Author: Franz Malten Buemann

Many times cold emailing is considered spam and it is believed that the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) does not allow cold emailing. But, it’s not like that; the goal of GDPR wasn’t to stop cold emailing but to make businesses GDPR Compliant. For your business, you can send cold emails if you do it in the right way. You just have to be more careful about the method you gather, manage, and store the data you use to send them. Here are some best practices while sending cold emails to stay GDPR compliant:
Make sure you have an appropriate reason and the prospect is targeted Should be able to explain from where you get someone’s email Legal Interest should be explained in Cold Email Copy Unsubscribing process should be easy and quick Maintain Your Database regularly Data Security must be practiced
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Hi all, I’m looking into hiring a virtual receptionist to do intake for my law firm clients. Curious about costs and recommendations. Also any resources about creating a telephone sales script in the legal (or other relevant) space. Any thoughts advice are appreciated!
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Last Updated on January 26, 2021 by Rakesh GuptaBig Idea or Enduring Question: How can we develop declarative functionality to add or remove followers from a record? In Salesforce, a user can follow Chatter groups or Records. Salesforce provides out-of-the-box … Continue reading →
The post Getting Started with Salesforce Flow – Part 55 (Add or Remove Followers to a Record with the Help of Salesforce Flow) appeared first on Automation Champion.

What if I told you engaging with your customers on Instagram can double or triple your revenue?
That’s exactly what happened to Southern Elegance Candle Co. as its founder and CEO D’Shawn Russell told us:
“Our social media makes us a lot of money… We went from doing maybe $20,000-30,000 a month just posting pretty images to well over a $100,000 a month now simply by engaging people more.”
Russel and Southern Elegance Candle Co aren’t alone. Brands like Glossier (which attributes 70% of its growth to owned, earned, peer-to-peer, or organic channels), MadHappy, and Sass & Belle, focus on responding to almost every customer on Instagram.
So it can be incredibly powerful to focus on engagement. But how do you actually stay on top of every comment?
After working and testing with thousands of customers, we have developed a solution that is truly focused on enabling you to build better relationships and a stronger brand on Instagram.
We are excited to share it’s available to all Buffer customers today!
(If you are not a Buffer customer yet, you can get started at just $15 per month.)
Introducing Instagram engagement in Buffer
Every time an Instagram comment goes unanswered, an opportunity to create a lifelong customer is lost.
The problem?
Staying on top of these interactions is really hard.
Notifications from Instagram quickly disappear and important comments slip through the cracks. And we get why — no one has the time to hang out on Instagram 24/7. Your time is precious, and we’re here to help you win it back.
With this latest addition, you’ll be able to reply to more comments, stay on top of important interactions, and turn your followers into fans. All from the comfort of your Buffer dashboard.
Never miss a comment
It’s really easy to miss new comments among the likes, follows, and mention notifications on Instagram. For most small business owners and marketers, this means checking Instagram regularly to keep a close eye on important comments.
We have experienced this ourselves with our own Instagram account and have heard the same from many customers. And that’s why our engagement features are built specifically to help you stay on top of all your comments.
There are all the benefits of community building and engagement but it’s also a huge time saver for me. I can’t tell you how helpful it has been.
Right at the top, you can immediately see how many unanswered comments you have. The familiar grid view make it super easy and quick for you to jump to the respective Instagram posts to respond to a comment.
You can quickly reply to as many comments as possible, and if there’s a comment that doesn’t need a respose you can easily dismiss it by clicking on the checkmark beside the comment, and it will be considered as “answered”.
Course creator and artist Tamer Ghoneim shared with us, “it’s really important to me to try to reply to every comment but finding them was impossible, notifications expire, and I just didn’t have a good way to manage comments on Instagram. I can’t begin to tell you how happy I was when saw the engagement features in Buffer. I literally spent hours if not days looking for something like this. There are all the benefits of community building and engagement but it’s also a huge time saver for me. I can’t tell you how helpful it has been.”
Prioritize important conversations
Notifications in Instagram are shown in a reverse-chronological order. So for most people you’ll see the latest notifications first and likely work your way through in the order they are displayed.
But the latest notification might not be the most important or urgent one to respond to. There could be a comment about a major issue with an order or a comment from an influencer asking about your products—hidden somehow in the middle of all your notifications. These are the comments you might want to prioritize.
With Buffer, you can do just that. We use a mix of filtering and machine learning to identify three types of comments that you might want to check out first:

