As I’m sure you know by now, LinkedIn is my absolute FAVORITE social media site! Not only does it allow me to connect with you, but also it is one of the fastest growing these days among small business owners and entrepreneurs, and I’ll tell you why.
With all the social media sites coming up and trying to take over these your day, there’s not one that has compared with LinkedIn!
It’s professional; lets you network like CRAZY, has a HUGE reach for business, and is pretty simple too.
Those are just some of the basics. Let me tell you the 5 reasons why you really need a LinkedIn profile for your business.
Google your name
This is it in a nutshell right here. Google is the way that people search your business online, and if you have a LinkedIn page, there’s no doubt it will show up in the search right after your website.
If people want to contact you, they aren’t seeking out your “contact us” page on your website. But when they Google search you and see your LinkedIn page, they know they can see a more personal side of your business there. Go ahead, check it out!
What do you want people to know about you?
LinkedIn is different from any other social media because it’s where you can tell everyone EXACTLY what you want them to know about your business. You can customize anything you put on LinkedIn, whether it is in networking groups, job posts or even promotions.
You have all the tools you need to target any audience, and let them know exactly what your business is about at the click of a button.
Positioning Power
As business owners, we all want to establish our credibility, have a relationship with our clients, and be influential, right? When it comes to LinkedIn, you have the added capability to position yourself as if you are peers with the most influential people in your industry!
The sharing power is tremendous. Making connections with top industry leaders and networking in groups to gain tips and trust among your peers have never been easier. Your clients will then know you are associated with a high level of expertise and credibility that you just can’t gain from any other social media site.
Keeping connections you recently met warm
The first thing you should do at a networking event or when meeting someone is to get his or her business card, right? LinkedIn is basically your social media, online business card.
People can forget they have business cards, not return a phone call or an email that’s listed, but when you connect with LinkedIn, you won’t be forgotten. You can connect immediately and reach out to whomever you want!
Go ahead, endorse them, recommend them, and connect with them on a more professional level to build that relationship. It’s that easy and all without having to meet face to face, which, let’s be honest, is pretty hard to find time to do these days!
Fastest path to your next client
Let’s face it, the entire world has gone digital! LinkedIn is the one digital platform that helps you reach your next client and quickly!
People are on LinkedIn to look for jobs, post jobs, look for business help, and so much more. With just a little bit of search and promotion, your business can attract top clients and let you into their world so you know you are recruiting the best.
LinkedIn is the one platform that gives you all the information you need to know about your client, so you might as well use it!
Need more tips on boosting your LinkedIn profile? Sign up for free and join my LinkedIn Group Profitable Social Media Tips for an invite to my FREE 21 day challenge: LinkedUP Revolution.
“Karen, I attended (insert big marketing influencer name here) live event, I follow (insert more influencer names) and (more influencer names). I bought Infusionsoft which I’m trying to figure out and I have given TONS of talks and I have SO much content.”
If you know me at all, you know what my next question is. “So ______, what’s the plan for growing your email list? Getting people into your program? Are you regularly blogging and growing your list?”
Do you recognize yourself in this conversation? Your head is spinning, your wheels are turning, your days are BOOKED solid, but you can’t seem to get down to the actual planning and execution? I hear this quite a bit. I do it myself! I’ve got about 40 thousand hours of podcasts downloaded on my IPhone I’ve yet to listen to.
We’re so lucky to be entrepreneurs in 2017! There’s so much amazing free and low cost advice for us to start and run our businesses.
At some point, if you’re going to stay out of a cubicle, you’ve got to put some of that advice into action.
Consistently.
[Tweet “5 Actions to keep you out of the cubicle!”]
Let’s boil this down to five powerful actions.
Consistently produce content. Blog, Podcast, YouTube, I don’t care what it is. It needs to be timely, it needs to be relevant, and it needs to be consistent.
Consistently share that content with your email list. You don’t have to write extravagant newsletters every week! Just take the topic from your content, make a sexy subject line, add a few lines from the content, and link to it. Instant marketing email.
Consistently GROW your email list. All those people you speak to? Make it really easy to get them on your email list. Social Media? Use it to grow your email list. Talking to people at the grocery store? Tell them about your free PDF. Consistently.
