Is Organic Social Media Dead? 6 Things You Need to Know

October 16, 2018

There’re two sides to every story, and we’ve heard about every angle when it comes to the value of social media marketing. Some believe organic social media is dead, that there is absolutely no value in it at all, others think you should only do organic if you’re invested in paid, and some think organic social media effort still adds significant value for B2B businesses.

So, who is right?

The truth is it all depends on your overall marketing goals. Every business, company, industry is different, so to say one way or the other is right or wrong, simply doesn’t make sense.

30 Minute How-To Guide: Check out this webinar to learn how you can build your brand on LinkedIn ➢

Here are 6 things that you must know about organic social media before you make that decision for your company:

1. Organic is Still FREE

Regardless of your opinion on the importance of organic social media, there’s one thing that can’t be argued – it’s still free publicity for your company. Being active on the right social media channels isn’t going to hurt your brand, it can only amplify it.

2. Brand Validation

Potential employees, clients, candidates, they are all on social media, especially LinkedIn. Many people will look at your social profiles before they visit your website. These users look at social channels to validate their decisions to engage with a brand. That engagement could be a call, a signup, or merely a follow, but it’s a way that they start to build a relationship with a company. That decision will be influenced by what information, reviews or content they find on your social profile.

3. Engagement: Organic Content Resonates with Engaged Communities

Some brands can post and without effort, get a ton of engagement, which is great, but it’s not reality for every brand or industry.

The days of scheduling out posts and crossing your fingers are gone. To have success, you need to invest in creating engagement. This means engaging with others and most importantly, making employee advocacy a priority. This is vital in today’s landscape for building an online presence and making your organic postings worthwhile.

In general, organic content just won’t break through the social networks’ algorithms, but with support from your employees and a community, the reach potential can increase tremendously.

4. Listening: It’s Not Just About Posting – Social Platforms Allow for Companies to Listen Too

Did someone have a bad or excellent experience with your company? Chances are if they did, they might want to talk about it. It’s important to monitor social media to know what others are saying about you and your brand. This is something that regardless of how active or not active you are, it’s not going to stop others from not being active.

Have a nasty Google review? Here’s what you can and cannot do to get rid of them.

5. Paid Social Media: Organic Social Media Can Only Compliment Your Paid Efforts

Realistically, paid social isn’t much of an option when it comes to effective social media marketing anymore. Your paid and social media efforts should complement each other, working together as a strategy compared to individual tactics. One mistake I see with companies is that they don’t realize there are multiple different ways you can utilize paid social media, it all depends on your overall goals.

Bottom line, if you want to maximize your social media marketing efforts and prove true ROI, you’re going to need to use paid and organic together in a strategy.

6. Authenticity: Social Provides a Different Level of Authenticity for Brands

Organic social provides you a chance to show others who you are as a company and not just the services you offer or what you sell. It allows you to showcase what defines your organization, who is a part of building it and what’s important to you. It’s great to have authenticity on your website or show a culture page, but you should be telling your story, not just waiting for people to land on the right page to find it.

As you can see, organic social media isn’t completely dead. I think it’s safe to say that paid social media plays a huge role more now than ever before in implementing a successful strategy, but organic is still just as relevant today as it was in the past. Just because it may have become more challenging, doesn’t mean you should throw it out completely.

The most important thing to remember is that social media marketing is a potent marketing method that can help your business reach its overall goals. But for that to happen, there needs to be a valid strategy behind your efforts, flying blindingly or just winging it, isn’t going to cut it anymore.

Watch Parqa’s Free 30-Minute Webinar: Growing Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn For Recruiters. LinkedIn is the go-to social network for recruiters, it’s never been more important to make sure your personal brand stands out online. Learn how to grow your business, and gain traction on LinkedIn, in this 30-Minute How-To Guide for Recruiters.

Your Website’s User Experience: Why It’s Important

October 2, 2018

User Experience: also known as UX is defined as the overall experience you have when you are using or interacting with something. Most often we think and talk about this in terms of ‘technical’ devices like smartphones, but the truth is UX is much broader.

In this article we’ll be referring to UX as the experience your visitors have when browsing through and interacting with your website.

“If you can get visitors to stay on your site for 30+ seconds, there’s a good chance they’ll stay much longer on your website — often times 2+ minutes.”

Why Should I Care About My Website’s UX?

plays a critically important role in getting potential customers to spend time on your website, interact with your site and/or complete a specific action on the site (i.e. e-book download, contact form submission, purchase, phone call, quote request, etc). Without a good website UX you’re basically handing your potential customers over to the competition.

You have about 10 seconds to convince a web-visitor to stay on your website.

Even if they decide to stay, they’re still highly likely to leave within the subsequent 20 seconds of their visit. So your website has to draw them, the content has to get them reading or scrolling through the page, while your CTA’s and other call-outs entice them to want to dig deeper into your site (whether it’s looking at more of your products, services, or learning more about your company).

“If people perceive the opportunity to interact and are confident that the interaction will help them reach their goal, then the probability of interaction is very high, and we will observe focused and intentional interaction.”

How Do I Know if My Website Has a Good UX?

There are a number of ways to tell if your website has a good UX. Below is a compiled list of some of the top UX requirements you should have on your website, why they’re important, and what you can do to improve your website’s UX and increase conversions.

The more ‘yeses’ you can answer on the statements below the better User Experience your site has.

