LinkedIn pushed me a LinkedIn Learning video by Guy Kawasaki. First, I found it annoying. Then I remembered I skipped a real life Guy Kawasaki talk in July 2008 to have a drink on a terrasse instead. It was a sunny day in Passau, Germany, and I was not much interested by a motivation talk. Thus, I felt I owed him a short attention span.

The LinkedIn Learning overall a smart 45 minute investment if you are into social media management. Though, it is a lot of applied common sense. And eventually, it was is advertising for an old book.

Here is a summary of the 45 minute videos and the book. I read through it to check if it had additional content. It did. You may want to buy it. It is short and to the point. It is slightly dated (2014) but it is part of the charm. I love the sections about Google+… 😉

Create a strong profile

Use a neutral name. It should still work 20 years from now.

Use a great avatar photo. People make their mind about you in 3 seconds. Look good instantly.

Make you avatar photo large and consistent. Choose a 600×600 identical picture for all platgorms.

Insert a cover behind your avatar. They are larger pictures that show about your universe.

Make a statement in 2-4 words. They will be your tagline. Tell what you stand for.

Perfect your profile description. It should tell the full story about you.

Get a vanity URL. Get a URL such as http://www.linkedin.com/guykawasaki, it still is possible

Understand social media for what it is

Figure out how to make money. Otherwise, treat social media as a hobby.

Figure out what kind of people you need to attract to make money. They are your target audience.

Figure out what those people want to read. And accept it is probably different from what you want them to read.

Aim to have your stuff re-shared to get more reactions and followers. Everything else is optimization (or delusion).

Give to others without having an agenda. ,If you share purely for the joy of helping others, the amount of goodness and reciprocity you’ll receive will surprise you.

Share interesting posts

Always add value. Share information, analysis, assistance, or entertainement.

Post frequently. Be a constant source of smart curated information.

Take a stand, be bold. Dare to talk about the difficult topics, it is what is interesting.

Share personal stories from times to times. They make you human and interesting.

Re-share great stuff. Even if you believe people have already seen it. Most have not.

Earn the right to advertise. Only through sharing great content can you get away with the occasional pledge drive.

Pass the re-share test. Your content should be so good people risk their reputation re-sharing it.

Share efficient posts

Perfect the subjet line. Some post titles work better than others. Find the full list in the book.

Be short. Brevity beats verbosity on social media.

Use bullet points or numbered list. Otherwise most people will not read it.

Add an “eye candy” in the form of a picture, graphic, or video. For absolutely every post.

Limit yourself to a few sentences or five hundred words. The sweet spot for posts of curated content is two or three sentences on Facebook, one hundred characters on Twitter, and five hundred to a thousand words for created content.

Add 2-3 hashtags. Avoid using more than 3.

Manage interactions smartly

Be thankful. Always add a link to your story’s source. And a “hat tip” to the person who brought it to your attention.

Be positive in your comments about others. There is little upside in being negative.

Never answer twice to a troll. Stop amateur boxing at round 3. After a reply to your reply, move on.

Stay positive and pleasant no matter how banal, blasphemous, or baiting the comment. Winning the war for class and credibility is more important than winning the battle with one commenter.

Ignore, delete, block, or report trolls and spammers. If everything else fails.

Avoid mistakes

Don’t overtly promote your product. It will annoy followers. Win the right to do advertising.

Don’t call yourself an expert or a guru. If you are one, people will treat you this way.

Don’t buy followers. It is cheating.

Don’t ask your folowers to re-share. It is cheating and they will not like it.

Don’t adbidate to an agency. Ony you know what needs to be said.

Don’t abicate to interns. They can help. But they should not be in charge.

Specifically on Facebook

Show native video on facebook. If possible upload it directly in Facebook.

Use facebook insight. It helps a lot seeing who is watching you.

Make your facebook page interact with people. It should not only be a broadcast interface.

Specifically on Twitter

Repeat your tweets. Three or four times. Above all if your readers are all over the globe.

Leave empty space. Peoplse need to be able to re-tweet and add a few words.

Upload photos. They do not count against the character limit.

Specifically on LinkedIn

Be serious. It is the best version of yourself.

Integrate Slideshare. Link it to your LinkedIn account.

Focus on your niche expertise. Show thought leadership about a topic. Don’t be too broad.

Participate in groups. There is less trolling on LinkedIn, so you will meet interesting people.

Specifically on pinterest

Use content by other people. The picture quality bar is very high. Don’t do it yourself.

Use very few or no hashtags. It is mostly about the pictures.

Rotate your boards. It shows a variety of interests.

Specifically on Instagram

Share slices of your life. Stuff you find shocking or interesting.

Use your pictures. Instagram is about you.

Use 5-10 word caption. Instagram is about the picture.

Use a lot of hashtags. It is very different from Pinterest.

Combine social media and blogging

Use a blog to enrich your social media with long-form posts and to use social media to promote your blog.

Post and re-post great blog content. You can share it more than once.

Leverage LinkedIn. Post blog articles as LinkedIn stories. It is a different audience.

Create slideshare out of your best blog posts. Slideshare reaches a very different market.

Write on guest posts. Blog on other people blogs that share similar passions.

Add all the share buttons at the bottom of your blog posts. Make it easy to share your post.

Ask people to log in to leave comments. You will get better analytics. And e-mail addresses…

Get e-mail addresses. Reaching out to people by e-mail is stronger than social media.

Consider the following tools. How many do you know? How many do you use?

Social media: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instgram, Pinterest, Medium, Slideshare, TED, Youtube, Tumblr, Goodreads.

Sources: Alltop, Feedly, Futurity, Google Scholar, Holy Kaw, Wikimedia Commons, Wikiquote, Reddit, Smartbrief.

Tools: Buffer, Canvas, ClickToTweet, Flickr, Hootsuite, iStockPhoto, Klout, LikeAlyzer, MailChimp, Triberr, Wisestamps.

Parting thought

Experiment. Social media engagement rules change regularly. Test new ways regularly.

Take the high road all the time. Help people, trust people, and be positive about interactions.

Jump on new platforms. It is easier to amass followers when there is less competition and less noise.

Have fun with social media. Post personal stuff, post fun stuff, make it a cool part of the day.