Negative comments
Comments about an order
Comments with a question

Posts with one or more of these comment types will have a label so that you can spot it right away. No more scrolling and searching. Just click on the post and jump right over to answer the comment.
“We use the Engage tool on a daily basis to ensure we never miss a comment or question from our community. I really like how it flags out comments that may be an issue or that is potentially an important question that we may have missed,” said Stephanie Kaluza, the social media manager of Sass & Belle.
The fastest way to engage on Instagram
Time is one of the most important assets for small businesses. There are always so many things to do and so little time. We want to help small business owners and marketers take back their time so that they can work on other parts of their business and also contribute back to their communities.
First, being able to reply to comments on a laptop and desktop allows you to get through the comments much faster than doing so on a mobile app—without compromising on the quality and thoughtfulness of the response.
“It is difficult to stay on top of Instagram, especially since as a full-time marketer, I’m on a laptop/desktop most of the time and IG is so mobile device oriented. You can’t do everything on the platform from a desktop. Bravo for Buffer’s ingenuity!” Beverly McLean, CTC, Director of Social Media at Covington Travel told us.
Second, there are hotkeys to help speed up your engagement:

Use the Up and Down arrow keys to navigate your comments
Hit CTRL + D to dismiss comments
Hit ENTER to send a reply (and you’ll automatically be brought to the next comment)

Finally, sometimes you might just want to respond with a quick emoji (especially when responding to an emoji comment). Buffer studies the emojis you use most often and suggests them to you when you are responding to a comment.
Build a lifetime audience
For many years, businesses have simply focused on publishing lots and lots of content. The ones that have been able to build a community of loyal following are those that understand our human instinct to connect and socialize.
While many businesses are not being super responsive on social media, this is an easy way to stand out from the crowd, impress your fans, and build a relationship.
If you have a Buffer (Publish) subscription, this has been added to your account for free! Simply click “Engagement” in the upper-left corner to start engaging your fans on Instagram—right within Buffer.
Otherwise, we would love for you to try Buffer for free for 14 days.  

FAQs
Do I have to pay extra for this feature?
Nope. If you have a Buffer (Publish) subscription, this has been added to your subscription for free. If you are not a Buffer customer yet, you can get started here at just $15/month.
Can I use this for Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn?
We are working on integrating with Facebook right now, so that you’ll be able to reply to comments on your Facebook Page. We do not have a timeline for Twitter and LinkedIn yet.
Does this work for all Instagram profiles?
This only works for Instagram business profiles. If you are using an Instagram personal profile for your business, you could consider converting to a business profile to take advantage of this feature (and our publishing and analytics features).

You know LinkedIn — the professional, polished, responsible sibling of the social media sphere. 
Considering the social network has 722 million+ members, you almost certainly already have a profile. 
The stats about its effectiveness and usage are mind-boggling: for instance, three people are hired every minute on LinkedIn, and the network reports a 55% increase in conversations between connections just in the last quarter. 
If you’re anything like me, you read these stats and get the feeling you should be getting more out of your LinkedIn experience. But navigating a world of over 700 million individuals can seem pretty daunting – and, like any social network, there’s plenty of spammy content from publishers clogging feeds with self-promotional materials. 
You’ve probably seen these cringe-worthy posts. Things like: “I was rushing into a job interview, but stopped to help a woman collect a bunch of papers she’d dropped in the lobby. Turned out she was the hiring manager. I got the job on the spot. #karma” 
But, unique amongst social media platforms, you can rest-assured that individuals show up on LinkedIn thinking about work. This means LinkedIn users are primed for social selling, and there are ample opportunities to find, connect, and build relationships with potential prospects on the network. 
The data backs this up: a HubSpot study of over 5,000 businesses found LinkedIn traffic generated almost three times the visitor-to-lead conversion rate of either Twitter or Facebook.
This is extremely valuable in any profession – and especially if you work in the B2B space.
Get the essential guide to using LinkedIn for marketing and professional networking.
So, how do you focus in on a community of people from your industry or with shared interests to get the most out of this massive network? Enter: LinkedIn Groups.
Here, we’re going to explore what LinkedIn Groups are, as well as LinkedIn Group best practices, and the most impressive Groups to join on the network. Let’s dive in. 
What are LinkedIn Groups?
LinkedIn Groups is a dedicated space for professionals to share expertise, seek advice, and build meaningful relationships. They’ve been around for a while, but, as the trend in social media moves towards more intentional, self-selected communities, their importance continues to grow. 
Groups represent a targeted opportunity to build your personal brand and professional community on LinkedIn. 
Only members of a given group can view, post, or comment on conversations within that group. Groups can set their own admissions criteria and establish admins as gatekeepers.

By default, your Group affiliations show up at the bottom of your LinkedIn Profile under the ‘Interests’ section. You can edit the visibility for specific groups –– just one of the many ways to customize how your LinkedIn Profile represents your personal and professional brand. 
Unlisted Groups don’t appear in search results, and only fellow group members will see the group’s information on your Profile. These more private communities require a direct link or admin invitation for access.
LinkedIn Groups Best Practices 
To get the most out of LinkedIn Groups communities, be a good community member. Consider that your Golden Rule in this ecosystem. Let your work and your insight speak for itself –– avoiding blatant self-promotion or outright spam. 
Other best practices for becoming a valued group member include:

Contribute first – Bring value to the group. This builds trust and offers greater value to you long-term as well. Jumping in with an off-topic post or link to your own content is a great way to get banned or panned [/ignored]. 

