7 – LinkedIn & Creating New Business

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Pod-Cast Episode 7 LinkedIn Tactics & Networking

Welcome to Rediscover Your Brand™ podcast episode #7 brought to you by ArtVersion Interactive Agency.   I’m your host Kip Russell and today we are discussing LinkedIn Practices and tactics you can use to create new business.

On the last podcast, we talked about LinkedIn Vs Twitter and why I thought Twitter was the better of the 2 social networks for creating new business. Well after sort of trashing LinkedIn I’d like to use this week to redeem myself with the social network.  I’d like to start by giving 5 or 6 common uses for networking on LinkedIn and a few of my own unconventional tactics.

LinkedIn is a great site for gathering all sorts of valuable information on a person or company you want to network with.  It’s important if your new to LinkedIn you don’t go crazy reaching out to people, importing email lists, and sending in-mails because unless you’re using a paid version of the service you only have a predetermined amount of uses for these key features.

The majority of the people I consult with don’t want to spend $15-$50 a month to use the paid service so most of the tactics and practices I will discuss on this blog will be referring to free users.

First, let’s talk about the actual profile.

1. 1. The most important aspect of LinkedIn is your profile and how it should articulate the right message with filling your profile up with a bunch of information that your clients or new connection will care about.  this also works for employers or recruiters they want to know what you have done in terms of results rather than boring job descriptions.
   2. Most effective introductions focus on who you help, and what problems you help them solve or results you help them achieve.
   3. most potential clients and business partners won’t get value from seeing the details of your previous roles. Job titles, main achievements and

company names can help give you credibility (and make it easier for others to find you)

d. Don’t have a bland headline or tag. LinkedIn will automatically use your current or last job title as your profile tag. I suggest being more creative for example for me instead of just saying Social Media Consultant. I use my tag to let people know what i can do for them.  Social Media Manager for multiple brands. Empowering clients to use social tools/strategies

What kind of connector are you?

a. I don’t want to bore anyone with cheese definitions but simply put an Open connector simply seeks out new connectors on a daily or weekly basis and also accepts any requests they get. This allows them to use LinkedIn in similar to a Rolodex meaning they’ll have many shallow connections but to many different people in different companies, fields, etc. This is a great way to use LinkedIn and gives you access points to new business but the downfall could be you are connected to thousands of people without any real strong business leads.

1. 1. Closed connected. A closed connected believes that they should only be connected with people they know, have a relationship in the “real” world and their connections are small but they can rely on those people when something is needed.
   2. My philosophy is a hybrid. I’ll accept a request from someone with an interesting profile that may be useful down the road and I actively seek new connections in my field. But I don’t abuse or overuse LinkedIn to the point where I have a bunch of spam and random people connecting with me every day. It’s your choice how to use the platform to find what works for you. I find that being open in the long term play has been useful in terms of creating new business

Okay, now let’s talk about 2 or 3 common uses for networking and creating new biz on LinkedIn. Some of these won’t be too exciting to people already using LinkedIn heavily.

1. Using the search feature to find people, companies, and information.
   1. It’s a simple as it sounds. use the search feature to find people you want to network with. Find companies research current employees. I actually like to search status updates and I use it much like search.twitter.com and create a lot of short interactions with new people and see what’s currently going on with my network and thought leaders.
2. Join LinkedIn in groups. I suggest doing this but only groups that either you have a genuine interest in or groups that you want to connect with certain people in to leverage your own personal brand. Again most important is only join groups if you’re actually going to participate in them. Don’t spam or be annoying. Also, use the group stats or analytics to understand who your audience is and work on becoming a thought leader in order to get more inbox leads.
   1. if your active on in these groups and have the ability to generate lots of conversation you’ll see plenty of activity and new leads coming your way.
3. Sending in-mails to people you want to network or create new business relationships with. Again this isn’t too mind-blowing this is what LinkedIn was created for. There are multiple ways to do this effectively. If you have someone in common you can simple asked to be referred or when writing say our friend in common told me to reach out to you. Be cordial and persistent but not annoying. For free users you only get a limited lifetime amount of these emails and intros so be sure who you are using them with is worth you wasting one of your emails. For paid users, you get set amount a month which adds huge value to LinkedIn.

Okay here are a few game changers and ways I use LinkedIn again social media tools are whatever you want to make them. My goal for 90% of my clients is to grow their reach, raise awareness, and create new biz. So the way I act on LinkedIn may be different than your purpose or I may have more time to effectively execute these tactics.

1. most of what I do on social media is a version of 2 tactics hunting and gathering. And farming.  With that being said I use LinkedIn to search and find valuable information on relationships people have with others I know or will learn about. I find many contacts I can’t reach on LinkedIn and find other info such as their Twitter, blog, email address, Facebook accounts and use linked which many times list or links to many places to get a hold of this person.

Hunting and gathering are finding the person or info you need and immediately reaching out them.

The gathering would be finding them and fostering a relationship not based on trying to close fast. I’ll go into depth on these tactics and which sites work best for each one in our next podcast.

1. viewing many profiles. LinkedIn has feature to see who is viewing your profile. I spend a lot of time viewing profiles of people I want to connect with. If they reciprocate and view my profile then it’s usually an open door to connect in some form or fashion. It’s an acknowledgment that they at least have some idea who you are and what you all about. It’s a simple but effective method of making a good first impression.

Well, those are a few of my secrets and tips on using LinkedIn. If you missed my last podcast we talked about Twitter vs. LinkedIn and why I like Twitter when it comes to creating new business and making connections.

Also, don’t forget you can follow us on TWITTER – twitter.com/ARTVERSION or connect with and LIKE us on facebook.com/artversion.

If you have any suggestions or comments, feel free to send us an email, our email address is [email protected], we would love to hear from you.  To get more information on ARTVERSION, visit our website at ARTVERSION.COM.

Next time on the REDISCOVER YOUR BRAND™ podcast EPISODE #8, we’ll be talking about Annual Reports and why they are important to your brand or company. That’s next time, until then, Thank you for listening – I’m Kip Russell helping you REDISCOVER YOUR BRAND™.