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

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.


Related Post: Why It’s Vital to Keep Your Recruiting Company’s LinkedIn Profile Up-To-Date ➢


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.


Related Post: 10 Tips For Optimizing Your Linkedin Profile ➢


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.

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Introduction to Social Media: Understanding Your Platforms

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

Related Post: Why It’s Vital to Keep Your Recruiting Company’s LinkedIn Profile Up-To-Date ➢


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)


Related Post: 10 Tips For Optimizing Your Linkedin Profile ➢


LinkedIn

  • 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.

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5 Ways to Ramp Up Personal Branding Using LinkedIn

Your personal brand is not just what you do or where you work, it’s the way people perceive you as an individual from the brand you build around yourself.

Like it or not, social media is here to stay. It also happens to be the best place to build your personal brand and the single most important way you can set yourself apart in your industry. The greatest part? You are in control of your own personal brand and how you present yourself and engage online with potential clients and customers.

There are a lot of social media channels out there, and it’s important you choose which is the best for your profession. For most industries, the best social media channel for building your personal brand is LinkedIn.


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


If you’re looking to get serious about improving your personal brand and are ready to ramp up your efforts, these 5 tips will be critical for seeing results.

1. Complete Your Profile

Set yourself up for success by taking the time to fully complete your profile on LinkedIn. Your profile is the foundation of your personal brand and represents who you are, what you’ve accomplished, and the skills and expertise you possess. The content on your profile dictates how you’re seen professionally.

Update all your information, fill out every relevant section and use keywords in your summary and work experience. Use your LinkedIn profile to add the personality that is hard to convey on a resume.

Pro Tip: When completing your profile, keep your target audience in mind and include examples of your work that position you as a thought leader in your industry.

2. Share Relevant Content

You want to become a known resource for information by sharing what LinkedIn refers to as conversation-worthy updates with your audience. Meaning, when you’re looking for relevant articles, news, and data to share with your network, you’re going to want to make sure that it’s content your audience will find interesting and valuable.

On top of sharing those updates, take advantage of LinkedIn Publisher. When you write and publish an article on this platform, it will be tied to your professional profile. By sharing your knowledge and expertise on this LinkedIn Publisher, it will help to develop and strengthen your personal brand.

Pro Tip: Diversify your content. Make sure you are switching it up by sharing a mix of images, videos, articles, questions, and curating content written by others. Don’t be scared to throw a little personal insight into the mix too, after all, part of building your personal brand is showcasing who you are as a person, not just what you do.


Related Post: Why It’s Vital to Keep Your Recruiting Company’s LinkedIn Profile Up-To-Date ➢


3. Engage – The Right Way.

Improving your personal brand goes beyond optimizing your profile. You must also focus on truly engaging with your audience, and no, that doesn’t mean just clicking the thumbs up on every update you see. It’s communicating back and forth through updates you share and participating in discussions with other individuals to strengthen personal connections. By engaging with your connections through shared content and discussion you can become a trusted source to your audience.

Pro Tip: When engaging through commenting, leave insightful and thoughtful comments. Don’t comment simply for the sake of commenting.

4. Utilize Groups

LinkedIn provides individuals the opportunity to join groups that are specific to their industry and area of expertise. In these groups, people share industry insights, seek advice, and provide feedback for other professionals. Participating in groups allows you to showcase your knowledge around a subject and start to grow relationships with like-minded people. Think outside the box when joining groups.

Ask yourself the following questions when determining which groups to join:

  • Where are your prospects at?
  • What are their pain points?
  • What is your industry expertise?
  • What are the areas you can use some a little extra knowledge in?

By answering these questions, you will be able to utilize groups to their fullest potential.

Pro Tip: Be aware, there are many groups that aren’t managed or that the community in them are not active. So, when searching for the right groups, explore ones you think will be beneficial then narrow down to a few top key groups to spend your time in.


Related Post: 10 Tips For Optimizing Your Linkedin Profile ➢


5. Be Consistent

One of the key components of improving your personal brand is consistency. The more you stick to a plan and make it a priority, the sooner you’ll see connections happening, conversations starting and business increasing. It’s recommended to share content at least 3-4 times a week, engage daily, and utilize publisher at least once a month.

Pro Tip: Make a daily, weekly, and monthly checklist for yourself and set calendar reminders to keep you on track.

Like any goal, improving your personal brand won’t happen overnight, but by using social media to share your expertise, participate in conversations, and become a reliable source of information, you’ll have the opportunity to build valuable relationships, generate more business, and become a thought leader in your industry.


