After LinkedIn announced this year’s lists of the most overused words in its profiles yesterday morning, an array of people pulled theirs up to see whether they flaunted their “creative,” “effective” “track records” a bit too much.
A few tweeted that they had none of the 10 worn-out words in their LinkedIn profiles. Many others, including LinkedIn’s (LNKD) co-founder, couldn’t say their profiles were clear of clichéd terms.
“Creative” was the most overused term in the United States, Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, and the U.K., while in Singapore, professionals lean on “track record.” LinkedIn users in India are partial to the word “effective.” The U.S. list, drawn from the career site’s 135 million public profiles, also included shopworn phrases like “extensive experience” and “problem solving.”
While the survey may nudge some job seekers, consultants, and others to revise their profiles, before you eliminate all 10 words, it’s fair to consider whether any of them are going to be used by hiring managers or recruiters who may type these same words in LinkedIn searches when they’re looking for candidates.
This Is Why You Were Friended or Unfriended [STUDY]
While some Internet interactions are online-only relationships, the most common reason we add friends on Facebook is because we know people in real life.
According to recent research from NM Incite, for 82% of Facebook users, knowing someone offline is reason to add them on the social network. The next most common reason for adding a friend is having many mutual friends, a practice reported by 60% of users.
The remaining reasons for adding friends include superficial aspects of your Facebook profile such as physical attractiveness and friend count — which is not surprising considering many users make their posts and comments visible to only their Friends. You can see the complete results of the study in the graphic below.
In the U.S., the amount of time spent streaming videos online is growing at a much faster rate than the number of video viewers, according to Nielsen. Over the last three years, time spent watching video from home and work computers has more than doubled while the number of unique viewers increased 26 percent over the same period.
“The greater increase in time spent viewing compared to the number of unique viewers is likely due to an increase in the amount of video content available for viewers to watch, especially long-form content like movies and TV shows on sites like Netflix and Hulu,” said Jo Holz, SVP, Client Research Initiatives, Nielsen.
Android Phones and iPhones Dominating App Downloads in the US
In the U.S., 71 percent of those with smartphones own either an Android device or an iPhone. But when it comes to smartphone apps, iPhones and Android smartphones are even more dominant: 83 percent of app downloaders, that is, those who downloaded an app in the past 30 days, use iPhone or Android smartphones.
According to Nielsen’s latest data, 44 percent of all U.S. mobile subscribers now have smartphones. Among those who purchased a new mobile phone in the last three months, 56 percent chose smartphones. Android remains the leading smartphone operating system while Apple is the leading smartphone manufacturer.
There is a tab under Facebook Messages you may have never noticed. It filters out what’s supposed to be less-than-important messages from events and people you have no apparent connection with.
Although it’s not a new feature, the “Other” inbox upsets some users who have only just discovered it and are reportedly missing important messages.
Holiday E-commerce: Make online shopping a rewarding experience for customers
Tip #1: Let customers see the value of buying from you
Despite a wealth of available information on how to do things a little “bigger and better” this holiday season, it’s also good to remember that your deals need to cater to the customer, first, foremost and always.
Embrace potential customers by making your e-commerce a positive part of their holiday season, and not a reason they wished the yuletide was over. This can be done by creating a seamless, efficient shopping experience that builds upon your company’s (hopefully positive) year-round reputation, while extending a clear, powerful value proposition.
As always, your value proposition needs to succinctly tell the customer why they should buy from you, rather than your competitors. A throng of sites will be offering the latest dancing Muppet doll, so how do you make your company the one from which customers choose to buy? By delivering value others can’t, or won’t.
Whether this value comes through a wholly unique product offering, or testimonials that speak to the strength and validity of your brand, a value proposition is a key element of holiday marketing success.
One of my biggest lessons this year has been that social media engagement and success is much more about the conversations you begin and not the messages you push out. When we first implemented social and blogging last fall, we saw it as a way to replicate content in a number of areas, and I think we believed the rest would follow. What I learned [is that] the rest doesn’t follow until you engage in a conversation and provide true value. Not just message blasting to your audience.
As we learned more, we began continuing the conversations started out there with social and have seen tremendous results. Here are just a few examples:
Clout and mentions have increased steadily as we have seen engagement spike.
More customers are actively engaged than before.
We are able to diffuse any negative comments or service issues with quick response.
Sales and inbound leads have nearly doubled during this same time period.
Results speak volumes, but the conversations we have had over the past year resonate so much more.
“I think mobile is obviously moving at a critical pace,” says Martin. “And it can often be daunting to try and keep up.”
He mentions one issue in the simple sheer number of mobile applications out there.
“I think the Apple App Store has over 400,000 applications. That makes it more and more difficult to differentiate yourself,” Martin explains.
And it’s not just applications.
Martin says, “A number of years ago, Nokia became the biggest camera manufacturer in the world, and that was an indication of where mobile would be going.”
He says this spread of cameras on phones served as one indication of how mobile devices are changing how people interact with everyday items, creating new marketing opportunities, and how “that convenience is a huge opportunity for brands and people.”
