LinkedIn: The Largest Professional Social Network

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional social network having recently passed 100 million contacts worldwide. There are 7.5 million professionals in Canada and currently close to half are sharing their professional contacts and personal network on LinkedIn.

You may ask, “With volumes of contacts in the millions, will my profile be lost in the forest, or is there a chance that it can be found?” The answer is… your success depends on you.

Opening a profile and having your name and title appear is not enough. In fact I believe a poorly constructed, bare minimum and inactive account provides a poor personal and corporate brand image.

Google and other search engines evaluate LinkedIn content, so it’s also important to pay attention to keywords when you construct your profile. Why? Because when your profile is complete (100%), and active (which doesn’t take much to be active), then Google can use those keywords to index your account and promote your LinkedIn profile in searches. This is a very good thing.

Having a 100% completed profile

Just like anything in life, a 100% complete LinkedIn profile of value requires an initial investment of your time (and/or a small amount of money). Note: To rate well with search engines you need a completed profile.

The account itself doesn’t need to cost a dime. LinkedIn’s free listing (which is the most common), makes sense for most business people at all professional / executive levels.

Your investment is the time you’re willing to invest to learn what to do and how to do it. If your time is best used doing what you do best… experts can help you get your profile up and running quickly.

Example of how experts can help:

I recently worked with the president of an organization who didn’t have a profile. With a bit of pre-planning and pre-work we worked together to create an 80% published profile (with contacts), in just 45 minutes. And we have a plan to achieve the 100% goal within the next three weeks (the last 15% often takes one to four weeks).

Once your profile is launched, you can decide how often you’ll update your profile depending on your personal schedule, responsibilities and preferences. My recommendation is to have some activity at least one every week. 

Organizations use LinkedIn to find:

• Talent
• Suppliers / Trainers / Experts
• Market research and information (LinkedIn Today as example)

Individuals use LinkedIn to find:

• What jobs are available
• Who’s joining a company and other talent information
• Market information / Expertise (LinkedIn Today as example)

Additional ways you can use LinkedIn:

• Join groups and associations to network with clients / prospect clients
• Research high potential clients and prospects before contacting or meeting them
• Request LinkedIn recommendation from satisfied clients and suppliers
• Use LinkedIn Today to stay up-to-date on a topic or industry by customizing an information / news feed

Conclusion:

LinkedIn is a valuable resource and will be as powerful as you make. LinkedIn isn’t sexy, it is a bit trendy, and does take work to initially set it up. However, it is valuable and once you have your profile established it only takes just a few minutes every few days to:

• Find great new & existing clients
• Demonstrate your core competencies
• Added value to your network

LinkedIn isn’t sitting back – it’s consistently adding additional value. So should you.

Other Interesting BMC Article you might be interested in Email Is Great For This – Not Great For That.

Give us a call. We’ll listen.

Bruce Mayhew Consulting is  Strategic    Branded   Relevant.

www.brucemayhewconsulting.com

Social Media Marketing. What’s your Presence?

Does your company have a social media marketing presence?

Here’s the thing, at some point soon – in the next few years – if a company doesn’t have an interactive, responsible, monitored social media experience they won’t exist to an ever-expanding, highly motive group of potential buyers. And existing buyers will be being lured away by competitors with an active social media marketing strategy.

Adding social media marketing to your marketing mix can start small and be built over time into a large product / service experience. It’s really not so hard to get one once you’ve defined why and how you’re going to move into social media marketing.

The important thing when planning is for your strategy to be fully integrated with your brand, core values and mission. Once that’s locked down, be as active and flexible as your company can in one or many social media marketing forums. For example, you can:

• Share knowledge / Get feedback (Blogs, Comments, Questions)
• Be active on facebook, LinkedIn and countless other networking sites – this lets you network and expose your profile / company specifics to online search engines
• Add Video (Company Website, YouTube Product Demo, On-line Training)
• Run Contests (Expand client base – be a good corporate citizen)
• Advertise (Connect with customers and prospects – on others blog sites, or networking sites)
• Respond to customer questions and complaints

Two Social Media Marketing, fears companies have:

• It costs a lot
• What we and our customers say cannot be controlled

My Advice:

Businesses have been unleashing sales people onto the world for years – sending them to conferences, giving them cars, phones and expense accounts – why is social media seen as so expensive and uncontrollable? In reality, social media marketing should be less expensive and the potential is greater. Social media can easily target prospects in your preferred market area.

The added value of social media marketing vs. people go to a conference or on sales calls is that in the social media world everything is online – you can see and track the conversations. You can see where your customer & potential customer interests are… and you can see where your dedicated staff are doing a great job of conversing with them… and where they could use (and want), additional training to be even better.

Training for your social media marketing staff  (and your sales people), is one of the best investments you can make. Make sure they know what your product/service is (sounds obvious – but you’d be surprised), and what value it has as well as the corporate values and mission statement. If your social media marketing staff  are well-trained in customer service and problem resolution – they may be your best – and most public investment in years. Like an online ombudsman.

Social media marketing and social media advertising are places where you don’t have to apply large budgets but can reach a larger audience.

Conclusion:

1. Social media is just one part of the marketing mix and should be coordinated with other marketing activities and your brand.
2. Train, prepare and support dedicated social media representatives so they have knowledge and skill in customer service and understand corporate brand, values and their expectations.

It’s important to leverage social media by connecting and engaging with your customers. This isn’t a sprint – it’s a marathon. It takes time to establish a presence and build credible relationships with your connections… so start today.

Other Interesting BMC Articles: Core Competencies Working Definition

and Effective Business Email Writing.

Give us a call. We’ll listen.

Bruce Mayhew Consulting is  Strategic    Branded   Relevant.

www.brucemayhewconsulting.com

LinkedIn Launches LinkedIn Today

LinkedIn recently launched LinkedIn Today, a service the company hopes will entice members to sign-in every day.

What Is It & Who’s It For?

LinkedIn Today is a fee service for LinkedIn members who want an easy way to stay up-to-date on a topic or industry – on their own terms.  On their own terms means the information source received is fully customizable by each member.

LinkedIn also does not act as an editor, nor does it quantify or qualify the stories. The whole LinkedIn network selects the news based on which stories are recommended, Tweeted, or posted on Facebook. 

Three Ways LinkedIn Members Customize What They See

LinkedIn Today gives members the opportunity to receive personally relevant information by customizing their profile in three different ways. LinkedIn members can read:

• What their connections are reading
• Top articles within specific industries or news sources (22 industries to choose from and growing)
• Headlines from the global LinkedIn network of 100 million members

Members can also share news they think is relevant with their LinkedIn Groups – or email (send), it to one of their LinkedIn contacts.

“Having a professional and tailored lens on news and insights is not only an efficient way to gather information for your work day, but it also arms you with the insights you need to make strategic business decisions.” said Deep Nishar, SVP of product and user experience at LinkedIn.

Share News With Other Social Media

LinkedIn has also built stronger ties with Twitter by enabling members who use LinkedIn Today to send (Tweet), information they see and like.

LinkedIn Today Is Mobile

LinkedIn’s iPhone application version 3.6, lets members view LinkedIn Today news and connect with the over 100 million LinkedIn members. Also, if members see an article they like but don’t have time to read it, iPhone application version 3.6 also lets them save any article and read it later. The application is also compatible with the iPad.

So – here is one more way – and seemingly a very efficient way – for you to stay up-to-date and connected to your network  or within in an industry.

Other Interesting BMC Articles: Effective Business Email Writing and Sales Vs. Marketing

Give us a call. We’ll listen.

Bruce Mayhew Consulting is Strategic   Branded   Relevant

www.brucemayhewconsulting.com

LinkedIn Contacts

LinkedIn is a networking tool with many great features. And, LinkedIn is most valuable when you have contacts so, lets explore how you can add connections.

I don’t believe there’s one correct approach for everyone. All I can share is my approach and a few options.

I see three options:

1. Connect with everyone you possibly can and hope you will catch a good contact among all the ‘other’ ones
2. Be selective and make contacts only with people you
• Know and/or
• Meet face-to-face and/or
• Have exchanged a few messages with
3. Some combination between 1 & 2

To me, it’s not a popularity / numbers game – it’s a quality game where Truth and respect prevail. I don’t try to get as many contacts as possible. That said, my philosophy is to introduce myself if I think there’s relevance. If there’s a chance for us to add value over time (by sharing best practices, experience and potentially other business contacts), I believe it’s in each of our best interests for me to reach out.

Similar to face-to-face networking, mutual respect often turns relevant connections into valuable connections.  Social Media opportunities like LinkedIn simply provide more chances to network with people from all over the world.

A Connecting Example: I’m in Toronto and am not looking to purchase real-estate in Florida so, I would not reach out to real-estate agents (I don’t already know), in Florida. However, if an agent offered an intelligent, insightful response to one of my LinkedIn Questions, I would try to connect hoping we could share more intelligent conversations (and perhaps connections), in the future.

As my example suggests, one of my favourite ways to connect is to ask people who have prepared a good answer to a LinkedIn Question I have posted (or someone else has posted). This shows they are active on LinkedIn and their character is one of sharing – not of only taking…

When I do invite people I try to start building familiarity by adding a personal message – for example, “We are both members of the Board of Trade“… or perhaps… “I found your answer to my question to be very interesting and thoughtful“.

Out-of-the-blue LinkedIn requests aside – what surprises me is how many people don’t include their email address within their profile. Seriously! If someone wants to contact you for a job, you are putting a road block in their way if you don’t share your email address. LinkedIn is Social Media… right?

Conclusion

1. Try to connect with people who match your philosophy (inclusion = value for me/those in my network).
2. You never know when a connection you’re interactive with – or who’s following your posts will become a new client. So, make connections and make sure you include a brief message explaining your connection and your intention.
3. Make sure your LinkedIn profile is competed – an incomplete profile may suggest you don’t really care about networking – or that you don’t pay attention to detail.

 

Other Interesting BMC Articles: Effective Business Email Writing and Sales Vs. Marketing

Give us a call. We’ll listen.

Bruce Mayhew Consulting is Strategic   Branded   Relevant

www.brucemayhewconsulting.com

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LinkedIn: Drive Business like a Porsche

If you had a Porsche (and didn’t have to pay for gas or insurance), would you:

• Keep it in your garage and idle the engine once a year?
• Drive it everywhere and let people notice you?

If you have an incomplete LinkedIn account and can’t remember when you updated it last, you have a Porsche in your garage.

The beauty is it doesn’t take much time to get moving down the highway. All you need are a few concentrated hours to complete your profile, and then about 20 minutes per week. Here are the steps:

1. Define your Objective
2. Complete your Profile and Summary (Using Key Words)
3. Add Business Contacts
4. Join Groups
5. Use the Answer feature to Answer and Ask questions

Define Your Objective

How about I take a stab at guessing your Objective? You would like to:

“Build genuine online relationships that are profitable for you and your contacts by being visible, active and demonstrating relevant value.”

How did I do? If yours is similar to the one above then you are OK. If you don’t want to be visible, active and demonstrate relevant value, Social Media may not be the right tool for you. 

Complete Your Profile & Summary Sections

Make sure all of the fields in your Profile & Summary sections are completed. This includes a photo. Your information is searchable by systems like Google, Yahoo and Bing. If you have an empty Profile and no Photo you will not be found by potential employers or businesses. That’s what I mean by having a Porsche idling in your garage.

LinkedIn has resources to help, but some good advice from someone who knows how will help speed things up and shorten your learning curve.

Add Business Contacts

Don’t start asking every Tom, Dick and Sally to be your, contact. Think about the close business associates and partners. Then, consider associates you have worked with in the past and want to work with in the future.

Invite people who are your best target audience and use the search function to find these people. This is a perfect time to make contact with prospects you have recently met. Write a personal email message and invite them to join your community.

Join Groups

I really began making valuable contacts when I joined ‘Groups’ and began using the ‘Answers’ feature.

Your objective here is to demonstrate your business and the unique value you offer. So, you should join and participate in Social Media Groups. 

Don’t only join groups of people who do what you do (they are your competitors). Join groups where you clients and potential clients are - then, contribute to conversations. By joining discussions you will be get noticed.

When you see a great potential prospect, ask them to join your network. Start getting to know each other… just DON’T SELL. If you throw them a sales pitch they’ll likely run. Let them trust you… get to know you. When you have a dialogue with a customer or prospect you become a valued resource – not a sales person.

Answers and Questions

Social Media is about having a dialogue. Use the ‘Answers’ feature to Ask & Answer questions to build your on-line industry expert reputation. The difference between posting questions here rather than within a ‘Group’ is that this information goes out to the whole LinkedIn community. I like that!

Another thing you can do to build your LinkedIn profile is to begin communicating regularly on Twitter and create a Blog. Both of these are great exposure. If you make connections there – they can also easily become LinkedIn contacts.

I hope this helps you get on the highway with your Porsche and enjoy the ride.

Other Interesting BMC Articles: Core Competencies Working Definition

and Effective Business Email Writing.

Give us a call. We’ll listen.

Bruce Mayhew Consulting is  Strategic    Branded   Relevant.

www.brucemayhewconsulting.com

E-lingual

How many languages can you speak? Can you speak, read and write them fluently?

Our communication options have increased dramatically over the last 2o years. I can still remember when touch-tone telephones at home were a big deal – and they took a good 10-15 years to catch on.

In 2010 Apple launched the iPad. In Spring 2011 they launched the next generation iPad with competitor tablet products from BlackBerry, Motorola, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo and Dell hot on their heels.

Compared to the touch-tone phone (who knows the stats on that), it’s estimated that there will be 45 million tablet sales in 2011 and 70 million tablet sales in 2012 – worldwide. Wow!

So today, besides still speaking over the fence with our neighbours we are able to phone (from anywhere almost), text, IM, email, fax (still), Skype, PIN and who knows what other electronic means of communication we will be able to use before long. All that to say – we are becoming e-llingual.

E-lingual  (Eˈlɪŋɡwəl) 

— adj  

1.  able to communicate in multiple e languages fluently  (example Social media, QR codes, and traditional email) 2.  expressed or written in multiple e-languages 

But how good are we at being heard – and understood? Technology is making communication easier than ever. The problem is how and when we’re using this technology. Being e-lingual doesn’t only mean using multiple communication avenues, it means using the right resource at the right time based on the needs and ease of use of your clients / prospects. 

As I mention in my blog post One-to-One Conversation:  RIP, sometimes we don’t make the effort to get out of our chairs or pick up the phone. Other times we use technology to hide.

Whatever the case, exceptional communication experiences are always possible. Furthermore, we owe it to our personal and professional brand reputation as well as the competitive success of the organizations we work for to make sure we are fully e-lingual.

Other Interesting BMC Articles: Effective Business Email Writing and Sales Vs. Marketing

Give us a call. We’ll listen.

Bruce Mayhew Consulting is Strategic   Branded   Relevant

www.brucemayhewconsulting.com