6 Ways to Protect Your Twitter Reputation

Do you use Twitter to market your business?

How’s your Twitter reputation?

Twitter’s short form messages require the same care you put into Facebook and other longer-form social media platforms.

In this article, I’ll show you six tips to help you protect your Twitter reputation by avoiding some common mistakes.

#1: Verify Everything You Tweet

False information spreads like wildfire on Twitter. Celebrities die and resurrect daily, inaccurate news gets exposure, bad links get passed and misattributed quotes receive thousands of retweets.

Do you verify before you tweet, retweet or like a tweet?

The cornerstone of a thriving Twitter account for your business is a reputation for being a reliable source of information. Before you tweet or retweet a link or story through your account, it’s important to make sure the link leads to a genuine article and that the story or news you tweet is accurate.

Sharing good content from other resources provides value to your followers, but you’ll want to first make sure the content is accurate.

Select the content you share from reliable resources. Tweet from your account only when you’re 100% confident the content you share is true and accurate.

#2: Form Relationships Before You Sell

One of the most common mistakes you can make as a business owner or manager on Twitter is to try to sell to your followers and audience before you make a connection with them.

Would you buy from somebody you just met on the street?

If you want your brand to be perceived as valuable and interesting to customers who are interested in your services and products, you need to use Twitter as a platform for making and nurturing connections with a long-term perspective.

Always think about helping people before asking anything in return.

Share useful content, enter conversations where you can add value, help people out whenever you can and @reply more than you tweet.

Do these things to create a relationship with your followers, and they’ll welcome your relevant offers.

Engage first, sell later.

#3: Respond to Customers Quickly

Twitter is not email. People who reach out to you on Twitter expect that you’ll respond promptly, especially when they have problems with your service or the issue is time-sensitive.

Fans and potential customers will interact with you once you have a presence on Twitter. When they do, it’s important that you respond very quickly to their questions and requests for help.

Social media–savvy companies know that speed is very important.

If you don’t have a complete answer, acknowledge the sender’s tweet immediately and let him or her know you’ll follow up with a complete answer as soon as possible.

Even if you can’t answer their question, your effort will be appreciated.

Shoot for a 20- to 30-minute time frame for responses.

#4: Post Consistently

Tweet 20 times per day for a month, then disappear for 3 weeks and the pattern will send a message of inconsistency to your audience.

Nothing outlined in the previous three steps will work unless you manage your Twitter account consistently.

Set a frequency for posting; for example, at least 3 times per day—and stick to that as closely as possible.

Use online services like Buffer to schedule your tweets and retweets at certain times of the day and week. Any content you place in your queue will automatically share from your account throughout each day.

Use a scheduling tool to help you deliver tweets on a regular basis.

Maintain a steady flow of tweets to create confidence in your comfort with the medium.

#5: Face Your Critics

Bill Cosby once said he didn’t know the recipe for success, but knew the one for failure: try to please everybody. There will always be someone who doesn’t like your brand or doesn’t agree with your view on certain topics.

If your tweet or something related to your business is criticized on Twitter, what matters is how you react.

Deleting your tweet may seem like a quick fix, but it’s a huge mistake. Everything on social media is permanent, and screenshots of anything you delete can end up hurting more than a live tweet.

Dr Phil’s controversial tweet was deleted, starting #DrPhilQuestions trend.

Dark Horse Espresso responded in this way to a customer complaining about the number of power outlets in their premises:

Dark Horse Espresso’s response means “We don’t care about you.”

To protect your reputation in the face of potential negativity on Twitter, there are a few definite do’s:

• Respond as quickly as possible.
• Keep your response positive.
• State the facts and your opinion clearly.
• Apologize if necessary.

Dealing with critics properly will reinforce your opinion or minimize the damage of your mistakes.

#6: Automate Responsibly

Too much automation of your Twitter account can hurt your image.

It’s okay to use automation and scheduling tools such as Buffer, If This Then That and others if you want to:

• Synchronize other social media updates with your Twitter feed
• Welcome new followers with a non-spammy direct message
• Preset a time-sensitive update
• Tweet at a certain pace through the day or week

But you do not want to use too much automation. Your followers want to feel a connection with the person behind your account and your business.