Your contact form button(s) doesn’t say “submit”
All of your web pages have breadcrumbs on them
You change the content on your homepage frequently to keep it fresh for returning visitors
Your blogs/ news articles are written using the inverted pyramid style format
(For service/ B2B based businesses): You have a pricing page or information about your pricing somewhere on the website
You have an ‘About Us’ page
Your website provides anticipatory feedback somewhere – (typically on product category or blog/ news pages)
The majority of your site content is laid out/written using short paragraphs and bullet points
You don’t use any/ many stock photos throughout your website

A form button that says ‘Submit’ gives users the impression that the form isn’t focused on a specific task. It also gives off the impression that your website isn’t user-friendly because you’re speaking in a technical way most users aren’t familiar with. If this is the impression they get when they fill out your form, you can bet you’re going to lose a few users.

Use text that is task specific and describes what the person can expect to happen after they click the button, (i.e. “Get Your Results, “Create Account”, “Subscribe Now”, “Register”, etc.)BREADCRUMBS: are little navigational aids that help people visualize where they are on your site, and also help Google determine how your site is structured.

EXAMPLE:
Electronics > Computers & Accessories > Computer Cases

Advantages to using breadcrumbs:

Visitors take fewer steps when navigating from section to section – enhancing user experience (UX)
They clarify site navigation that shows visitors where they are on a site’s hierarchy of pages
Google loves them because it helps it make hierarchical sense of your website structure
They lower bounce rates

Changing content frequently on your homepage is a way to keep it fresh for returning visitors.

The inverted pyramid style:

Start with the conclusion
Explain the most important facts
Write in small chunks
Give each new idea its own paragraph
Give more background detail after the important facts

Even if you give the whole story away in the first sentence, your visitors are likely to continue reading, because they’re after information and they’re going to continue reading/ skimming the blog/article until they get to the level of detail they want.

(For service/ B2B based businesses)

The lack of pricing on B2B websites is one of the biggest frustrations for potential customers and is likely going to play a role in your business losing a sale. Studies show that pricing information is 2x as important to B2B purchasers as a contact phone number.

You may have many reasons why you can’t/ don’t want to show pricing information on your site, but regardless of what the reason is, there is a way to provide customers information on your pricing (whether or not that includes actual $$$ values).

Your pricing page/structure should show one of the following:

Let visitors use a cost calculator on your site to calculate some sort of hypothetical cost
Give examples of work you’ve done and the price for which that client paid
Why you can’t provide a pricing structure online?, be specific as to why

If you have an ‘about us’ page, does your content answer “yes” to the following questions?

Does it provide info that helps them understand/ determine if you a good match for their needs?

Does it evoke a sense of trust?

This is one of the most underrated pages on most websites. All too often organizations/ businesses see this simply as a page they must have on the website because everyone else does, but it’s almost never optimized or changed.

The ‘About Us’ page might as well be called the “Can I Trust You Page?” Visitors/ potential customers need a way of knowing more about you so they can be sure you’re okay to do with business with, or that the information you’re providing is accurate. They also need to be able to determine if you’re a good match for their needs.

What you should include on your ‘about us’ page:

company history (i.e. how long have you been in business?, what’s the story behind the business?)
who are some of your clients/customers or typical types of businesses you work with
testimonials
information about/ links to your service or product offerings

[ANTICIPATORY FEEDBACK: is information provided before a person interacts to help them understand what the outcomes may be.

Visitors/ customers are already overly impatient when it comes to browsing the web, so incorporating anticipatory feedback/ design into your web-pages is crucial. Whether they’re booking a trip or buying a board game for the family game night, the priority is not so much freedom of choice as it is efficiency in arriving at the desired end.

(This helps people avoid interactions and choices that are not going to help them achieve their goals,) and move them quickly and easily navigate through the desired pathway to their destination as quickly as possible.

More is not better when it comes to websites, in fact it’s almost the exact opposite. As mentioned above your site content and structure should be in a way that answers your visitor’s most important questions, but it should do it in a way that is simple and easy to find and understand.

By focusing your visitor’s attention on what’s important and making it easier to understand means customers are less likely to go to a competitor for the same service.

Tips to help focus your visitor’s attention on important information:

use bullet points when possible, as they are easier to scan and read over
keep pages clean and simple (don’t overload them with sidebars, forms, etc.)
have service pages that describe in detail the different services your company offers

Your visitors should feel like the site is specifically tailored directly to them and not an overall general user type.

(Answer Honestly) Do you utilize stock photos on your site?

It’s okay to utilize some stock photos, as long as they don’t scream “stock photo”

However, studies have found that although the perceived trustworthiness of poorly performing vendors was increased when they used stock photography, perceived trustworthiness of vendors with good reputations was decreased.

If you have the ability to utilize customized photos of your actual office and employees, do so.

Your contact form button(s) doesn’t say “submit” ➣
All of your web-pages have breadcrumbs on them ➣
You change the content on your homepage frequently to keep it fresh for returning visitors ➣
Your blogs/ news articles are written using the inverted pyramid style format ➣
(For service/ B2B based businesses): You have a pricing page or information about your pricing somewhere on the website ➣
You have an ‘About Us’ page ➣
Your website provides anticipatory feedback somewhere – (typically on product category or blog/ news pages) ➣
The majority of your site content is laid out/written using short paragraphs and bullet points ➣
You don’t use any/ many stock photos throughout your website ➣

man typing on tablet and reviewing graphs

PPC Match Types for Recruiters

September 27, 2018

As any recruiter knows, generating leads online has become more and more critical. Mobile web traffic is integral, we rarely go very far without our handy-dandy smartphone nowadays. People are more attached to their phone than their wallets. How crazy is that?

Today I wanted to talk about match types and the importance of utilizing the right set up. Match types in the PPC world allow you to cast a small or large net depending on your traffic goals.

Google has 4 match types for recruiters using PPC:

Broad match:

Broad match is the default match type that all your keywords are assigned. Ads may show on searches that include misspellings, synonyms, related searches, and other relevant variations. So, if your keyword is “women’s hats,” someone searching for “buy ladies hats” might see your ad.

