LinkedIn Opens Up Its Publishing Platform to All 300 Million Members

Linked have announced that after having up until now reserved its prestigious Publishing Platform for only around 500 leading, global key opinion leaders and celebrities, it is now opening up the Linked in Publishing Platform to all of its over 300 million users.

Essentially the platform is a blogging platform similar to a Blogger or WordPress and allows anyone to go on and share timely, relevant and hopefully useful information with their target audience.

Consequently this change in LinkedIn’s thinking provides a very real opportunity for any individual to position themselves and consistently demonstrate their specific knowledge, skill or expertise to those who would most benefit from it on a highly regarded and professional medium such as LinkedIn.

The key advantage then to publish is to be able to gradually build your reputation and influence with people who may not even be part of your own network and yet may themselves have great influence and very much be part of your target demographic and market.

The platform itself has some practical functionality built in to it in that it allows for content via text, pictures and videos t present your updates on relevant issues in your industry and market.  It even has a comment system built into it that you can share via your other networks such as Google Plus and Facebook.

Importantly it also allows you to build in to your post a brief bio on yourself and what you do and by inference how you are connected to this area of discussion. This bio can be used to link the story back via a hyperlink to your own site or blog and even your name could be linked back to a personal profile on your LinkedIn profile for example.

As always with any blog the key aim here is to provide outstanding content that addresses any particular issue, need, challenge or concern that may be topical with the group, as distinct from overtly trying to sell something which again is rarely what people want early in the piece where you have not earned the right to advance to that stage.

Ultimately the mighty platform algorithms with their complex formula and weightings decide exactly which posts get seen and which ones don’t but as they say you need to be in it to win it. So give it a try and your insights and content may get you seen far and wide across the LinkedIn world.

So until next time, good luck and good marketing.

Regards,
Daniele.

Laura Ashley Fail to See THe Big Picture

I must say that it never fails to surprise me how even the larger and you would think, smarter and more established businesses fail to see the big picture when it comes to customer satisfaction, lifetime value of the customer and ultimately brand promise and reputation.

In yet another staggeringly poor example of customer service I found myself wanting to return an item to Laura Ashley on the basis that after only one brief use for literally 5 minutes, I could see that on the basis of its design the sides of the foot rest were pulling across the top and sides of the unit and this puckering could only worsen over time.

Realising that this simply was not the design required, we called back the store and speaking to the 2IC were told to bring the unit in, in person because she (the 2IC) would need to see the unit in person to make a decision and this could not be done by the other staff in the store.

At the first available opportunity I brought the unit in to the store  and explained the situation to the same 2IC who then proceeded to tell me she did not have the authority to make the decision so I would need to come back in 20 or 30 minutes when the manager returned from her lunch.

Accordingly I returned later and presented her with the same facts and the unit fully in tact as I had purchased it.  I would have imagined that a simple exchange would have occurred at this stage and that would have been that but no the plot was about to thicken.

At this point I was told a number of other things including the fact that they did not think anything was wrong with the unit and there was nothing there. Later on this changed to yes there was some puckering but all units have this type of pulling at the top, which was interesting given that initially they had said there was nothing there.

And of course the third thing was that the manager said that she would have exchanged the unit had we come within two weeks of the sale with a voluntary exchange but after a little over three weeks, this could no longer be an option despite the fact that we had called and registered the issue within two weeks and were told by the assistant manager to bring it in at our earliest convenience which we did.

As you read this description of the proverbial changing of the goal posts, you may be able to relate to it personally where you have been in this type of position with this or some other leading brand. I am staggered of course because after years of buying from them, their attitude is seemingly not to protect the goodwill established but rather to protect the sale. Surely the integrity of the sales process and the all-important customer relationship are much more valuable to the business than the one sale.

For the record the footrest was valued around $140. I put this number up against what has already been spent in years to this point and what may yet be spent in years to come and I can only wonder why for the good of the particular store, the brand and the profitability of the company, these managers are not more focused on the need for customer service, managerial discretion, the integrity of the product being sold and above all, lifetime value of the customer.

To finish this anecdote I have just heard that after great deliberation They will in fact refund my money. I'm grateful and pleased about this of course but it should not have been such a great ordeal. 

In closing I am reminded of one of the most powerful lines I have ever read from Robert Bolt's incomparable play 'A Man for All Seasons' where Thomas More says:
“Why Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world...but for Wales."
And certainly not for $140.

So until next time, good luck and good marketing.
Regards,
Daniele.

Digital Enterprise Program Goes from Strength to Strength

It is really thrilling to be able to report back to you all how wonderfully well the Federally funded, Digital Enterprise Program (D.E.P) has begun in recent weeks with packed out sessions for many of the free workshops being delivered all around the city through the various councils under the auspices of VECCI ere in Victoria.
 

 

digitalenterprise@vecci.org.au

As I mentioned in an earlier post, there are 7 state of the art two hour workshops which are free for all attendees and cover off all the key areas of interest in all things digital media. Specifically they are:

1. Developing an e-strategy

2. Improving business efficiencies: Online tools and applications

3. The benefits and risks of digital marketing

4. Social Media

5. Going global online

6. E-commerce

7. Managing customer relationships online

To register for any or all of these workshops  you can visit:  www.vecci.org.au/dep or Email:  digitalenterprise@vecci.org.au or Phone:  VECCI directly on  (03) 8662 5333 to register for them at a date and venue that suits you.

By attending any of the 7 workshops each attendee will also be able to sign up for a free,  one on one 4 hour coaching and mentoring session for their business at their location. FREE. 

This is simply too good to pass up on and I urge everyone to not only get involved with the DEP themselves but also to forward this post to their networks so that their contacts can also benefit from this remarkably generous digital marketing initiative.

So until next time, Good luck and good marketing.
Regards,
Daniele.