Listen and Engage – Unless you’re the Group’s founder and creator, remember that you’re joining an ongoing conversation. Take some time to listen and observe. Pay attention to topics, tone, and who the group recognizes as experts or authorities. Try liking and commenting on a few posts before you spout off some contrarian or opposing views.

Encourage discussion – Ask questions. Then listen and respond, seeking to further the conversation. 

Keep it professional – People are on the platform for work, remember? If you wouldn’t say it to a colleague or your boss in person, don’t say it here.

Think before you link – LinkedIn is pretty clear about this. Any URL to commercial sites that try to sell a product or service will be reported and removed, as will those redirecting to inappropriate/spam-like content.

Pro-Tip: Want to capitalize on time you spend acclimating yourself to a LinkedIn Group and its particular community? Leadjet is a browser extension that helps salespeople work faster and more efficiently. Automatically add LinkedIn prospects in a single click to your CRM, without wasting time to enter the data manually. 
With a tool like Leadjet, you’re easing into a Group’s community and meaningfully adding to your pipeline of high-quality prospects at the same time. Win-win.
Navigating LinkedIn Groups
You can navigate to LinkedIn Groups in several ways. Look for Groups directly in the Search bar, just as you would find connections, companies or anything else on LinkedIn.
You can also find them in the ‘Work’ grid on your Navigation bar within LinkedIn, or at linkedin.com/groups.  

How to Find Groups on LinkedIn 
Look for groups that match your industry and interests by searching for relevant titles, keywords, or phrases. For virtually any industry or job function, you’ll find a number of LinkedIn Groups. 

Evaluate Groups’ descriptions, as well as connections from your network who are already members, to determine which Groups are the best fit for you. 
LinkedIn Groups Directory 
Browse the LinkedIn Groups Directory — accessible from the right navigation as well as the search drop-down in the upper left part of the LinkedIn user interface. Search by name, phrase, or keyword, and sift through results based on either the group name or a keyword in the group description.
How to Join Groups on LinkedIn 
You can join a Group on LinkedIn by click “Request to Join” on a Group’s home or profile page. Your request goes directly to the Group Admins, who evaluate your fit for the Group. 
Or, if another connection invites you to join a group, simply ‘Accept’ on the invite from your inbox or notifications screens, as you would a standard Connection request.
Where are my Groups on LinkedIn?
LinkedIn Groups impact the appearance of your LinkedIn Profile in several ways. As mentioned, people looking at Groups can see which of their connections are already members. Additionally, the ‘Interests’ section at the bottom portion of your Profile displays a selection of information, including topics and experts you follow on LinkedIn, as well as Group memberships.
If you’ve been on LinkedIn for a while, you may have some outdated or inactive Group memberships. You can curate what displays on your Profile for others to see by leaving Groups that no longer interest you. But what if you want to continue receiving messages from certain Groups but don’t want them to appear on your profile? 
On the page listing all of your Group affiliations, click the three dots to the right of any Group listing and select “Update your settings”:

On the linked sub-page, toggle “Display group on profile” to “No”, which maintains your membership but hides it from the ‘Interests’ section of your profile. This ensures that only other members or people searching directly for that Group can potentially see your affiliation. 

Now, you can stay connected to that high school alumni group or keep following a competitor’s learning community without this information popping up for just anyone to see on your profile.
The above applies for Listed Groups. Unlisted Groups are not publicly searchable and will not appear on your profile, except to other people who are also members of the same group. Potential members can only see or access the Group after receiving an invitation from a current member or Admin.
Best Groups to Join on LinkedIn 
Whatever your industry, role, or goal for joining LinkedIn Groups, there’s likely no shortage of curated recommendations for the best Groups. To start, you might check out resources like “20 LinkedIn Groups Every Marketer Should Join” or “11 Must-Join LinkedIn Groups For Recruiters.”
It’s also helpful to think beyond immediate or explicitly professional affiliations. Don’t limit yourself to only joining groups directly related to your industry. 
Alumni groups are often both particularly active and helpful – especially if you’re trying to break into a new field or build relationships in a new region. 
Seek out groups that your ideal customers belong to and be an active, engaged member of the groups you join to maximize potential for meaningful networking and social selling.
Explore LinkedIn Groups’ potential to support your own goals by joining a couple of Groups today. Get started with one or two groups in your industry, and another based on where you went to school or a favorite personal interest. 
Think of them as digital versions of groups and spaces you’d consider visiting offline, too. Begin observing the conversations, looking for ways to contribute, and assessing how you might fit into the Group’s community. Good luck!