I recently ran two ads, one on Facebook and one on LinkedIn and the results couldn’t be more different.

LinkedIn now has their own Pay-Per-Click advertising called DirectAds.   You may not have even noticed the ads and that’s part of the problem.

Linked in has 3 types of ads, Banner Ads, Media Box ads and DirectAds.  You can access the DirectAds feature by going to the More menu at the top of your LinkedIn screen.  The Banner ads and Media Box ads are for larger budgets ($25,000+  wooheee a little rich for my blood!).

Here’s where the PPC ads appear in LinkedIn.  Did you miss them?  I know I have.

But I got a coupon from LinkedIn for $100 of free advertising.  So I thought, “What the heck, I’ll give it a try.”

I created two similar campaigns in Facebook and LinkedIn.  Unfortunately I couldn’t replicate them exactly because I was advertising an Event in Facebook and just advertising a sales page in LinkedIn.   The sales page and the Facebook event had the exact same wording.  I was advertising a Facebook Bootcamp event in Denver and limited my geographic target to only the Denver area.

When it came time bid for my clicks on LinkedIn, I was given a recommended bid of a staggering $4.23/click!  That click better be good!  I went with their recommendation and ended up paying $3.25/click.  Still a pretty penny.

Facebook ads recommend a $1.25/click bid which sounded still high but better than LinkedIn.  I ran both ads for about 3 days and here are the two results:

LinkedIn:

Facebook:

I know the Facebook ad results are a little hard to see, so here is a chart:

Winner? FACEBOOK!!! I don’t know who you think you are, LinkedIn, charging $3.25/click but you better deliver some good value at those prices.  And I just didn’t see it.

PS.  Still some time to get in on the Facebook Bootcamp if you are in Denver.  More information here:  Denver Facebook Bootcamp – September 1st

Grandma’s going Old School on ya today.  Everyone wants to know how to find contacts on LinkedIn and Facebook.  Well look no further than your junk drawer.

Even I am guilty of overlooking all the connections I’ve made over the years at networking events.  Find those dusty stacks of business cards and start connecting!

LinkedIn Events are totally underutilized (that’s a nice $2 word for ya). In the Social Media world, LinkedIn does not get the love it deserves and LinkedIn Events are no exception. If you run events, you want to start using this tool.

Now, it’s most effective if you build up your LinkedIn connections so that you can invite your connections to your event. But your event can also be found by new people that you may not be connected to. Creating an event only takes a moment, you can browse to see what other events are happening in your area, and your event will show up there also.

Events can run a little viral because other people will see that a LinkedIn connection is attending your event when they RSVP. We’re all about viral, baby. So I highly encourage you to use LinkedIn Events.

If you haven’t already heard, LinkedIn and Twitter are in loooovve.  You can now update Twitter from LinkedIn and LinkedIn from Twitter and we are all one big happy family Kumbaya!

It’s really easy to get set up.  I say that but I’ve still been having some trouble getting it to work.  So don’t fret.  But all you have to do is go to your LinkedIn profile, add your Twitter name and Allow Access.  Then go to Twitter and just add the #in or #li hashtag to whatever you want to send to LinkedIn.  I made a short video.  We were able to get it to work with my granddaughter’s account but not mine.  So far LinkedIn customer service has not been super responsive. I’ll keep you posted.

Just a note, make sure you aren’t updating your LinkedIn status for every tweet.  That’s just annoying.  Update your status whenever you have something meaningful that you want your LinkedIn group to know.  And Link up with me!  http://www.LinkedIn.com/in/GrandmaMary

How to use Linkedin Groups as part of your Social Media strategy.