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Ouch: Linkedin bans more than 80 automation tools in platform clampdown

Scheenagh Harrington — Fri, 09 Jul 2021 07:51:33 +0000

We live in an amazing age of artificial intelligence and digital wizardry that has made life easier than our ancestors could have ever imagined. It seems as if there’s a bot or a tool for, well, just about everything. Trust good old Linkedin to go and buck the trend, and prove they like to do some things the old-fashioned way.

When the business networking platform launched 18 years ago, a note in the User Agreement (which we all read, right?) warned against the use of automation, those seemingly handy plug-in tools that view profiles, make connection requests and send inbox messages, while we get on with the business of being in business.

Microsoft, which bought Linkedin in 2016, has started clamping down on the practice and banned more than 80 of the little blighters.

That could mean bad news for some businesses who bought Linkedin automation tools from a third-party company, despite the platform neither supporting nor approving such software.

In fact, some users could find their profiles have been temporarily closed because of some old software installed years ago and forgotten about.

Chrome extensions are currently the easiest to identify, but the more Linkedin users who try to cut corners and use these automation tools, the more likely they are to be found out and, in the worst case scenario, have their profiles banned.

We at 24 fingers are massive fans of technological innovation, but we also understand the value of making genuine connections, rather than flooding potential contacts with spam. If you want to get the best out of Linkedin, come and talk to us.

We’re 24 fingers, a digital marketing agency and a proud member of the 42 Club, Brentwood Chamber of Commerce, Excel Business Networking Group, the Trusted Business Community, the Organisation for Responsible Businesses and the Rotary Club of Brentwood à Becket. We help companies who are all fingers and thumbs with their social media grow their business and brand. Book your free strategy call here.

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Eight tips to running a successful social media group

Scheenagh Harrington — Thu, 30 Jul 2020 21:40:23 +0000

The American author Ken H Blanchard famously quipped: “none of us is as smart as all of us”. That’s a sentiment we hold very dear at 24 fingers. Sharing stories of success – and being honest when things didn’t go our way – with others are some of the best ways to generate new ideas and keep us on our entrepreneurial toes.

Social media has become a force like no other for groups sharing the same passions to exchange information, bounce suggestions off each other and let off a little steam. But what about the people running a social media group – how do they keep things on an even keel and stop it going all Lord of the Flies?

Sit back and enjoy our eight tips on how to run a successful social media group…

Good intentions

Before you even contemplate setting up a Facebook or LinkedIn group, or a Twitter chat, there are several questions you must to ask yourself: most importantly, what is the group FOR? Will it become a massive time-suck? Are you mentally strong enough to cope with the demands of running the group when it goes live? Is there a ROI to be had? What would prompt you to close it?

When you’ve asked and answered those questions to your satisfaction you can start preparing to set up a group.

Check out other groups

Chances are you’re already a member of other social media groups, but managing your own is a different kettle of fish, so dig around the sites to get a sense of what models and methods you prefer.

Now’s also an important time to explore groups beyond your own interests to see whether people participate and interact differently, giving you a heads-up on potential future behaviours.

What’s in a name?

Your group name needs to be appealing as well as applicable to the people it’s aiming to attract – make it snappy and relevant. That extends to any logos or imagery and the group description, so members not only know what they’re getting into, but also so it aligns with your brand. Invest your time in some great design to attract members.

Invitation etiquette

It goes without saying members are the lifeblood of any social media group but choosing the right people is paramount. Two major no-nos at this stage are: never add members without asking first, even if you have a good relationship with the person you’re inviting, and never poach members from another group.

Instead, let your social media do the work. Post invitations across all your pages as well as your e-mailing list as an opt-in choice.

Laying down the law

Once members are invited and accepted, it’s down to you to make sure they know exactly what is and isn’t acceptable behaviour within the forum.

From the get-go, establish clear and concise guidelines – no spamming or promotions, for example – and inform everyone, either in a pinned post or even a video, what actions or behaviour will lead to someone being removed from the group.

Roll out the social media red carpet

Everyone loves a warm welcome, and new members should be @tagged and asked to introduce themselves to the group. You can also ask them to post about their area of expertise, or what they aim to get out of joining, but above all, make it clear they’re among friends.