Consistent outreach. Here’s where Linkedin comes in. (You knew I was going there, right?) Don’t just grow your followers, talk to them! Reach out to 5 people per day on LinkedIn and then come back to me in a few months and tell me all about your new Mercedes Benz.
Consistent measuring. How many new email subscribers did you get in April? How many opened the emails? How many clicked on the emails? How many converted to paying customers?
There’s so much more. We can follow a ton of influencers, we can purchase a ton of tools, we can buy a ton of programs. If we want to BE on par with those influencers, be peers with the most influential people in our industry, we need to plan and implement. Consistently.
Tell me in the comments below, what one consistent action are you going to commit to do today? If you need help with this, come join my LinkedIn group and lets chat!
I’ve been around the marketing block for a long time. In fact, I started my career at a phone company! Yup, New Jersey Bell. That name alone should hint at how long I’ve been doing this.
When I worked for New Jersey Bell, I was involved in helping business make decisions about the money they spent on yellow page advertising. I saw small businesses, plumbers, body shops, retail stores–ALL spending thousands of dollars per MONTH. Remember flipping through a phone book (a phone book?!) and seeing all of those “AAA Alarm Companies” wanting to be first in the alphabet? Did you know that placement equated to thousands of dollars per month (in 1980’s dollars!)
Time and time again, those same businesses are unable to see the correlation between a plain marketing budget and a marketing budget for digital marketing. It drives me CRAZY because it doesn’t have to be so difficult. In fact, I’ve spent years working to make it not just LESS difficult, but to make it PLAIN and SIMPLE.
You do NOT need a $10K per month budget today for digital marketing, but you do need some kind of budget. No matter how good you are at what you do, you’ll be out of business fast if you’re a “best kept secret” with little exposure. Digital marketing can prevent that from being your outcome.
Don’t believe me yet? Listen to some of these statistics.
95% of online adults most likely follow a brand via social networking
71% of consumers who have had a good social media service experience with a brand are likely to recommend it to others
There are 1.65 billion active mobile social accounts globally, with 1 million new active mobile social users added every day.
[Tweet “Stop Marketing Like it’s 1999! #GetSeenBeHeard”]
New times bring new trends and new ways to reach your target audience. THIS is why your competitors are seeing massive success. They’re moving with the times, planning, and budgeting for visibility in the ways that deliver results. More visibility leads to more customers, more customers leads to more profits.
Here are a few of many considerations that you might want to budget for (depending on your market):
Facebook post boost
Full blown Facebook ad campaign
Social media assistant support
LinkedIn premium
Social media scheduling tools
Professional headshots
Or are you still trying to figure out exactly how to spend your marketing money and what approach will work best for your business? I can help. Join my free Facebook group, Get Seen Be Heard, and come chat. Ask questions, talk social media strategy, and spark game-changing ideas for upping your business’ success surrounded by a community of like-minded (not to mention, incredibly friendly) professionals. I’ll talk to you soon!
I’m giving you permission to check your phone. You’re on the treadmill. You’re at the dog park. You’re watching your kids’ baseball game. You’re having lunch with friends. You’re watching a movie with your significant other. You want to check your phone for messages, but you don’t want to look like “that person”. You know the ones. You’ve seen them having dinner together, both checking their phones. Sometimes I wonder if they’re texting each other instead of having a real conversation! And your KIDS! They don’t even use their phone to actually talk to people anymore. When you ask them if they’ve confirmed their plans, they say “they’re waiting for a text back”. When you suggest they actually CALL the person, they look at you horrified. And then there’s this guy. I know I feel like this sometimes, how about you?
It’s a dilemma. I’m a Social Media Strategist. I teach people how to run their businesses virtually. My business is set up so that it can be run from anywhere, my clients all email or text me. I teach Conversational Marketing, how to communicate with YOUR customers virtually to bring in more sales. How to you do that if you don’t always check your phone? Before we get to that, I want to first let you off the hook. YOU’RE AN ENTREPRENEUR! Of course you’re always checking Social Media! That’s how you get new business. So you are going to be that person checking the phone at the dog park and at the dentist office. You’re a Social Media ROCKSTAR, and you want to be responsive when you can. That’s the beauty of running a virtual business, so give yourself permission to be that person.
Let’s talk about when you’re with your friends/kids/significant other.
And when you have to actually get some work done.
