How does it work?

• Begin by typing the name of a connection or company in your status update box or a comment field on the homepage.
• Select someone from your list of your connections that appear in the drop-down, complete your status or comment and post it.
• The person or company you mentioned will receive a notification alerting them that they have been mentioned.

In addition to first-degree connections, you can also mention other LinkedIn members engaged in conversations in the comment section of posts on the LinkedIn homepage.

Want to pay homage to Twitter today? Here are 5 ways you can celebrate:

1. Relive your best (and worst) tweets – There are some tweets you will want to cherish forever and others you will wish you could erase from your twistory.  You can see your old tweets with Twitter’s newly introduced archive feature.
2. Play around with some fun Twitter sites – Check out favstar, which tells you your top tweets of all time and Twit Amore, which tells you who you love the most on Twitter.
3. Give your Twitter account a makeover – Over the past year Twitter introduced a few changes to your Twitter profile, including the new header photo. If you haven’t already added a header to your profile, today is the day.
4. Add a video with Vine – Vine is Twitter’s newest service that allows you to add six-second videos to your tweets.  Not sure what to make your first Vine about?  We heard it’s someone’s birthday…
5. Clean up your follow list – Take time today to clean up your follower list.  Cut the accounts you can’t remember why you started following or you don’t want to follow anymore.  You can also look for some of your friends who you might not yet be following with Twitter’s “Find Friends” feature.

Don’t forget to include #twitter7 in your celebratory tweets today.

Not sure where to begin?  Once you’ve set up an account, follow these five steps from Inc. to get the most out of your LinkedIn page and spread the word about your business:

1.  Highlight Your Content

Your cover photo is the first thing people will see, so be sure you have one!  While you’re at it, you can now upload photos and files to share with your followers.

Next, fill out your company profile as completely as possible, especially the “Products & Services” section.  This section is also a great place to promote any presentations, webcasts, or guides you’ve produced.  Include a call-to-action like “view now” and have a link to the page on your website where the content lives.

2.  Start Sharing Updates

Post relevant business articles that you come across and share all your corporate blog posts.  You want people who are visiting your page to see lots of activity.  Your updates also will show up in the activity feeds of your connections = more exposure for your business and more chances they will get liked and shared.

3.  Invite Your Personal Connections

This is a no brainer – ask everyone on your personal Facebook, Twitter, and other networks to check out your company on LinkedIn and connect.

4.  Use LinkedIn Social Plugins

These plugins are simply buttons that tell people you’re active on LinkedIn.  There are “follow” buttons and “share” buttons.  Add these plugins to your website, blog posts, and in your email newsletter campaigns to get people following you and sharing your content.

5.  Join a LinkedIn Group

There are LinkedIn groups for almost every industry profession and skillset.  Why join a group?  It’s an opportunity to make new connections, flaunt your expertise, keep your finger on the pulse of what’s going on in your industry, and share your content.

Like any social network, people aren’t going to flock to your LinkedIn page overnight. Give it a few months and track your engagement levels so you know whether or not you’re accomplishing what you want.

According to Jeff Bullas, there are four main types of content that you should be considering creating:

1. Educational content
2. Informative content
3. Entertaining content
4. Inspiring content

Remember that content on the social web needs to be multi-media rich and include media such as photos, videos, images, and infographics.

If you’re having trouble finding the inspiration to come up with different types of content and information to keep your social networks and blogs fresh, here are some new content ideas:

1. Create Lists – Give people a list of things to do
2. Provide “How To’s” – Show people where to start and the steps along the way
3. News – People want to know what is happening whether it’s in their industry or city
4. Images – Create content that takes screenshots of uses images to convey an idea, concept or story
5. Solving Problems – Provide step-by-step instructions about the major issues that plague your industry
6. Quotes – Nothing like an inspiring quote to put gleam in someone’s eye to start their day

What content ideas have worked for you?  Please share them in the comment box below.

2. You “Tube” Socks
Sport your YouTube spirit from your head down to your toes.

3. Facebook Like/Dislike Stamps
Make your thoughts clear in the office by using these Like and Dislike stamps.

4. Tweetbookz
TweetBookz allows anyone to print high quality books composed of up to 200 tweets from any Twitter account.

5. Social Media Pillows
Spruce up any sofa and show love for your favorite social network with these logo pillows from Etsy.

Realizing that his company needed to understand exactly what the value of each social media connection is to their bottom line, Dan Zarella developed the value of a like (VOAL) formula:

L (Total Likes): The total number of audience members connected to your social media account. On Facebook, these are Likes of your page, and on Twitter, these are followers.

UpM (Unlikes-per-Month): The average number of fans who “unlike” your social network account each month. On Facebook, this is an “unlike,” and on Twitter, this is an “unfollow.”

LpD (Links-per-Day): The average number of times you’re posting links, and potentially converting links driven from your social media account. On Facebook, this is the number of posts you’re making, per day, that lead to a page on your website. On Twitter, this is the number of times, per day, you’re Tweeting these kinds of links.

C (Average Clicks): The average number of clicks on the links to your site you’re posting on your social media accounts.

CR (Conversion Rate): The average conversion rate of your website, from visit to sale or visit to lead. This can be an overall average, but for increased accuracy, use the conversion rate measured from traffic coming from the social network you’re calculating.

ACV (Average Conversion Value): The average value of each “conversion.” In this context, a “conversion” is the action you’ve used to measure CR for. It could be average sale price or average lead value. For increased accuracy, use the average conversion value of traffic coming from the specific social network.

The first part of the formula uses UpM and L to calculate a chum rate for your social media following.  This will allow you to derive the average length of time an individual user will be subscribed to your social network profile.

The rest of the formula calculates the VOAL metric for each follower using the number of links they’re exposed to over the length of time they follow your brand and the values from your conversion funnel.

If this all looks a little daunting to you, don’t worry, there is an easy calculator tool that will calculate this for you.

We know that sometimes the toughest part of putting together a new marketing plan is getting started, so we’ve compiled a list of holiday content ideas for you.  Use this list to jump-start your December holiday social media marketing.

• Post gift ideas/guides broken down by gender/age/price
• Share your holiday traditions
• Offer advice on various holiday challenges (wrapping, cooking, dealing with in-laws)
• Thank your customers
• Ask fans to share their favorite gift as a kid
• Post pictures of your gift wrapping
• Create a poll of favorite holiday traditions
• Highlight your seasonal services
• Rewards for Foursquare check-ins
• Ask fans to share pictures of giving gifts from your store
• Guess how many ornaments are in a jar
• Create ‘How To’ guides of your products/services
• Share photos of what it looks like outside your window (weather, decorations)
• Host an ugly sweater contest
• Share behind the scenes photos of decorating your store or the company holiday party
• Ask fans to share photos of recent purchases
• Donate proceeds from a certain shopping day to a local charity
• Create deals specifically for fans and followers
• Share your favorite holiday recipes on Twitter in 140 characters or less
• Record a holiday YouTube video with a hidden discount code

How are you using social media to celebrate the holidays?  Share your ideas in the comment box below.

The survey suggested the following four conclusions:

1. Small businesses are spending more time on social media, but many are struggling with the added workload.
2. Small businesses are focusing on Facebook and Twitter, while adoption of Pinterest and Google+ remains slow.
3. Small businesses are realizing the value of content – but, again, time is an issue.
4. Small businesses are finding value in paying for social media.

Are you in the same boat as these other small business owners?  Give Gatz Optimize a call and we can show you how to optimize your social media processes to be more effective in less time.

The complete data from the Vertical Response survey is complied in the social media infographic below:

Web profiles will feature a selection of recently shared photographs just above your profile picture and bio.  In addition, you can follow users, comment and like photos, and edit your profile easily from the web.

To see your profile, or to explore a friend’s profile, simply navigate to instagram.com/[username].  For example, in order to view Nike’s profile, @nike, you’d navigate to instagram.com/nike on the web.

If you don’t see your profile yet, be assured that you’ll see it in the next few days. Instagram is rolling out profiles to everyone over the course of this week.  You can follow Gatz Optimize on Instagram here.  Share your Instagram profiles in the comment box below.

You can endorse your connections for skills that they have listed on their profile or recommend one they haven’t added yet.  If you think one of your connections is a great public speaker, you can now let them know.  Endorsements are a quicker, easier version of Recommendations.

It’s a little early to tell how valuable these Endorsements will be to your LinkedIn success, but they do provide users with more credibility.  Social Media Examiner thinks Endorsements could be a good networking tool for savvy online marketers, because a LinkedIn endorsement is an easy way to get on someone’s radar.  It is also a good way to show you care about people who work with you.  The new feature is an easy way to show recognition to the business connections you value the most.

If you’re new to Endorsements, check out how they work here: