Rich Drees

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Stories By Rich Drees

  • The Business Benefits of a LinkedIn Company Page

    Many established businesses today now recognize LinkedIn as a powerful tool to generate leads and develop new partnerships. No longer is it just a site to find new jobs and grow your professional network, now many businesses create their own LinkedIn profiles as a status symbol and as social proof that they are a trusted and credible global organization. Having a LinkedIn company page gives you a public avenue to share more information about your company. This helps you create a carefully crafted image of who your company is in terms of your history and how your business started, your goals, achievements, and share career opportunities to interested job candidates. It helps you market your company on a global scale that can be accessed by LinkedIn's millions of users which gives potential leads a better understanding of the kind of business that you do. Here are more reasons to establish a LinkedIn Business company page. Search engine visibility Businesses looking to improve traffic to their websites and get better online visibility can make the most of a LinkedIn company page's ability to appear on top of Google search engine rankings. This means any updates and published content on their LinkedIn page can boost traffic for their page and main company website. This is of particular importance to startup companies who hope to get more traction for their business. LinkedIn's posts can be optimized for SEO to ensure it draws more clicks, views and fundamentally improve visitor traffic. Sharing content that embeds company website links also helps draw more site visits and helps your company build its own identity online. Companies can even make the most of Google Web Analytics to better understand their target audience on LinkedIn so they can create engaging content that draws more views, likes and shares. Expand your reach With LinkedIn's massive global community, it is so much easier to expand your market reach and find potential business leads. Through a LinkedIn company page, you can easily find potential prospects through LinkedIn's massive professional network, connect, interact and build business relationships with them without having to waste the time or the energy to engage with them in person. It is a lot easier to establish business connections and have direct access to potential partners through LinkedIn. Share content quickly Having a LinkedIn company page gives you a free platform to share content easily to engage and stay relevant to your target audience. This offers any business a great opportunity to connect with their customers or followers in a personalized and global way. Companies can share helpful and informative industry specific content such as videos, info graphics, guides or podcasts that help them relate and identify with their target market. With its massive professional audience, it is easy to use LinkedIn as a platform to share company updates, newly launched services and campaigns to people who matter and who actually may find this interesting enough to turn them into sales leads. Many companies have used LinkedIn as a tried and tested method to generate sales leads for new product offers, discounts and promotions. It offers the best arena to explain new company products and updates in order to draw feedback and engage with customers in a whole new way. From business level executives and top tier decision makers, LinkedIn bridges gaps better than any other social media platform so startup brands no longer have to do their marketing in person. Stand out from the competition Not all businesses fully recognize LinkedIn's networking potential, getting ahead of the competition is essential to establish your company as a leading authority in your industry. By creating a powerful LinkedIn profile, brands and businesses can easily gain the competitive advantage and show their audience that they are a step ahead. Being Unique is a great way to make an impression on new visitors, keeping your brand in customers' short term memory, and naturally getting more LinkedIn connections and endorsements. Finding the right people Businesses looking to expand and find the right people to join their organization can also use LinkedIn to share their company's goals and vision to attract and reach the perfect candidates. Having a stellar LinkedIn company business page that speaks volumes about the quality of your vision and the passion you have for what you do makes it all the more easier to draw the right people in. LinkedIn has a huge database for highly skilled and talented people and offers an in depth access to their public profiles that features their professional track records, expertise and years of experience. For businesses looking to hire only the best talent, having a standout LinkedIn company page that highlights the vision you would like to share with the right people may just be powerful enough to attract your very own power team. Keep abreast of industry news and updates LinkedIn's updated newsfeed gives businesses direct access to the latest news and updates that they can filter to highlight those from their industry. This means they are kept always in the loop on relevant business information that is critical for the business. This also means they can readily snoop in on what the competition is up to in terms or product events and launches to keep themselves in the know and if necessary, improve their business strategy. They can visit other company pages and discover for themselves how the competition is doing. It promotes healthy competition and allows businesses the ability to monitor industry trends and important shifts in strategy that can improve business for everyone involved. With hundreds of companies now taking their businesses online, creating a solid LinkedIn profile is only one of the many ways to gain recognition for your brand while at the same time building trust and credibility for your company. It helps them create an attractive public profile that offers a sneak peek into how the company works and the ideals that make them who they are. It also makes it easier for potential leads and investors to find out more about your company to check out worthy partnerships beforehand. Needless to say, companies have so much more to gain from being on LinkedIn. It is a relatively free platform that extends their reach far beyond the usual and gives them an opportunity to promote themselves on a global scale.

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  • Is Hillary Clinton Buying Retweets on Twitter?

