Preston Vander Ven 28 April 2016

Categories Social Media

Top Ways to Market Yourself on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the most powerful social networking site to help you grow your business. It makes Twitter, Facebook and YouTube seem like social networking sites for kids. Remember, those are still great tools to use, when used correctly.

LinkedIn is the most powerful social networking site to help you grow your business.  It makes Twitter, Facebook and YouTube seem like social networking sites for kids.  Remember, those are still great tools to use, when used correctly.

If you want to hang with the big players—a place where connections are made, leads are generated, and deals go down—then you need to spend more of your time on LinkedIn. Although other sites have their purpose in the business world and many people utilize multiple social networking sites, LinkedIn is still the number-one place to market your business.  Here are ways to use LinkedIn and get results:
 

1.  Give

   This is important to do on any social networking site, not just LinkedIn, but it’s particularly important to do on LinkedIn when so many people are focused on wanting to receive something for themselves or their business.

   The best way to give to others would be to make recommendations.  I see a lot of people asking for recommendations from people all the time, when they haven’t written any for others first.  The more you recommend others without asking for one in return, it will give them a refreshing feeling about you and they’ll want to be helpful in return.  If you want someone to comment, share, or like your posts, you need to do this for others first without the expectation of the return. “You Reap What you Sow”
    

2. Complete It 100%

   Your profile.  It needs to be completed 100% in order to properly market yourself.

   Most people do background checks on others whenever we want to buy something from them, bring them in to speak, or do anything with them.  We Google people to do our research.

   LinkedIn is usually one of the top five search results that pops up for anyone’s name.  First impressions leave lasting perceptions about people, and you don’t want someone to come to your profile and realize that you make spelling mistakes, you don’t have a picture, no one has recommended you, there is no personal story in your summary, and so on.  You need to make sure you complete it 100% and have your profile make you look like a rock star.  Doing so will ensure your maximizing your marketing opportunities.  Imagine you and your competitor are next to each other, yet theirs has a profile picture and yours does not.  Who do you think more people will visit?
    

3. Make It Personal

   “People Join Relationships, not with Businesses.” In general, people love human interaction. We don’t want to connect with a business, we want to have relationships with others who we know, like, and trust.

   Every time you send an invitation to connect with someone, make it personal.  Take out anything generic and make it as personal as possible.

   Your profile should also include a personal element.  Instead of making it look like a boring resume with a bunch of bullet point achievements, share your personal voice.  Tell people who you are, who you help, and how you help them throughout your headline, summary and the rest of your profile.  Adding this will make others want to connect with you instead of put them to sleep with your boring resume.  I like to tell some of my story and my person goals.  For example, I choose to have a home business because my epilepsy limits my professional career.  My goal is to bring my wife home from her job and I have the income goal already set.
    

4. Connect With Everyone

   It pains me to see when people only have less than 100 connections and they think that having a “small trusted network” is the way to go.  That’s a joke, and those with that mindset are going to be asking themselves why their message isn’t spreading to the world and why they haven’t achieved their marketing goals.

   Connect with everyone on LinkedIn.

   You never know where an opportunity, or big breakthrough can come from.  If you only share ideas with those you know and don’t branch out to connect with new people, then you will only know about a limited amount of opportunities, and the same people that you talk to on a daily basis will be helping you connect with the same limited network.  It’s a never ending circle of limitations, and it’s time you break through that mindset if you haven’t already.

   The best way to start connecting with everyone is to import your entire contact list and ask them all to connect with you, start adding your personal LinkedIn link to your email signature, on other social networking sites, on your business cards, and anywhere else you think would help inspire others to connect with you.  Once you start receiving 10-20 inbound invitations to connect on a daily basis, then you know your doing a good job marketing yourself.
    

5. Use LinkedIn Groups

   How would you feel if you had a sales funnel that brought in roughly 50 to 100 fresh, highly targeted leads every day? You’d feel pretty confident about putting food on the table next week, right?

   Well, creating a LinkedIn group gives you the ability to generate an amazing number of leads from high-end decision makers.

   Here’s how to maximize your LinkedIn group:

   1. Add keywords in the description of your group to increase your search rankings on LinkedIn’s search section.
   2. Add keywords in the title of the group to be found on Google.
   3. Add your company website or blog to the group to drive traffic to your site.
   4. Add your blog RSS feed to the group so every new article is automatically posted to the home page of every group member.
   5. Send a weekly message that adds value for group members and drives traffic back to your site.
   6. Connect people in the group by making introductions to those who could potentially do business with one another.

   All of these points will help you generate more leads for your business.  If your sales funnel is set up correctly, you will have more than enough prospects to grow your business.
    

6. Send Personal Messages

   Once you find leads, you want to send them personalized messages.  The best way to drop any walls—and give yourself the best chance of making a sale—is to connect with someone on as many personal levels as possible. Look at their profile, find out which companies they’ve worked for in the past, which school they attended, what groups they’re in, listed hobbies and who your mutual connections are.  Then, write a personal message like this one:

   Hi Tom,
   
   I noticed that we’re both connected to Mary, Jeff and Bob; we both went to Greenville College, and you started a home business of your own. I would love to connect with you to learn more about how you are currently marketing yourself? I believe there are a number of ways we could help one another.  Would you be free for a brief chat in the near future? Looking forward to connecting soon and I’ll be sure to tell Mary I contacted you. I’m sure she would love to know I reached out to say ‘hi.’
   
   Thanks,
   Preston
   
   Personal messages seal the deal and give you a greater chance of future opportunities.

Click Here and Go Grow Your Business With LinkedIn!

Are you using LinkedIn? How is it working for you? I look forward to hearing what success stories your LinkedIn network brings you. Share your comments below.