Keep those chins wagging

A common interest or business may have got your group started but now you’ve got to keep that conversation ball rolling – by any means necessary. Specific daily or weekly themes can be a great way to engage members, encouraging them to post regularly.

Asking questions or posting a short survey can also generate discussion, and don’t be afraid to tap your members if the well of ideas starts to run a little dry. “None of us is as smart as all of us”, and all that.

Get ‘app’ helping hand

Running a group can be time-intensive but it doesn’t have to gobble up every single moment of your day. There are a slew of apps and technologies that can help you schedule posts, organise events and keep an eye on the group while you’re on the go.

Still interested but not sure about moving from social media group member to manager? Don’t stress – we at 24 fingers can help you make the leap without missing a step.

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How the LinkedIn Algorithm Works In 2020 And How to Make it Work for You

Nicola Hatch LIghterness — Fri, 16 Aug 2019 05:26:20 +0000

When it comes to LinkedIn, we tend to find that most people fall into one of two camps: they either love it and use it every day, or they may-or-may-not have a basic CV uploaded, perhaps a dodgy looking ‘headshot’, definitely have a blue cover image and that’s about it; it’s left to languish on the world wide web, never to be looked at again.

If you pitch your tent in the latter of those two camps, you may be surprised to hear that it’s no longer somewhere to simply host your CV. LinkedIn has actually become a powerful tool which, when used correctly, is the leading social media platform for B2B lead generation. Time to look at how the LinkedIn algorithm works in 2020 and how you can make it work harder for you.

I’m a Conversation Starter (Twisted Conversation Starter)

Changes to the LinkedIn algorithm in 2020 mean that the platform is now prioritising content which sparks conversation. It’s essentially become your professional Facebook. LinkedIn’s mission is to serve you content from “People you know, talking about things you care about”. With this in mind, don’t be afraid to voice your opinion on industry trends, to share news and content relevant to your profession and comment on content within the hashtags that you follow.

Which leads us nicely onto…

Hashtags are Trending

Yep, hashtags are a thing now on LinkedIn. Just like you would on Instagram or Twitter, you can now follow hashtags which are relevant to your profession or interests to keep on top of breaking industry news. Use hasthtags to see what’s resonating with LinkedIn users in your industry, your neck of the woods… your world in fact.

Similarly, you can also add hashtags to your own posts in order to reach more people. So to give an example of a social media agency hashtagging posts with #SocialMedia, anyone following this hashtag will have a chance of seeing these posts in their feed. And the person that sees your post could well be after the perfect social media consultancy to manage their platforms (24fingers. #JustSaying.), which is where the whole brand awareness and inbound lead generation things comes in.

Content (and Constant) Changes

As well as prioritising ‘conversation starter’ content, LinkedIn now has a much better array of options for the way that you present your content. By this, we mean that you can now choose to go live on video, share a post or publish an article, for example. Similarly, you can also add multiple images to a post, including those on a company page, as well as being able to post from mobile to a company page nowadays. This is excellent if you want to share some photos from a networking event or trade fair on the go.

There’s also the option to tag people in images on LinkedIn now, which will allow you to piggyback onto someone else’s network. If they’re nice people (and we’re sure they are), they may also share the post for you which could make your reach event greater.

Let LinkedIn Do The Hard Work For You

Did you know that your LinkedIn business page will now suggest content for you that it believes is of interest to you? This clever little tool, tucked away at the top of any LinkedIn business pages you’re the admin of, is a great way of finding third-party content that you can then share on your own feeds to spark that all important conversation.

Express Yourself!

Finally, LinkedIn have introduced a range of reactions for posts, which means that you can now react to your network’s posts with a simple ‘like’, a more emphatic ‘love’ or even a round of applause.

So go ahead and embrace the new and improved LinkedIn changes. It has evolved so much in recent years and now lives up to the ‘social’ part of its social media moniker much more than it ever did before, albeit in a professional capacity. It really is new and improved, and more importantly than that, it’s the most powerful platform for lead generation. Time to go forth and convert.

PS If you’d like a little extra helping hand, talk to us about our Brentwood social media training workshops. We have a range of monthly sessions designed to help you get more out of your social media, both in a group setting or one-to-one basis. Email hello@24fingers.co.uk for details and how to book.