Broad match modifier:

Similar to broad match, the broad match modifier option only shows ads in searches including the words designated with a plus sign (+women’s hats) or close variations of them.

Phrase match:

Ads may show on searches that match a phrase or are close variations of that phrase, with additional words before or after. Ads won’t show, however, if a word is added to the middle of the words, or if words in the phrase are reordered in any way. Designated with quotation marks (“women’s hats”).

Exact match:

Ads may show on searches that match the exact term or are close variations of that exact term. Close variations here may also include a reordering of words if it doesn’t change the meaning, and the addition or removal of function words (prepositions, conjunctions, articles, and other words that don’t impact the intent of a search). Designated with brackets, the keyword [women’s hats] could show when someone searches on Google for “hats for women.”

How to Use Match Types

Here is an example using the keyword example finance recruiter:

Broad: finance recruiter

Broad Match Modified: +finance +recruiter

Phrase: “finance recruiter”

Exact: [finance recruiter]

The match type I really like to play with when optimizing is the broad match modified. This match type allows you to modify a specific keyword to make sure that it is in place, followed by other keywords the searcher is searching for. All while simultaneously minimizing the junk traffic to your website.

Example: +finance +recruiter

These keywords tell the system that as long (finance) & (recruiter) is in the search query, show the ad. If someone searched IT recruiter, the keywords would not match and your ad would not show up. This will help your ad reach a highly relevant audience, which in turn helps out your CTR and conversion rates.

Related Post: New Site Launch SEO Checklist ➢

Integrating BMM Keywords [Broad Match Modified]

One method we recommend and prioritize is different variations of Broad Match Modified (BMM) keywords. For example, you could run keyword with this match type:

+finance +recruiter

And then the next month or a certain time period run this match type:

+finance recruiter

This match will allow for more traffic but not necessarily the most relevant traffic because you can potentially pull up for tons of searches that have finance in them relating to something else other than just recruiter searches.

You really want to open up to broad matches when you feel you are not getting enough search traffic on the BMM types. If you do open up to broad matches, make sure you have a vast negative keyword list so that you limit the amount of needless spend. We recommend avoiding broad match for extended periods of time and watch your account like a hawk if you do so.

So, the next time someone tells you that you have an opportunity to increase overall organic visibility on your site, hear them out. Ask them pointed questions about how they plan to drive marketing success.

And if you do find yourself starting a partnership with a marketing agency, here are four ways to build an effective relationship.

5 Simple Ways To Repurpose Your Best Marketing Content

September 25, 2018

Back in the mid-1990s, we were on the cusp of the “.COM” bubble, the turn of the millennium, and blogging began. Blogging was seen as a way to get your thoughts on paper (well, on screen actually) and maybe someone else in the world would stumble upon it and check it out. At the time, there weren’t social media channels to share it out on, and it wasn’t used to highlight your expertise in an industry.

Fast-forward twenty-plus years and the world has shifted dramatically. Today, blogging isn’t just a space to put your thoughts out in the world – it’s a foundational piece to your content marketing strategy. But what if people aren’t finding your blogs? What if there isn’t traction with the content you’re putting out into the world? There could be a number of reasons these pain points are hitting you and today I want to focus on repurposing that content you already have into other media formats.

Webinars

Most blogs on the internet are around 500-700 words, while most webinars are around 30-40 minutes. If you read an average length blog out loud, it won’t take more than 5 minutes. Directly transferring from a blog to a webinar will clearly result in a lack of content, and your audience will be disappointed in the length of your webinar.

But webinars are a great way to tell stories about how you got to this point of sharing your knowledge. Webinars – different from podcasts – have the ability to show content, such as a PowerPoint or webpage to expand the topics you’re speaking about. In a recent webinar done by our CEO Tony Sorenson, Tony was able to tell his story on how he got to where he’s at, deliver information on the topic, and connect with the audience on the importance of the topic in our market. If Tony were to type up that entire webinar, it would be incredibly long, and most likely not something a few hundred people would want to read word for word.

Long Form Content

Long form content can come in a few different ways like ebooks, salary guides or whitepapers. Transferring a blog directly into long form content may not necessarily work (similar to the webinar) as it wouldn’t be enough content. The reason people download long form content is to receive ‘the ultimate guide’ or ‘the easy guide’ to solve a problem they are seeing in their industry or life.

Video blogs

This is one of my favorite ways to transform a blog for a different audience. When blogs are posted to social media, someone needs to click on the blog, be routed back to the website, then read through all the way to the end in order to see your call to action. Video blogs, on the other hand, are a brilliant way to take a blog and transform it into a video that’s usually around 30 seconds long. People can watch video blogs over lunch, on the bus heading home, or just relaxing on the couch. They are quick and don’t require having the sound on (such as a webinar) since the tips are right on the screen. The best types of blogs to convert over to video are blogs such as ‘5 tips’ or ’10 strategies to’ since they have numbered out suggestions. Each slide in the video can be your 5 tips, then it’s wrapped up with a Call-To-Action to direct the audience to engage. The other great part about video blogs, is you don’t need a designer’s eye to make it look great. There are tons of tools out there to help you get started – and they’re very simple to use!

Podcasts

While similar to webinars, Podcasts are built solely for your audience to listen to and not watch or read anything simultaneously. Podcasts are great for people on the move – personally, I listen to them out on walks, during my lunch break, or in my car on my commute home. They’re also a great way to bring on guests to interview who are thought leaders in the industry. Podcasts can also have commercials or sponsors to encourage people to take action outside of just listening. Build a following and a cadence to allow insight into your company, your objectives and your opinions on industry new and trending topics.

