Everything ElseEverything Else
What About LinkedIn?What About LinkedIn?
by Kim Walsh-Phillips
LinkedIn is the one network I am asked about most often. Some business professionals are more comfortable in that space because it appears to be, well, more professional. The problem is, LinkedIn’s users are not nearly as conditioned to click on ads on LinkedIn, making mass marketing more difficult. But, all is not lost.
Yes, You Should Be on There
Yes, it is a powerful tool. Several of my firm’s accounts came through my LinkedIn profile, and our clients receive messages on the network with valuable opportunities. But I have not found it to be effective beyond one-to-one sales and hence, not scalable.
Having done a lot of testing with its network ad options, we have yet to see a return anywhere near what we can get on Facebook regardless of the industry or sales funnel. That said, LinkedIn can be very effective for authority positioning and for making one-to-one sales, so I do recommend using LinkedIn’s free tools.
Repeat after me, “Free qualified leads are good.”
Do Not Use Your Selfie as Your Profile Picture
When I was on LinkedIn recently, I noticed a very disturbing trend—“selfies” being used as profile pictures. (In case you missed this pop culture term, a selfie is a photograph one takes of oneself.)
I understand it is a trend and I maybe should relax a bit, but frankly, I would have a hard time doing business with Mr. Off-Center-Looking-Up-At-An-Angle-Arm-Extended on a business networking platform. To me, when a selfie is used, it says two things: The person has no one on his team that could take a simple picture, and the person failed to recognize how homegrown pictures adversely affect their brand.
Old school or not, here’s the thing, your brand stays with you no matter what else changes, so take it seriously. You may not think how you appear to others matters, but it does.
Proof That Your Personal Brand Matters
We have nine seconds to grab someone’s attention and make a marketing impression, according to research by Sally Hogshead, author of the branding book Fascinate (Harper Business, 2010).
If you take into consideration how quickly people can scroll through their newsfeed, the time is cut in half. What do you want your picture to say about you? What do you want your prospects, clients/customers/patients, and future employees to think of when they see your photo?
Tips for a Good Profile Picture
If you want to step up your game, here are a few pointers for any social media profile photo:
1. Look straight at the camera.
2. Smile.
3. Hire a professional photographer if you can. If you can’t do that (like only if you are stranded on an island by yourself,) use a camera remote. Here’s one I like that lets you shoot video or take pictures as needed: Don’t use the standard gray backdrop everyone else has. Do something to get your picture to stand out, such as using a photo from one of your news stories or a photo of you engaged in what you do for a living. Just remember the first two recommendations above.
4. I may get beat up for this one, but women, I recommend you get your hair and makeup done professionally. Most good salons have the ability to do camera-friendly work. This isn’t about looking like someone else. This is about looking like the best you, and for photos, I leave that to the professionals.
5. Do not use a selfie as your LinkedIn profile picture. (See Figure 8.1 on page 118.)
Say “cheese” and get your brand working for you. Like my favorite line from Mad Men goes, “If you don’t like what’s being said, change the conversation.”
FIGURE 8.1: Don’t Be This Guy
Five Easy LinkedIn Tricks for Quick Sales
1. GET INTRODUCTIONS
To quickly build out your prospect list, utilize your network tree by leveraging LinkedIn Recommendations. These ensure your client or customer really knows the person you are asking for an introduction to. Here’s how:
• Make a list of your top customers and/or clients
• Go to their LinkedIn profiles
• Check to see if they have any recommendations
• Make a list of those who recommended them to see if any of them would be worth having a sales conversation with
• Write an email to your customer and/or client asking for a simple introduction to this other person
Here’s a sample:
Hi Tom,
I hope this email finds you well. I wanted to say thanks again for being such a great client. We enjoyed working with you on ___________ (project) and were glad to see (successful outcome).
I was hoping you might be able to help me. I know how busy you are, so if you are too busy I certainly understand.
