access to some of their favorite areas, this may prove to be frustrating.

Like all new changes, this may take some time to adjust to, but hopefully this streamlined navigation bar will only enhance your experience and not detract from it.

Stay tuned for more reviews (when I receive the rollout of the new navigation).

What do YOU think? Does this new navigation make LinkedIn look easier to figure out? (Please answer in the comments area below)

The post LinkedIn’s New Look: A Re-Vamped Navigation Bar appeared first on PUNCHmedia: Powerful Social Media Training So That You Can Convert More Sales.

A ton of businesses have been encouraging their followers to “LIKE” them on Facebook or “follow” them on Twitter.

And as a Social Media strategist, I love to use these sites to help extend word-of-mouth awareness for my clients.

Sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc., are phenomenal for building a passionate community of followers who can help disseminate information about your company.

Social Media a MUST for customer service and for a 2-way dialogue with with your clients.

But I’ve got a little “secret” for you. You want to OWN the relationship with your customers.

Click on the video below to listen to more about why I believe you shouldn’t “put all your eggs” into any Social Media “basket”

In a nutshell, Social Media sites change their rules and algorithms all. the. time.

You want to funnel your calls-to-action to come back to YOUR website and capture their emails along the way.

I want to know from YOU….how often to YOU email your audience? Are you finding it to be worthwhile? Why? Why not? 

Please be sure to answer below!

The post Why Your Email Database Is the “Golden Nugget” appeared first on PUNCHmedia: Powerful Social Media Training So That You Can Convert More Sales.

Sally Hogshead, author of the book “FASCINATE” says that we have less than 9 seconds to make a first impression.

Her material and online program help you uncover your natural strengths through 7 Triggers of Fascination and 49 Personality Archetypes.

Looking through the 7 Triggers, I was certain I was going to rank high in the “trust” area but I was surprised to receive the results that my primary Trigger was  ”Prestige” which is outlined as:

• someone who rapidly earns respect
• focuses on adding value through better execution
• conscientious of the smallest details
• motivated by a competitive spirit and determined outlook
• expects the highest quality deliverables from self and others

I was a little surprised with the word “prestige” but as I went through the descriptions and was told my archetype (The Perfectionist), I found that this online test really did seem to ring true.

Lately I’ve become really interested in not only the psychology of Social Media but I’ve been following authors Sally Hogshead and Marcus Buckingham as they both seem to focus on identifying your strengths and leveraging what you’re naturally gifted to do while being mindful of the potential pitfalls from some of the areas you are weaker in.

Sally Hogshead explains: “When you communicate using your Fascination Advantage, you’re operating at your peak performance — and you’re doing it effortlessly”

From the Social Media perspective, your first impression may be when someone Googles you.

What impression are you making on your LinkedIn profile? Are you fascinating your prospective clients by building out your LinkedIn summary and headline?

How about your blog, or your Facebook page? Is your branding consistent? Are you connecting effectively with your target audience?

Making a strong first impression is important and I’ve heard the “rule of thumb” that it takes between 8 to 10 times for someone to see you/your brand before they start to resonate with it. And by resonance, this means your prospective clients feel a deep psychological bond with your brand. (I cannot find the statistical data to back this number up but I’ve heard it referred to in the Keller Brand Equity Model)

The new way of marketing is not about how you push your business onto others – it’s how your prospective clients feel about you.

They are buying because they know, like and trust you. Are you communicating your core brand pillars and strengths effectively?

ACTION ITEM: Take a moment now to review you LinkedIn Summary.

Think about how it sounds from your prospective clients point-of-view. Would you buy from you? Are you “fascinating”?

Tweak with the copy to make it professional yet personal. 

Share below some of the ways you’ve showcased yourself as fascinating! What is your unique value proposition? What makes you unique?

The post Is your LinkedIn Summary Fascinating? appeared first on PUNCHmedia: Powerful Social Media Training So That You Can Convert More Sales.

You’re not alone.

Most people don’t know what to do with LinkedIn, and quite frankly it’s not exactly the most exciting Social Media site of the bunch.

But the truth is, it’s by FAR the most powerful Social Media site.

Why?

It’s your business network.

It’s not the site where people share pictures of cats. It’s not the site where people tell you what they had for breakfast.

LinkedIn is the site where business people share business information.

It’s more than just your resume – it’s how you position yourself as an expert

It’s more than just a Rolodex – it’s a way you can extend your reach for NEW prospects

It’s more than just a time-suck – it’s a useful resource for information.

Setting up your profile may take you some time (depending upon how much detail you put into it). And, I have a 12-minute FREE video that will help you get started

In the meantime, here are 5 way you can manage and optimize your LinkedIn profile in 5 minutes per day:

1) Log in first thing every morning and update your status.

Ideally you want it to be relevant to your audience and not just “noise”. Make sure it’s interesting and compelling.

It can be:

• an update about your industry at large
• and update about a great announcement at your company
• a recent accomplishment
• just a general, interesting article from a reputable news source or blog

This way you stay top-of-mind and reinforce that you are an expert by keeping on top of “what’s hot”.

Your Action Item: Update your status at least 2x to 3x per week 

2) Continue to build on your connections

Either, introduce yourself to someone new – who could be a hot prospect or connect with someone you already know.

Be sure to always send a personalized note and remind them how you know each other, or why you want to get to know them better.

Your Action Item: Build at least one new connection weekly

3) Comment and connect

Join a group and contribute to the conversation or simply comment and connect with your current connections.

Remember, Social Media is a conversation – you’re not pushing your stuff.

You’re creating relationships. You’re building trust.

What are you contributing to your presence that people think “Wow, this person is someone I have to pay attention to”?

Your Action Item: Add a comment or start a conversation at least 2x per week

4) Add a little bit more

Rome wasn’t build in a day. Your LinkedIn profile isn’t going to be either.

Like you, your profile should evolve over time. Add some applications, tweak with your summary or other copy.

There is always something you can do to tweak with it to make it just a little bit better.

Your Action Item: Tweak with your personal profile at least 1x per week (hint: there are some great tips in the free video)

5) Most importantly – stay on strategy.

Social Media is a huge time suck if you let it control you. When you stay focused on your strategy, your objectives and why you are using these kinds of tools to make more sales, you’ll find you receive results.

Your Action Item: If you have to, set an alarm to ensure you are only spending 5 minutes a day.

I’m sure once you start to dig into LinkedIn, you’ll find it to be a HUGELY useful resource to gain more quality connections into your sales funnel.

Ideally, if your company can invest in helping train staff to build out their presence – even better.

Because statistically speaking, Top Salespeople Use LinkedIn To Sell More

If you like statistics…here are a few more reasons why LinkedIn should be a priority on your “to do” list.

The post How To Use LinkedIn in 5 Per Day appeared first on PUNCHmedia: Powerful Social Media Training So That You Can Convert More Sales.