Infographics

Infographics are similar to video blogs in that they are excellent tools for your social media strategies. These work great for blogs that are laid out in the step by step, or workflow of suggestions. Arrows, timelines, funnels or other shapes that guide from idea to idea help an infographic flow. This is also another format where a blog can be slimmed down to a handful of main points to quickly and effectively make a point. They’re also great in presentations, handouts or to reference for quick facts within a blog. The one downside to converting to infographics is they can take a lot of time, and potentially need a designer to put them together – but once completed, they are effective on social, and quickly get your information in front of prospective clients.

While getting content out in front of the world is great, having a strategy to get the right content at the right time in the right format is crucial. If someone is busy walking their dog, they most likely aren’t reading a whitepaper – but they could easily be listening to a podcast! Taking the time to figure out who your audience is, where they’re consuming content, and at what pace. Utilize the analytics and tracking to study what your audience does and capitalize on it!

Webinar On-Demand: Is Your Website Your Best Salesperson? How-To Bring Content into your Marketing Strategy➢

At Parqa Marketing, we specialize in creating and executing content marketing strategies for recruiters. Learn more about our approach to content marketing and contact us today if you’d like to discover how we can transform your recruiting firm’s digital marketing efforts.

Introduction to Social Media: Understanding Your Platforms

September 19, 2018

Social Media is a term that has become synonymous with modern day marketing tactics. The days of E-Blasts, conference brochures, and mailing lists aren’t over, but it’s clear there are more channels than ever to communicate to clients and candidates alike.

According to the Demand Gen Report, 47% of buyers viewed 3-5 pieces of content before engaging with a sales rep.

This stat rings true with our approach to talent attraction on social platforms and is a focus in our introduction to social media. Social media is an integral component of our strategy to increase attention to our brand. Social platforms allow for ease of distribution, for various types of content, and when used correctly, can prime clients and candidates for your sales team.

30 Minute How-To Guide: Check out this webinar to learn how you can build your brand on LinkedIn ➢

Twitter

336 million monthly active users
280 Characters, Previously 140 Characters
Ideal length is 120-130 characters
Content options: Short form. Blogs. eBooks. GIFs. Company Posts.

Short and sweet. Twitter is not your platform for long posts or an avenue to hard sell your services. This is a platform for sharing information quickly with the goal to lead clients and candidates to your content. Some examples of content that can be incorporated with a Twitter post include:

Company Events
News or Blogs
eBooks
Salary Guides
Community Involvement

Click-through-rate (CTR) will be the main parameter for success on Twitter. We don’t post to post, we want targeted engagement. Sharing relevant information quickly, and lead people specifically to the landing pages, gated content or blogs you’ve selected. Buffer ran a study focusing on CTR, and how clicks correlate to length of posts. As you’ll see below in their data, you’re going to want to stick to staying short with around 120-130 characters.

(Photo Credit Via Buffer)

#Hashtags. It is not a necessity but with specific posts #Hashtags can increase potential for engagement. Hashtags work very similarly to SEO optimized keywords on your website. Not there yet? Catch up on keywords, and loop back here when you finish up.

Here’s an example. When you attend your next conference, check to see the hashtag they are using. The hashtag will help attendees clearly interpret that the post is running with the conference, and when the user clicks the hashtag they will view all posts with that hashtag.

For that very reason, hashtags can be a great way to curate all posts associated with your event. Just don’t forget, short and sweet on Twitter. Buffer ran a study on the ideal hashtag limit, finding a negative response when multiple hashtags are used.

(Photo Credit Via Buffer)

540 million users, with 256 million monthly active users.
Professional headline: 100-120 characters
Content options: Industry news. Gated Content. Event promotion. Thought leadership.
Shine some light on your company culture and industry expertise. Empower your employees to share and comment on company posts. Post company offers, promotions or short videos from your Execs.

LinkedIn is the primary social media outlet for staffing and recruiting alike. Having an up-to-date account is crucial, but your interactions and the types of posts you’re sharing can be the difference between successful posts and a missed opportunity.

Company posts can be a great first step towards finding consistency of posts. Coordinate with other employees on your team, reposting their shared posts, commenting on posts and beginning the dialogue. It’s a tough expectation to assume interaction and comments on each of your posts. Establishing a cadence where your fellow employees can engage within your comments is a quick way to portray your posts as relevant and lead to connections interacting with you.

Improve Your Social Game with Parqa Marketing

Utilizing the power of Twitter and LinkedIn can give your recruiting firm a big boost in brand awareness. Want to learn more about how your can grow both your personal brand and the brand of your recruiting firm? Check out our latest webinar, where Parqa CEO Tony Sorensen shared how he grew his recruiting company’s LinkedIn followers from 0 to 20,000+ in just five years.

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Watch Parqa’s Free 30-Minute Webinar: Growing Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn For Recruiters. LinkedIn is the go-to social network for recruiters, it’s never been more important to make sure your personal brand stands out online. Learn how to grow your business, and gain traction on LinkedIn, in this 30-Minute How-To Guide for Recruiters.

Repurposing Content: What to Do and What Not to Do

September 13, 2018

We’ve all heard the phrase ‘content is king’ enough times to meet hearing it with a slight eye roll, but, as is the case with some clichés, the overuse of the phrase is warranted. Content is the essential fuel that drives digital marketing as any SEO-driven marketing campaign requires content. However, once you’ve been aboard the content train for a while, it becomes more difficult, and time-consuming, to generate fresh content.

As a recruiter, there are few more valuable resources to your business than time. The more time available, the more calls you can make, interviews you can conduct, and searches you can fill. How can you continue to generate the all-important content your digital marketing strategies require without committing too much of your time writing it?

Let me introduce you to the concept of repurposing content.

What is Repurposed Content?

