Are you making the most of your presence on LinkedIn?  This free social media vehicle can be a great resource for growing your business if you take an active role...

Here are 5 Tips for How to Maximize Your Visibility on LinkedIn:

1. Connect, Connect, Connect...
   Spend some time "Connecting" with as many people you know (i.e. clients, co-workers, former colleagues, networking groups, friends, etc...). If you haven't already done so, upload your contact list.
2. Share Your Expertise
   - Visit the LinkedIn Answer's section and provide feedback or tips on the topics that fall under your expertise.
   - Post your blog articles to the home page and share them.
3. Join Groups
   Join "Groups" in your industry as well as the ones where your target audience is most likely to be participating in. Become an active participant and contribute to the discussions.
4. Promote Special Offers
   You can promote special offers and exclusive deals on the business page. This can be a great way to increase visibility and opportunity to test different offers. 
   Use a discount code so you can track the results.
5. Request Recommendations
   Reach out to your clients and ask them to "Recommend" you on LinkedIn to help add more credibility for the services you offer.  It's easy...simply use the "Recommend" function in LinkedIn which will send an email to your contact.

I'm looking forward to participating on the Expert Marketing Panel this month at the Constant Contact "Cracking the Code on Social Media for Small Business" events.  These are FREE events and an opportunity to network with hundreds of small business owners.  I hope to see you there!

You'll uncover tons of useful tools and strategies that will help boost your bottom line-from maximizing your email marketing to putting social media to work for your business.

Register Today!

4 Ways to Use Foursquare to Market Your Location-Based Business

Do you have a location-based business that requires customers to visit your business in order to purchase a product or service? If so, you’ll want to check out a powerful little online marketing tool called Foursquare.

What is Foursquare?

Foursquare is an emerging, popular mobile application that combines social networking and location-based social media. Launched in March 2009, this service includes businesses in over 15,000 venues and over 300,000 users. Foursquare allows customers to “check-in” when they arrive at your business. Users can compete against themselves to have the most “check-ins” to become the mayor of your business. Additionally, users can earn points and unlock badges for discovering new places and based on the frequency or consistency of “checking-in”. In a nutshell, it’s about meeting with friends, discovering new places, doing things and meeting new people.

There is no cost for your business to be listed on Foursquare and it is easy to set up an account.

You’ll have access to the statistics that show you the number of people who have checked in at your business and the names of these users. Many of the users have a photo avatar, so you can start to identify your Foursquare customers when they’ve visited your business. You can also see your current mayor. When you set up your account, be sure to add your Twitter account to reach even more customers.

In summary, it can be great and inexpensive addition to your online marketing mix.

Here are 4 Tips to Use Foursquare to Market Your Business:

1. Use Foursquare to entice new customers into your store by offering a first-time check in discount.
   Simply ask new customers to “Show us your check-in and receive 20% off your purchase”. Be creative and develop a promotion that incentivizes new customers to patronage your business. If you own a restaurant, you may offer a free glass of wine or free dessert.
   
2. Use Foursquare as a customer rewards program.
   You’ll have access to see how many times each customer has visited your business. So, why not reward them for frequent “check-in”? You could easily set up a promotion that offers a discount or credit, free item etc. based on a specified number of “check-ins”. Make sure that for any promotion you run that you’ve clearly stated all of the details
   
3. Use Foursquare to leverage viral marketing
   Word of mouth marketing can be a very powerful piece of your marketing program. With Foursquare, friends can “follow” each other and therefore can see each other’s “check-in’s”. If the user has enabled the social media function, the “check-in’s” are also posted on Facebook, Twitter and Yelp. This is clearly a great opportunity for your business because every “check-in” is a like a recommendation.
   
   Monitor what users are saying about your business on Foursquare. You’ll want to reply to people who leave positive comments about your business and thank them. Additionally, you’ll want to make sure and respond to any negative comment with a simple statement offering to resolve the issue.
   
   
4. Promote texting with your Foursquare Users
   Encourage users to take photos and share themselves having a great time or experience at your business to a text number. After they’ve done this, they are opted in to your text messaging marketing and you can send them specials via text.