While I wouldn’t class myself as a Social Media expert, I have had a certain level of success with social networking. Funnily enough, I don’t put this down to marketing or sales nous (which, with both, I am endowed!) – but to my introduction to the internet at the age of 16.
I’m a Gen X/Y cusper – I’m old enough to remember a time before the internet, but young enough to have surfed, chatted, Im’ed and even Napstered! (I can’t retrospectively get in trouble for that, can I?!?!)
When social networking first came on the business scene, I wasn’t particularly interested – I had a look at MySpace, but it took far too long to set your profile up and I just didn’t have time. I joined LinkedIn, but didn’t use it for a year. Then, as the landscape began to change and discussions were abounding about whether social networking would be a useful business tool, I decided to have a second look at the whole thing.
What I found was that, just like offline networking, you needed certain information to ensure that you went to the right sites, talked to the right people, used the right tools and generally made everything work for you. I started experimenting and before long, realised there was a whole lot of money to be made from social networking – but most people were going entirely the wrong way about it.
So, here are 5 steps that I used to make more than $20,000 on LinkedIn in the last 12 months. Use them wisely!
Step 1 – Become a LION
You may have seem them around LinkedIn – people with “LION” in their profile. LION stands for LinkedIn Open Networker. This means that you’ll accept invitations from anyone, not just people who know you.
To register to be part of the LION network, you need to head to the DallasBlue website and sign up:
http://mylinknetwork.com/
Go to “Add Yourself”.
And fill out the form.
I recommend adding yourself as a “Libertine” networker – that is, accepting invitations from everyone. However, be warned – if you set yourself up as a Libertine networker and you choose the “I don’t know” (AKA IDK) option you will be punished by the community.
When you use the IDK button when someone invites you to connect, the person who invited you is reported to LinkedIn and their account is frozen. This is very much frowned upon by the LION community and is really an unnecessary option. If you don’t wish to accept a request from someone, simply archive their invitation and then delete it – no harm, no foul.
Some people like to set up separate email addresses (often using Gmail) specifically for their LinkedIn accounts, as you WILL receive some spam once you begin the Libertine networking process. I have found that the level of spam is fairly minimal and doesn’t affect my day to day use of my email, but that’s your call!
Step 2 – Invite other LIONs
Go to:
http://mylinknetwork.com/lions.php
Follow the instructions here to copy and paste the list of other Libertine networkers into your LinkedIn account and invite them to connect with you.
You will now see your network grow by hundreds within the next week.
Step 3 – Complete your Profile
Now that you’re a LION, it’s a good idea to let people know! Place LION in the heading of your profile. Now, as you probably know, you need access to someone’s email in order to be able to invite them. So, go to the bottom of your profile and edit the ‘contact settings’. You want to put in words to this effect:
* LION – LinkedIn Open Networker
I am willing to connect and network with others in the LinkedIn community.
Please reach me at: leela@leelacosgrove.com
I am interested in exploring real, viable business/project opportunities that match my skill set and interests.
Now people who are surfing your profile are able to invite you to connect if they choose to.
It’s also important to ensure that your whole profile is filled out. Too often I see LIONs who haven’t bothered to fill out their employment details or interests.
There are SO many other cool add-ons! A few of my favourites include:
- Recommendations – Whether you’re an employee or a business person, LinkedIn is a great place to gather all of your testimonials. You can use the Recommendations tool to request that people endorse you.
- Add your WordPress Blog – You can import your WordPress blog and it will automatically update every time you put a new post up.
- Amazon Reading List – Let everyone know what you’ve read / what you’re reading / what you want to read.
- Slideshare – is a program that let’s you upload powerpoint presentations and share them with other users.
Step 4 – INTERACT!
The key to social networking of any kind is that it’s just like networking OFF line – if you went to a real life networking event, put up a poster about yourself and then didn’t talk to anyone, want kind of result do you think you would get? And yet this is PRECISELY what so many business people do and then complain that social networking is a waste of time.
LinkedIn has a couple of ways in which you can interact with other members.
- Status Updates – just like on Twitter or Facebook, you can let your network know what you’re up to. Do NOT use this to just post advertisements. Instead, ask questions and encourage people to respond to what you’re saying. You can now also hook this up with Twitter, so your Tweets post automatically and vice versa.
- Questions and Answers – this is probably the most effective way to interact and build your network. LinkedIn allows the entire membership to ask questions and you’re able to answer these questions regardless of whether people are in your network or not. The person who asks the question is then able to choose the ‘best answer’ for which you are awarded a ‘best answer’ badge for your profile.
This does a couple of things – it makes you more visible to a larger range of people on the site. It also establishes you as an expert in your field. This is a really great way to gain a following and to develop relationships within LinkedIn. - Groups – These are particularly good if you want to connect with other people in a specific niche, whether that’s geographical, industry or other. You’re also able to create your own groups if you find there’s an area that’s lacking.
Step 5 – Be a GIVER
One of the biggest mistakes I see on LinkedIn is LIONs who think that accepting their link request is permission to put you on their newsletter list. I unsubscribe from every newsletter I’m signed up to in this fashion (even the ones I might have signed up to willingly if I’d been asked).
The other mistake I see is the flood of emails I receive from people I’ve never met and who have never done anything for me asking for “a favour”. Why would I do you a favour?
I’ve done two successful campaigns to my network on LinkedIn (the first netted me $1,500 the second, in excess of $20,000). In both cases, I went to my network in Melbourne and Sydney and offered them a free download. There was no expectation of getting anything in return, I simply wanted to do the opposite of what everyone else was doing. This allowed me to develop several relationships which ultimately led to a decent cash return.
The secret to online networking is the same as the secret to offline networking – it’s about creating relationships. It’s about looking for partners, rather than trying to sell everyone who connects to you. It’s about asking what you can do for everyone else, before asking what they can do for you.
Connect with me on LinkedIn – I accept ALL requests …