Get Your FEC LinkedIn

Assuming you’ve the got the Real Estate thing handled the most important words for your business are no longer Location, Location Location. Those words are now Marketing. Marketing! Marketing!!! This post is going to provide you a quick education on why LinkedIn is worth some of your attention for your Family Entertainment Center. Here are 5 quick things you need to know, now.

It’s Strictly Business

Let’s pretend Facebook is used 40% business and 60% for personal use. Those numbers are a bit high, but they’re close. LinkedIn is 95% business and 5% personal. What this means to you is that promoting your business can be a bother to those on Facebook looking for cat videos or to hear about your weekend away. People on LinkedIn expect to hear about what your business is doing.

It’s a “Blue Ocean Strategy”

In the international best seller by W. Chan Kim, Kim makes a very important distinction between blue oceans and red oceans in business. A red Ocean strategy is one that all of your competitors are employing and the waters are bloody as a result of the “fight”. A blue Ocean strategy is one where you zag, while everyone else is busy zigging. Think about the number of FECs you see on Facebook and compare that to those on LinkedIn.

You want morning business on a weekday?

Does your business feel like this in the a.m.?

Unless it’s summer or some other time when the kids are out of school you really only have one choice: corporate events. Those can be super hard to book unless you know how to connect with the right professionals. You know which social media site both caters to business professionals AND has a fabulous search feature to help you find them?? I’m not going to give out any names but it’s initials are Linked In.

You can offer team building opportunities

Corporate culture and team building is all the rage in business. Do you offer activities where two or more associates can play together or against one another? If you answered yes to that, than you can say you offer team building. Getting people out of the office for shared experiences is a tremendous way to get them to work better together on projects. This is your selling point.

Connect with event managers

Earlier I mentioned the power of search. That is where LinkedIn really shines. When you start building your network on LinkedIn you’ll be able to easily find and connect with folks who are responsible for building events for their companies. Connect with enough of them and some are bound to do business with you. Do a great job for them and they will tell their friends. Added bonus, they will likely book events for their kids too.

Bottom line is, you’re likely spending a portion your day working on a Facebook strategy (or just goofing off on Facebook, whichever). Do yourself a favor and allocate 15-20% of that time on LinkedIn. You and your business will be glad you did.

BONUS TIP

Click HERE for a quick video that will help you grow your LinkedIn network while you sleep.

If you want to learn more about how to leverage LinkedIn and other ideas to grow your FEC, check out our PLVR Club.

Family Entertainment Centers are all about FUN. Social Media is the way we broadcast what we’re doing to the world. Put them together and it’s like Peanut Butter and Chocolate. This post explores 4 social media sites you must be using to grow your FEC.

LinkedIn is the place for business.

With 450M + users this is a powerful tool in the toolbelt. Its great for sharing your past experiences, has groups to connect with others who share a common interest, has a handful of business specific apps and the most powerful search tool in social media.

In my opinion the best offering LinkedIn has is the ability to either find or be found. Their search capabilities are incredible. In fact, Google uses LinkedIn as one of the first places it checks when a search on a person is conducted. This search is important for your event managers to find event planners and for them to find you. H.R. directors are also looking for “Team Building” exercises. Can they do those at your place? You wouldn’t mind a 30-50 person party at 10:00 on a Tuesday, would you? Your marketing team can find strategic partners and sponsors too. With the right pictures, images and geo-focus (think right groups) your prospective clients will be able to find you and your business.

A few things you will want to be sure to do on LinkedIn:

• Join the groups that are relevant to your geography. Could be University groups, local chambers, groups based on cities in your area and more.

• Have an updated company listing.

• Leverage LinkedIn for your hiring needs.

• Complete your profile (a specific “how to” is included in this piece).

• Use the status update feature at least 3 times a week

• Upload your address book and increase the size of your network.

The most misunderstood Social Media tool

It’s way more than just “sitting on your patio”. What’s particularly awesome about Twitter is just how much you can get done while sitting on your patio! The search function is strong and the ability to connect with the next generation of thought leaders is vital. Twitter is a research tool as much as it is a broadcast tool. Smart businesses use this to provide excellent customer care, hire great talent, “listen” to what is being said about their business and of course market their products and services.

A few things your company can do right now:

• Figure out the core facets of your business and learn how to communicate each one in 120 characters or less.

• Use photos and live videos of people having fun. Don’t forget the release form.

• Designate someone in your business to “monitor” twitter for mentions about your company. It’s another customer service channel.

• Understand how URL shortners like http://bit.ly work

• Use twitter to post open positions, upcoming events, contests and special deals.

Oh and be sure to start following influential people in your area…folks on the news, radio, athletes and @tweet them once in a while. Call me for help.

Video is where it’s at!

YouTube- sure your kids are watching the latest Katie Perry videos here and YouTube can help your business too. There are well over 1 billion videos served up daily. People love quick tips, tours and product releases especially when they can see and hear them. Production quality is not nearly as important as it once was and far less important than immediacy. This means, grab your phone and take some video and share it. Better yet, tag the people in the video so their people see it too (this is more of a Facebook tip).

A few things your company can do immediately:

• Setup a YouTube channel. This will allow you to customize the page so it fits with your brand.

• Have a couple of nice videos created about your venue. Edit them. Talk about who your audience is and what attractions you have for them. Then show the attractions.

• Have a “brainstorming” session about how your company could create fun videos about your product like they did at Blendtec (they got 5.6M views on a blender video). Invite your entire staff.

• Consider a monthly theme that features different aspects of your venue.

• Invest $600 in a DSLR camera, a tripod, some lights and maybe a mic. Want to spend way more on this stuff? That’s easy to do 😉

This Social Media Site Does it All

This monster combines all of the aforementioned aspects AND has over 1 Billion users. Facebook can be an absolute nuisance and time-waster or it can be a power tool for your business. It’s a wonderful place to re-connect with your past, dive in deeper with your present and make plans with your future.

Your business will want to:

• Have a branded “public page” that communicates things of interest to your client base.

• Post status updates similar to those on Twitter (they can be longer on Facebook).

• Share the videos you created for YouTube and post photos – Pro tip you are going to want to upload them to both YouTube AND Facebook. Don’t share from YouTube TO Facebook. Google and Facebook don’t like each other.

• Use the “events” to spread information about upcoming events you may host.

• Join groups and like pages that are relevant to your business/industry.

• Have a policy for how your company uses Facebook and all of these tools

This post is already a bit long. But I would be remiss to not mention taking a look at Snapchat, especially if you’re targeting tweens and above and of course Instagram.

How are you using these sites?
What tips would you add to this post?