Automation is best used in moderation. Image: iStockPhoto

Use automation to help you manage your updates, but remember that Twitter is a platform that thrives on the almost instant flow of conversation. You’ll need tobe there in person to make your efforts there successful.

Your Personal Takeaways

Although Twitter moves fast, any missteps you make can stay with you and damage your reputation with followers and potential customers.

Use these tips as a starting point to create your reputation for managing a successful Twitter account.

What do you think? What’s your experience with Twitter reputation management? What tips can you add to the conversation? Please leave your comments below.

Keep Your Lead Generation Campaigns Alive During The Holidays

Somehow, another year is quickly drawing to a close. Many businesses are working hard to end the year on a sound note, while keeping their staff motivated and productive during the holidays. When you’re the business owner, though, your focus rarely wavers from keeping your sales pipeline full, no matter the date on the calendar. Not only can you continue your lead generation efforts during the holidays – you should.

End the year strong and start the new year with a bang. The following are suggestions for staying the course during the holidays and all the way through the end of the year.

Embolden lead generation campaigns with some festive fun

The holiday season creates perfect opportunities for marketers who don’t mind mixing a little fun with their work. Mandy Edwards of ME Marketing Services offers the following holiday marketing advice for social media marketing:

‘Get festive! You want your business/brand to be relevant, so that means “decorating” your social media accounts! Change out your Facebook cover photo to something Christmasy (if you celebrate that) or have your Twitter background be a field covered with snow. Show the world that you are ready for the holidays.’

Another fun holiday marketing suggestion is accomplished in an “old-fashioned” way. In his article for Autodesk, Ken Micallef shares several great tips for lead generation during the holidays, including snail-mailing holiday cards, gifts or gift cards to your current clients. This often makes a good impression and keeps your name on their minds for referrals and future business.

Heat up lead generation campaigns by firing up your sales team

Sales people who are worth their salt appreciate incentives. A fun contest or two around the holidays should help motivate and energize your sales team while fostering teamwork. For example, award the person who makes the most phone calls, the one who generates the most leads and/or the one with the best attitude. Of course, the rewards of lead generation benefit the entire team.

Invigorate lead generation campaigns by making connections

Many parties and other similar social affairs take place this time of year. Take time to network with your friends, colleagues, family, clients, and so on. Being social this time of year, whether online or off, increases your exposure – and your opportunities for lead generation.

What are your best suggestions for avoiding the holiday slump for your lead generation campaigns? I would love to hear what works for you!

3 Ways Responsive Design Can Benefit Your Blog

Are more of your blog visitors coming from a mobile device instead of a desktop computer?

Do you wonder how responsive design can increase customer satisfaction and improve your marketing?

In this article I’ll explore three ways incorporating responsive web design into your online strategy can benefit your business.

What is Responsive Design?

Responsive web design means that your blog or website will automatically appear properly formatted on any device: a desktop computer, a tablet or a mobile device.

In What Users Want Most from Mobile Sites Today, Google reports that 61% of mobile visitors who click through to a non–mobile-friendly website will return to Google to find a site that’s more easily readable from their device. It’s become critical for companies to have a responsive design for their sites.

Let’s explore how responsive design can help your business:

#1: Obtain Higher Conversion Rates With an Easy Mobile Experience

In the same Google report I mentioned above, 78% of users want to find what they’re looking for on a mobile site in just one or two clicks, and 64% of users only want to scroll up and down on a business’ mobile site, not left and right.

Why is this important for you, as a marketer who sells products online?

If mobile users come to your website and see that they have to zoom in to find everything they need and constantly scroll from left to right and up and down to browse pages, they’re most likely going back to Google to find another website that is mobile-friendly.

However, if your website is easy to use, they’ll be able to access the information they’re looking for and make purchases quickly.

For example, let’s look at Godiva. This is their website as viewed from a desktop or laptop computer:

The Godiva website as viewed from Chrome on a desktop computer.

This is Godiva’s website as viewed from a mobile device.

The Godiva website as viewed from an iPhone.

