Linked2Success

Linked2Success:

10 Ways Professionals Can Use LinkedIn for Business Networking

Linked2Success — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 16:23:46 +0000

10 Ways Professionals Can Use LinkedIn for Business Networking

You may have all heard LinkedIn can be a great business development tool. But where do you start? Here’s 10 ideas to start you thinking along the right lines to win new clients using this social business network:

1) Create an online brand ‘you’ using your profile

When you Google your name, your LinkedIn profile is likely to come top of the search results – above even your own company’s website & your biography.

Does this portray you in the best light? How can you create the best first impression?

Have a photo of you in business attire, head & shoulders, smiling – a great place to start. Then succinctly explain who you are, what you do, & how you can help – throughout the rest of your profile. It should be written in the first person & should not be a CV or history lesson.

Ensure you add your skills, personal interests & any papers you have written or achievements you have made. Make easy for people to make that ‘instant’ good first impression.

2) Add existing clients to your network to get referrals from people they know

Once you add an existing client to your LinkedIn network, you maximise the chances of individuals they know seeing your connection, and enquiring about how you may be able to help them too. Not only that, but you are much more likely to be found in search results the more ‘volume’ of people you add to your network. Ask to be referred into new clients via existing ones.

3) Promote thought leadership through status updates

You are an expert in your particular field – be it the intricacies of tax law or one of the foremost authorities on a particular academic subject. How can you show your thought leadership through LinkedIn?

Even if you don’t have time to write articles or blogs yourself, post status updates with links to news articles that are relevant to your particular field of expertise, maybe from websites such as the BBC or The Law Society.

People will get to know you through the network for your interesting updates and see you as a thought leader.

4) Add school & university alumni to your network

I am surprised at the amount of work that comes to the business via my Lancaster University alumni network.

People like to feel a sense of ‘belonging’ in business – adding people you went to school & university with will mean they can help refer you into people they know & you can have wider access to their networks. LinkedIn just keeps this process effortless, and ensures you stay top of mind.

5) Gain some recommendations to help build ‘know, like & trust’

When I buy a book from Amazon, I often pay more heed to the 3^rd party recommendations than the official marketing ‘blurb’.

Gaining a handful of testimonials for your LinkedIn profile really helps with that ‘know, like and trust’ factor again, and creates a killer first impression. Don’t overegg the pudding – too many may distract.

6) Create a company page for your organisation to showcase umbrella services

Company pages do not ‘network’ and build relationships on LinkedIn as individual profiles do – but they are very useful ‘portals’ to showcase the organisation as a whole, almost a mini website.

The products & services section can be particularly useful. Have details for different umbrella services – e.g. Employment law, arbitration, family law, tax, etc. These services can then collect recommendations in addition to personal ones.

7) Join groups where potential new clients are members & connect to them

Groups are like mini ‘networking rooms’ that exist within the huge conference of 150 million business professionals.

Which rooms are your clients in? If they are HR professionals, for example, join HR related groups – connect to members, start & contribute to discussions. ‘Shake hands’ with the right people in that room

8) Use ‘Advanced Search’ to find decision makers within companies you want to do business with

I imagine you all have a target list of companies you’d love to have as clients. Use advanced search to find the right decision makers within these companies, and then connect on LinkedIn.

Always use a bespoke personal message – “as a fellow member of the HR UK group & industry professional, I’d like to add you to my network on LinkedIn…warm regards, Joan ”.

Start that business relationship with warmth on LinkedIn. And no gatekeeper to get past!

9) Promote seminars using the Events application

LinkedIn has a superb ‘Events’ application you can use to promote seminars or client event days. You can invite individuals you find on advanced search to attend, or even search for other networking events happening in your industry or locally.

10) Once you’ve started an online relationship, move it into the real world

You should be on LinkedIn to facilitate new business relationships & to strengthen existing ones. But please don’t live in a LinkedIn ‘bubble’. Use it to ease the path to a ‘real life’ coffee or lunch meeting with a prospective client…. and take the ‘cold’ out of cold calling…forever.

If you introduce yourself to the right people, in the right way, & make the right first impression – LinkedIn can’t fail to bring you new business. What are you all waiting for?

Michelle

Happy to connect on LinkedIn to grow your network– http://uk.linkedin.com/in/michellebeckett

‘Add Michelle to your network’ – Just use my email address michelle@linked2success.co.uk and say that we are friends…..

Or follow me on Twitter –

Linked2Success:

http://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/getArticle.cfm?id=2010

Your Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter Profiles: 1/10th of a Second Is All It Takes to Blow It

Linked2Success — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:42:38 +0000

“What a prat” I thought, a few seconds after I was introduced to a delegate at a recent business event I was speaking at. “Rude, uptight, patronising, condescending….. I would quite like to get away from this person as quickly as possible.” And to my relief, I managed to politely extricate myself from the conversation.

