Numbers, numbers numbers!

I have lots of level 1 contacts but never link with anyone unless I have met them or, as a minimum, had a telephone conversation. And, that call has to leave me thinking, “We have not yet formally met, but they seem okay.”

Because of my LinkedIn and face-to-face seminars I meet hundreds of people, a number of whom request me to connect. This means I have nearly 2000 level 1 contacts. LinkedIn’s definition of a level 1 connection is ‘Your trusted friends and colleagues.’ I can hardly say all these people are trusted in the true sense of the word but if they invited me I can only assume they are happy to allow me to view their network.

With so many level 1’s this results in over 300,000 level 2’s. These are gold dust. They are the ones, we hope, who can be  introduced to me by my level 1 connections. What a big crowd of ‘warm’ prospects.

Your LinkedIn summary is the meat of your profile

It is  the part that tells YOUR story (i.e. your skill set,

what you have to offer, how people can work with you, etc.)

If you really want to see results using LinkedIn, because quite

frankly you should be when there are 75+ million people you

can connect with, then make sure you don't do it half-heartedly

and put some energy into playing to your highest potential.

1.  Start with your intro paragraph stating who you are, your passions

and your goals.  This doesn't have to be long, but get me interested

in you as an individual; remember, we do business with those

we know, like, and trust.

2.  Create a new paragraph and tell people exactly who you help.

3.  Create a new paragraph and tell people exactly how you help them.

4.  Create a new paragraph and tell people how to contact you.

That's it.  Remember to keep it simple, personal (yes personal, this

is not a CV or resume... it is a SOCIAL networking site so make it social!)

If you have a number of different projects/businesses

and you work with a variety of individuals then feel free to 

mention those too.

“Who’s in control of your business?”

None of us can control the economy nor can we control our competitors.  But we can control and manage our reaction to the state of the nation as it is at any moment in the cycle of business.  On my desk is a plaque which says: “Attitude is everything”. On my favourite sweatshirt it has the same words.  Henry Ford, the car man, has been credited with the following quote (although I’ve heard it attributed to others, it doesn’t matter):  “If you think you can or you think you can’t…you are right”.

As we all know there are good times and not so good times.  There have always been these two sides of the business cycle and my economics-studying son tells me it’s just a fact of life. So when things got tough, did you sit back and wait for the cycle to move? Moan and groan?  Complain? Starve? Or get out and do something about it?

Even now as things begin to get better do you surround yourselves with positive people and talk up the moment.  When people complain to you, you show empathy but how much do you really care? Occasionally you may be secretly pleased, realising you are probably not as badly off as the complainer. Don’t be like these people. Take action and make it happen. If things are slow, you have more time so use it wisely. If you are any good there’s always business about, all it means is you have to work that much harder to find it.  When you start actively networking, do remember there are people in the business community who want your knowledge and skills as much as you want their business. You just have to find them.

Not Asking for Recommendations

Recommendations are a clear indication that you do a good job and know what you are talking about. It’s crucial that you build then up.  There’s no reason why anyone shouldn’t be able have 10 recommendations. Most people don’t get any recommendations because they sit back and wait for someone to take the initiative. You have to take the initiative.

When you begin working with a new client connect with them on LinkedIn.  Once you’ve finished the project send them a recommendation request.  Keep the request simple and mention the work you did for them and then state “I’m using LinkedIn to build my online brand. If you feel the work that I did on your behalf exceeded your expectations I would appreciate your taking a moment to write a brief recommendation.”

Make your profile stand out

Ignore LinkedIn’s applications at your peril. They are there to take your profile from two dimensions to three.

The basic LinkedIn profile is just a lot of text. Yes, it tells people all of the relevant information but I believe it’s always better to “Show, don’t tell”.  Applications give you the opportunity to show what it is that you do.

You can post a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation, add a video, feed in your blog, add PDF files or Word documents, announce and RSVP Events, conduct Polls, share the books you’re reading (Amazon), and your Twitter feed. Adding any of these apps’ brings your profile to life, it adds an extra dimension.

