LinkedIn To Launch New Home Pages

LinkedIn is about to introduce a new, simpler, and more state of the art design for its home pages.  Specifically LinkedIn have revamped the its homepage  with improved functionality and usability.  The result being a new look and feel page to make it easier to scan and find the information that matters most to you. 
This simpler and cleaner design makes it easier to navigate the page and quickly find the updates you’re looking for, regardless of whether that’s a news article or an updated skill by someone in your network.

The most relevant and useful updates are now seen at the very top of the feed making it easier to stay on top of what matters most to you, such as trending topics, news, and professional updates based on what your connections and industry are reading, sharing, and discussing. This in turn will drive better time management with you being able to spend less time finding information you need professionally and spending more on the must dos.

As well LinkedIn have updated the way updates look and feel in the stream with richer visuals for better viewing. You can also see a continuous stream of updates without clicking “see more” to access all the latest updates from your network.  It’s also easier for you to see what your connections are talking about and engage in these professional conversations by liking, commenting or sharing the updates that are most important to you.

LinkedIn has continually stated its desire to continue to make its Homepage experience better, more efficient and a place where you can go each day to get what you need to be productive and successful. This is just the beginning of many more exciting, new features we plan to bring to the Homepage to offer more customization and functionality this year. We look forward to making the LinkedIn Homepage your go-to destination to discover and discuss what matters to you, your industry and your professionals network around the world.

LinkedIn have announced that these newly redesigned Homepages will rolling out to all members over the next few weeks.  Make sure you keep checking in every day and let us know what your thoughts are.

Until next time, good luck and good marketing.
Daniele.

Facebook Adds Location For Member Posts

Facebook have recently added the option for page owners to tag their posts and photos with location.There has not been an official announcement about the feature so it is unclear whether it has rolled out to all pages or if it is still being tested with a small group. 

Adding location to a post is useful for providing a more complete story, but there could be future changes that make location an even more critical aspect of posting.

Similar to personal posts, if a page post doesn’t have a photo or link included with it, a map of the location will be included. This could help text posts get noticed in News Feeds.

Pages do not yet have a map feature like personal Timelines do, so there isn’t an easy way to see all of a page’s location-tagged posts at once, but perhaps this is in the works. We wonder if Facebook will give pages even more functionality similar to personal Timelines, for example, adding Open Graph apps to share activity on behalf of the page. This would be useful for brands that are also active on networks like Instagram or Pinterest because they could display this activity within boxes on Timeline.

Location tagging could also be a part of a potential new ad product. Facebook is working on a location based advertising program, which may involve tagging page posts with location and promoting them as Sponsored Stories.

Page owners can tag their posts with location the same way they do on their personal profiles.

Many Types of Content to Select From

It's amazing how many times people have asked me in recent times about content and how they can routinely come up with content that is consistently funny, informative, newsworthy or just plain interesting.
As someone who knows all about the pressures and stresses associated with producing a consistent weekly amount of data for the Rad Scholars marketing blog, I found it interesting that an interesting infographic was recently  developed by RecessionSolution.com and shown on the graphic below.

Depending on your market, brand and product range, different types of content listed above may well be more attractive than others, but the key point here is that over time a good blog will provide posts that reflect most if not all of these areas, thereby ensuring that occasionally all the sought after and anticipated types of content are provided to the blogs keen readers.

No doubt over time you will see from first hand experience that certain types of  content are better received, liked, shared and commented on by your specific audience, and obviously you'll also want to make sure that these are seen more often than others, but not invariably. Because with blogging, as with all other things in life, variety really is the spice of  life.

Let us know what type of posts work best for you and until next time, good luck and good marketing.
Regards
Daniele

Creating Wow Factor Means Going Beyond

Like so many other intangibles Wow Factor is difficult to define, identify and certainly quantify. But one thing that is certain is that we all know and recognise it when we see it. What is wow factor and how do we create it in the minds of our target audience, customers and prospects alike?

In simple terms, wow factor is when someone's expectations are not only achieved but significantly surpassed. As a consumer of many products and services I can honestly say that I rarely if ever see a genuine wow factor, but when I do I rave about it.

Recently I was doing an intrastate trip for business where I was due to give a presentation to a group in Portland and drove for several hours to arrive by 6pm with the scheduled starting time being 7.30pm.

On arriving I drove into the hotel I was staying at that thankfully was also the venue for the nights presentation, and on leaving the car noticed how incredibly dirty it had become through the trip and how I would need to find a car wash in the morning before starting my 6 hour journey home or else risk being stopped and fined by the police for driving an unroadworthy car. Annoying but for now I couldn't do anything about it, so I put it out of my mind and continued to prepare and focus on the workshop that I needed to deliver in an hour or so.

The next morning after having successfully negotiated the workshop the night before I went to my car and was amazed to find it clean. Under the window whipper there was a small printed note saying,
" The Management and Staff at the Premier Inn would like to express their appreciation for you staying with us and would like you to please accept this small gesture of appreciation in the hope that you have a safe trip back home." Wow Factor.

Incredible a business that is overtly interested in me and my needs, that have nothing to do with my hotel room, meals and costs me no extra.

Think about it for a while. What additional product (good and / or service) can you potentially offer to the mix to add this type can you add to your existing mix to generate this type of goodwill and excitement. There are probably plenty and all it needs is a little extra thought. And please by all means let's hear about some of your new ideas to generate some thoughts that may help others as well.

Until next time, good luck and good marketing.

Regards

Daniele.