To buy some chocolate from Godiva, you have to zoom in, scroll to the left, click one of the options on the toolbar and click an item from the dropdown. And you’re still nowhere nearer to buying chocolate!

When you get to the next page, you have to do it all over again, because the website isn’t responsive.

Now let’s take a look at Hershey’s. Their responsive website allows potential customers to purchase products in a few simple clicks.

The Hershey website as viewed from Chrome on a desktop.

The Hershey website as viewed from an iPhone.

When mobile users go to a website, they expect to be able to access links just as easily as if they were on their desktops.

Hershey’s mobile website experience is comparable to that on a computer. And what does that mean? A much higher conversion rate.

#2: Attract Customers as They’re On The Go

Not all websites are looking for a lot of online purchase conversions from their mobile site. Instead, they may rely on a ton of traffic from the site to drive brick-and-mortar location purchases.

For example, take Hubway, a bike-sharing company. A lot of people walking around see bikes that say “Hubway” on the side and wonder what it’s all about. They don’t have their laptops with them when they’re outside, but the chances are pretty good they’ve got a phone in their pocket.

The Hubway website as viewed from Chrome on a desktop.

The Hubway website as viewed from an iPhone.

Unfortunately, Hubway’s website isn’t responsive, so a number of would-be customers are likely frustrated with the jumbled display and click out of the site before they even learn how or where to rent a bike.

If you look up Citi Bike from a phone, the responsive site immediately shows you how to access pricing, how the program works and how to get more information with one click.

The Citi Bike website as viewed from Chrome on a desktop.

The Citi Bike website as viewed from an iPhone.

On Citi Bike’s mobile website, users can access links just as easily as if they were on their desktops.

Responsive design lets you give your on-the-go visitors a better user experience and decreases the likelihood that they will leave your website in search of something easier to navigate.

#3: Manage Multiple Displays With a Single Edit

Imagine the number of hours it would take you to update different versions of your website for mobile, tablets and desktops. Whether you’re publishing a blog post or updating a web page, you don’t want to have to do the same task multiple times.

With responsive design, you update your website with an edit once, and the changes automatically translate onto the mobile, tablet and desktop versions.

Responsive design actually saves you valuable time that you can use for the many other responsibilities you have.

How to Make Your Site Responsive

Now that you understand the importance of responsive design for your marketing efforts, let’s discuss ways that you can make your site responsive.

First, you can always hire a developer or designer to make the changes in the code to make your website responsive. The complexity of your site will determine how long it will take, but it will be worth it to increase your conversion rate.

Another option is to use a responsive theme, which you can find from all of the premium theme providers.

Over to You

Responsive design is beneficial for conversion rates and usability, and the amount of time it saves marketers and designers is astronomical. But its greatest strength is the difference it can make to a customer who’s viewing your site from a mobile device.

What do you think? What other benefits do you see in responsive design?Please leave your questions and comments in the box below.

How Targeting Influencers Can Sky Rocket Your Blog

This is a guest contribution from Rebecca Price, marketing specialist currently working for Davpack.

Have you ever sat in front of your computer, looking at other people’s blogs, and thought: “How the hell have you managed to be so successful so quickly?”

I know I have.

For a long time, I just couldn’t figure out the secret; it often seemed like I was close, but it was always just out of reach.

Then I stumbled on a book called ‘Influence Marketing’ by Danny Brown and Sam Fiorella.

That was the answer – market influencers.

Why is this so powerful?

Instead of starting off from scratch with no blog readers, traffic or any sign of engagement, you put a strategy in place to connect with influencers and get them to promote and share your content to their already established audience.

Of course, there is a bit more to it than that…

In this post I’m going to show you how to expand your reach, increase your audience, get more social shares, become an industry influencer and attract more traffic to your blog.

Finding industry influencers

If you have been operating within your niche/industry for a while, then you will probably have a good idea who the key influencers are and, while they should certainly be on your list of targets, don’t forget the ‘new rising stars’.

These people can potentially carry a lot of weight and your list should never be limited to just a few influencers. This works best at scale.

