Every day I answer questions from entrepreneurs, sales professionals and executives about LinkedIn marketing and social selling. So in this post I decided to share the answers to 5 of my favorite LinkedIn questions.
Not long ago a friend shared a quote with me that says…
“He who asks a questions is a fool for 5 minutes. He who doesn’t ask the questions remains a fool forever”
So if you questions about how to leverage LinkedIn to generate leads, build your personal brand or build your influence within your niche click here to schedule a free 20 LinkedIn strategy session.
Here are 5 of my favorite LinkedIn questions!
#1 – Okay I have a LinkedIn profile…so now what?
Congrats on creating your LinkedIn profile. You’re joining more than 450 million professionals across the globe – and with LinkedIn, you have the potential to connect with your exact target market. But creating and optimizing your profile is quite literally the first step.
Optimizing your profile is a critical next step you MUST take before implementing advanced LinkedIn sales strategy like the one I teach in Linked Academy. Spend the most time on these sections:
- Your photo. If you don’t have a photo, it’s time to get up to speed. It’s 2016, and people are less likely to do business with you if they can’t see your face. A professional headshot is most definitely a worthwhile investment (look on Craigslist or — better still — ask for referrals on LinkedIn). A couple of don’ts =>
-
- Don’t upload a picture that’s too small
- Don’t obviously crop out someone from a casual photo
- Don’t use your company logo or another piece of “corporate” art for your profile photo >> make sure the picture is of you
Get more information on LinkedIn profile photos that solidify your personal brand and help you sell more here.
- Your headline. After your photo, your LinkedIn headline is the next thing visitors to your profile see. Without a compelling headline, most people won’t be enticed to click through and dig into the “meat” of your profile. In other words, your headline can make or break your chances of making a good first impression on LinkedIn. My biggest headline tip? DO NOT use the standard LinkedIn headline with your job title and company. It tells me nothing about you, what’s in it for me and certainly doesn’t help set you apart from the next guy or gal.
I dig even deeper into tips for writing a powerful LinkedIn headline that gets results here.
- Your summary. Many people use the “summary” section of their LinkedIn profile to talk about why their company is great. This is YOUR LinkedIn profile. While your company may be great, your summary should talk about YOU (go ahead and talk about how your company helps its customers in the “experience” section). Always remember, people do business with people NOT companies!
Think of your summary as your elevator pitch. You have a short section to tell people who you are and how you can help them. You also want to make it as easy as possible for them to contact you. Many LinkedIn profiles are too long. People are in a hurry and many suffer of attention deficit disorder (ADD). So if your long winder, chances are most people won’t get past your summary, so make it count.
My free eBook, “The 7 Habits of Highly Successful LinkedIn Users”, goes into detail to help you optimize your summary. Download it now.
At this point you’ve started to flesh out your profile, but you probably haven’t optimized it. These profile recommendations will give you a solid start, but even after you’ve completed them, you’re not finished. At the risk of sounding repetitive, download my free eBook for step-by-step instructions to create a compelling LinkedIn profile that gets results.
#2 – Why should I use LinkedIn over other platforms like Facebook, Twitter, etc?
Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat as well as the rest of the social media platforms all have distinct advantages over LinkedIn but NOT when it comes to B2B marketing and lead generation.
Here are 5 reasons I recommend LinkedIn when it comes to B2B sales/marketing!
- Unlike other platforms, LinkedIn users logon to with the goal of doing business! If you’re serious about generating leads, developing influence within your target market or just increasing your traffic to your blog LinkedIn is the place to be.
- 45% of LinkedIn Users are C level, Vice President, Director or Manager level decision makers within their organizations…period dot! That makes LinkedIn an extremely target rich environment with the tools to help you not only find but engage the decision makers within your target market.
- LinkedIn drives more B2B blog traffic than any other social network including including Facebook and Twitter combine. This makes LinkedIn one of the best sources of free B2B blog traffic on the planet.
- LinkedIn doesn’t require you to spend thousand of dollars per month in ad spend in order to reach your target market like Facebook or Twitter. LinkedIn’s free advanced search features allow you to quickly and easily find your exact target market.
- LinkedIn is the source of 80% of the B2B leads generated through social media with Facebook at about 20% and Twitter at about 7%.
