who · create an interesting and compelling headline. fyi your title whether it be ceo, director of...

Who is Dennis Brown? Dennis Brown is an author, speaker and serial entrepreneur who has built 3 multi million dollar businesses in 3 different industries. His companies have been recognized by Inc. Magazine on their coveted Inc. 500 fastest growing companies list 6 times, including #298 in 2008. In 2007, after being highly skeptical about the value of social media, he decided to join Linkedin with the goal of networking. After landing a 6 figure client within his first few months on Linkedin he quickly saw the opportunity to use Linkedin and social selling as a platform to help accelerate his company’s growth. He dove in head first and has spent the last 8 years learning, developing and teaching his Linkedin marketing system. Through his various business ventures Dennis and his team have generated over $20 million in sales through his Linkedin marketing strategies. Dennis is a lifelong resident of Western New York and currently resides in Clarence, NY with his wife and 2 children.

Linkedin Profile http://www.Linkedin.com/in/askdennisbrown Inc. Magazine - http://www.inc.com/profile/logistic-dynamics Business First 40 Under 40 Award - http://www.pr.com/press-release/100727

Dennis Brown Copyright 2015 1

http://www.linkedin.com/in/askdennisbrown


http://www.inc.com/profile/logistic-dynamics

http://www.inc.com/profile/logistic-dynamics

http://www.pr.com/press-release/100727



Dear Reader, My goal with this ebook is for you to take away a few golden nuggets that can help you to achieve your business goals by better leveraging the power of Linkedin. First and foremost you need to understand that nothing in this book is theory. All of tips and strategies I am about to share with you are a part of my daily Linkedin marketing efforts. So my Linkedin journey started back in 2007, at the time I wasn’t even on Facebook and didn’t understand or believe in social media. I literally remember laughing and making fun of my wife and friends who were on Facebook. But I remember thinking to myself, “this is different.” Well it turns out that I was right because within a few short months after setting up my profile I landed a 6 figure client and light bulb went on! I realized that I had stumbled across something that could be a game changer. Since then I’ve generated over $20 million in sales for my various business ventures by implementing many of the tips and strategies I am about to share with you today. I hope you enjoy “The 7 Habits of Highly Successful Linkedin Users” and I welcome any and all connections, feedback, endorsement, recommendations and questions. So if we’re not connected yet, shoot me a connection request and I look forward to hearing your story! Sincerely, Dennis Brown


Habit #1 - Optimize your profile Whether you are searching for a job, just networking or calling on a prospect, you will never get a second chance to make a good first impression and Linkedin is no different! It’s important to create a Linkedin profile that elicits a positive response from people that view it. Take an objective look at your profile and ask yourself the following. Does your profile make someone want to connect, meet you and/or do business with you? If the answer is no, not sure or maybe, then it might be time to spruce up your profile a bit. Below are 6 tips for creating a compelling Linkedin profile

✓ Make sure you are using a good PHOTO. Nothing with your dog, kids or fancy

car in it. Nothing shot from your cell phone preferably. Remember people, this is your professional image you are putting out there for all the world to see. Don’t blow it before you even get to the starting gate. While many people believe a professional photo is necessary, I think as long as you have a clean, clear and current photo that is sized properly you will do fine. Stats show that adding a profile photo can increase your views by as much as 14 times!

Here are some examples “what NOT to do” for your Linkedin profile photo!

Cropped & Blurry


Just a LOGO

Unprofessional Photo

✓ Create an interesting and compelling HEADLINE. FYI your title whether it be CEO, Director of Marketing or Vice President is not really all that interesting or compelling. It’s about your viewers and making a good first impression so remember that the best headlines tell a short story. Effective profiles draw a picture of what that person can do for them.

The headline is the most valuable real estate on your entire profile so make it interesting and most importantly make it count!

■ Bad headlines ➢ CEO ➢ Vice President ➢ Direct or Marketing ➢ Business Development


These headlines are your title but tell very little about you or your story. There is plenty of space in your profile to pimp your title.

