LinkedIn Power User Secrets

8/14/2019 LinkedIn Power User Secrets

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LLiinnkkeeddIInn PPoowweerr UUsseerr SSeeccrreettss Social Media Telesummit 2010

Created and Facilitated by Andrew Ballenthin

President of Sol Solutions, an integrated marketing consultancy

All rights reserved. Copyright © 2010.

[email protected]

ca.linkedin.com/in/andrewballenthin

communintymarketing.typepad.com

twitter.com/solsolutions

groups.to/socialmediamonetization

Network. Discuss. Follow. Connect.

http://ca.linkedin.com/in/andrewballenthin

http://groups.to/socialmediamonetization

http://twitter.com/solsolutions

http://communitymarketing.typepad.com/



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LLiinnkkeeddIInn PPoowweerr UUsseerr SSeeccrreettss

Program OverviewWith over 55 million members LinkedIn is the best no-nonsense social network fortransforming your time into business results.

98% of professionals use LinkedIn as an online rolodex and a bit more. 2% of users realizeLinkedIn is a goldmine that can help them find clients and jobs, build quantity and qualitynetworks, establish a high profile leadership position, crowdsource for leading edge industryinformation, save their company money and much more.

This session will teach you how to become a LinkedIn PowerUser and harness a giant that can take a business and

professional’s career to its next level.

Learning Outcomes

Bonus: Planning Pointers – Tips and 10 areas that put you on the path to monetization1. Time Management - Devise a plan for getting results based on your time

2. Leading The Pack - 5 super user tips for standing apart from your competition

3. Growing Your Database - 3 smart ways to build a quality and quantity Contact database

4. Unlock LinkedIn’s Secret - 1 key point that creates potential or wastes your time

5. Reach Huge Audiences - Learn how to reach 500,000 to 1.5 million people







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Planning For Results

“ Good p lans shap e g ood dec isions. That ’s why good p lanning he lps to make the

elusive c ome true.” Lester R. Bittle, writer

Defining Your Success Plan

One of the secrets to becoming a Power User is having an excellent plan and defining whatyou want and how you will get there. Many people waste their time because they do not

have a clear picture of what they are going to do in the following areas:

• Branding and alignment with your other marketing

• Defining and segmenting your audience

• Setting direct and indirect monetization goals

• Resource planning: who and how much time a week can be applied

• Defining LinkedIn features to specialize in

• Understanding how to create dynamic content

• Communication planning: knowing what you want to say in advance

• Defining success measurements and reporting

• Ecosystem planning (how Linkedin, blogs, Twitter and other social networks worktogether)

• Integration with your sales and advertising programs and more

These 10 points are a starting list of areas you should define in as much detail as possiblebefore putting too much time into using LinkedIn. Why? If one or several of these areas aremissing it can take more time to become a Super User and monetize your results.

What usually prevents success is an invisible barrier that prevents you from making the

progress you should. When invisible roadblocks appear it’s because one of the pointsabove that has not been addressed and your results are telling you to go back and fix it.The good news is social media marketing is always about learning and improving.







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Why Planning And Goals Matter:A Study From Harvard Business School

“Goal setting is more effective when specific steps are integrated with written time framesand dates to document our thinking. Reality: written goals clarify thinking, objectify theirpotential, and reinforce commitment. Another secret of successful people is that they keeptheir written goals visible and review them daily.

Harvard Business School did a study on the financial status of its students 10 years aftergraduation and found that:

• As many as 27% of them needed financial assistance

• A whopping 60% of them were living paycheck to paycheck.

• A mere 10% of them were living comfortably.

• And only 3% of them were financially independent.

The study also looked at goal setting and found these interesting correlations:

• The 27% that needed financial assistance had absolutely no goal setting process intheir lives.

• The 60% that were living paycheck to paycheck had basicsurvival goals; such as managing to live paycheck topaycheck.

• The 10% that were living comfortably had general goals.They thought they knew where they were going to be in thenext five years.

• The 3% that were financially independent had written outtheir goals and the steps required to reach them.”

Source: Pius Ephenus, Goal Setting - The Power of Writing DownYour Goal. Full article -http://bit.ly/635l9G.







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S.M.A.R.T Goal Setting

Once you know what you want in your success plan it’s best to turn it into a goal.

You may have heard of the S.M.A.R.T. methodology for effective planning. 3M was using itas early as the 1970’s and since then it has not gone out of style. This system will help youapply a razor sharp focus that makes becoming a LinkedIn Power User absolutely possible.

Defining what you want and what you’re going to do to get there is an essential secret thattransforms your time from being busy to being effective.

S – specific

M – measurable

A – achievable

R – realistic

T – time bound

Examples of using S.M.A.R.T, planning and LinkedIn

Example 1 - Our engineering company will have all 12 of its employees on LinkedIn. Each person will

be a member of 5 groups. Collectively we will identify 1,000 highly targeted prospects within 5-15

Groups. This will be completed in 45 days: due for day/month/year.

Example 2 - As a sole businesses owner I will spend 5 hours a

week answering 5 to 10 questions related to my industry in Polls or

Group Discussions. I will also invite 10-25 highly targeted

customers and industry influencers to be part of my network each

week. I will keep a weekly report for tracking people I start

discussions with so I can nurture those relationships as potentialclients and future business alliances.







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Time Management

“ The d efinition o f insanity is do ing the same thing o ver and over and expec ting a

d ifferent result.” Albe rt Einste in

Now that you have goals you need to determine how much time you can put into gettingyour results. There are a few factors that will either make you a Super User or a super timewaster. By weeding out what wastes your time versus what is a valuable use of time youcan master LinkedIn and be highly productive.

Exercise 1

Write TW (Time Waster) on the line beside the bullet point if it is an area you are unclearabout or you feel under-experienced doing.

Write SU (Super User) if it’s an area you feel confident of your knowledge or your skills areequal or above average for getting results now.

___ Do you which parts of LinkedIn you have excellent knowledge of how to use

___ Are you operating from business goals rather than random activity

___ Do you have the focus to keep asking yourself, am I being busy versus effective ___ Do you know how to interact and bringing out the best in connections

___ Do you know what enables direct and indirect monetization for your business

___ You have a clear knowledge of who your audience is and how many people

___ Do you know how to convey a consistent brand image

___ The ability to give your audience original, valuable and inspiring content

___ Consistency in your use so you become a well recognized name

___ Are you excellent at the art of valuable and compelling communication

___ The ability to watch for subtle changes and continually adapt







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Exercise 2

What makes exceptional achievers different than average or poor performers is their abilityto judiciously apply their skills to get the maximum results for the least amount of effort. Listyour Super User Strengths below (include additional points if you want to).

1.

2.

3.

4.5.

Write out 1 of your goals that is aligned with your Super User strengths.

Note how much time you will apply to your goal using your strengths each week.

Exercise Summary

By matching your strengths, to your goals and your weekly time budget you will be wellpositioned to get excellent results. The areas where you need to improve should be seen asinvestment time outside of your weekly budget that will pay back in the future.







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LinkedIn Success Stories

Job Searching

“In addition to networking with most of her real world professional connections on LinkedIn,and joining groups, she researched LinkedIn for company information and potentialconnections before applying for any jobs. She saw a dramatic difference in how manyphone interviews or offers she got from traditional online boards (5% response rate) versusonline and offline networking (31% response rate). During her search, she made a weeklygoal of 3 meetings with her connections, to learn what might be happening in the job

market. When she saw a job posting for what is now her current job, she looked up andconnected to a former co-worker through LinkedIn, who introduced her to the hiringmanager.”

Story by Kathy Robinson, Career coach at Turning Points Career Consulting. Article onChristine Midwood, program director and product manager.

http://blog.linkedin.com/2009/08/11/kathy-robinson-why-linked-in-is-high-octane-fuel-for-job-searching

New Business Growth

“Linkedin has been a very valuable tool for my business. I’m based in Singapore running aboutique PR company and have been contacted through Linkedin by companies from theUS, UK, Australia and other parts of Asia. I’ve had the opportunity to work with some majorclients who I would never normally had access too. As well as form some strategic allianceswith other small PR companies in other countries... The individuals on Linkedin are allprofessionals and take both their business and other businesses seriously... Put simplyLinkedin is terrific!”

Linda Ruck - Director Linda Ruck Communications, Public Relations & Branding, Events,Media Campaigns

http://www.communitymarketing.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/10/an-understated-hero-linkedin-a-global-village-of-goodwill.html











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Leading The Pack: 5 Super User Tips

98% of people on LinkedIn don’t get more than a bit of networking, a rolodex and somevaluable tips and feedback. Super Users are clearly different.