It’s not often I meet someone and get an immediately negative first impression. I like to think my default is to believe all people are lovely, until they prove otherwise. But I am guilty of making snap judgments, as we all are.

Harsh? Was I judging the book by its cover? Was I wrong to do so? Possibly. But science and psychological experiments would suggest I was just being human.

When we all meet someone for the first time, our brain is making decisions. Do I like this person? Do they make me feel comfortable? Are they clever, kind, professional, fun, warm?

So, if we are making all these snap judgments about other people, doesn’t that mean *gulp* that they are doing the same back to us? *quickly wipes lunch debris off suit lapel*

Not only are people making these snap decisions about us, but the speed at which they do so is quite shocking. Research suggests that it takes just 1/10th second…..

And it’s not just in the physical world that this happens. We do it in the virtual space on social media too: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter. We make decisions based on the information available at first glance, just as we do in a pub or a business networking event.

In my headhunting days, I would trawl LinkedIn for suitable candidates. I would make a shortlist of people from initially hundreds after quickly glancing at their online profiles. Shocking? It’s no different to doing it in real life.

I’m not the only one. How many times have you looked at a friend of a friend’s profile on Facebook and decided if you’d like to share a pint with that person or not? And conversely, what do they think when they come across the ‘online you’ ?

So what can we do about this? It is widely accepted by psychology researchers that there are five basic dimensions to a human personality.

http://psychology.about.com/od/personalitydevelopment/a/bigfive.htm

These five categories are usually described as follows:

1. Extraversion: This trait includes characteristics such as excitability, sociability, talkativeness, assertiveness and high amounts of emotional expressiveness.

2. Agreeableness: This personality dimension includes attributes such as trust, altruism, kindness, affection, and other prosocial behaviors.

3. Conscientiousness: Common features of this dimension include high levels of thoughtfulness, with good impulse control and goal-directed behaviors. Those high in conscientiousness tend to be organized and mindful of details.

4. Neuroticism: Individuals high in this trait tend to experience emotional instability, anxiety, moodiness, irritability, and sadness.

5. Openness: This trait features characteristics such as imagination and insight, and those high in this trait also tend to have a broad range of interests.
Distilling this down further, we are back to the ‘know, like and trust’ factors mentioned in my last blog.

Bear the five traits above in mind when editing your LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook profiles.

Read my face:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/articles/emotions/faceperception2.shtml

Science suggests your photo is THE most important part to get right. We have just 1/10th second, remember? We judge the big five personality traits from faces initially, then read further to confirm those first impressions. Smiling warmly is an obvious one – maybe time to remove those sultry, moody poses?

What to write: For business users of LinkedIn, craft your profile to show how you may be able to help others with your expertise. Add your personal interests – be genuine. You will seem more open, more extroverted, more agreeable. Show goals and direction – you will score highly on the conscientious scale with this.

The same can apply to Facebook. How do your likes, interests, groups and pages back up how lovely (or not) you may seem from your photo? I decided not to date an introduction on Facebook last year based on quite scant information from their profile.

I’m off now (not to harshly judge people as prats after two seconds) but to look again at my LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter profiles. Especially my photos. I’m not as miserable as I look, honest……….am I?

Michelle

Happy to connect on LinkedIn to grow your network– http://uk.linkedin.com/in/michellebeckett

‘Add Michelle to your network’ – Just use my email address michelle@linked2success.co.uk and say that we are friends…..

Or follow me on Twitter –

Linked2Success:

http://tinyurl.com/245a4cf

Is using Facebook and Twitter as real as an orgasm?

Linked2Success — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 21:10:01 +0000

Is using Facebook and Twitter as real as an orgasm?

“It’s all very well you being on Facebook, but it’s not real, is it? The friendships on there are all very well, but……….. it’s all on the computer. It can’t be the same as being with real people.”

I understand why my Dad said what he did about Facebook. At first glance, the social interactions through social media can’t sensibly be the same as being in the pub with physical friends. Or can they?

What if we could prove, with science (you know me…or you will do soon), that interacting with friends and contacts on Facebook and Twitter has the same benefits to your wellbeing as being down the pub with them? That to your body and brain, there’s no difference?

Now here comes the science bit……concentrate, please….

OK, who’s heard of oxytocin? Oxy…what? Wouldn’t blame you if you hadn’t. But orgasms…….now ,who’s heard of those?

Now I’ve got you listening. Oxytocin is known as the ‘trust’ or ‘cuddle’ hormone and promotes bonding between mammals. It’s released after orgasm, during labour, and when a mother breastfeeds.

Last year, Neuro-economist Paul Zak experimented on blood serum levels of oxytocin before and after a subject using Twitter. Oxytocin levels were found to have been raised by 13.2%; & stress hormones cortisol & ACTH decreased by 10.8% & 14.9% respectively. Powerful physical changes on your body chemistry.

