Beyond the LinkedIn connection
Business owners and professionals need access to knowledge, experience and connections that will help them to find opportunities to move their business forward.
One of the best social platforms for business is LinkedIn because 4 out of 5 Australians are on LinkedIn . While LinkedIn is sometimes labelled as a social media platform, it is in fact the biggest professional networking platform in the world and also plays a major part in marketing your business.
Hubspot recently wrote “ .. nearly 700 million active users in 2020, LinkedIn's expanded from a networking site for professionals to one of the top social media platforms.”
There are a variety of ways to influence your business community on LinkedIn which can be as simple as spending 5-10 minutes each day on the platform engaging with colleagues who you wish to influence and help. By being active you stay top of mind for future referrals and collaboration opportunities. However, there is there more you could be doing than simply making a connection.
Is it time to improve your LinkedIn approach?
As Small Business Owners, we understand and encourage communication for building relationships to grow your business. LinkedIn when used effectively will help you to attract, and engage your community.
However, having a LinkedIn profile is one thing, but knowing how to continue the conversation and build on your relationships is something many people are confused by and overlook, thus missing opportunities. Is it time you reflected on your current strategies and how you could improve your approach?
While it does not replace a purposeful conversation or face to face networking, your time engaging with others online can be powerful if you have a plan! Here are some tips from Karen Hollenbach, from Think Bespoke who has spoken at YTM in the past :-
1. Be active on LinkedIn
Your LinkedIn profile is one of the first places potential clients will research you when someone has referred you or mentioned your services or products. Leverage this opportunity by ensuring your LinkedIn profile presents the best version of your unique skills, background and experience and that you are regularly posting value adding content for your ideal clients and referrers. Make sure you are connected with everyone you know or have worked with as this means when people check out your profile, they can find mutual connections. Remember – connections on LinkedIn are not necessarily friends as on Facebook and being a connection does not mean you endorse them.
2. Choose a hero platform
Your time as a business owner is precious, so spend time on the platforms where your ideal clients are. This will ensure you can focus on networking with the right people (both ideal clients and referring colleagues and clients) and make your time online work for you by being more focused and productive.
3. Adopt a Professional Code of Conduct Online
The more collaborative and collegiate you can be online, the better. No one really likes to be sold to, and being connected with someone online (either as a LinkedIn connection or Facebook friend), does not give you permission to sell to them! Remember to use your manners, and acknowledge any comments people make and thank them if they give you a compliment. If you don’t have anything nice to say about someone online, it’s better left unsaid! If you experience bad behaviour, like people spamming you via email or via LinkedIn or Facebook messaging, you can choose to ignore this, block or hide these connections or remove the connection.
Beyond the LinkedIn connection
One of the traps business professionals fall into, is failing to follow up and nurture their relationships. Too often we hear that they connect on LinkedIn, but then opportunities pass them by because they do not know what to do next to strengthen their relationships.
One of the professionals we have collaborated with in 2021 to provide our YTM community with knowledge on Linkedin , was Adam Franklin, author of Web Marketing That Works -- an Amazon #1 best sellerto help you go - Beyond the LinkedIn connection.
He is a professional speaker, university lecturer and CEO of Bluewire Media – which he co-founded in 2005.
Accolades include being named Australia’s #1 business blog, #7 LinkedIn Expert in Asia Pacific and his podcast was #9 on Entrepreneur magazine's top marketing podcasts.
Adam's work has featured in Forbes, Huffington Post, Entrepreneur, The Australian, and the Sydney Morning Herald.
Adam shares an elegant process for starting a conversation all the way through to booking a sales appointment.
The recording from this session was added to our Member Portal along with many other valuable insights.
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