How to avoid the 7 Mistakes of LinkedIn

and succeed with the world’s biggest online Business Community

“The Most Cutting Edge Information Available on Using LinkedInTo Grow Your Business”

A Free Report by Stuart Carpenter

1. Not taking this amazing platform seriously!

LinkedIn is the world’s biggest business community ever created. It can provide a path way to just about anybody in business, any time for free. If you are just starting out in business, an established sales person, a CEO or a hardened business owner, you can find key decision makers in your market. In terms of prospecting what else can give you the means to search with large companies, markets, locations, job titles and then provide you a clear path way to engagement that removes gatekeepers and middlemen. The community has now grown to over 150million members with 45% of those major decision makers for their companies. No matter what market you are in there are 1000’s of people on their right now that need your services. I could go on about the amazing benefits LinkedIn can bring but in so many cases it’s a waste of time because too many people just don’t invest in the time needed to make LinkedIn really work.

How to avoid this mistake! Don’t just set up a basic profile and dabble – develop a clear strategy Commit to 30mins per day of focused proactive work Make LinkedIn a core part of your business strategy in most cases LinkedIn can help you achieve your short and long term objectives.

2. Not setting any Goals

Creating a LinkedIn profile and having a “presence” without any meaningful goals will merely create extra work and give little value in return.

LinkedIn is an activity just like everything else and it should be aligned with your over all business strategy, tactics, goals and targets. At TheBizLinks we encourage our clients to set very specific goals which sets clear direction and we also like ambitious goals too because we all know that aiming for the stars means in most cases hitting the moon at the very least. The goals you set for LinkedIn should in most cases be set around generating Sales as LinkedIn is one of the most effective ways to find and develop new clients and customers. Don’t think that you cannot make money by being “Social” you just need to do it in the right way. An example of defining your goals, strategy and tactics Goal: Increase sales by £x (defined amount) Strategy: Target (e.g. Marketing Directors) via advanced searching, use first line network for introductions, making connection and arrangingphone conversations / one 2 one meetings. Tactics: Create a strong and value driven profile relevant to the target Build network of contacts with routes to targets On connection offer a free 30min phone session on (e.g. 3 great tips for digital marketing) once connection has been made. Repeat process until 5 conversations are made per day

3. A dull and boring profile!

Your LinkedIn profile is critical to your success so don’t think listing your experience like a CV will cut it as it wont – CV’s are boring and people don’t like to read them. You success depends on you’re key influencers taking an interest in your profile. You MUST have the following:

Clear value and (What’s In It For Me) WIIFM quickly and clearly Chrystal clear Evidence that supports your value Specific to the people you want to engage

The people you want to engage only really care about themselves and their own world, define your value first before your job titles etc. For example stating that you can find talented staff that can sell is more engaging then saying you’re a Recruitment Manager. Keep it simple and focus on the following 4 keys areas: Profile picture – invest in a professional picture this is not Facebook! Professional headline(see below) Summary – short punchy and packed with passion! Recommendations – 20-25 quality ones that back up your value statement Professional headline Your headline gets noticed first and also summarises you when you appear in searches, groups etc even when you are being Google’d! You have 120 characters use them all and follow this format. [Job Description] ► [who you help / value] ► [Keywords] See mine below for an example – notice I don’t focus on the benefit which is making money as no one really wants training.

4. A small network of contacts Your LinkedIn network works like this 1st Level (your network) > 2nd Level (your 1st Levels connections) > 3rd Level (2nd levels connections). It is important to build a decent sized LinkedIn network (300+) is important for the following reasons: More opportunities and better results On average each LinkedIn member has around 250 connections; when you connect you their network is added to your 2nd level network giving your new people you can reach via one introduction. The larger you network the more effective you can be in the community A large network means you can help more people, get more introductions and be viewed with more value within the community it’s as simple as that! How to grow your LinkedIn network The key to growing your LinkedIn network is to find and connect with people that are in and around your key influencers and target market. Rather that simply mass uploading connects via webmail accounts or exported CSV files use the following steps to grow you network steadily making personal engagements. Always Be Building (ABB) Sounds simple because it is! Every time you engage a new people in business via the phone, meetings or events connect with them Reconnect – Find those you have lost contact with in business over the past few years. Your draw of business cards is a great place to start, apart from it being good fun there is already momentum in terms of relationship. LinkedIn groups – Find suitable groups join and then search and connect with the members, stating your mutual group association as the reason.

5. Not engaging your new contacts

LinkedIn is an amazing platform for finding contacts, and making connections. Once the initial contact has been made LinkedIn’s job is effectively done. The rest is down to you to then build the relationship ideally by picking up the phone and making a call to introduce yourself. It is important however NOT to sell I have lost count of the amount of people who have connected with me, and then fired a generic cut and pasted sales message at me! Playing this numbers game on LinkedIn will not work. The key to making a successful first contact on LinkedIn is to be genuine and helpful ask yourself what could you give the people you connect with that would be of genuine value? Free advice is always a good approach, another very effective first engagement approach is to be a good networker Thank you for accepting your invitation to join my network first of all please let me know the type of people you are looking for and I will see if I have any contacts on my network I can help you with This works particularly well for contacts that need clients themselves, if you repeat this you will soon learn which contacts are more valuable to you and actively seek them on and offline at networking events. The key to being a success is to use LinkedIn to help other people get what they want, as the saying goes givers gain so don’t play the numbers game and sell directly to those you connect with.

6. Not Integrating LinkedInwith other Business activities

The potential of LinkedIn as a tool for finding clients and customers becomes even more powerful when combined in a strategic way with other business activities. 3 examples of using LinkedIn to maximise other business activities Twitter is very effective at finding top people and getting initial dialogue started, LinkedIn is far more effective and developing a relationship used together they complement each other very well The time invested in attending business events can be much more effective if you can plan beforehand and arrange meetings with key people. LinkedIn gives you a massive amount of information about the business events you want to attend After attending a networking event if you have a handful of business cards you can connect with them on LinkedIn check them out, find out who they know and decide on the most suitable people to engage further LinkedIncan help you increase sales, build brand awareness, strengthen your key business relationships, increase web traffic, improve customer service, and develop new ideas. The key is to think outside the box and see where and how LinkedIn can help in most cases it can in a big way so use your imagination and be tenacious. The core features of LinkedIn include Advanced search – Search the whole community for specific contacts Groups – thousands of groups specific to types business and activity Homepage updates – your community posting their recent activity Answers database – thousand of questions on all types of business Company pages– in-site into companies, their employees, activity etc List all if your current and future activity and see where LinkedIn can add real value

7. Not making use of my help and support! I am passionate about LinkedIn and the difference it can make to SME’s in the South East London area with regards to more leads, more sales and more business opportunities. You may realise the potential this powerful platform can provide your business but are unsure where to start or not have the time to try and understand how you can engage with key decision makers in your market. You may just want help with writing an engaging profile or your professional headline. I can offer my clients, free LinkedIn assessments and advice, tailored LinkedIn and social media coaching programs and run public LinkedInworkshops. I will be happy to discuss any questions you may have about LinkedIn and can be contacted in the following ways: Mobile: 07876 711717 Email: stuart.carpenter@thebizlinks.co.uk LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/carpenterstuart Twitter: @carpenterbiz I will remove any risk by providing you my personal guarantee that if you do not find value in the social media strategies I can coach you in, I will give you a full refund and will continue to coach you for free until you do see the value. Smiles and advice are always free so why not contact me today?