You will need to put together a list of your target influencers and there are some key pieces of information about them that you should keep track of:

• Their name
• Their contact information
• Their location (potentially a good conversation starter!)
• Links to their social profiles
• Links to their blog and any other sites they own
• What topics they like to blog about
• What topics they like to share

You could use a CRM or, alternatively, an OpenOffice or Microsoft Excel spreadsheet will also do the trick.

I could write an entire post on finding influencers alone, and a lot have. There are also some awesome presentations floating around on Slideshare, like this one by Wishpond:

Influence Marketing Part 1: How to Find Your Industry Leaders from Wishpond

Tools to help you

I won’t go into too much depth now about individual tools, as the subject has already been covered in some depth; you can find all of the tools to help you right here.

Don’t rely entirely on tools to do all of the work for you, for while there are some extremely powerful tools that can give you most of the answers – the human element is important.

Computers are getting smarter and so are the algorithms that they use, but there are opportunities that they can miss.

A few things to remember

This entire strategy hinges on building a positive relationship with influencers and, if you go about things in the wrong way, then you could just end up wasting your time.

And your time is valuable. Don’t waste it.

Be helpful and courteous when you are dealing with anyone, not just influencers. There will always be people that waste your time and take the wet, but give them a chance; but know when it’s time to walk away.

Whatever you do, NEVER email someone or ask them via social to do something for you out of the blue.

You will eventually need to ask an influencer to do something for you, but there needs to be a clear benefit, and you must have done something awesome for them beforehand (and they need to know about it).

So, before you ask anyone to do something for you, you need to ask yourself – “what’s in it for them?”

You have to come across as authentic and credible – being real is your greatest asset.

Avoid burning bridges at all costs. Relationships are difficult to repair once you have destroyed them.

Building the relationship

Now that we’ve laid the ground rules, it’s time to start building your relationship with influencers in your niche:

Making things easy for yourself

You’ve got your list of your target influencers and their social profiles, so now it’s time to go ahead and follow them across as many as possible.

Another way to make things easy for yourself is to keep right up to date with what’s happening on your target influencers’ blogs.

So make sure you subscribe to their mailing lists if they have them and subscribe to their RSS feeds too. After Google Reader closed, I started using Feedly but recently switched to Netvibes in favour of their iGoogle style RSS reader – either are solid RSS readers that will help you keep on top of things. 

Commenting works wonders

Try commenting on the blog of an influencer you’re targeting and do it regularly – it works wonders, especially if they respond to comments. You may find that commenting on Facebook statuses and Google+ updates can work equally well, if not even better.

Drop them an email

At this early stage, you could also drop them an email, but if you do, don’t ask them to help you out at all. You need to warm up to that.

Instead, say something awesome and highlight something awesome you have done for them, like share a piece of content etc.

Connect through multiple social platforms

Make sure you have the same display picture throughout all of your social profiles – consistency is important and it makes you easier to recognise.

Start off by following the influencers on Twitter, Google Plus, Facebook and whatever other social networks they are active on.

Create a separate circle on Google+ for influencers and a list on Twitter, too – people love it when they’re referred to as a market influencer. It’s quite flattering and great for grabbing their attention, because a lot of influencers don’t actually think of themselves as influencers.

Your next step is to start sharing their content, but there is an important part of the process that a lot of people forget – tell them about it!

The idea of this is that when you do something awesome for someone, they know about it, or at least you do whatever you can to let them know.

So, when you Tweet their content, @mention them and add some positive commentary. Do a similar thing with Google+ and Facebook too.

You can also take things a step further by sharing quotes and making sure the influencer you have quoted knows about it.

Involve influencers in your content

Grab the attention of your target influencers by involving them in the content that you create.

This can be as simple as linking out to them and saying some awesome stuff about them in a regular blog post or an industry round-up – or it could go so far as to involve them directly in a group interview.

The point here is that when influencers are involved directly in a blog post, they are more invested and therefore more likely to share.

Here are a few examples:

In September, Kristi Hines published a group interview which involved 32 experts who shared their best blog post promotion tips. This post featured 600+ Tweets, 245+ FB likes, 448+ Google+1’s and 180+ Linkedin shares. The post also earned links from over 50 referring domains.

Earlier this year, Blurbpoint.com published a roundup of over 101 SEO experts which also did rather well and received 375+ Tweets, 438+ Google+1’s, 230+ FB Likes and 145+ Linkedin shares. This group interview also earned links from over 30 domains.

These are examples of influencer marketing at scale – these types of posts do take a lot of time to produce, but they attract a lot of eyeballs to your blog, and the fact you have included these participants in an ‘expert round-up’ is quite flattering. Doing great things for people can make great things happen.

The use of social media is a big part of this whole influencer marketing thing, and there are a number of things you can do to get more results using social that I talk about here.

Write for influencers

I guess we could call this guest posting, but there are certain connotations that come along with that word and some people do assume that the focus is on the SEO benefit, but here’s where it’s different.

Sure, you could go around guest posting to build links to your site, people do it and it’s fine, because it will still help you at least from an SEO perspective if you do it right, although you do need to do a lot of it.

The SEO benefit here is a secondary consideration, because the whole idea of writing for influencers within your niche is to expand your audience and reach.

It’s also to get your name out there and help to position yourself as an authority.

Your ultimate goal should be to join the ranks of influencers within your niche, but why? Well, having influence is a great thing and then other bloggers will do awesome stuff for you too.

It all starts off with blogger outreach, which is an extensive topic itself; there are plenty of courses out there, like Jon Morrow’s guest blogging course, while Ian Cleary wrote a great guide that you can findhere.

Summary

Marketing your content to influencers within your niche can be a powerful way to not only get more traffic to your blog, but you will also get more social shares, expand your audience and increase your own influence too – you will soon find you’re on your way to becoming an authority.

You can do it, I believe in you.

What other tactics do you use to get traffic to your blog?

Humorous Uses for Social Media

Sometimes we all need a little comic relief. Where else to turn than to the Internet! Rife with .gifs, memes, and funny stories, the Web is the perfect place to find humor. Social media is certainly no exception. You can find loads of funnies on Facebook, Twitter, and more.

My inspiration for this blog came from a funny slideshow of uses for Twitter. I’ll sum up a few of them for you:

Games – people have used Twitter for a variety of games. Try using Twitter to create a choose-your-own-adventure. There is also a Twitter handle called @artwiculate that offers a vocabulary game, challenging followers to come up with the most creative use of a word of the day. There are also other real-time games on Twitter, such as chess and Mad Libs.

Let your pet Tweet – a company called Puppy Tweets is an electronic tracker that submits information and posts Tweets on your pets’ behalf. You attach a special sensor to your pet’s collar and when it senses movement, it sends a signal to a USB receiver that then tweets on behalf of your pet. Is it what they are really thinking? Maybe. Is it funny? Definitely.

Writing stories – apparently it’s becoming a trend to try to write a full story in your 140 character or less tweet. This reminds me of Haiku, just a bit longer. You could also write a story using one tweet per day. Over time, you could write a novel!

Companies also use social media for humor. Check out these clever people that have put funnies on Facebook:

Grandma Mary – touted as a helpful yet grouchy old lady, Grandma Mary offers advice to followers. She also posts pictures of her “grandkids,” who, of course, are fictional as well.

Users – many Facebook users have been able to manipulate the new-ish format of Facebook to suit their needs. From using your cover photo to show off something goofy to ordering the pictures on your profile to make a creepy face, everyday users of Facebook have been able to insert some humor.

There’s no doubt that with social media essentially taking over the world, we’ve got to all have a good sense of humor about it. What are some funny things that you’ve seen happening in your social media circles?

(Photo Source)

Read more: http://www.jureklepic.com/2013/11/08/humorous-uses-for-social-media/#ixzz2mcVfwd81

How to Enhance Your LinkedIn Profile With Professional Portfolio

Do you want to enhance the appearance of your LinkedIn profile?

Are you looking for ways to get noticed and attract more business opportunities on LinkedIn?

In this article, you’ll discover how to use LinkedIn’s Professional Portfolio to make your LinkedIn profile stand out.

