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Becoming successful with LinkedIn marketing is all about leveraging connections…
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However, it’s safe to say that there’s a right way to engage with your connections – and then there’s a way that leaves you with a perpetual goose egg on your list of contacts!
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Let’s face it: LinkedIn is one of the most powerful ways you can engage and leverage professional connections to start making things happen in your online business. You never know when a connection with a business acquaintance could turn into an amazingly profitable affiliate marketing relationship, or if a friend of a friend has a brilliant solution for increasing traffic to your website.
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So with that in mind, let’s take a look at three strategies that will help you successfully engage with your connections.
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Strategy One: Start with Familiar Connections
Worried you won’t know where to start once you join up with LinkedIn? Don’t panic – your other social networking sites have already done all the work for you. Take stock of your online friends and collect their email addresses, then use this information to see if they’re on LinkedIn. If they are, send them a personalized invite and let them know that because you’re connected on other social networking sites, you’d like to connect on LinkedIn.
Strategy Two: Connect with Professionals in Your Group
After joining up with groups with common industry interests and goals, see what kind of discussions are happening in these niche groups. Don’t be afraid to jump into the discussions, as this can provide you with the perfect opportunity to send personalized invites to peers within the group. The more discussions you take part in, the more visibility you’ll achieve – and the more likely it is that industry professionals and companies will agree to connect with your LinkedIn profile.
Strategy Three: Don’t Use the Standard Template
Here’s a piece of advice I picked up from my own LinkedIn experience: don’t use standard template text. Yes, LinkedIn provides an outline for messages – and no, you should absolutely REFUSE to use it. Nothing says “I’m lazy and I don’t care about you” to your connections like sending a template, vague and generic message that reads like a mass email. Take the time to customize your messages, and you should see favorable responses from your connections.
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Use these three simple LinkedIn strategies when building and engaging your connections, and you’ll see a booming LinkedIn network in no time!
Share your experience on how you are building your connections on Linkedin, and leave any questions or comments below that I might be able to help you with.
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Linked In is a venue that is very powerful in business and is one to which I haven’t paid enough attention. Thanks for the eye opener!
I agree Wendy, Linkedin is a powerful social platform that is a tremendous tool for business owners and professionals. I hope you will continue to discover and learn more about Linkedin. And if you every have a question, please let me know. I will be happy to help. Appreciate you stopping by today and look forward to you visiting again soon.
Thanks for this article Lynn! I still forget about using LinkedIn I have a profile but just don’t seem to use it as much as I do with Facebook or Skype. Good call on the generic templates. Look forward to learning more information from you.
Thanks Richard, good to hear you have a Linkedin profile but would love for you to see how Linkedin can be a huge asset to you, your business, products or services. I look forward to sharing more info about Linkedin. It is my favorite platform. Let me know if I can ever help you or answer any questions you might have.
Appreciate you stopping by today and hope you will visit again soon.
Lynn, Very simple yet valuable suggestions. I have to admit, sometimes I just use the template text provided when inviting a connection. Often I do add something personal. But you have reminded me to always add a personal note. I certainly prefer receiving that as well.
Thanks,
Warmly, Dr. Erica
Thank you Dr. Erica I appreciate your recognition and the personal verbiage just always seems to result in more connections vs. invitations to connect. I have actually saved some of my own templates, where I just need to change the name. This has helped me save time, which we all need, right?
Appreciate you stopping by and look forward to your wonderful input, so I hope you will come back soon!
Great tips here. Whilst my linkedin profile is kept up to date with social media and others elements, I don’t have as much time to network and build relationships like I would like to on LinkedIn, But I do see it as a really good place to form those relationships.
Thanks Beth. Good to hear you have a Linkedin profile
Maybe you could try giving 5 minutes each day for your Linkedin site, ask for connections, get involved with groups, etc. you will start to see, as I have, the amazing results and even better, it builds your business.
Appreciate you stopping by today and sharing your thoughts. Hope you will come back again soon!
I am not much active at LinkedIn although I have an account there but recently after reading some tips and good reason to be on LinkedIn made me to head back to LinkedIn and update my account. Thanks a lot Lynn for this tips.
You are more than welcome Iam. Linkedin is a powerful social site for any business and I enjoy sharing tips and techniques to help everyone understand how you can effectively use Linkedin for your business marketing strategy. If you have questions, feel free to contact me at lynn@learnit2earnit.com.
Appreciate you stopping by today Iam, and hope to see you again real soon.
Fabulous. If you use these as a basis you will certainly expand on LinkedIn. My favourite is to connect via groups myself. What I’ve begun doing is also going to groups outside my profession. I’m starting to expand to interests too. Really a wealth of wonderful people sharing great stuff!
Yes I agree with you Bonnie, Linkedin provides a wealth of people that in general are all professionals, businesses and industries wanting to meet you and make connections. Linkedin has proven to be a platform for the best opportunity to build my visibility but to also build those very important relationships. Good for you for to expand and see other ways to reach out to people. Appreciate you stopping by and sharing your comments.
Strategy 3 is gold, Lynn! Ever since I’ve learned it, I had great success connecting with people. There are plenty of ideas what to say in the invite: Kathy Bernard has a great blog post just on that and it’s helped me a lot. If anybody is interested, it’s at http://getajob-tips-for-getting-hired.blogspot.com/2011/11/smart-ways-to-invite-people-you-dont.html (I am not an affiliate, just sharing her great tips
Thanks Delia and very glad to hear the success you are having with Linkedin. It is an awesome platform.
I visited the link you shared, and Kathy did a very good job in describing in detail the process to connect on Linkedin. Her examples would be very helpful for people that need ideas on what to say when asking for connections. So thank you for sharing that and you are more than welcome to share other great information like that even if you are an affiliate. So feel free to visit again soon!
What do you mean the standard template – on messages or invites or what. A tip I got the other day was to always send a message to all who you invite or who invite you pre and post to build relationship
Roberta when you click on a person you want to connect with, Linkedin pops up the invite ‘box’ and there is a ‘standard message’ that pops up …. “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.” It will also auto populate your name too.
This standard message I will remove and put in something more personal. I found I would get almost 100% results of those invites to be accepted. It probably would have been a good idea for me to include a screen shot of that? So thanks for asking the question!
Its what I thought you meant. I usually change the wording too now since it seems to work better
Oh good Roberta, glad to hear it gives you good results too!
Great post, Lynn. These are 3 great strategies. You know me, I particularly like #3. That is one of my pet peeves.
One strategy I also like is my Cardmunch iPhone app. When I am at events or networking meetings, I can scan their business card and ask if they are on LinkedIn. I let them know right then and there that I will send them an invite to connect on LinkedIn. With Cardmunch it only takes 1 click and many times, they will have the invite before they even get back to the office.
What a great tip and strategy to add Daphne! I don’t have my smart phone yet, I’m looking at the Android, my son is helping me pick one. But I will certainly take a look at that app. I was just at a holiday party last night and collected a bunch of business cards…. so your tip will come in handy for events like that. Very helpful and thank you for sharing.