But I saw __________ (name) recommended you on your LinkedIn profile. Great recommendation by the way. I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind doing an email intro? I am looking to increase my knowledge of this industry’s needs and contacts and am just looking for a quick intro so I can connect.
If you are agreeable, here’s email copy you can cut and paste for the email intro:
I wanted to offer a quick intro to our ____________ (name of service and your title), (your full name). (Your first name) and her team have worked with us to (write what you have done for the client). (Your first name) asked me for an introduction to someone else in the (x industry) so I am connecting the two of you. She is researching our industry’s needs and building out her network of contacts.
I encourage the two of you to set up a time to talk.
If not, no problem. Thank you again for your business and I look forward to working with you on (future project).
Best regards,
Your name
Of course, if you get the introduction, be sure to say thank you! And I don’t just mean with an email. I love to give unique thank-you gifts that surprise and delight.
A few of my favorite sources are www.beau-coup.com, www.NeimanMarcus.com, and www.HenriBendel.com.
2. START A CONVERSATION
Scroll through your newsfeed for postings about job title changes, career moves, and work anniversaries. Post a positive comment publicly, and then dive into a private conversation using LinkedIn messaging. Ask additional questions about the change, what the person’s role is, and what the plans are for the future. Start this first email just talking about them. As the person responds, work to identify opportunities where you might fulfill needs. Do not sell in LinkedIn, though. Instead, request to have a conversation offline and begin your sales dialogue there.
3. CONTACT PEOPLE YOU MAY KNOW
Scroll through the list of “People You May Know” suggested connections, and as you are adding to your network, jot down those you’d like to be in your sales pipeline. Each day, message five of these new contacts to thank them for their connection and ask about their position and role at their firm. As in number 2, do not sell on LinkedIn, but instead, request to have a conversation offline. LinkedIn’s built-in CRM is a powerful tool for managing this process.
4. HAVE A POSTING FRENZY
Take advantage of LinkedIn’s Long Form Posts to promote your authority to your entire network. (See Figure 8.2 on page 121.) Do this quickly, so you can focus on selling and not writing. Simply breathe life into old content. Start by writing an introduction to a blog post or article, and post the introduction as the Long Form Post.
FIGURE 8.2: LinkedIn Long Form Post
I repost our blogs in the LinkedIn Long Form Post and include links in the article to opt-in to our mailing list. This has moved LinkedIn up into our top ten sources of mailing list opt-ins.
5. IF YOU WANT TO TRY ADVERTISING: SPONSOR AN UPDATE
Using “Sponsored Updates” from LinkedIn’s advertising platform can get your messaging in front of key contacts quickly. These are run from your company page. You can focus your target market on geographic location, industry, title, and keywords, just to name a few. To see if this is worth ongoing investment for you, start small and analyze results before spending a lot.. With the analytics report, you will receive metrics for: Impressions, Clicks, Interactions, Followers Acquired, and Engagement.
Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn and let me know what your best practices are: www.LinkedIn.com/KWalshPhillips.
Unnecessary DistractionsUnnecessary Distractions
by Kim Walsh-Phillips
As a marketer, there is always a reason to be distracted. There is a new network, app, or program to try, strategy to implement, or campaign to copy. You could literally spend all your time flitting from program to program, dabbling instead of dominating. But you are doing yourself and those around you a disservice if you allow yourself to be distracted by unnecessary channels or opportunities.
To keep my focus in check, I have to constantly put blinders on. And, for good reason.
When the cold of winter breaks, my girls and I love to drive along the ocean road near my house, windows down, sunroof open. We sing loudly to whatever the Disney Radio station serves up. We can drive for a very long time before this gets old. Hair whipping, heads bobbing, and laughter ensuing, with each beat on the radio, all three of us, ranging from 2 years old to 40, smile ear to ear as my girls yell, “Louder, Mommy!”
Moments like this are my “why.”