What is LinkedIn’s Professional Portfolio?

LinkedIn launched Professional Portfolio to showcase your unique professional story using rich visual content.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a photographer, a real estate agent, an interior designer or a marketer. By adding an interactive, rich media experience to your profile, you can leverage the power of imagery.

At present, the key features of Professional Portfolio are available on the following sections of your LinkedIn profile:

• Summary
• Experience
• Education

Content can be added to your LinkedIn profile in the form of photos/images, videos, presentations and audio recordings.

You can also link a range of documents and content types with Professional Portfolio. These are either hosted by LinkedIn or linked through approved providers. For example, approved providers for presentations are Prezi, Scribd and SlideShare. You can view a complete list of approved providers here.

How to Get Started on Professional Portfolio

First, select edit mode on your LinkedIn profile:

Editing your Professional Portfolio is simple and has lots of room for creativity.

Next, follow the prompts in your chosen Summary, Experience or Education section. The first time you do this, LinkedIn will encourage you to add visual content.

LinkedIn encourages users to get discovered for their work by adding rich media.

Now, you can easily click on the following symbol (while in edit mode) to add visual content to your LinkedIn profile:

Choose to Add Link or Upload File via the drop-down menu.

To add a link, paste the complete URL into the field, and LinkedIn will grab the content for you, pull in an image, and prefill the fields for title and description.

If you want to go back and edit any of the media, simply look for the pencil icon at the lower right corner on any of your content, click on it and edit the fields.

It’s as easy as that. In just a few steps, your profile springs to life!

LinkedIn created a SlideShare presentation showing how easy it is to add visual content to your profile, regardless of your profession. You can watch it here.

Action on your professional gallery is automatically showcased on the LinkedIn news feed.

So let’s take a look at 6 real-life examples of small business owners and marketers creatively using LinkedIn Professional Profile.

#1: Showcase Video on Your Profile

There’s no doubt that video is an effective way to feature your business. Professional Portfolio lets you quickly and easily embed videos from a wide range of approved video providers.

Melonie Dodaro embedded not one but two videos from YouTube in her Summary section to showcase her social media services and provide an example of her speaking skills.

Note how Melonie includes a call to action in both titles.

Hot Tip: Make your title “actionable” so the viewer clicks through to your Professional Portfolio. Once inside, they’re instructed to click to play the video as follows:

Professional Portfolio media are displayed in a scrolling menu at the bottom.

Professional Portfolio is about user experience. The user is encouraged to stay and explore other types of media from within the Portfolio, without having to go back into the profile. Melonie’s scrolling menu of media includes other video, images and articles featured on her LinkedIn profile.

With so many people not using video in their portfolios, do you think video might help you stand out on LinkedIn?

#2: Embed SlideShare Presentations

SlideShare easily integrates with Professional Portfolio to provide another media-rich way to showcase your content.

When looking for an example of SlideShare presentations being used to showcase skills and experience on LinkedIn, I needed to go no further than Jesse Desjardins.

Jesse uses SlideShare to highlight the incredible social media results he has achieved with his team at Tourism Australia.

Jesse features a very powerful presentation called the World’s Biggest Social Media Team.

By clicking on the image, you are taken to his Professional Portfolio, where you can view the complete SlideShare presentation, right within Jesse’s profile.

Just one media-rich presentation is enough to showcase the social media innovations at Tourism Australia.

Jesse and Tourism Australia are taking user-generated content to new levels. The whole story plays out in his Professional Portfolio.

If you have content on SlideShare, don’t miss the opportunity to feature it on your Professional Portfolio to showcase your authority.

#3: Highlight Your Achievements and Awards With a Visual Twist

Have you won an award? Published a bestseller? Been featured in a major blog or online magazine? Shout it from the rooftop with visuals.

Fiona Lucas is the author of the recently published book, Futureproof Your Kids. With Professional Portfolio, she can visually showcase her book as well as her recognition as one of the finalists in the Most Clickable Women Awards with the following images highlighted at the foot of her LinkedIn Summary section:

Badges, awards and book covers stand out visually on LinkedIn using Professional Portfolio.

