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4 Reasons Industrial Marketers Should Adopt Social Media

industrial marketersEven if studies have shown that, so far, industrial professionals have been a relatively passive social media audience, their presence and social media usage is far from negligible.

In a recent study, “2014 Social Media Use in the Industrial Sector,”  IHS GlobalSpec found that 44% of technical professionals spend more than an hour per week on social media for work-related activities.

The study indicates that technical professionals maintain social media profiles on LinkedIn (74%), Facebook (61%) and Twitter (17%).

In addition, 47% of them spend time on LinkedIn reading product or industry news while 26% research suppliers.

69% of technical professionals with a Facebook profile follow businesses or groups within their industry and 38% research or read work-related content.

These statistics are far from negligible and show that industrial marketers need to take a serious look and consider integrating social media in their marketing mix.

The return may not be immediate and as high as their other more traditional marketing initiative but the potential is there for those who get early on on the bandwagon.

  1. At a time when traditional marketing vectors are crowded and customers/prospects are bombarded with messages and ads, social media is still a relatively virgin territory in industrial markets
  2. Social media allows them to find, identify, reach influencers like industry analysts, consultants and other industry thought-leaders
  3. Through social media they can connect and build relationships with influencers
  4. Social media is the medium of choice of the new generations, reaching them is key to future growth
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Six Ways To Detect Fake LinkedIn Profiles

How_to_detect_a_fake_LinkedIn_profileBefore we look at the six ways to detect fake LinkedIn profiles, it’s important to understand the driving force behind these profiles and the main reason is spamming.

Spamming has been around for a long time, first via email and as blogs started proliferating, spammers started polluting blogs, it was only a question of time before they  started polluting social media platforms

Coming back to LinkedIn, two of the best way to get maximum exposure on LinkedIn are growing your network or participating in large, active discussion groups.  Both imply creating a profile and since spammers learn early on that to effectively spam, they needed many identities, in case they were filtered out.

Over the past few years, we have seen a rapid increase in the number of fake profiles created by spammers either joining discussion groups or asking to join users networks, they usually target large active discussion groups and/or users with large networks, especially LIONs (LinkedIn Open Networkers) who are not too selective in growing their network and allow spammers to develop their network based on first and second degree connections.

Of course, there are a number of ways to stop them, the first one is to be selective in who you accept in your network, the second is for group owners to be more proactive in monitoring who joins their groups and to not fall into the temptation to grow the size of their group at the expense of the quality of the discussion. Continue reading “Six Ways To Detect Fake LinkedIn Profiles”

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How To Report Fake or Misleading LinkedIn Profiles

How to report fake or misleading LinkedIn profiles has become an increasingly difficult endeavor.

How To Report Fake or Misleading LinkedIn ProfilesIn a previous post, I wrote about how pervasive fake profiles are on LinkedIn and how difficult LinkedIn makes it to report them, for good reasons, they stopped caring a long time ago about the quality of user experience to focus on growing user numbers ( regardless of legitimacy) prior to their IPO

Another issue, when you created and think you “own” a business or brand page, is controlling who shows up as an employee on your page and that can have implications when it comes to your brand and/or reputation.  It turns out you do not control that information.

In any case, finding a way to contact what LinkedIn calls “customer service” has become a feat in itself, but the response is probably as frustrating as trying to contact them.

There is however an easier way to report a fake profile, if you look in the right place but you have to dig into the user’s profile in places you would not think about right off the bat, here are the steps Continue reading “How To Report Fake or Misleading LinkedIn Profiles”

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FDA Social Media Guidance Controversy

FDAUnder the new FDA social media guidance, manufacturers would be responsible for monitoring their social media platforms for comments considered inaccurate, misleading or related to non approved or off label use.

They would also be liable when third party websites they have collaborated with publishes or do not filter articles, posts, ads or comments considered inaccurate, misleading or related to non approved or off label use.

All three major industry trade associations – the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) and the Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed) warn FDA of significant flaws in the agency’s proposed regulations on the use of social media.

Their contention being that information and comments published online by third party comes under the first amendment and they should not have to monitor, correct or remove them even if they are misleading

The first amendment argument has been widely used to justify misleading information in non regulated industries but in the healthcare industry, misleading information, even by third party can have wide ranging consequences on the health of patients, raise false hope and create undue pressure by ill patients on doctors. Continue reading “FDA Social Media Guidance Controversy”

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Facebook Venturing into Healthcare

Facebook venturing into healthcareFacebook venturing into healthcare was predictable.  Apple, Google are doing it and there is a plethora of niche platform doing it.

Facebook already knows us in more intimate ways than we sometimes know.  They know what we like, who our friends are, they know what we share, they certainly have been following and recording when we share our medical conditions, health concerns and health initiative.