They are the reason each minute I spend working needs to be meaningful, efficient, and profitable. Because when I say yes to more work, I am saying no to another minute driving with the windows open. I cannot let the newest fad or shiny object distract me from my center. Instead, I zoom in on whatever will get me the highest return on my investment of money and time at ALL times.
We have yet to find another network that gives the same return as Facebook with any type of paid advertising. Go deep in that space before you spend time on any other distractions.
If you are comfortable with the return Facebook is giving you and you are utilizing your LinkedIn profile for maximum value, then I have a few recommended additional strategies for other networks.
Google+
This network has not taken off as media speculated it would. Google has stopped automatically giving every gmail user a Google+ account. And it would be easy to believe every other article declaring the network as dead. But there is something important to remember—Google loves data, because it can profit from it. Google+ provides them with a lot of user data. I would be surprised if the platform ever fully dissolves. Why does this matter for you? Google likes its own platform when it comes to search optimization. It ranks postings on Google+ fairly high in search results. As long as this platform exists, use it to simply repost your blog content and include links to sign up for your newsletter and lead magnet. It amounts to free traffic and authority building for you and your business.
I have heard reports of businesses making a lot of money with their Twitter platform using advertising. I don’t know any of them. Through testing we have done for my firm and clients, I have yet to see measurable profitable results from the platform.
I will give Twitter’s sales team credit. It is persistent—by CALLING me a lot. If its ad platform really worked, wouldn’t it be able to reach me in my Twitter Feed? At least once?
I have one use for Twitter that is very profitable, though. That is using it as a platform for building trust and authority in order to get media coverage and radio/podcast interviews.
Here’s why. The larger and more engaged your network is, the higher your Klout score is, and the higher your Klout score is, the better chance you have getting booked as a guest on higher profile media outlets and podcasts. (The Klout Score is a number between 1 and 100 that represents your influence. The more influential you are, the higher your Klout Score. Find more about that at: https://klout.com/corp/score.)
This is because media wants to cover you if they believe you have a large platform to share your coverage.
Follow other industry leaders you find on Klout, and often they will follow you back and begin to share your content if it is valuable to them. Use Twitter to share your thought-leadership with posts to your blogs, articles, and images you have already created for Facebook and LinkedIn. There are a lot of platforms out there to automate this process as well and increase your follower count organically.
Instagram and Pinterest
Of the two photo sharing sites, Instagram is harder to monetize because it doesn’t allow links in your photo posts except in the comments section. Pinterest does allow links in your posts as well as advertising to interests. There are Instagram and Pinterest experts out there, of which I am not one, so there are probably better people to listen to on this one. Because more networks would be a distraction for me, I simply repost my photos from Facebook quotes on these networks because it increases my Klout score.
YouTube
Although Facebook has surpassed YouTube in the number of video views annually, YouTube is still a strong source of traffic. Google owns YouTube, and Google gives its own content a higher weight in search. If you are engaged in this network, use it similar to a blog. Post consistently with your overall sales funnel in mind. Do not sell. Entice the viewer to take a next step that should be outside of YouTube. There are some video geniuses that are worth checking out if you want to expand your YouTube ROI. A few worth checking out are James Wedmore, Andy Jenkins, and Mike Stewart.
My best advice to you is to stay away from other networks until your core marketing channels are running at optimum speed. Anything else is a distraction from your why.
#NoBSsm Tweetable Takeaways#NoBSsm Tweetable Takeaways
LinkedIn can be very effective for authority positioning and for making one-to-one sales. #NoBSsm
Do not use your selfie as your profile picture. Ever. #NoBSsm
“If you don’t like what’s being said, change the conversation.” Mad Men. #NoBSsm
Build out your prospect list by utilizing your network tree’s LinkedIn Recommendations to find new prospects. #NoBSsm
If you get the introductions from your network, be sure to say thank you. #NoBSsm
As a marketer there is always a reason to be distracted. You could literally spend all your time dabbling instead of dominating. #NoBSsm