What award, recognition, project or achievement can you show on your profile?

#4: Add Photos and Images for a Media-Rich Experience

Photographer Belinda Fettke uses Professional Portfolio to showcase her work byfeaturing an image gallery of her award-winning photographs at the end of her LinkedIn Summary:

Where is your eye drawn? To images…award-winning images, of course!

On clicking through, you’re taken to Belinda’s Professional Portfolio, which features photography from her multimedia account at Behance, a site for showcasing the work of creative professionals across a range of industries.

Linking to Behance is no different than linking to a normal article—just enter the URL of the Behance project you want to add while in edit mode.

Professional Portfolio offers a scrolling option so you can easily look through related images or photographs.

LinkedIn even offers the ability to like or comment on individual images or videos:

Getting social with images on LinkedIn.

#5: Provide Social Proof With Screenshots

As outlined in #1, video is one way to showcase your speaking experience on LinkedIn. But a simple screenshot can add social proof by sharing the perspective of audience reaction or testimonials from other social platforms.

For example, to create a summary of your speaking experience on LinkedIn,start with simple images and screenshots from any recent and upcoming events to provide a snapshot of your experience. You can translate this idea to showcase any project, work history or “point of difference” on your profile.

Adding screenshots of tweets, upcoming events and testimonials adds social proof to your visual media mix.

The sky’s the limit when it comes to your creativity on Professional Portfolio.

#6: Link to Articles With Visuals

The simplest and quickest way to add visuals to your LinkedIn Profile is by linking articles with public URLs. Any live, public link containing an image, photo or infographic will upload instantly.

Cindy King has used this to showcase her articles in Social Media Examiner by adding a direct link to them on her Linkedin profile.

By clicking on this link, you are taken (via Professional Portfolio) to a stream of articles written by Cindy King on Social Media Examiner .

Link Tip: When you add a link to your Professional Portfolio, the image, title and description will autopopulate, which means that the image drawn from a multi-image article may not be the one you want.

One way to retain control over images is to upload an image and then enter the information manually. However, you don’t get the benefit of the link being clickable or hyperlinked. It all depends on your priority between clickable links vs. having some control over the image that’s populated.

For example, on my own LinkedIn profile, a suitable image wouldn’t autopopulate from the link for an article on Forbes, so I used a screenshot instead. The image on the right autopopulated well and contains a clickable Read Original link to allow users to visit the original article.

Adding a call to action such as Click to Read can encourage the viewer to discover more of your profile.

10 Tips for Using Professional Portfolio

1. Content must be hosted by LinkedIn or one of the approved services (including sites like YouTube, Pinterest, SlideShare, Spotify, TED and Twitter)
2. Files should not exceed 100MB in size.
3. Include calls to action on your image title and/or description (i.e., Click to view, Watch video).
4. If possible, include a live link to your articles. If the link doesn’t generate or the image isn’t suitable, upload a screenshot/photo and manually enter the information. You can’t currently control the image that is autopopulated.
5. You can reorder your media among sections of your profile. Click on Move this media in edit mode to access a drop-down menu of locations to move it to within your profile.
6. Individual images can be rearranged by dragging and dropping them within a section of your profile.
7. All titles and descriptions can be edited or updated.
8. Only public URL links can be included at present.
9. Start getting social with visual content by liking or commenting on images in other profiles.
10. Mix up your visual media. Add a range of images, photos, screenshots, video and presentations. Be creative! Remember that every time you change your visual content in Professional Portfolio, it shows on the news feed, giving you more exposure to other LinkedIn users.

Still need some inspiration?

LinkedIn produced this SlideShare presentation to feature users who’ve leveraged the power of Professional Portfolio—an executive chef, a TV reporter, a motorcycle adventurer, a makeup artist and a writer.

With Professional Portfolio, the ability to tell your professional story is really only limited by your imagination. I hope that these 6 tips will help you maximize your exposure on LinkedIn and better showcase your unique professional story.

What do you think? Have you used these features to showcase your skills and experience? If not, do you think you’ll consider giving your LinkedIn profile a visual overhaul with Professional Portfolio? Leave your questions and comments in the box below.