Repurposed content is a creative way to recycle previously written material for reuse. By repackaging content that you have written, you’re able to get further use out of content you’ve already spent resources creating. Repurposing content lets you get more mileage out of existing content by placing it in front of new audiences—all while saving your time.

Repurposing content only works with evergreen content that continues to provide value to readers after its original publish date. For example, that fun blog you wrote that tied into the 2016 Super Bowl is not a repurposing candidate. Conversely, a blog that discussed the impact artificial intelligence could have on the recruiting industry is an excellent repurposing candidate.

So, repurposing content is merely reposting an old blog as a new blog, or taking an old LinkedIn post and reposting it again? No, no, no!

Content should be repurposed on a new channel.

A portion of a blog can be repurposed into a salary guide, a graphic from an internal PowerPoint can be repurposed into a social media post, and a part of a case study could find a new home as an infographic. It is essential that you do not try and merely repost old content and frame it as new.

Much like Santa Claus, Google knows when you’ve been naughty or nice. If you try and pull a fast one and repost an old blog, they will identify it and, instead of a receiving a lump of coal in your holiday stocking, they will penalize your site’s ability to rank in searches.

What Channels Serve as the Best for Repurposed Content?

The best channel for your repurposed content will depend on the piece of content you’re repurposing. I find that the easiest application of repurposing content is taking blog content and reshaping it into gated content or social media posts. If you really want to be on-trend, take any piece of evergreen web content you’ve made and repurpose it as a podcast.

What Types of Evergreen Content Should You Repurpose?

Anything that is still relevant to your target audience is ripe for repurposing. There’s a misconception that only content that has been successful (yielded high traffic, engagement, or conversions) should be repurposed, which is not true. Sometimes the content that doesn’t garner the engagement you were hoping for is the best content to repurpose.

Digital marketing is not a precise science, as we all know. There are times where you craft an awesome Tweet or a blog, only to have it fall flat in terms of engagement. In some of those instances, you merely had lousy timing. Or, you posted to the wrong channel. Repurposing content allows you the opportunity to appraise your marketing materials in a new way. It gives your content a mulligan of sorts. If you notice drastically different engagement when a piece of social content is repurposed into a blog, it will inform how you select channels in the future.

Webinar On-demand: Is Your Website Your Best Salesperson? How-To Bring Content into your Marketing Strategy➢

What to Do and What Not to Do

The life of a recruiter is super busy. So busy in fact, that you might not want to set aside a full ten minutes to re-read this blog and recall how to repurpose content effectively. Hey, no offense taken! Let me make it nice and easy for you to commit to memory. Here are the primary things to remember when repurposing content.

Do these things:

Only use evergreen content
Publish repurposed content on a different channel
Tweak and optimize your content to fit its new channel

Don’t do these things:

Don’t repost your old content onto the same channel.
Don’t repost someone else’s content onto your site.

Content Marketing from Parqa Marketing

It’s hard to repurpose content if you don’t have any content to repurpose. If you struggle to punch out content, we can help!

woman designing a website on dual monitors

5 Key Steps to Build Your Professional Brand on LinkedIn

September 5, 2018

With 106 million unique visits to LinkedIn each month, it’s more important than ever to optimize your profile and learn how to build your personal brand organically. While Versique, a $17M executive search and consulting firm I launched in 2013, has over 20K followers on LinkedIn and has been awarded as one of the top 25 recruiting company pages, today I want to focus on the valuable real estate of individual profiles.

Not only does an optimized profile showcase your personal skills well, it also boosts the company image as all their employees use their profiles in the best way possible. Spend time today completing these five best practices to rank higher in search engines, grow your network and ultimately drive valuable leads and revenue to your company.

First Things First: Optimize Your Profile

It’s incredibly important for people viewing your profile to see the following in place to fully understand who you are, what you do, and how to contact you if they decide to network with you. In order to accomplish this, you’ll need to carve out 30 – 60 minutes to complete our quick and easy profile optimization checklist.

Do I have a professional quality, current and industry specific profile and banner image?
Are my image headers and visuals branded?
Does my job title and summary communicate my area of focus and expertise?
Is my bio and summary written in active voice, in first person and specific to key insights about me?
Is my entire profile, including headlines, SEO optimized with a keyword density of 3% or greater to rank me atop of LinkedIn, Google and Bing?

Once you’ve completed the checklist and fixed any errors you found, it’s time to build your network so that more people can view your optimized profile and see what you have to offer.

30 Minute How-To Guide: Check out this webinar to learn how you can build your brand on LinkedIn ➢

Targeted Connections vs LinkedIn Open Networker

It doesn’t take long, while scrolling through your connection requests, to find someone with LION next to their name. This stands for LinkedIn Open Networker. So, what’s the deal with that? Is it best to open your network to anyone who wants to connect? Or to be selective?

The answer comes down to deciding why you want to network. If your purpose is to connect with the most people possible – connect. But, if you want to optimize your profile, generate quality leads, and nurture a healthy network – it’s time to decline. Use the following checklist to decide if those requesting to connect with you and those you’ll request to connect with are what’s best for your goals.

Are they located in an area, city, state, country, that you work or recruit in?
Is their profile optimized – showing they are serious about how they used LinkedIn?
Is their job title relevant to you in some way?
Have they sent you an InMail that makes it clear they intend to sell you on something the moment you accept?
Are they actively publishing and interacting with their network – which would indicate they’ll likely be an active part of yours as well?

All these qualities show that they are someone who will help spread your posts through likes, comments, and shares as well as help build your SSI score through connecting with the right people.

After you have a fully optimized profile and a thriving network, it’s time to post and publish. Get the word out to your targeted connections that you are a thought leader and have valuable insights in your related field.