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.

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10 Tips for Optimizing Your LinkedIn Profile for Recruiters

There are over 562 million profiles on LinkedIn, which means there is a lot of competition for eyeballs. There is a vast amount of digital business happening 24-7, and it’s your job to stand out and grab your audience’s attention. Your LinkedIn profile page can be one of the most important assets in your personal brand toolbox—especially in the recruiting world.

Your profile not only represents who you are and what you do but it is also your firm’s brand. To stand out in this always-on professional business network, follow these 10 tips to optimize your LinkedIn profile.


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


1. Start with a Solid Value Proposition

Arguably the most important part of telling your story on LinkedIn is to have a strong value proposition. What problems do you solve? What value do you add? How do you make a difference in the lives of your clients and candidates? These questions will help you determine your unique value proposition.

Your unique value proposition is a key differentiator. It’s the key benefit that your personal brand offers. This is “the thing” that will help your audience determine whether you are the most qualified person for the job.

2. Be Authentic

Make sure that your bio is authentic to you and not a cookie-cutter description of what you do. Infuse some emotion into your story by being authentic. An authentic bio speaks to your audience and tells them why you do what you do.

Here is a great example of an authentic and unique LinkedIn summary for a recruiter.

3. Build Out Your Recruiter Summary

Spending time on your recruiter summary will help your profile jump off the page and will help inform your audience what your specific area of expertise is.

Here are some things to think about when writing your summary:

  • Does your summary communicate to clients that you could be the solution to the problem they’re facing?
  • Does your summary provide credibility about your abilities?
  • What differentiates you from other recruiters?

When structuring your summary, try to be concise and only spend 1-2 sentences on each point. You want to convey your story and what makes you unique, but at the same time you don’t want to write a memoir. Try to summarize what you do, your accomplishments, your values and passions, and the differentiators that make you great.

What led you here? (Personable) (Experience)

  • What you do
  • Accomplishments
  • Values / Passions
  • Differentiators

Related Post: Why It’s Vital to Keep Your Recruiting Company’s LinkedIn Profile Up-To-Date ➢


4. Profile Photo

Your profile photo should be professional and show off your personality. Getting professional headshots is always worth it, but if you can’t make the time, then here are some tips to try at home.

5. Design a Customized LinkedIn Cover Photo

Your cover photo should be unique to your brand. People who view your profile are there to check out you and your firm. The recommended size for your cover photo is 1584px by 396px, if you find that your cover photo is blurry when you upload it, try to make it the maximum size.

Looking for some inspiration, here’s an example of an excellent cover photo:

6. Customize Your URL

Customize your LinkedIn URL to make it easy for people to find you. Find your unique URL in the light-grey box below your name. Click the edit button and revise. For example, an ideal LinkedIn custom URL would be www.linkedin.com/in/yourname

7. Align Your Industry and Location to Your Target Candidates

Be sure you set your location and your industry so that your profile will show up in searches in your area and field of expertise. Include your location and industry in your bio naturally so that anyone who reads your bio can get a sense of your focus and where you offer your services.

8. Include Your Previous Experience

Your previous positions tell your audience that you have experience and that you can deliver on your promises. It tells a story of who you were and who you’ve become. Be sure there aren’t too many major gaps in your history and that it tells a consistent story. These descriptions should be high-level, more than 2,000 characters, and not read like a CV. You should include your accomplishments in this section.


Related Post: 6 Signs You Need a Content Marketing Strategy ➢


9. Add Your Current Position

If you haven’t already, be sure to end your previous job and add your current firm. If you don’t want to broadcast to everyone that you’ve just started a new position right now, be sure to go into your settings and change your “Account & Settings” options. Select “Privacy & Settings”. You will now see a further set of privacy options to check. The important one is to “Turn Off Your Activity Broadcasts.”

Your position title should be no more than 100 characters. Once you’ve filled in your current position, update it with current responsibilities, and be sure to think about how those responsibilities help your clients and candidates. Once you’ve finished adding in your responsibilities, add in a description about your firm and how you play a role within the firm.

Here’s an example of how you articulate your current position:

10. Update Your Skills & Endorsements

Professional skills tell a lot about a person, they describe what a person’s unique value is to any employer or candidate. Add skills that define your professional role, experiences, and contributions. Make sure that your skills are up-to-date and relevant to your job roles.


[/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.Parqa_Personal Branding_Post-Webinar Bottom Blog CTA

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