The following points were found to be consistent after interviewing several group managerson LinkedIn who had members ranging from 20,000 – 100,000 and over 10,000 networkconnections in the personal following. What they all had in common was:

1. An 18 month vision and clear goals.

2. A clear and compelling personal and company profile.

3. They knew who their audience was and talked to them regularly.

4. Their ideas were innovative and offered compelling value.

5. They were dedicated to nurturing their audience and developing real relationships.

These 5 points were implemented with the highest level of professionalism, persistence,and tenacity. Their drive in these areas enabled them to stand apart from their competition.

Keep in mind it’s tougher than ever to be unique on LinkedIn with over 55 million membersand 55,700+ groups. However these 5 points together are a secret that makes masternetworkers and group leaders stand apart from their competition.

Exercise

The above points are only effective if you know what makes you highly different than yourcompetition and you have bigger plans for getting there than your competitors. Describewhat is highly unique about your plans and why that puts you in the top 2% category.







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LinkedIn Users That Leave Their Competition Behind

“I'd be lost without LinkedIn. Quite simply, it is essentially my professional home page. Iprobably spend more time searching on LinkedIn than I do on Google.

I am thankful for the ability to create and cultivate my network, to find and connect (and stayconnected!) with new and old contacts, to be found by potential partners, clients andemployers, to research companies of interest and seek connections there, to read andparticipate in discussions on innumerable topics of interest with thoughtful professionalsaround the world, to request and provide information, advice and contacts, to join andparticipate in groups, to create and build an alumni network for my former employer that has

helped our members succeed.”

Larry Robiner - Business Development Executive and Strategic Marketing Consultant


“Linked In is now part of my daily business life. It hasallowed me to meet people, all be it virtually. Createdbusiness opportunities and provided tons ofinvaluable information. Best of all through the site Ihave been able to prove and confirm that productdesign and definition and product acceptance on aworld wide basis. With LinkedIn the World is a smallerplace and working cross boarders is suddenly easy.”

Mark Alford - Director at StorePOINT International Ltd
















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3 Steps To Grow Your Database

After deciding what you want your contacts on LinkedIn to look like in terms of quality andquantity it’s now a good time to grow. Following are 3 techniques for increasing the quantityof contacts on LinkedIn by several hundred to several thousand within months:

1. Organic

2. Being highly visible

3. TopLinked.com membership

1. Growing organically includes:

2. Being highly visible includes:

3. Growing through TopLinked.com includes:







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The 1 Secret That Unlocks All Of LinkedIn

Yes there is one point more important than anything else mentioned so far. It’s deceptivelysimple, it hides in the open, its essence connects all of the other points to each other, andyou don’t have to be master to get exponential results.

The Biggest Secret Of Being A LinkedIn Power User Is…

Following are 10 ways 90% of people get it wrong:

1. Staying in broadcast mode like traditional marketing

2. Forgetting every single person you come into contact with is real

3. Spreading efforts to thin and missing opportunities that fall on your doorstep

4. Being “afraid” to get out of comfort zones

5. Giving up when obvious results are not there6. Failing to be consistently visible

7. Making errors that project poor attention todetail

8. Putting forward an image that has mixedmessages

9. Not realizing it’s the little things that lead tobig things

10. Becoming frustrated because sales leads

aren’t just popping up







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How To Reach Huge Audiences

It is possible to reach between 500,000 to 1.5 million people on LinkedIn without paying adollar. When using this secret correctly these numbers and this technique can be a gamechanger even for Power Users.

So What’s The Big Secret?

Groups!

Things You Need To Know About Groups:







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4 Steps To Join New Groups and Post News

Step1 - Select “Groups” on your top menubar. This will take you to the search pagewhere you can enter a search term for a newgroup you want to look for.

Step 2 - Select the Group you want to join.The group manager does not have to approveany new joiner. Some groups will approvepeople automatically, others will take 1-5 days.

You can join up to 50 groups.

Step 3 - Once you are a member of a Group,click on it to open it. You will see listings forDiscussions, News, Jobs, Sub Groups, etc.Click on News.

Step 4 - Enter the URL that posts your contentto that group’s news listings. This can berepeated for all your groups.

Beware:

Over posting to groups that overlap canquickly give you a reputation as a spammer.

If the content is self-promotional expect nilresponse rates.

If the group manager does not like your activitythey can remove you without warning and banyou from the group.

Keep track of being busy versus effective. Thiscan be a time consuming process with great or

no payback. Watch results and measureactivity closely.

If things are not going well, don’t getdiscouraged if you hit a low spell of traffic,people are still watching you. Do the marketingaudit on page 3 to see where you might begetting it wrong.

LinkedIn Power User Secrets

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