Quality over Quantity: Don’t Just Post to Post

LinkedIn is unique in that the vast majority of its users are incredibly busy people. They aren’t scrolling through their feed to keep up with the latest gossip or trending tweet. So, if your strategy is to post multiple times per day for the sake of posting, you’ll turn your network off very quickly.

Instead, qualify each post with these questions:

Is it valuable to my network?
Is it insightful in some way?
Does it praise or affirm someone else?
If it’s company related, does it showcase the company in an excellent way without selling anything?
If it’s personal, is it still professional?
Is it important industry related news?

If your posts pass the qualifying questions, the next thing you need to consider are the best times to publish. In general, I recommend Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday between 7-8am, 12-1pm, or 5-6pm. By tracking your analytics – identifying who is interacting with you at what times – you can create your own windows of times that help you reach your target.

Set a Goal: It’s Time to Use LinkedIn Publisher

When used well, LinkedIn Publisher is invaluable to your personal profile and company page. Set a goal of publishing one blog each month and do everything you can to stick to that goal.

A recent poll showed that 82% of LinkedIn users feel more positive about a company after reading custom content through LinkedIn Publisher and 3-5 pieces of content on average are reviewed before engaging with a recruiter. If you’re not using this free tool – you’re missing massive opportunities.

I know you may be thinking, it’s not as easy as it sounds to sit down to a blank document and create content that your network wants to read. I get it – it’s daunting. That’s why I’ve created a reference list for you. Simply choose a topic and begin to write.

Share Hiring Trends. Distribute industry articles, blogs and insight though your own account.
Drive Traffic to your postings. Write about a topic that will bring leads to a landing page associated directly to you and your firm’s brand.
Piggy back off trending news. If your industry has a breaking news story published throughout the internet, write an article giving your unique perspective on the matter.
Easy how-to’s. Use your expertise to teach someone else how to do it.
Create a list. Lists are great for readers to easily scan your article and pull out valuable nuggets in a short amount of time.

Once you’ve published your article, be sure to use tracking and analytics to know who’s watching and reading it.

Know Where You Rank and Why it Matters

Are you familiar with the term SSI score? Surprisingly, most LinkedIn users aren’t. Your LinkedIn Social Selling Index or score is simply how you rank within your industry and network. The score itself is out of 100 points and breaks down into 4, 25-point pillars.

Establishing your professional brand.
1. How well you publish valuable and industry relevant posts as well as how well your profile is optimized for your professional brand.
Finding the right people.
1. Are you connecting with a strong, like-minded network or are you a LION?
Engaging with key insights.
1. How well are you nurturing your network? Likes, comments and shares?
Building relationships.
1. Are you engaging with people when they have a birthday or work anniversary? Are you involved in what your connections are doing on a daily basis?

Each one of these four pillars are incredibly important factors in building your personal brand and credibility. As you increase your score within each faction, your percentage ranking within your industry and network will go up as well. The ultimate goal is to become the top 1% in your Network, top 1% in your industry and maintain a score in the high 90’s. When you’ve accomplished that – you know you’ve completed all prior 4 points. You have an optimized profile. You’re connecting with the right people. You’re publishing professional and branded content. And you’re nurturing your network.
It does take some doing – but anything worth doing is worth doing well. Right?

macbook air on desk with phone and mini cannon

Google Reviews: How to Get Rid of an Inaccurate Google Review?

August 30, 2018

So, you’ve been given a bad Google review. Most companies have, and sometimes it’s something you simply can’t avoid. But what happens if the review is wrong? What if the review is misleading, the wrong location, or even the wrong company? Each of these can be very damaging to your brand. Let’s break down a few simple tips on how to get rid of inaccurate Google reviews.

Types of Reviews Google Will Remove

While there’s no recourse for having Google delete a bad review, they will intervene and remove damaging reviews that are inaccurate. There are a number of different types of inaccurate reviews Google will remove, including:

1. Fake Accounts

If a user creates multiple accounts and leaves similar reviews in a short amount of time, you can ask Google to look into the activity. This could be five, 1-star reviews in under an hour, or something along those lines.

2. Incorrect Location

If a review is posted under the wrong location. This is most common with franchise locations such as restaurants or shops. While they all share the same brand, it doesn’t necessarily mean a location should be hit for the experience someone received at a different location. Google will remove these reviews if you contact them.

Along those lines, Google will also remove a review if the same user leaves the review for all locations. For example, if you have 15 locations in 1 state, the bad experience may have happened at 1 location, but all 15 reviews can be removed if it is not defined which one should truly have the bad review.

3. Disgruntled Employee

If a former or current employee leaves a bad review, this can be removed. Reviews of this nature violate Google’s guidelines.

4. Incorrect Company

Sometimes people leave a review for the wrong company altogether There are many companies out there with similar names, or a customer could have forgotten the actual name. If you’re a recruiting firm, but someone left a bad review about your cheeseburgers, Google will also remove that!

Steps to take if you have a review to remove

If you’re sure your review reflects one of the above issues, then it’s time to flag the review for Google to take care of. Here are the steps to take according to Google:

How to Flag Reviews on Desktop

Sign in to Google My Business.
If you have multiple listings, open the location you’d like to manage.
Click Reviews from the menu.
Find the review you’d like to flag, click the three-dot menu, then click Flag as inappropriate.

How to Flag Reviews on Mobile

Open the Google My Business app.
Tap the menu, then tap Reviews.
Find the review you’d like to flag, tap the three-dot menu, then tap Flag review.

Respond to Bad Reviews

If none of these tips are consistent with the bad review you’re dealing with, at a minimum, just respond. There is a spot on a Google review where you can hit ‘Reply’ and this comment will be made public. When people are looking at your business on Google and they see a bad review that has gone unanswered, it resembles something the company has ignored or could be true.

Respond with clear & concise sentences recognizing their concerns, but also offering a solution to the issue they had with your business. Do not engage with arguments but offer solutions where they can reach out to you individually or let them know you emailed them personally to help resolve the issue.

Why Recruiting Firms Should Hire a Digital Marketing Agency that Specializes in the Recruiting Industry

August 23, 2018

If you had to decide between hiring a digital marketing agency that knows the recruiting industry, or a digital marketing agency that does not specialize but happens to be local, who would you choose?

Let me ask you this: does your recruiting firm specialize? By market? By niche? Probably. If you’ve led a recruiting firm for much time at all, you know that your chances for winning a search are much improved if you specialize in your client’s specific need. Why?

You know the types of candidates they need. Also, you know the trends in their market or industry niche. You are a thought leader in their space — an expert. You have more insight into what their company needs and can deliver better candidates than someone who is a generic recruiter (I’m betting).

I once had someone tell me years ago that “a recruiter is a recruiter is a recruiter” – implying that a recruiter who has developed a good skill set can recruit for any position. While this may be true technically, it’s not the most important consideration when it comes to being selected by the company searching for talent. In that company’s mind, if they’re hiring a CFO and they have the option to choose between a generalist recruiter or a finance & accounting executive search recruiter in their market with 20 years of experience, whom do you think they’re going to select? Right. The expert.

Webinar On-demand: Watch this webinar to learn how you can implement content marketing into your strategy ➢

Why Is It Important to Hire a Digital Marketing Agency Who Knows the Recruiting Industry?

I’ve talked to hundreds of recruiting firm leaders across the country, and I’m losing track of how many tell me they hired a digital marketing agency in the past that didn’t know the difference between candidates vs. clients. The marketing agency they hired drove website traffic and even leads, but there was a disconnect between why a recruiting agency might want to attract clients, not candidates (or vice versa if you are in a candidate-driven market like IT Consulting). They thought it was all the same. Traffic. And we both know that could not be further from the truth. Those are very different audiences.

At Parqa, we were created within a $17M executive search and consulting firm. Our whole team has experience managing marketing campaigns for recruiting companies. I’ve personally had the opportunity to manage marketing in-house at recruiting firms for the past 7 of my 10 years, specializing in marketing/branding/PR/communications. Our CEO Tony Sorensen is a 20-year recruiting industry leader who has successfully grown two recruiting companies from the ground up, $20M and $17M (and growing). From creating respected recruiting firms from ground zero to rebranding already existing recruiting firms and starting over, we’ve seen it all. Also, we’re a little nerdy about it.

Why? Well, we’ve struggled through the challenges of setting up a PPC campaign on Google, only to have candidate leads fill out our contact forms rather than client leads. That was years ago. We’ve now determined best practices to ensure the highest level of accuracy with attracting qualified leads. As a little history, Tony was dabbling with SEO and PPC back in 2007, which is ancient for digital marketing, and even more unheard of for a recruiting firm.

Industry-Specific Best Practices Matter

The recruiting industry as a whole is not at the forefront of marketing innovation, but most recruiting firms realize that it’s a changing world, and if you’re not building your credibility online, you’re missing opportunities. Moreover, if you happen to be the top 5% of the market that’s doing more than merely the marketing basics, you’re a diamond in the rough—and I’d love the opportunity to see your online presence and meet whoever is owning that because that’s no small feat!

Whether you’re right at the beginning of growing your brand through content marketing, or you’re in conversations about marketing automation, having a team in your back pocket that knows the recruiting industry as well as you do, will propel you into the next phase of your company. In fact, it will streamline the process and keep you on the cutting edge of the recruiting industry.

How does that help you? Credibility. Without it, you may not get a callback. Without it, you may not be found at all. With it, you open up the door of possibilities of attracting more relevant clients (or candidates based on your business goals). Now that is worth your time to explore!

Is Your Website Your Best Salesperson?
Sign up for a Free 15 Minute Digital Marketing Consultation

5 Tips to Inspire Your Team and Yourself, to Blog

August 22, 2018

As a business owner of a recruiting firm, digital marketing might still be a new concept for you. Ten years ago, your marketing efforts consisted of posting ads in your local Yellow Pages and scraping the early versions of online job boards for leads to cold call. Wow.. how the landscape changed. If your firm has been slow to adapt, you might be struggling to grow your business.

There are tons of digital marketing strategies that recruiters can deploy to grow their business. One of the cheapest and easiest tactics is to install a culture of blogging with your team.

Webinar On-demand: Watch this webinar to learn how you can implement content marketing into your strategy ➢

Picture this scenario: you’re talking with a fellow owner and they tell you they partnered with a digital marketing agency. The agency is helping them with blogging, social media engagement, building a new website, and optimizing their content for SEO. Intrigued, you head back to the office and decide it’s time to dip your toes into the digital world and write a blog about something you are passionate about in your industry. Energized by the process, you get the great idea that everyone in your firm should participate in the blogging process as a way to build your firm’s brand.

What a great idea! But how are you going to get everyone on board and engaged in the blogging effort?

Here are 5 tips to inspire your team (and secretly maybe even yourself) to blog.

1. Start with the Why

Tell your employees WHY you are asking them to take on this new task. What is the purpose? Taking three hours away from the phones and client meetings to write doesn’t automatically sound appealing to recruiters working on commission. Here a couple of examples WHY it is important for your employees to blog.

Build their personal brand in the digital marketplace: Blogs can be seen by potential clients and candidates on the company website, LinkedIn, and Facebook. If people don’t know who your recruiters are, how are they going to call them?
Build their reputation as an industry expert: You know that your employees are rock stars in their fields, now you need to spread the word. If your team blogs about pain points in their respective recruiting verticals, people in that vertical will gain valuable insight into the industry and recognize the expertise of both the employee who wrote the blog and your firm’s brand in general.
Increase brand visibility: We all know marketing is not free and that we can never get in front of enough people in the recruiting industry. Through blogging, your employees have the opportunity to market themselves for no cost to them or the company.