If that’s the case, according to Zak, not only does social media make you feel good, but it might also help reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke.

What this study suggests with science is that to our brains and bodies, interacting on social media via a computer or smart phone is just as ‘real’ as being with them physically.

“Your brain interprets tweeting as if you were directly interacting with people you cared about or had empathy for” Says Zak. “E-connection is processed in the brain like an in person connection. ”

The study is non conclusive as it used a very small sample, and further research is needed. But brain scans of people reading fiction would appear to suggest that your brain reacts in some ways as if you were actually living the events. The brain is easy to fool, it would seem.

This ‘trust’ hormone that’s released has vast implications for using social media in business too. This trust has been eroded somewhat due to the current economic climate: of primary concern to businesses building new relationships is the “know, like and trust” factor.

Social media is an easy vehicle for someone to get to know, like and trust you. And oxytocin is a hormone to facilitate this. As well as allowing easy interactions across the miles from existing networks.

Earlier this year I posted on Facebook about the day my husband finally moved out and we separated. The countless well wishes I had from my Facebook and Twitter friends were overwhelming and helped me through. Some of whom I haven’t seen for twenty years since leaving 6^th Form.

These people are real friends with real support. I got my virtual ‘cuddle’ through social media when I needed it. Now I know that the ‘cuddle’ was just as helpful to me as if it had been physical. With a measurable effect on my wellbeing.

So don’t let anyone tell you your online friendships are less valuable. They might just save your life. Now……..who fancies a pint?

Michelle

Latest Courses

Linked2Success — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 10:23:38 +0000

LinkedIn Workshops – Harrogate

13th December 2011
1pm – 5pm

LinkedIn – Taking it to the Next Level Workshops – Harrogate

2012 courses to be announced soon

Twitter Made Simple Workshops – Harrogate

2012 courses to be announced soon

Using Facebook to create business communities workshops – Harrogate

2012 courses to be announced soon

Forget Social Media

Linked2Success — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 20:32:01 +0000

Forget social media.

That’s right….that’s what we tell our clients here at Linked2Success.

So why would a company who exist to help businesses get to grips with social media tell you to forget it?

The reason is simple: In order to create a social media strategy, you first need to decide what you want to achieve with it. Yet social media is just a tool to help you network & communicate with the right people. So where do you start?

Forget social media. First simplify your business plan. Where do you want to be in three months, six months, a year, two? What size businesses will you be working with? Where are they? Who are the decision makers? What will you say to them, offer them?

Then translate your simplified business plan into social media activity.

Who?

Who are the decision makers within your ideal client businesses? Or who are the people in your network you could engage with to introduce you to these people? Deciding on this will form the core of your networking strategy on social media.

How?

How are you going to engage with your ideal clients? Which tools are you going to use? LinkedIn connections, advanced search, LinkedIn groups? If you are going to use Twitter, what’s your plan for building followers? Facebook pages – how are you going to get people to ‘like’ them?

What?

What do you say to them once they are listening? How are you going to promote your expertise without being overtly ‘salesy’? Do you blog, use whitepapers, YouTube video? How do you produce engaging materials & get your audience to know, like & trust you? This should form the core of your content strategy on social media.

You have to start somewhere with any plan. Social media can seem overwhelming….you can do a million & one things, but should you?

We suggest not at first, if ever. Keep it simple.

First of all….forget social media.

Michelle

Happy to connect on LinkedIn to mutually grow our networks– http://uk.linkedin.com/in/michellebeckett

‘Add Michelle to your network’ – Just use my email address michelle@linked2success.co.uk and say that we are friends…..

Or follow me on Twitter –

Linked2Success:

http://59seconds.wordpress.com/2010/12/30/achieve-your-new-years-resolutions/

Are you using social media to help you achieve your life/business goals?

Linked2Success — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 14:49:19 +0000

I’m constantly looking for the best ways of achieving my goals – whether that be in business or in life. I had noticed over the years that the more I told other people about what I was trying to achieve – the more motivated I was to get there.

This is backed up by convincing statistical evidence. Professor Richard Wiseman in his excellent book 59 Seconds shares some stats: People who tell family and friends about their commitment were more likely to succeed in achieving their goal compared with those that kept it to themselves (34% vs. 25%).

I’ve noticed recently the number of my Facebook friends who are using the Nike iPhone application to automatically broadcast as a status update how far/how long they have been out for a run. I have been tempted to use this myself just to stop me from ‘walking up this hill for a bit’ or ‘having another drink of water’. There’s nothing like ‘Big Brother watching you’ to get you moving faster!