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Express Yourself

Jack Theobald — Fri, 20 Oct 2017 10:40:55 +0000

If you’re a social media guru and a whizz with words, but have had your genius hindered by the 140-character limit instilled by Twitter, then boy have we got news for you: Twitter has recently announced that you will now be able to tweet up to 280 characters!

Twitter initially implemented the 140-character limit to resemble the format of SMS text messages, which is how tweets were distributed before the release of mobile apps. However, following some research, they have discovered that those tweeting in English often hit the 140-character limit. Consequently, they recognised that this isn’t the result of expertly succinct journalism, and have acknowledged the need to increase the length of their character limit to allow their uses to be more expressive. Whilst the character increase is said to be on a trial period, there is a firm belief that the new limit will benefit the Twitter community and therefore become a mainstay. RIP short tweets.

So, there you have it, you no longer have to sit there for hours trying to work out which grammatical atrocity to commit in order for your tweet to be Twitter-feed ready. Time to celebrate with a doubly awesome tweet I think! #280

Instagram 800 million users

Instagram have announced that their monthly users have reached the 800 million mark, a whopping 100 million up from their previous statistics from April. What’s more is that over 500 million of these users pop in to use the Facebook-owned app on a daily basis.

This is the fastest growth period Instagram have experienced and follows the announcement that Instagram now have 2 million advertisers. Doing well it seems. The hugely impressive stat has been put largely down to video, as the production of video through the app has quadrupled over the past year.

For example, Stories (Instagram’s Snapchat clone) – Good Evening Mr. Zuckerberg 😉 – has over 250 million users, with the GIF-like Boomerang format making up 25 percent of Instagram Stories. Crikey.

That’s not it though. Instagram have also added interactive polls to their Stories, where people can post an image or video, ask a question and let their users offer their opinion on your everyday dilemmas. Risky. Moreover, they have implemented the ability to grab the colour from a picture you post and use it for your text. Two very jazzy new features that are sure to have users going crazy. Instagram is making strides towards world domination at this rate, and it’s no surprise considering the endless possibilities the app provides. Not part of the Insta army yet? Well the figures suggest you will be soon. Bravo Instagram, Bravo.

LinkedIn Geo-Filters

LinkedIn, yes you heard me, LinkedIn have now become the latest social platform to borrow one of Snapchats features.

Users are now able to add location-based filters onto videos that they record and post directly through the LinkedIn app. Therefore, if you’re at an event and record a video of your experience, you can show fellow users what exact event you’re at with a filter. The feature is debuting at the Grace Hopper Celebration event, as shown by the groovy picture below, but the company says it aims to provide access to the feature for many more events in the future.

If you weren’t already impressed enough, the Geo-Filters are designed to match the conference badges worn by attendees, a brilliant idea that is sure to be a hit among individual users and businesses alike. Plaudits to you savvy people at LinkedIn.

The post Express Yourself first appeared on 24 fingers.

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Is LinkedIn the new Facebook?

Emma Goode — Thu, 04 May 2017 17:16:11 +0000

The signs are all there. Execs (and exes) being followed ~~stalked~~ with a passion, casual requests for dates popping up from anywhere and everywhere, random connection requests and a whole lot of humblebragging going on. Word in the boardroom is that LinkedIn suddenly got a whole lot like Facebook. Here’s how.

One inspirational quote does not maketh a content strategy

OK, so it might if you’re Richard Branson, granted, but if your whole feed suddenly gets overtaken by motivation of a Monday kind, you might start to get some pretty strong #TuesdayThoughts. Especially from the British amongst us.

Avo on toast, and make it snappy

What may be viewed on Facebook as a little window into one’s life as a Hackney hipster, craft ale et al, probably won’t have the same effect on LinkedIn. No one needs to see a continuous stream of perfectly-curated foodie shots; your network’s too busy changing the world, one Pulse article at a time. Much more interesting to reveal the story behind that avocado, the human angle, the way that ‘breakfast of champions’ made you feel and what you’d achieved by elevenses.