They also follow anything happening on their platform and there is no doubt they have noticed that patients have created a number of communities (private and public support groups based on health conditions, they are also keenly aware that studies have shown that these support communities in and out of Facebook are very active and engaged, in spite of Facebook dubious reputation when it comes to privacy

As Facebook mentioned, most Instagram users do not know Instagram is owned by Facebook and they are hoping their health care ventures will follow a similar path with patients ignoring or being unaware of the link between Facebook and the community.

How do you feel about sharing intimate health information in communities run by Facebook or on a Facebook owned platform?

Continue reading “Facebook Venturing into Healthcare”

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Facebook Cut Posts Reach Now What?

Facebook Cut Posts Reach Now What?

In the past few year we have seen Facebook cut post reach several time.  We can expect other companies to follow suit and artificially cut the organic reach of the posts brands and businesses publish on their page.

A couple of years ago Facebook announced that posts only reached 16% of a page followers, last October the average reach dropped to around 8% and it is predicted that before long, 2 to 3% reach will be the norm… Unless brands and businesses start to pay up.

You spent a lot of time, energy and invested a lot of money building a big fan base on you social media pages and now you find out that your fans are not yours but the social media company’s, they have been cutting the organic reach of your posts and now they want you to pay to reach them. It’s called “Pay for Play”.

That’s a tough awakening but not surprising, in time, most of them will become digital advertising platforms and less and less social.  The writing has been on the wall for sometime now.

These platform were not purely social, they were tools to collect information and what do you do with information, you leverage it to generate revenue and now that they are publicly traded, they are pressured to generate revenue and profit.  It’s business

Facebook has probably been the most obvious but make no mistake, it’s only the beginning, the others will follow

So what do you do? 

You don’t put all your eggs in the same basket and when I say basket, I mean social media.  As a rule, and that applies to blogs as well, you don’t build a presence focusing on a platform you do not own or control. Continue reading “Facebook Cut Posts Reach Now What?”

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Social Job Search: Maximizing your Results

Social job searchSocial job search, strategies and tactics to maximize your results

In the past few years the hiring process has undergone massive changes.  Recruiters and hiring managers went from newspaper ads to job boards, corporate websites and now to social media platforms to seek out, identify and recruit talent.

 

Job seekers and career changers are now expected to have and be active in the social media sphere.

Even in the social media sphere the process has evolved from relying on LinkedIn to adopting Twitter, Facebook and other platforms like You Tube and blogs and it’s not far fetch to foresee recruiters using other platforms niche or main stream as they grow their reach.

Job seekers and career changers need to learn the platforms and constantly adapt to the way the platforms change and to the way recruiters use them. They need to embrace social media, learn how to optimize their social media profiles and avoid the pitfalls, monitor and manage their online reputation.

PDF Handout   Social Job Search 04_2014

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Social Recruiting Impacts Your Job Search

Job Search

Do you know how social recruiting impacts your job search?

Recruiters and hiring managers are increasingly using social recruiting to research, seek out and recruit candidates.

If you are considering a career change,looking for a job or new career, you need to know how social recruiting is impacting the hiring process to create a strategy that will maximize your opportunities

[slideshare id=31056555&doc=socialmediaandthejobsearch-140210183302-phpapp01]

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How To Stop Facebook to AutoPlay Videos On IPhone

How can I stop Facebook to autoplay videos and using all my data plan?

You may have noticed that recently Facebook started auto playing videos.  It’s annoying at best when you are on your computer or tablet at home, it can get downright expensive when viewed on your mobile phone, especially if you have a limited data plan.

Videos are a huge drain on your data plan and could easily put you over your limit and incurring additional and substantial costs

You cannot stop Facebook to autoplay videos but on your IPhone you can tell Facebook to only auto-play only when you are connected to a WiFi network and stop draining your data plan

On your IPhone:

  1. go to “Settings”  Stop Facebook to autoplay
  2. scroll down to Facebook Stop Facebook to autoplay
  3. click on Facebook
  4. click on settings Stop Facebook to autoplay
  5. push the slider “Auto-play on Wifi only”  Stop Facebook to autoplayShare with your friends
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Mothers With Children Under 5 Most Active on Social Media

moms with young children are often more active on social mediaA new analysis from Experian Marketing Services found that moms with children under the age of 5, are often more active on social media, more likely to shop using mobile devices and more open to engage with brands across digital touch-points than consumers at large.

Moms with young kids represent a highly active and digitally sophisticated segment of consumers who are eager to connect with brands and share their experiences through multiple platforms Continue reading “Mothers With Children Under 5 Most Active on Social Media”

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