Twitter can help with your goals too for the same reasons. I was fascinated by a man recently who lost 5 stone with scales that automatically tweeted his weight to all his followers:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/technology/2011/06/17/man-who-weighed-over-19-stone-has-shed-over-a-quarter-of-his-body-weight-by-tweeting-his-size-115875-23206405/

So – how can we use this in business & in life? We all become more accountable for our goals if they are public. If you intend to write that business book – commit to a timescale & tell your Twitter, LinkedIn & Facebook followers.

If you need to lose weight/get fit – go public & get everyone on social media to help & hold you to your goals.

In the spirit of this blog I am going to publicly announce that my first business book will be written by end of April 2012. I’ve said it on here, so you can all hold me to account & ask me how it’s progressing whenever you like……

Michelle

Happy to connect on LinkedIn to grow my network– http://uk.linkedin.com/in/michellebeckett

‘Add Michelle to your network’ – Just use my email address michelle@linked2success.co.uk and say that we are friends…..

Or follow me on Twitter –

Linked2Success:

http://uk.linkedin.com/in/michellebeckett

10 ways to create the right first impression with your LinkedIn profile

Linked2Success — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 15:57:23 +0000

1) Get a profile picture

Despite LinkedIn being about ‘know, like & trust’ in business, I still see many profiles without photos. People like to build a rounded impression of an individual, & seeing a visual is key to feeling they can ‘know, like & trust’ you. Make yours professional (i.e. no bikini or drinking pics) – and no need to pay a photographer. Making it black & white can hide a multitude of sins….

2) Make your professional headline snappy & to the point

Most on LinkedIn leave this as the default job title. Far better to change it to a keyword rich headline – that explains in a nutshell who you are & what you do. Remember this is all the info people will see if they’ve come across you in a list of search results. Is it enough to encourage users to click on your full profile?

3) Edit your website links

Do use all three of your allocated website links on your profile – they can even point to different pages of the same website. e.g. A home page, an ‘About us’ page – and maybe a testimonials section. Edit the hyperlinks too by selecting the ‘other’ option when adding. It looks far more inviting to click on a link knowing exactly where it’s going to take you.

4) Create a vanity URL for your profile

You have a unique web link or URL for your LinkedIn profile. Unless you edit this, it will look quite ugly – with lots of letters & numbers along with your name. Edit this so it is just your full name if possible – e.g.

BUT you may be unlucky if you are called John Smith, as another namesake may have chosen it already. You may choose to end the URL with ‘JohnSmithABCAccounting’ if this is the case. If you want people to look, spread the URL on business cards, websites, email footers etc. Use it!

5) Add a killer ‘Summary’

Your summary is arguably the most important part of your profile. Viewers want to know who you are, what you do & how good you are at it. It needs to be concise & to the point.

Avoid history lessons (e.g. we formed the company in 1992….). Avoid Bull**** bingo words or platitudes – for example ‘entrepreneur’ ‘motivated’ ‘dynamic’ etc. (Remember ‘know, like & trust’)

Keep lots of white space & paragraph breaks too – it will be a lot easier to read. Once written – check it again. Can you make it even more succinct?

6) Optimise your profile with keyword ‘Specialties’

This is your opportunity to ‘pack in’ keywords that relate to your industry & your products & services. Comma separate them & keep them short. It might be worth using Google’s Adwords tool to check for the most frequently used keywords. Put yourself in your client’s shoes. What do they look for when searching for you?

7) Move your recommendations further up your profile

Recommendations are vital for a good first impression. Aim to gain a handful of killer ‘show me the money’ authentic ones from clients. (They will need to become a 1^st degree connection first). Once you’ve got them, on ‘edit profile’ we suggest moving the Recommendations section up to a more prominent part of your profile. You can do this by using the little grey + ‘grab handle’ to the left of each section.

8) Add gravitas with your experience

Apply the succinct rule to your experience. What have you achieved in each role? Again, use experience to add gravitas and back up some of the information you have put in the Summary. But if you’ve had 35 jobs, do we really need to see them all? Which ones will add weight to what you are trying to achieve with LinkedIn?

9) Add your genuine personal interests

I always read someone’s interests to get a feel for the individual’s personality – and to see if we have any areas of common ground we can strike up a conversation with. First impressions count – here is your opportunity to be ‘you’. Don’t just add reading & cooking. You are all far more interesting than that. Never underestimate the power of this section to ‘engage’ connections in conversations.

10) Make it easy for people to contact you

So – you’ve made a good first impression to the viewer of your profile so far…..what next? Make it easy for them to get in touch. Add your phone numbers. Add a paragraph in the Contact Settings section inviting people to get in touch so you can help them.

It’s now up to you to carry on the conversation now you’ve grabbed their attention……………

Michelle

Happy to connect on LinkedIn to grow my network– http://uk.linkedin.com/in/michellebeckett

‘Add Michelle to your network’ – Just use my email address michelle@linked2success.co.uk and say that we are friends…..

Or follow me on Twitter –

Linked2Success: