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This may be the last time you hear from me.

As you may know, the Smashing Pumpkins are looking for a new guitarist, and maybe it’s finally time to throw my hat in the ring. As of today, my Slack status has been officially changed to ‘Busy Practicing for my SP audition.’ What do you think…don’t quit my day job?

In the meantime, give this song by the Pumpkins a listen as I polish my guitar riffs for my audition! Oh – and let’s also see what the experts are saying this week…

Oversharing on LinkedIn

We all use LinkedIn in our daily business lives. When I first started using LinkedIn, it was a good way to stay in contact with your professional network. Over the years it has expanded and turned into an integral part of many professional lives. However, some would say that it’s become very noisy and losing its focus. Others say that it’s simply a forum for “self-actualizing virtue signaling.”

No matter your opinion on the platform, most would agree that oversharing on LinkedIn is getting worse. According to Forbes, this phenomenon isn’t new, and it could be that the lines have blurred – and many people consider those in their networks close personal friends and confidants!

Today, many professionals overshare almost like the public act of confession itself will remedy their situation. “Misery loves company” could be the simple answer for many, and they hope to use LinkedIn as a therapy session, or to receive emotional or concrete support that they may feel they don’t get in their personal lives. And some may overshare simply because they imagine they’re so important or interesting that others will be fascinated or concerned.

What do you think? Is this a case of (as this week’s song mentions) those who are desperate and displeased with whoever they are? Either way, I think it’s about balance. As in all things marketing, understanding your voice and your brand is important. How much you share – and how you share it – has an impact.

(Over) Sharing Pumpkins

What do you think about the Smashing Pumpkins’ public announcement of their guitarist search? The lucky person will replace Jeff Schroeder, who has been a touring guitarist with the band for 16 years. He left the gig back in October. Here’s the interesting (and inspiring) thing about Jeff – he got the gig while he was a student at UCLA. A friend messaged him with details of the job and said “You should apply, dude.” He did and he got it.

So what’s the deal with the announcement? Do you think they’re REALLY going to audition for the job? Are they searching for that hidden diamond you cannot find?

Or is this like that B2B tradeshow, where the winners of the raffle usually also happen to be the vendor’s biggest clients and prospects?

Maybe it’s a big PR stunt. Maybe I’ll never get my big break. Who knows? But they definitely got my attention!

As always, don’t hesitate to call me to brainstorm or just say hello!

Looking forward,
Rick

Rick Endrulat, President | ricke@v-causeway.com | www.linkedin.com/in/rickendrulat

The post The Value of Sharing (and Danger of Oversharing) on LinkedIn appeared first on Virtual Causeway.

What Do B2B Marketers Do Now? is an ongoing email. Join the mailing list to be the first to receive these weekly insights!

Happy Halloween! As the days grow shorter and shadows grow longer, we recognize the start of Spooky Season. Many celebrate by watching their favorite scary movies, decorating for Halloween, and heading to the pumpkin patch.

What scares you? Bats? Graveyards? Your Q4 sales forecast?

Give this thrilling song a listen with me as we see what the experts are saying this week.

B2B Horror Stories

Phantom leads, scary sales proposals and ghosting prospects – I’m sure you have lots of horror stories. If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s to never be surprised!

We’re all aware of the proliferation of fake accounts on social media – how many Facebook or Instagram profiles have you seen that seem phony? Recently, there’s been attention on a new frontier of fake social media accounts – business profiles on LinkedIn.

And to the untrained eye, it can be really difficult to tell whether profiles are bogus – and there are serious business implications for false, unverified, or even outdated online profiles.

Scary, right?

It’s important to remember – LinkedIn profiles aren’t always the best source of actionable contact information. They can be outdated and inaccurate (or fake). You’re missing out on a huge opportunity and no one’s gonna save you if LinkedIn is your only contact database!

Many B2B professionals rely solely on LinkedIn data for their outreach. While LinkedIn is a critical source of data, it’s also important to balance it with others. I always recommend multiple data sources to ensure you’re focusing on the best data possible. You can have the best marketing campaign in the world – but if it doesn’t reach your prospects, it’s wasted dollars.

Spooky Distortion & Feedback

Remember the scene in Back to the Future when Marty plays the Eddie Van Halen tape of loud guitar for his sleeping teenage father in the ’50s? It’s a funny scene, but not too long ago, all music was expected to sound clean and clear.

Early electric guitar amplifiers were built to try and produce clean and chime-y guitar sounds at high volumes. But as with any new invention, some progressive players started experimenting with ways to toughen up their sound – to get more power, more growl, more rawness. And over a period of about 20 years, the clean, pure sound of the original electric guitars gave way to something dirty, distorted, filled with harmonics, and various amounts of feedback and noise.

Check out Alan Cross’ great explanation of the history of distortion and feedback here.

What examples do we have in B2B where someone took a product or invention and experimented to find a way to alter it to create a new application? Do you have any customers that are doing this with your product today – and if so, does it scare you, or excite you?

As always, don’t hesitate to call me to brainstorm or just say hello!

Looking forward,
Rick

Rick Endrulat, President | ricke@v-causeway.com | www.linkedin.com/in/rickendrulat

The post When B2B Gets Spooky appeared first on Virtual Causeway.

For those of you who might already have it, here’s a guide from LinkedIn on how to access the feature.

What does this mean for B2B marketers?

In a previous post, we talked about how video will dominate the marketing landscape in 2017, and it seems to be holding true. Besides contributing to higher retention rates, higher engagement, better SEO, and increased conversions, video content currently makes up about 74% of all internet traffic and Cisco, the worldwide leader in IT and Networking, projects that video will make up about 80% of internet traffic by 2019. As we know, LinkedIn is the largest network of professionals in a single location. This makes it easy to connect with others and build relationships in order to provide valuable information and support.

The introduction of video will help make this a much easier and entertaining experience. Users will be able to snap video on their phone while on the go, at trade shows, in meetings, etc. and post in an instant.

These videos can last up to 10 minutes, though LinkedIn recommends a shorter length ranging between 30 seconds and five minutes. As with LinkedIn’s pre-existing in-feed videos, user-uploaded clips will play automatically with sound off. Like Facebook and Twitter, LinkedIn counts a video view after three seconds of play time. This will help to weed out those who aren’t as interested and give you a better idea of your demographic and whether you’re reaching the audience you are targeting. This will also help to understand if your videos are resonating with those who are watching. If the majority of your viewers stop watching within the first 3 seconds, you may have to reevaluate your strategy, whether it be the quality of your video or content, or if you are targeting the wrong audience.

Users will have access to the typical analytic information provided by social platforms plus the addition of some extra perks that B2B marketers could have only dreamed of before. For a selection of top viewers, you will be provided with where they work, their job title and the top markets where the video was viewed. Not bad, eh? No other social media platform currently provides this degree of information. This makes it easier to align your goals and gather information.

Having these unique analytics available will be a huge benefit to networking opportunities and generating sales leads. You could post a video highlighting a new product or a demo video and information will be collected without much effort on the viewers part. No popups, landing pages, or gated content interrupting them to fill out information. This data can then be used to build up a list of prospects.

When paired with video, LinkedIn will be a B2B marketers delight.

To see how you can prepare and get the most out of this great new feature by LinkedIn, check out:

Why you should invest in video and 5 tips on producing quality videos

6 steps to creating contagious content.

Conclusion

With video on the rise, LinkedIn’s better-late-than-never strategy is poised to be a hit within the B2B community. This new feature will provide businesses with the opportunity to take advantage of the rising demand for video content, on the ideal platform for B2B companies, to assist in telling their story and building credibility among followers.

The post LinkedIn Has Started Offering Video and You Should Be Very Excited! appeared first on Virtual Causeway.