You must be present. Fully present. When you stop for ice cream on the way home, leave your phone in the car. When you’re watching a movie with your honey, turn off your phone. When you go to lunch with your friends, put your phone on silent. But when you’re waiting for your kids to come off the soccer field, it’s OK, it really is, to check on your business. So go ahead, sneak a look at your phone while you’re on the treadmill.
[Tweet “You’ve got my permission to check your phone”]
Here’s the other thing. You get more accomplished when you unplug from Social Media. Literally, sitting at your computer WITHOUT your email or Facebook open. Try it! Put a timer on and commit to 30 minutes of time, unconnected. You’re going to be blown away by how much work you get done. You’ll get four hours of “interrupted” work done in 30 minutes of “uninterrupted” work time. It’s like giving yourself more hours in each day. It’s not an easy balance! We Online Marketers need to be more conscious than most about being fully present. We need to be fully present when we’re working, we need to be fully present when we’re with the people we love. We don’t work M-F 9-5, most of the Online Marketers I know barely take one day off a week, never mind two. Two things I want you to remember: It’s OK to often check your phone when you use Social Media to have conversations with your tribe. Your work and your relationships will benefit by regular “unplugged” time.
It isn’t mutually exclusive. You don’t need a Social Media Intervention. You just need to remember that it’s sometimes OK to be checking in, and it’s sometimes OK to be unplugging.
I’ve got some favorite tools that help me with that balance. You can check them out HERE (link no longer available). I think you’re going to be surprised by one or two!
So tell me in the comments below, what are your tricks for staying present, for unplugging from Social Media? And let me know if you’ve tried any of my tools, better yet, if you’ve got a tool to add to the list.
You’re growing your business. You’ve identified your ideal client avatar (ICA). LinkedIn is the tool to help you fill your growing business network with your ICA. And yes, you can get them to send YOU a LinkedIn connection request!
Last week I showed you how to proactively grow your LinkedIn network full of your ICA.
This week, I’m going to show you how to get your ideal client to connect with YOU on Linkedin! Three simple steps. You’ve got this! Here we go.
[Tweet “Imagine a steady stream of LinkedIn connection requests from your ideal client!”]
Step 1: Do the profile work.
It starts with a great profile. I can’t stress this part enough. You MUST show up in a big way. You MUST be clear about who you are, who you help, and how you help them. We’ll be driving traffic to your profile, so your profile has to be captivating. It’s easier than it sounds!
Scan your LinkedIn profile. Is it consistent? Are you using the same “keywords” over and over? Ask a few friends! You want to be sure that you’re positioned as an expert, and that your profile is “client facing”, meaning, it’s about how you help your ICA, not just about YOU.
Step 2: Identify LinkedIn Groups that your ideal client may be a part of.
You can be a part of 100 groups on LinkedIn. One Hundred! Let’s look at this strategically.
What groups would your ideal client be a part of?
Do you support your ideal client geographically? One of my favorite LinkedIn secret strategies is using local networking groups! Let’s say you’re a Realtor. I’m in New Jersey, so I’d be searching for and joining “New Jersey Networking Group” “North Jersey Networking Group”, you get the picture. Join a few!
Maybe you support online entrepreneurs. Look for digital marketing groups! Dig deep. You’ll be surprised at how many niche groups there are.
There are two things you’ll want to take a look at before you join.
Is it recently active? If there hasn’t been a post since the turn of the century, pass.
How many people are in the group? I like to see at least 200 and no more than 4000. You want to stand out from the crowd, so let’s control the size of the crowd.
If you go blank on where to find these groups, take a look at a few people you know who you would consider an ideal client. Take a look and see what groups they’re in! Then look at those groups, join a few, and look at the profiles of a few members and see what groups THEY are in.
That’s it! For this step, identify and join. Shoot for 10 groups that you think your ICA is a part of.
Step 3 – Be interested and supportive
Notice, I did not say “pitch your services” or “share your blog posts”
Take a minute to look at a few LinkedIn groups that you’re a part of. Go ahead, I’ll wait. Scroll through the posts. My guess is you’ll see a ton of blog post spamming. People going in to a group, and drop in a link to their recent blog post. With very few likes or comments. Where is the value in dropping in a blog post and leaving? If that’s all you’re doing in LinkedIn groups, you’re wasting your time.
What you’re going to do, because you’re so much savvier than the average online marketer, is go in to those groups you’ve identified and read some of the posts. Open up the blogs and read them. Be the person to like and comment on the posts in the group. Do it in a way that lets them know you actually read the blog. “Hey Steve, I love in the third paragraph where you talk about….., I’m going to try that the next time I ……”
We already know Steve is semi-targeted as your ICA since he’s a member of that group, and now you’ve got Steve’s attention. Steve is going to get a notification, your name is going to be in his email box! There’s a pretty good chance that Steve is going to click on your profile to see who this person is that took the time to read his blog post. What happens next?
Refer to step 1, Steve’s going to be impressed by your profile, and he’s going to send you a connection request.
This is especially true if you are consistently in that group, sharing, liking and commenting.
You’re going to get a steady stream of connection requests from the members of that group
Do this for 15 minutes, every few days, Very little time out of your week.
You’re developing a habit that leads to your ideal client asking to be a part of your network, continuing to fill your business network with a deep base of people who may be interested in buying your products and services. Warm leads.
No more cold calling!
I’m here to support you. If you’re looking at your LinkedIn profile and you’re not sure where to start, I’ve got some free videos to help. Get started today, in a few months when you’re ready to offer that new program/course/service, you’ll be so glad you did.
Are you reactive or proactive when growing your LinkedIn network?
When I first started to realize the power of LinkedIn, I was very reactive to growing my network. When people asked how I decided who I chose to connect to I quite boastfully said “Oh I don’t connect with people, they connect with me”. Good grief.
My network grew, and my business grew. Despite my utter lack of planning in growing my tribe.
Thankfully, I saw the error in my ways pretty quickly. Sure, it’s great when people you don’t know are interested in the work you do, and I’m always interested in growing those connections. But that’s a reactive way to grow your business, and you don’t have any control over how to turn those connections into leads and customers. I like to have control, and be able to project success based on my marketing efforts.
Now I have a proactive strategy for growing my network. On ALL social platforms. Today, we’re talking about LinkedIn.
[Tweet “Now I have a proactive strategy for growing my network. On ALL social platforms.”]
Here’s what I do now. I take a look at my goals for my business. I take a look at my ideal client profile. I have more than one! So I compare my six month business goals with my ideal client profiles, and I decide who I want a network full of.
For example. Let’s say you’re a business coach. And you help finance executives grow their business. And you’ve got a local workshop coming out in July that you want to fill FULL of finance executives. You’re going to want to do a LinkedIn search that narrows down your audience. Use geographic parameters, use keywords. Once you’ve got your search where you want it, start connecting!
Let’s say you’re a genius with sales copy. I know a ton of entrepreneur friends who would want to get to know you! So you’d use search parameters that don’t include geographic, more demographic and keywords like “online” “digital” and “entrepreneur”. And you’d start connecting.
I can hear your thoughts. Now you’re thinking “Just connect? With people I don’t know? Isn’t that spammy and against LinkedIn’s terms of service?” YES. Just connect. But find a way to do it in an authentic way.
So our finance business coach. She’s looking to grow her network geographically. She can go through that search, and customize the connection request saying “Hey name! I just came across your profile here on LinkedIn and I love being connected to other local business owners. Hoping to connect with you here”. This way you’re giving them a reason for the connection, they don’t have to know that the reason is because they met your search parameters!
Our copy genius. His message might be something more like “I just came across your profile here on LinkedIn, and love being connected to other online entrepreneurs! Hoping to connect with you here.”
See how easy this is? Imagine, 6 months from now, you’ll have a LinkedIn network chock full of your ideal clients! How amazing would that be?
A few tips.
Don’t connect the day before you have something to invite them to. Think ahead! What are you promoting in 6 months that you’d love to have 100 ideal prospects to invite?
Be sure to customize your connection invite! You don’t want people to report you for spamming them.
Be consistent. Connect with 10 people every day, not 100 every Monday. You want LinkedIn to see that this is normal business for you, and not send up red flags.
Be sure your profile represents you as someone they would WANT to be connected to! If you’re not sure where to start with that, here’s a free video series to help you out.
That’s it! Easy to do. Next week, we’ll talk about how to ATTRACT more connection requests from your ideal clients. Stay tuned. In the meantime, come on over to my LinkedIn group and let me know how this connecting is going. I’m there to support you in this!
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