You can communicate a message or information in whatever format you choose on LinkedIn. Start going through your resources to see what information will help you tell others what it is that you do and how you can help them. 

If you don’t have a blog try WordPress, it’s easy to use. You can also try creating a presentation to share, just be sure to make it interesting by including more than just bullet points. Load up those brochures, white papers, and one-pagers.  

Express Yourself

Your profile should let visitors know who you are. I recommend that this includes areas that highlight all your career milestones and provide an opportunity to add keywords into your profile.

Begin your profile with your elevator pitch. There’s no reason it shouldn’t work the same way on your profile as it does when you’re talking to someone face to face.  The rest of your summary should answer key questions: “Who you are”, “How you help people”, and “How they can help you” One area of missed opportunity is failing to add in your previous employment.  People want to know the path you travelled from college to your current position. Not including this might raise questions with the person reading it.  There’s also an opportunity to include keywords into your job descriptions.

Use your summary to add information like specialties, interests and awards. You might also consider including your phone number and your personal contact information. When you write job descriptions write them from the perspective of how that job contributed to making you better at what you do today.

Are you ready for your close up?

 

Your photo gives people a few clues to you and your personality so it’s vital that you get it right.

On a professional site like Linked In it’s important to present a professional front, so please no family shots. Save those for Facebook.

A recent head and shoulders shot, perhaps at work, helps people connect with you.

I’ve seen some profile photos that have gimmicky effects this is s no-no. I also think you should stay away from cartoons of yourself, company logos and images of the product you sell.

But the worst crime of all is no photo of all. To me that just say you can’t be bothered and aren’t really taking networking seriously.

The benefits of belonging to the Linkedin Community

LinkedIn is a global networking club and when you master all it’s uses it can make it a big difference to your business. For me the benefits are;

1. When you use it actively and with a positive frame of mind you become part of a very large and valuable network. Being part of the same club means members tend to keep in touch with each other and the system will update your current situation and contact points 

2. You build your own brand when you use the profile page carefully. This tells the LinkedIn world who you are, what your business is all about, what services you have available and how people rate you. It’s great marketing and profile raising to 75m+ people in the same club! 

3. You have the best referral system possible, again when you approach it professionally 

4. You have many people to whom you can give your advice or get advice from. This is available when you use the ‘answers’ section. 

5. You can set up your own network club within LinkedIn where you find issues of common interest. LinkedIn call them groups. 

6. You can find new advisors and suppliers. Using your network and the testimonial section you can check out these people first. This is no different when you’re in the pub and you ask someone to recommend a reliable builder. 

7. When you’re in a bigger organisation it is a great tool to find out more about colleagues across other divisions or even countries. Visibility creates more success in big companies and when you put an effective profile up, it can ceate many more cross-selling opportunities 

8. IT’S FREE! Unless you want to use certain features many more times than the average user, yes it’s free. Even after that the costs are not high.

Enthusiasm is vital for business development

“Flaming enthusiasm, backed up by common sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success.”

Dale Carnegie – author of How to Win Friends and Influence People

"When you love what you do, you can’t help being enthusiastic

The word simply means intense enjoyment, interest and approval. When you’re in this state you just love spreading the word about how to make things work better. You’re committed to results, passionate about solutions, fanatical about helping others achieve their goals. And don’t you want to spread your message far and wide using any and every marketing tool you can get your hands on? The enthusiast gets business from all corners because so many people hear about them and their innovative problem-solving approaches."

If I lined up ten of your friends and associates, would they all report that you are passionate, even fanatical about the work you do and the difference you make? I know mine would.

Most professionals and business owners may love what they do, but more often than not, they come across as tepid, hesitant, and uncommitted.

When they talk about their work or their business they are often as inspiring as a wet sponge.

“What do you do?” The person answering will say, looking at his shoes (or yours if he’s not a total introvert!) “I’m an accountant”  with an apology thrown in for good measure.