    Since the day Hillary Clinton made it official that she was in the running for the 2016 U.S. presidential race, people have been speculating that she has been padding her social media accounts and boosting her popularity on sites like Twitter and Facebook by buying retweets. The Daily Mail recently published findings from a report that claimed that as many as 2 million of Clinton's 3.6 million Twitter followers were fake and inactive accounts she paid for. An audit was also done by Status People showed that it is believed that as little as 44 percent of Hillary's followers on social media are real people who are actively engaging and using these platforms- the rest are spam accounts and used only for boosting her numbers. Clinton's Facebook page also has come under scrutiny and it seems to be failing inspection as well. How much would it cost someone to buy Twitter and Facebook followers? Surprisingly it is not that hard nor expensive to do so and businesses, musicians, authors, and actors among others have bought likes and followers and comments for their social media pages. There are dozens of places people can go online to order theses services and while some simply spam the account with fake likes other are more crafty about it and spread them out over time and sprinkle in 'live' accounts to keep the spam flags and filters from going off. These reports of Clinton's social media spending and her attempt to get a boost to her popularity on social media by buying them is nothing new and many candidates in the past have been suspected of doing just that- even the Donald, aka Donald Trump, has been accused of doing this same thing. Fake followers or real followers, one thing is for certain- Hillary Clinton's official presidential campaign launch blew the roof off the social media sites. Her Twitter post where she made the announcement on its own gathered more than 103,000 retweets and had almost that many favorites. Time will tell how the social media war plays out and what true role it will have in one of the most hotly contested and most strongly debated campaigns in American history.

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  • YouTube Marketing Strategy: Views vs. Subscribers

    YouTube Marketing Strategy: Views vs. Subscribers YouTube is arguably one of the top websites in the world, just behind Google and Facebook. Latest figures show that it has over 800 million unique visitors each month. A more mind-boggling fact is that there are nearly 4 billion videos viewed on YouTube in a single day. Simply put, YouTube is one of the best platforms for online marketers wishing to promote a brand, product, or service to potential customers. For most online marketers, using the concept of social proof is one of the best ways to convince customers to buy a particular product, or avail a certain service. Social proof is a psychological concept that says people will perform a certain action because others are doing it. This explains why a customer would likely step into a popular restaurant that one which is practically empty. It's also a potential reason why a customer would buy a certain product that has been tested and recommended by a friend. A lot of studies back up this claim. One study of research shows that seven out of 10 American consumers will look at product reviews first before making a purchase. Another consumer study reveals that six out of 10 American consumers will buy from an online store if its products have positive ratings and reviews. Using social proof in online marketing is very useful for small companies, because it allows them to compete head-on against their larger competitors despite having limited advertising budget. And YouTube is one of those channels that online marketers can tap to generate and share social proof content for their respective brands. How to Influence Potential Customers Through YouTube There are several key areas that online marketers can focus on to influence YouTube viewers using the concept of social proof, including: Getting more YouTube views One of the first things that YouTube viewers will notice about a certain YouTube video is the number of views it has. When a YouTube video has, say, a million views, it is often perceived as popular and thus something worth watching. Most of the time, the number of views is all that it needs for a casual YouTube viewer to watch a video. The topic or subject of the video doesn't even have to be of particular interest to the casual YouTube viewer for him or her to watch it. The YouTube user will be swayed into watching a viral video because, well, it's popular. Take for instance, the video of Korean artist Psy for his song "Gangnam Style." The music video is the most watched ever on YouTube with more than 2.6 billion views. But come to think of it, how many of those viewers were really interested in the song? It's safe to assume that more than half of the viewers didn't even understand what Psy was singing, but they still watched the video because it was that popular. Thus, online marketers have to come up with videos that are engaging not just to its target viewers, but to the general YouTube audience as well. Usually, YouTube videos that are entertaining, humorous, engaging, and tell a compelling story are the ones that go viral. Getting more YouTube subscribers Aside from getting more views for their YouTube videos, online marketers try to get as many YouTube subscribers for their YouTube channels. The number of subscribers that a YouTube channel has can influence other people's perception of it. The large number of subscribers that a YouTube channel has serves as its social proof. It reflects the popularity of the videos from the said channel, and can convince other YouTube users to subscribe to the said channel. In turn, the brand will benefit from the increase in YouTube subscribers as this also spikes traffic on all videos. Getting YouTube to recommend videos Finally, online marketers aim to make the videos for the clients recommended or suggested by YouTube itself. Most of the time, organic viewership on YouTube comes from the "Suggested Videos" column. YouTube viewers are more likely to watch a video after clicking the "Up Next" tab or button. There are many tricks that online marketers do in order for YouTube to "recommend" their videos. One is by making videos that engage viewers from start to finish. Watch time is important for YouTube, thus video tutorials that viewers aren't likely to skip are more often recommended by the popular website. For a YouTube video to be recommended, it should also encourage viewer engagement. This can be determined by the number of likes, dislikes, and comments of the video. Viewer engagement can also be achieved by the brand asking its YouTube subscribers what they liked about a video, or anything else they'd like to view on the channel. Other administrators of YouTube channels even ask their subscribers to share the video on their Facebook or Twitter accounts. Different Tactics to Increase Viewer Engagement Aside from the aforementioned tactics, there are other ways for online marketers do to increase viewer engagement on YouTube: Adding closed captions Writing keyword-optimized description, title, and tags Publishing videos regularly Embedding videos on a brand's website Creating an interesting and engaging trailer Call to action (CTA) messages at the end of the video clip Limiting the video length to 5 minutes or less. YouTube viewers aren't likely to spend five minutes on a YouTube video, unless they are very much interested on the topic. Conclusion YouTube's popularity around the world is undeniable. Its global reach makes it one of the best sites for online marketers to promote a brand by creating engaging videos. Online marketers aim to boost the views of their YouTube clips and increase the number of subscribers of their YouTube channels. These strategies can directly improve traffic to their websites and in turn, boost their brand's sales.

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