No one likes a humblebrag

A note of caution. Too many posts which begin with “So, I’ve been working on this little thing” aka world domination, is going to get your card marked as a humblebrag. And that’s not great. The perfect LinkedIn post requires the right proportion of humility, humour and hubris.

TMI

We’ve all got that one oversharer in our network. Most typically found at the end of a dinner party, sharing all the nitty gritty on that time they blah blah blah *reveal as appropriate*. The LinkedIn equivalent is that one user who shares EVERYTHING, without thought or consideration, who does all the quizzes ~~all the quizzes~~, reveals the results and generally creates noise of a shouty kind. Be judicious, be select and maintain your professional dignity at the working lunch that is LinkedIn.

Let me circle back to you on that

How wide is your circle of influence? Do you know all your connections, or are they just numbers on a ~~vanity metric~~ spreadsheet? Thing about LinkedIn is that you can afford to be a little more circumspect on who’s invited into your circle of trust. Sometimes Zammo, it’s ok to just say no.

With this post, I thee recommend

Same goes for recommendations. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow but one day, they’re going to reflect back on you. Make sure it’s a good look by only recommending people for their actual skills, rather than the ones they’re hoping to rank for. Or get an interview with. Unlike Facebook, where you can go mad with the ‘Go girl, you got this’ and lots of fist bump emojis (Ed’s note: also perfectly acceptable Instagram behaviour).

Message me

Those instant messages that annoyingly pop up when you’re updating yourself with the latest trending topics on Facebook ~~FB-stalking~~? Yep, they’ve hit LinkedIn now too. The LinkedIn dev team say: Smarter messaging that helps you connect and unlock new opportunities. We say: a little note to anyone thinking of messaging us – please don’t include the words ‘reach out’. They’re reserved for the Four Tops and them alone.

Could you be any more on trend?

Trending topics – tick. LinkedIn’s algorithm will now serve you curated content based on your connections, who you follow and your interests. FYI, the pug life did not choose Deirdre from accounts, it chose her. Just saying.

Does anyone else have an opinion on that?

Jump into a discussion, a conversation, a hotly-contested debate, all from within LinkedIn, the same as you do on Facebook. And the best bit? The platform will now share who’s engaging with your content including showing you their company, job title and location. Useful insights, especially if you’re considering moving onto their paid advertising platform. Every little helps.

Strike a pose

Visually, it’s the little things too. Or the big things like making sure you have a decent profile pic. Bladdered with the girls in Blackpool, not so much. On Facebook though? Practically mandatory.

Enough about me, let’s talk about you. How can I sell to you?

Facebook’s got Marketplace, LinkedIn’s got an inbox. Let us clarify. Facebook has a specific area for people to buy and sell hedgehogs and stuff (yup, we were shocked too). LinkedIn’s got an area for you to message and connect with people for mutual professional benefit.

Time to seal the deal

We’ll ask Swiss Toni to close the LinkedIn pitch, if we may. While the tech and innovations seem to be heading in the same direction, with network building and content discovery at the fore, the two platforms should be treated very, very differently. Your professional network on LinkedIn should be treated like a fine wine, or a beautiful woman for that matter. With a great deal of R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

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Time to Face the Truth

Emma Goode — Fri, 18 Nov 2016 11:32:15 +0000

We may be living in a tough time right now, but it looks like the big social platforms are attempting to take a stand and improve social media for the better. Find out how in this week’s edition of Social Snippets.

Time to Face the Truth

Mark Zuckerberg has made a promise to end fake news on Facebook. The social media platform has been under a great deal of criticism – particularly over the recent US election – for allowing fake, misleading and untruthful news articles to be promoted and circulated on it’s site. In a statement made on a Facebook post (naturally), Zuckerberg shared some post-election thoughts:

“Our goal is to show people the content they will find most meaningful, and people want accurate news. We have already launched work enabling our community to flag hoaxes and fake news, and there is more we can do here. We have made progress, and we will continue to work on this to improve further.

This is an area where I believe we must proceed very carefully though. Identifying the “truth” is complicated. While some hoaxes can be completely debunked, a greater amount of content, including from mainstream sources, often gets the basic idea right but some details wrong or omitted. An even greater volume of stories express an opinion that many will disagree with and flag as incorrect even when factual. I am confident we can find ways for our community to tell us what content is most meaningful, but I believe we must be extremely cautious about becoming arbiters of truth ourselves.”

You can read the full post here.

Spread love, not hate

Only lovebirds tweeting here.

Following on a similar form to Instagram, Twitter has now added a function that will allow users to block certain words or phrases from their notifications. Not only will this help high profile users cut down the number of notifications they may receive, but will help users avoid hateful from trolls.

Whilst avoiding the matter rather than tackling it head on isn’t the best way of dealing with negativity and bullying online, at least Twitter are making a step in the right direction.

If you want to mute certain words yourself, simply head to your Twitter settings, select ‘Notifications’ and then ‘Muted words’. You can mute one word, phrase, @username or hashtag at a time.

Snapchat’s goes Squared-Eyed

Foursquared-eyed, that is. Snapchat has just completed a deal with local ‘search-and-discovery’ app, Foursquare. By using location information from the app, Snapchat will now be able to deliver much more specific advertisements depending on where you are in the world.

This is great news for smaller businesses looking to take advantage of the geofilters on Snapchat, as they will now narrow down to even more precise areas – reportedly as small as a specific building.

LinkedIn may seize business in Russia

Russia may be notoriously known for its spies, but it seems that they are more concerned with who is spying on them at the moment. The Russian court has made a decision to potentially ban LinkedIn from being used within the country, over issues concerning data protection.

The controversial ruling comes and LinkedIn failed to comply with law to protect Russian citizen’s personal data, as the it’s servers are held outside the country. Following the ruling, a spokesperson for LinkedIn said:

“The Russian court’s decision has the potential to deny access to LinkedIn for the millions of members we have in Russia and the companies that use LinkedIn to grow their businesses. We remain interested in a meeting with Roskomnadzor to discuss their data localization request,” it said.

The post Time to Face the Truth first appeared on 24 fingers.

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Facebook Workplace is Open for Business

Emma Goode — Fri, 14 Oct 2016 11:38:19 +0000

Social media seemed to be all work and no play this week, with the launch of Facebook Workplace and LinkedIn adding a smart new feature. All this and more serious social business, in this week’s edition of Social Snippets.

Facebook Workplace is open for business

We first shared the news back in July, but now Facebook Workplace is finally here. The networking platform was trialled under the name ‘Facebook for Work’ over the past two years, giving you the opportunity to read some of the many successful case studies before signing up yourselves.

What we didn’t know back in July was how much it would cost – but we now know that there is a three month free trial, after which a progressive pricing plan is offered. You only pay per active user per month, with no long-term contracts tying you in.

Twitter Explores new ideas

If you’ve been looking at Twitter on your mobile, then you may have seen some subtle updates recently. Users have reporting seeing a new ‘Explore’ tab, in place of where the ‘Moments’ tab appeared this time last year.

At the moment, Moments provides users with current news and interests that are going on. But the Explore tab looks as if it is also incorporating other Twitter functions like discovering new accounts to follow, or the live streams that have been a big deal on Twitter right now. Twitter confirmed in a statement: “As part of our continued efforts to make it easier to find what’s happening on Twitter, we’re testing a new tab for content discovery”. It seems they are making every effort to encourage users to use Twitter beyond the timeline.

Facebook and Twitter block social media surveillance tool

Social media giants Facebook and Twitter have taken a significant stand against information sharing this week. Up until now, they had been allowing location-based analytics platform, Geofeedia, to access commercial data. But it was discovered the platform was sharing data with law enforcement, allowing them to track protestors. Twitter has now revoked access.

Based on information in the @ACLU’s report, we are immediately suspending @Geofeedia’s commercial access to Twitter data.

— Twitter Public Policy (@Policy) October 11, 2016

LinkedIn finds Open Candidates

This month, LinkedIn introduced a great new feature for the jobseekers out there – and one for businesses to take note of. ‘Open Candidates’, as they are calling it, is a click-enabled setting that will allow users let recruiters know they’re on the look for a new job. They setting sends out a virtual and secret signal to recruiters to let them know you’re on the lookout for a new job.

So, how is it secret? LinkedIn states that they’ll “hide the Open Candidates signal from recruiters at your company or affiliated company recruiters”. Check more out here:

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