Elizabeth, Author at Yellow Dog Consulting

Back to Business on LinkedIn!

09.09.2020 by Elizabeth // Leave a Comment

Today’s guest post is from my friend and favorite LinkedIn Expert – Karen Rosenzweig of One Smart Cookie Marketing. Karen is THE PERSON for all your LinkedIn and social media questions. You may still be wearing yoga pants to the home office, but it’s time to spruce up your LinkedIn profile this fall my friends…

September has arrived, which means back to school time – and back to business time! The summer is behind us and it’s time to set some solid business intentions to earn you more visibility and more money.

A great place to start is reviewing your presence on LinkedIn, the world’s largest business social network with 675 million members. This is a place to be found, look good, and get business done, so here are my top tips to do just that.

Be Found

Before any of the magic can happen, you need to be “found” on LinkedIn. This happens via introductions from your connections, LinkedIn searches, and clicks from the news feed. To be sure you maximize your visibility here, it’s time to freshen up your LinkedIn profile.

Revisit your “headline” which may just be your job title now – but consider boosting its effectiveness by creating a keyword-laden headline (search friendly) or a benefit statement headline (what people experience when they work with you). Here’s an easy article to get you started with that.
Be sure you have “keywords” throughout your profile for the areas you want to be found for – realtor, Portland, first-time home buyers, small business owners, etc. Be sure those words are in your headline, about section, job experiences, and recommendations to give you maximum “findability”.

Look Good

If you’re lucky enough that someone finds your profile, make sure you look like the amazing business professional you are! Your profile needs to be current, interesting, compelling, and demonstrate how you can help your target audience.

Your “about” section is similar to a cover letter that accompanies your resume. More than 50% of people on LinkedIn don’t have an About section now and that’s simply crazy! You don’t want to be judged solely on the jobs you list in your profile (right?) so here’s where you craft a compelling and valuable narrative. Tell your story and earn their business! Check out this article with an easy-to-follow structure for your About section.
If you searched for someone on LinkedIn and found two good candidates – one with 14 recommendations and one with 0 recommendations, which would you click on first? It’s time to get that social proof on your profile, so invite your 1^st degree connections to write you a recommendation – and perhaps start the party off by writing them one first.

Get Business

Do you sometimes feel like you are the best kept secret in your industry? You can change that dynamic in a hurry by creating a strategic plan to share your great content and engage with others so you show up on their profiles. You must do something to stay top of mind with your connections and establish yourself as the trusted resource in your field.

Posting regular “status updates” (original or shared) on LinkedIn allows you to demonstrate your expertise and add value to other businesses. Taking it a notch up by writing LinkedIn Articles – which are essentially longer form blog posts – that allow you to show your knowledge, provide insights, and establish yourself as a go-to person in your field.
“Liking” other people’s posts is a fine strategy but a much better one is to actually comment on their posts. When you comment, you leave your name, photo, and headline on that post, allowing others to notice you and perhaps click over to your profile (especially if you have a snappy headline!) It’s like dropping little business cards all over LinkedIn, but not in a cheesy way – because you are adding smart, insightful comments, not trying to sell anyone.

There you have it, an easy game plan for the fall (I can’t wait for football!) to boost your visibility and credibility on the world’s largest business social platform. It’s a strategy that has worked for thousands of business professionals so give it a shot and let me know what magic happens!

For those that need a little boost to get started, I invite you to check out my LinkedIn Reality Check service ($97) – a full written evaluation of your LinkedIn profile along with a 30-minute Zoom call with me to review the feedback and get your questions answered. I look forward to working with you soon!

About Karen

Karen Rosenzweig is a marketing consultant, social media coach and trainer, author, and owner of One Smart Cookie Marketing. She has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs and small business owners increase their customer base and gain visibility through Facebook, LinkedIn, blogging and other social media tools.
Her coaching program allows her to act as “training wheels” for a business, teaching them how to authentically and successfully manage their own social media.

She is a fun and dynamic speaker and presents engaging workshops to audiences eager to learn how to leverage social media tools to make more money in their business.

August Pop Culture Round Up

08.31.2020 by Elizabeth // Leave a Comment

I hope you’re having a lovely “end” of summer. I’ve been taking Friday’s off since July which has been REALLY nice for my mental health. An extra day to not look at a computer screen has meant more time to get all those other chores done, and spend time absorbing more pop culture. Here’s a few things I’ve loved this past month…

Reading

I started off the month with one of the longer books I’ve read in a while – The Likeness by Tana French. French is an Irish author and her Dublin Murder series is one that a client of mine has been recommending for a while now. I finally picked this one up when she said it was her new favorite. And it’s BANANAS. if you love a good murder mystery and an undercover cop story this is for you. If you don’t, you really should try this, it’s awesome.

My friend gifted me a copy of Garth Stein’s new graphic novel – The Cloven. I love a good graphic novel and loved that this one is set in Seattle and since Stein is from the area, he gets the geography right (you’d be surprised how often authors don’t!) If you liked Orphan Black (yes the TV show) this is for you. I promise.

A few years ago I read My Sister, the Serial Killer and LOVED IT. The author is Nigerian and her stories take place there. She has a new short story (30 pages) on Amazon called Treasure. It was a fun short read and I like the way she ends her stories.

I’ve been a fan of Bess Kalb’s Twitter account for a while now and was excited to pick up her new book Nobody Will Tell You This But Me. It’s a quick, HILARIOUS and sweet read. It’s a “memoir” (ish) based on her and her Jewish grandmother’s relationship. It’s sweet and funny and I read it in two days.

I have started and am deliberately making my way through How to be Anti-Racist and really appreciating it so far. I am also continuing to read the Anti-Racism Daily newsletter which is chock full of great information and great calls to action.

I picked up The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes from the library last week and it was a fun summer read. It takes you back to the world of The Hunger Games but MANY years earlier. It’s a good origin story and it I keep thinking I should probably rewatch Mockingjay to remind myself of what a terrible guy Snow becomes…

Listening

I am really enjoying What a Day as a great way to start off each morning with a healthy dose of the news. I continue to look forward to Majority 54 each week, and the episode with Jason Sudekis last week was GREAT. I appreciate Missing America and the back stories that Ben Rhodes can apply to current situations going on in the world. The episode on authoritarianism is a can’t miss.

Chef Tom Colicchio has a podcast I just discovered called Citizen Chef – I really am enjoying it! He talks to people in different food communities about the work they’re doing or their experiences. I highly recommend the How We Feed Our Students episode…

Watching

I watched almost every night of the Democratic National Convention, and yes even cried a couple of times. If you haven’t watched either of the Obama speeches, you should go do that. I’ll wait. I of course have balanced out the high brow with the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills & New York. Sometimes you just need to watch rich ladies being ridiculous.

I finally started watching the final season of Orange is the New Black. I didn’t like the previous season so when it finished I had planned to call it quits. But a friend of mine said the final season is great AND it talks about ICE and child separation and wraps up the series well. I have one episode left and I am glad that I decided to finish the series.

I have watched the pilot for Lovecraft Country and I loved it! It’s the right amount of horror for me (I’m not a fan of scary, but the occasional other world monster is fine). I kept reading that it was the perfect series right now, and I have to agree…

Alright, what pop culture is keeping you sane as summer wraps up?

9 Email Ideas for Your Political Campaign

08.11.2020 by Elizabeth // 1 Comment

9 email ideas for Your Political Campaign As some of you know, I was in the 2019 class for Emerge Oregon, a candidate training program for women who want to run for office. Although I’m not running at this time (I will!) I have been talking with candidates across the region who are running in November and who have had questions about email marketing for their campaign.

Since canvassing (knocking doors) isn’t a safe option this election cycle, candidates have to change up how they’re communicating with voters, donors and volunteers. And you know what I think is a great way to do that? YES – a newsletter. So, here’s a few tips and tricks I’ve been recommending.

Send an update at LEAST monthly – reach out to your network to let them know what you have been up to, how you’re engaging and how they can connect with you. Make sure to include ways they can volunteer, donate or host a virtual event.
Make sure there’s a subscribe form on your website and that every donor, volunteer or person who contacts you via your website gets added to your email list.
Create a welcome email – “thanks for subscribing, here’s how you can get involved…”
Have a standard Thank You email for events – make sure that within one day you’re thanking everyone who came to that virtual house party or kickoff party. Remind them of the ways they can get involved, donate and spread the word about your campaign.
Add social media sharing icons to the footer. This way people can share the email on their social media channels – this wouldn’t be necessary for thank you emails but for the regular updates it could be a nice way for raving fans and your advisory board to easily support and promote the campaign.
If you’re using Mailchimp I encourage you to connect your Facebook and Twitter accounts (if you’re using these platforms) so you can automatically post your emails to your social media channels. With Facebook you can also add a sign up form to your page.
In the design of your email make sure that all the logos and images are linked back to your website. Encourage them to follow you on the social media channels you’re active on and ALWAYS have a donate button even if that email isn’t about fundraising. It’s always about fundraising…
Add a donate button to EVERY email that goes out. Subtle at the bottom just above the social media icons – you don’t have to ask for donations anywhere else in the email (you should sometimes though!) but having that donate button is a helpful subtle reminder, and it WORKS.
Always include ways that people can get involved (lawn sign, donation, virtual house party, etc.) too.

Every campaign is different so you may want to adjust how you’re communicating. Make sure that you’re communicating regularly and giving your audience as many ways as possible to support you! Good luck and don’t forget to VOTE!