I loved cartoons ever since I was a kid. Every Saturday morning, I was up at the crack of dawn to watch and watch and watch until my father would drag me outside to help him on his pet project of the day.

As I got older, one of my favorite cartoons was Ren and Stimpy. In one episode, Stimpy was charged with guarding the “History Eraser Button.” The button that erases everything, and the one button you should never push.

LinkedIn has a button like this as well. It doesn’t erase anything, but whatever you do, don’t click this button!

The one button on LinkedIn you should never click is the Connect button in the “People you may know” section in the top right of your home page. The button seems simple and innocuous. However, if you push this button, it will send a generic “I would like to add you to my professional network” Invitation to Connect to that person. You don’t have the opportunity to personalize the invite.

Why is personalizing invitations important?

Say you were getting an invite to a birthday party. If the invite said “I would like you to come to my party,” and you knew the person really well, you would probably go. However, if you weren’t that person’s best friend, and you received that invite, your incentive to attend would be low.

However, if you received an invite that said, “I would love for you to attend my birthday party. I know you like bounce houses, beer and baseball, and this party will have all three.”

Which party invite would make you want to attend the party more – the generic or the personalized invite?

Take this same approach to your Invitations to Connect on LinkedIn. If you are connecting with someone you have known for a long time, “I would like to add you to my professional network” is probably going to get accepted.

However, if you just met the person at a conference last week (along with the other 100 people that person met), they might not even remember you, let alone want to connect. So, give them some reasons – remind them where you met, how you met, what you talked about, things you have in common (schools, former companies, connections).

Most importantly, mention what VALUE are you going to provide. For example, you want to share thoughts and ideas, or you both belong to the same non-profit and you want to help out. For some specific language for Invitations to Connect, check out Brynne Tillman’s recent post.

So where do I connect then?

Always connect from the person’s profile page. To get there from that same “People you may know” section, click on the person’s photo or name instead of clicking on Connect button . You will then be taken to that person’s profile page. From there, you will see a giant, candy-colored blue Connect button. When you click on that button, you can then personalize your invitation, and your invite will have a much higher chance of being accepted!

Key takeaways:

1. Always personalize your Invitations to Connect
2. Always connect to someone via their profile page, so you can personalize your Invitation to Connect

Related articles:

• NEW FEATURE in LinkedIn Sales Navigator makes company research faster and easier
• The best part of LinkedIn’s Social Selling Index
• 5 common social media content mistakes (and how to avoid them)

About the Author

Robert Knop is a passionate helper of people, and Founder and CEO of Assist You Today, a company dedicated to helping companies harness the power of social media to add value their customers, build trust and drive sales. He’s always happy to talk all things strategy, digital and social selling.

If you’d like to learn how to set-up a profit-driving social selling program at your organization, whether big or small, feel free to reach out to Robert.

Photo: Doug Belshaw

All social media marketers want to create content that resonates with their target audience. However, I have noticed after years in social media that many companies seem to make similar mistakes when it comes to social media content marketing.

Here is a list of 5 common social media content mistakes to avoid:

1) Making it all about themselves.

In social media, content needs to be about the audience – based their needs and what resonates with them. What companies want to talk about is their products and services, and many companies post this content on a regular basis. The problem is, social media users did not log-on to see content about products and services, so social media marketers need to frame their content in a way that will be valuable to their audience.

To do this, social media content needs to be P.U.R.E. – Powerful (compelling, stands out, stands on its own), Useful (provides values, not selling products), Relevant (something pertinent to the target audience at that time) and Engaging (makes target audience want to do something with it – e.g. share it with others, sign-up for a newsletter, buy something).

2) Losing their identity.

When I conduct reviews for companies regarding their social strategy and content, I see many brands posting content that is not aligned with their target audience.

For example, they have a highly-sophisticated client base, but they are posting 101-level content because it gets the most engagement. So, even if they get a ton of engagement, it is not with the audience they want to buy their products and services. Thus, even though it’s “successful” on the surface, it’s ultimately unsuccessful because it will not lead to business.

It’s all about quality over quantity – 10 shares from a company’s target audience is better than 20 shares from people outside that target audience.

3) Not using data enough.

Every company has a plethora of valuable data on their customers from sales, social and traditional marketing, but many companies don’t use this data when they are creating their social content. The most successful companies on social segment their overall audiences and target messages only to certain segments to which it is relevant.

Also, the results of previous pieces and campaigns inform what audiences like, do not like, and what will drive leads and sales. To optimize this further, test, test, TEST different messages to continuously keep up with target audience preferences and changing needs. Data needs to be at the heart of all content decisions from original strategy to end-of-the journey optimization to ensure strong ROI.

4) Designing for desktop.

Per Comscore, 65% of all digital time in the US is spent on mobile. However, most companies are still creating and optimizing their content for desktop, which is a big disconnect with consumer preference.

Companies need to ditch those extra long articles, and especially those enormous infographics! After all, users can barely read those on a desktop device. To use this content, cut those big infographics, brochures and other materials into “snackable” pieces that can be easily consumed on any device. As added bonuses, companies will have 10x the content to use, and it will be much more likely to be viewed and shared this way!

5) Sharing the exact same content across multiple channels.

Many companies with slim social resources post the same content on many different social sites, which is understandable, but not ideal. Although, some things are universal like using imagery and video, the thought leadership content that works on LinkedIn doesn’t necessarily work on Facebook, and definitely doesn’t work on Pinterest.

If resources are scant, optimize for each channel by adding site-specific nuances, like adding a hashtag and/or tagging the appropriate @ on Twitter. Middleware programs like HubSpot and Buffer make it easy to do this.

If resources are not an issue, design for each channel, then look at the type of content that works for each channel, and create accordingly. For example, the content that results in the most engagement and conversations for me on LinkedIn is…content about LinkedIn – big surprise! When I post that same content on Twitter, it receives a lot less interest. The more time companies can take to create content that works with each channel, the more successful their social media efforts will be.

Key Takeaways

To avoid the biggest social media content mistakes, companies need to make sure they are:

• Designing content for their target audience’s needs and preferences
• Using data to shape their strategy and tactics
• Creating site-specific content

Related articles

• The value of social selling
• What should your social media objectives be?
• 4 steps to social media content success

About the author

Robert Knop is a passionate helper of people, and Founder of Assist You Today, a company focusing on helping companies get closer to their clients, build trust and drive sales by harnessing the power of strategy, data, digital and social.

To find out how to set your company up for long-term success in this new digital age, and generate more sales using strategy, data, digital and social, contact Robert at 323-972-3566, or simply complete the short form below.

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Photo: Andy Roberts