I get even more granular when it comes to benefits of LinkedIn for B2B sellers in this blog post. It’s compelling data you can’t ignore. Social selling on LinkedIn makes sense. For me, for you, and for every business.
#3 – What types of content should I post on LinkedIn?
LinkedIn goes above and beyond when it comes to your ability to post “content” (yet another compelling reason it stands out from the social media pack described in the previous bullet). Here are the primary types of content you can share on your LinkedIn profile:
- Status updates. According to LinkedIn’s own research, you’ll reach 60% of your unique audience if you post at least once every weekday (or 20 times per month). Yes, that means that posting status updates every day can help you stay top of mind with 60% of your entire network of prospects and past clients every month.
There are certain types of status updates that help increase your LinkedIn social selling efforts. 10 of them, actually. Part 1 of my blog series on LinkedIn status updates details the top 5, while Part 2 examines the remaining 5.
- Pulse posts. LinkedIn Pulse is an original blogging platform unique to LinkedIn. Previously open only to designated influencers who had to apply for inclusion, LinkedIn Pulse is now open to every user. New content that performs well will be featured by LinkedIn, potentially expanding your reach to thousands or millions of users. But at a minimum, your network is notified (through an actual notification in their menu bar) when you write and publish a new LinkedIn Pulse post.
A word of caution – don’t abuse LinkedIn Pulse to write ads for your business or simply write one paragraph and link to content elsewhere. LinkedIn users expect quality blog content on Pulse. This is your opportunity to demonstrate thought leadership and provide real value to your network. Don’t waste or abuse it.
Slideshare is another great LinkedIn tool that requires more of a time and creative investment, but can also help you reach your prospects and generate revenue. You can even implement video and multimedia into your LinkedIn profile. Start with status updates and Pulse posts, then as you get more comfortable and consistent in your use of LinkedIn, start thinking about quality content you may be able to add in some of the other platforms.
#4 – Should I get a LinkedIn premium account?
The short answer: Yes. If you’re not investing in LinkedIn Premium, it could literally be costing you money. Premium features can exponentially increase your sales opportunities and ultimately, your revenue and bottom line profits. I’ve mentioned it throughout this post – LinkedIn offers an unparalleled scope of free features for its users. It truly stands out from the social media pack. And you should absolutely take advantage of all of them. Think about it this way – if LinkedIn’s free features are that good, imagine the quality of their premium features! Here are just a few of them:
- Details on “who’s viewed your profile”?
- Advanced search features
- In-depth company data
- Enhanced messaging opportunities
LinkedIn Premium subscriptions can help you go well above and beyond the average LinkedIn user to go from “connecting” on LinkedIn to “leveraging” LinkedIn to increase ROI. It’s a no brainer.
I go into much more detail on the dramatic benefits of LinkedIn Premium in this blog post including how to get a 30 day free trial. Check it out, the pull the trigger and claim your free trial today. You’re losing money if you don’t.
#5 – I have XX number of connections but no clients, what am I doing wrong?
Connections do not always equal sales. Even implementing the above steps won’t guarantee you sales, although they’ll definitely help you build a solid foundation for LinkedIn social selling. The most important element to LinkedIn social selling is a system. You need a system to help you nurture your network and ultimately take the conversations offline, allowing you to convert connections and visitors into real sales.
Once you have a system in place, it’s a matter of implementing the system consistently in order start getting results. Developing and refining systems is what allowed me to grow my business from $0 million a year to $80 million a year. My LinkedIn social selling system literally transformed the way we did business by converting us from the hunter into the hunted. Having a predictable and sustainable system for generating highly targeted leads can literally can transform your business as well.
I’m gearing up for a very special, limited launch of Linked Academy, a platform to teach YOU the exact system that I used to generate over $20 millions in new business through LinkedIn.
Did this blog help you? If so, please take a moment to SHARE on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn!
Cheers,
Dennis Brown
“Stop the madness. There’s a better way!”
LinkedIn Marketing & Social Selling Consultant, Trainer, Speaker
Connect with me on LinkedIn!
Follow me on Twitter!
Do you Facebook?
Source:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/linkedin-tips-what-you-must-know-b2b-marketing-jerome-knyszewski
http://www.b2bnn.com/2015/08/10-linkedin-stats-every-b2b-executive-needs-to-know/