2. Tie Blogging to Tangible Business Results

In our search and consulting sister company, Versique, we track both activity metrics and financial results of individual team members to help them grow their business. If you’re new to digital marketing, work with some of your peers or check out our website to get stats around the effectiveness of building an online presence.

One of our expert recruiters has closed 25% of their business the last 4 years from building their online presence. That is well over $300,000 in search fees.
One of our thought leaders recently posted a blog on LinkedIn. In the first 24 hours, they had 52 likes and the post had been viewed 3,668 times. How many networking events would you have to attend to get in front of 3,668 people?

3. Create a Content Calendar

No one wants to be in the middle of a huge search and have the owner of their company fly into their office and demand a blog be written by the end of the week because they forgot to tell you a week ago. Don’t be that type of leader. Create a content calendar so your team can be properly prepared.

Creating a calendar for your team that is 4-6 weeks out allows your employees to ask questions, raise concerns, and do some research on a topic. It will also allow the employee time to balance the ebbs & flows of the recruiting business or pick a slow time to set aside a block of a few hours to sit down and write. On top of helping the employee, a content calendar will also create group accountability and collaboration for the company as a whole.

4. Involve Your Team in Topic Generation

I know for me picking the topic is sometimes the hardest part of the blogging process, but that doesn’t mean you should just hand out a list of topics to your employees because the topics are important to you. It is integral that your employees are an active participant in generating topics. A few reasons why it’s so important to include:

They are building their expertise in their vertical – they should know what the pain points are for their current clients.
If your team members are going to get excited about writing, they should pick a topic they are passionate about and own it.
It will help them to think critically about how they can add more value and expertise to their clients.
You will get a more diverse range of topics with everyone contributing.

5. Lead by Example

Planning a strategy is great, but execution is the key to success. As the owner and leader of your firm, it is easy to set the strategy for your employees and move on to the next visionary idea that will change your business. When you establish the blogging strategy and calendar, make sure you lead by example by making yourself a regular contributor.

Additionally, maintain an active role in assisting your employees with their blogging efforts. Sit down with your employees and discuss topics or help them troubleshoot any hurdles they are having.

But it all starts with you. If you’re not meeting your deadlines, it’s hard to expect that your team will.

Next Steps:

Blogging is an EXCELLENT way to get you and your team started in building up the brand of your firm, and the individual brands of your employees. When ramping up your in-house blogging consider the above simple tips to keep you on track to execute.

Want to learn more about giving your B2B marketing a boost?

Learn how Parqa can transform the way you approach digital marketing.

Blog

Here are 6 things that you must know about organic social media before you make that decision for your company:

1. Organic is Still FREE

2. Brand Validation

3. Engagement: Organic Content Resonates with Engaged Communities

4. Listening: It’s Not Just About Posting – Social Platforms Allow for Companies to Listen Too

5. Paid Social Media: Organic Social Media Can Only Compliment Your Paid Efforts

6. Authenticity: Social Provides a Different Level of Authenticity for Brands

“If you can get visitors to stay on your site for 30+ seconds, there’s a good chance they’ll stay much longer on your website — often times 2+ minutes.”

Why Should I Care About My Website’s UX?

You have about 10 seconds to convince a web-visitor to stay on your website.

“If people perceive the opportunity to interact and are confident that the interaction will help them reach their goal, then the probability of interaction is very high, and we will observe focused and intentional interaction.”

How Do I Know if My Website Has a Good UX?

(For service/ B2B based businesses)

If you have an ‘about us’ page, does your content answer “yes” to the following questions?

Does it provide info that helps them understand/ determine if you a good match for their needs?

Does it evoke a sense of trust?

(Answer Honestly) Do you utilize stock photos on your site?

Google has 4 match types for recruiters using PPC:

Broad match:

Broad match modifier:

Phrase match:

Exact match:

How to Use Match Types

Broad: finance recruiter

Broad Match Modified: +finance +recruiter

Phrase: “finance recruiter”

Exact: [finance recruiter]

Example: +finance +recruiter

Integrating BMM Keywords [Broad Match Modified]

+finance +recruiter

+finance recruiter

Webinars

Long Form Content

Video blogs

Podcasts

Infographics

Twitter

LinkedIn

Improve Your Social Game with Parqa Marketing

What is Repurposed Content?

Content should be repurposed on a new channel.

What Channels Serve as the Best for Repurposed Content?

What Types of Evergreen Content Should You Repurpose?

What to Do and What Not to Do

Do these things:

Don’t do these things:

Content Marketing from Parqa Marketing

First Things First: Optimize Your Profile

Targeted Connections vs LinkedIn Open Networker

Quality over Quantity: Don’t Just Post to Post

Set a Goal: It’s Time to Use LinkedIn Publisher

Know Where You Rank and Why it Matters

Types of Reviews Google Will Remove

1. Fake Accounts

2. Incorrect Location

3. Disgruntled Employee

4. Incorrect Company

Steps to take if you have a review to remove

How to Flag Reviews on Desktop

How to Flag Reviews on Mobile

Respond to Bad Reviews

Why Is It Important to Hire a Digital Marketing Agency Who Knows the Recruiting Industry?

Industry-Specific Best Practices Matter

1. Start with the Why

2. Tie Blogging to Tangible Business Results

3. Create a Content Calendar

4. Involve Your Team in Topic Generation

5. Lead by Example

Next Steps:

Related Posts

Subscribe to our newsletter