Look, I'm not out to insult you, but to challenge you.

If you are not passionate about what you do, excited by the difference you make, keen to share with others, eager to add value, inspired by your clients and moved by the abundance of opportunities and possibilities afforded by your expertise, you are missing the boat.

And what's perplexing to me is that this is the very last thing that professionals and business people focus on.

If you want to be an all round professional you just know not only have you to be good technically (that’s taken as a given) but you’re expected to contribute to business development. Many people will do very little to nothing. “Not my job, leave it to the marketing people.” Others may study everything they can about marketing. Still others will work hard to make external changes to their marketing. But very few will do the thing that makes the biggest difference of all:

 Expressing Authentic Excitement about Your Work and Your Business!

The company you keep... Connections on LinkedIn - Pt 4

Seven ways to connect

Once you’re happy to have people in your precious network you have 7 ways to connect

People you know

1. Use the green ‘connect’ button at the foot of the left-hand vertical button

When your LinkedIn program is linked to Outlook you can click on the LinkedIn button on Outlook

People you would like to know

2. If you are a 2nd degree connection you can send a message reminding them how you have been previously connected
3. If you share a group, you can send a direct message requesting to connect.
4. If you share a connection, you can request an introduction
5. If someone responds to your questions, answers, discussion posts, you can send them a message
6. If you pay for an account, you can send them a direct "Inmail" requesting to connect.

The company you keep... Connections on LinkedIn - Pt 3

There are people out there who appear to be going for the world record of how many people they can link in with. They are called LIONS- LinkedIn Open Networkers. Search me why they do it!

When people request to link in with me and I know for certain we have never met I always click either 4 or 5. I am reliably informed this information goes back to LinkedIn headquarters who decide to cancel these spammer’s (oops sorry people’s) profile on LinkedIn. I believe this does not happen where people announce to the world they are a LION in their profile.

The company you keep... Connections on LinkedIn - Pt 2

Take care who you link in with

You have 5 choices to make when someone invites you to join their network

1. Accept but always send a personal message immediately thanking them for inviting you to join their network
2. If you’re not sure about this person click the ‘reply’ button and send them a message asking them to remind you where you met or why they want to link in with you
3. Archive the request …and hope they forget and won’t ask you again!
4. Click the button ‘I don’t know this person’
5. Click the button ‘flag as spam’

The company you keep... Connections on LinkedIn - Pt 1

You’re judged by the company you keep

When my teenage kids went out with friends, within reason, I wasn’t too worried where they went, or at what time they got home. As parents, we were more concerned about the people with whom our children were spending their time. As long as we were satisfied their friends were from ‘good stock’, well behaved and trustworthy, we felt comfortable with the situation

Birds of a Feather

‘Birds of a feather flock together’ emphasises the point I wish to make. People join clubs where they feel relaxed with others and we all have friends we feel at ease with.

This is the same with the professional connections we make on LinkedIn. When I see people I know who are linked in with people I don’t like I hesitate for a moment and question my contacts judgment. Maybe it’s just me but when I see people I have little time for I always find something to say or think negative about them. I won’t like what they say, how they look, if I see something they write I will find fault in their words. I do everything I can to avoid these people

I’m pleased to say there are a tiny percentage of people I don’t like!

Using LinkedIn to double your business through cross-selling! pt2

Proposal for integrated marketing (i.e. cross- selling) using LinkedIn

If you’re on LinkedIn, start to link in with others within your company; this should start with people in your department then moving to others in other disciplines. I generally discourage linking in with people you don’t know but on this occasion I think it is acceptable. After all, you all work under one banner, they may be a stranger to you but at some stage someone has employed them or made them your fellow partner or director!

Action

So what next? You notice Sam works in your company in a different department; you invite him into your network then start checking his contacts. “Within his contacts there’s the CEO of a company you’d like to meet.”

Then I want you to do something quaint and old-fashioned- pick up the phone and start talking (yes I know it’s going out of fashion but worth a try) and get to know Sam. Meet for a beer or a glass of wine and at the same time ask him to check your contacts to see if there’s anyone he’d like you to introduce him to. This is called networking offline and is what we used to do and in fact still do to get more business by being proactive. Networking i.e. building relationships has a first principle – give first, be generous. ‘What can I do for you?’; ‘Who would you like me to introduce you to?’ is the key to long term solid relationships When you start to build your relationship with Sam and you get to know and like each other it’s a sure-fire way you’re going to want to help each other grow your respective client bases all for the common good of your business.

Using LinkedIn to double your business through cross-selling! pt1

Cross-selling – the problem

Multidisciplinary firms and companies, generally the larger ones, tend to work in deep, dark silos with little or no contact between them. In accountancy companies, law firms, property consultancies and major financial institutions there are many service lines departments and experts. When people don’t communicate, the wasted knowledge and the lost opportunities slows down the growth of business dramatically. Even when management encourage and use resources educating everybody about what services are provided, there is often a reluctance to recommend other departments. The interdepartmental culture, generally, is zero and the reason for this is simple;  it’s to do with relationships. When we build relationships we need to go through 3 key steps - knowing, liking, and trusting.

Where people are physically apart, whether it’s in the same building or a different town, colleagues often don’t know each other.

Let’s look at an example.  Suppose you’re a lawyer in the corporate finance department and your friend Janice has an employment law issue. Your firm has a department handling these issues but you’ve never actually met anybody from that section.

.... Next week - the proposed solution using LinkedIn!

Where can you use testimonials & recommendations?

So you've got your glowing testimonial or recommendation - so what next?  Don't just leave them on your LinkedIn profile - broadcast it!

1.    Frame them for reception and office
2.    Use on packaging
3.    Direct mail campaigns
4.    In your welcome pack
5.    Photocopy on to coloured paper and send to your support network
6.    Extract bits for sales letters
7.    Use on your web site
8.    Place in a folder to show potential clients
9.    Add photos to testimonial
10.    Use for audio and video to place on audio and website
11.    Read them when you are feeling down

Asking for Recommendations - tips 16-20

Think ahead when it comes to testimonials - consider the changes that you have seen personally - and remember your manners; business relationships often last well beyond a single deal.. think ahead; weeks, months, years or decades down the line!

16.    What changes has your client seen in themselves since getting involved with you.
17.    Thank your client with a thank you card

18     Or with something more substantial if it leads to business
19.    Don’t date testimonials
20.    Write testimonials for your clients and educate where you can. Help  them to increase their own referrals

Asking for Recommendations - tips 11-15

Consider the practicalities when asking for a testimonial - where, when, and how will it be used?

11.  Make sure your client puts your testimonial on their letterhead.

12. Ask them not to date it so it doesn’t become out of date.

13. Always give your client a deadline for when you need the testimonial back.

14. Ask your client verbally.

15. Send them a prepaid envelope to send it back.

Asking for Recommendations - tips 6-10

Consider what a testimonial is used for.. it tells other people why they should use a product or service - so make it relevant to the people who are going to read it...

6. How easy is it to do business with you?
7. Why do they continue to do business with you?
8. Why are they loyal customers?
9. What would you say to someone who has never heard of you before?
10. What is unique about your service.

Asking for Recommendations - tips 1-5

It's always good to get recommendations or a good testimonial; the easiest way on LinkedIn is to recommend someone yourself - they will then have the opportunity to recommend you back.


Sometimes it's difficult to know what to ask for/give in a recommendation; this is a series of 20 top tips to help you:

1. Three problems your client faced before you came along.
2. How delighted and happy your client is with your services.
3. How easy and fulfilling it is to work with you.
4. Would they recommend your services to anyone else.
5. How does your client feel by taking up your services.

Obvious? maybe - but good to keep in mind next time a supplier or business associate asks for a testimonial.