■ Good headlines ➢ Helping Buffalo Grow | Real Estate Developer | Redevelopment

Projects | Mixed-Use Properties | Strategic Relationships

➢ Innovative IT Project Manager | Unified Communications Expert | Mentor | Making the Complex Simple

➢ Healthcare CEO ► Focused on Growing & Improving Health

Systems ★ Team Engagement Expert

➢ Linkedin Training | Linkedin Consulting | Speaker | Social Sales Training | 5x Inc. 500 Fastest Growing CEO ***Haha this is one of my headlines that I use regularly

✓ Create your own vanity URL. Getting your own vanity URL is not for the vain it’s

for smart Linkedin users. A vanity URL replaces the long default URL, that Linkedin assigns each new user, with a more customizable and easy to remember URL.

Mine is www.Linkedin.com/in/askdennisbrown and I welcome you to connect with me. If you need instructions on how to customize your URL, check out the link below. https://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/87/kw/vanity+URL



https://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/87/kw/vanity+url

✓ Get written RECOMMENDATIONS. Some people ask, “Is it really important to get recommendations from people in my network?” and the answer is YES! Getting recommendation from colleagues, vendors and customer is very important and represents the social proof needed to build trust and credibility.

“When you say it, it’s called bragging but when others say it, it’s called proof”

I would focus mainly on recommendations for your current position or role and if necessary your last position but it is not necessary for every position help.

✓ Optimize your profile for SEARCH. With over 340 million users worldwide Linkedin has become one of the world's most popular search engines. People search Linkedin for jobs, job candidates, vendors, suppliers, customers, sales leads, groups, sales intelligence and more.

For this reason you should add 3-5 high value keywords to your profile. The best place to add keywords to your profile are as follows: headline, summary, current/past experience titles, projects, publication, skills & endorsement. Please note, that you should not just stuff a bunch of keywords into your profile! Remember that your profile must look professional, so it’s important to intelligently insert your keywords to insure that you make a good first impression.


✓ Add skills & get ENDORSEMENTS. Endorsements are an easy way for your network to acknowledge and endorse your skills. Endorsements play a big role in what you just learned in the last tip, which relates back to Linkedin search results. The more endorsements you have for a skill, the more likely you will show up in your networks search results for that term.


Habit #2 - Expand your network There are two philosophies on Linkedin as it pertains to networking. The first is called CLOSED networking where you only connect with people you know. The other version is called OPEN networking which is the exact opposite but can have varying degrees of openness. An open networker is willing and open to connecting with anyone on Linkedin with the objective of expanding their network and reach beyond where their current relationships can take them. I strongly recommend setting some minimal guidelines for OPEN NETWORKING, like a minimum # of connections, profile must have a real picture (no stock photos) and/or the profile must be sufficiently complete in nature before connecting. Once you determine if you are going to be an OPEN or CLOSED networker, you can rapidly expand your network by doing the following.

A. Invite existing contacts to connect. The good news is Linkedin allows you to import existing email contacts from Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook as well as many others.

The easiest and fastest way to expand your network today is to hover over Connections on the top navigation within Linkedin and then click on Add Connections. Once you identify your email provider(s) Linkedin will walk you through the rest of the process of importing your contacts so you can invite them to connect. TIP: You can either have Linkedin send out a generic invite to your connections or you can go through them one by one and send a personalized one. Obviously a personalized invite will get a better response but if you have hundreds or even thousands of connections, that can be a daunting task at best.


Some people get concerned with letting Linkedin have access to their email but the reality is there is no difference between this and sharing your connections on any other social network like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. In my opinion the advantage of quickly and easily adding hundreds of personal connections to your network far outweighs potential risk. Another great way to add connections is to go through your rolodex or the stack of business cards in your desk drawer. This may seem tedious but if you have a stack of 200 business cards then by doing 10 a day you will be done in less than a month.

B. Explore Linkedin reconnect feature. First go to

www.Linkedin.com/people/reconnect and once you’re there you will see tabs for Colleagues, Alumni and People You May Know. By clicking on each of these tabs you will find possible connections from past jobs, schools and even common connections from some of your current 1st level connections. This is a great way to expand your network quickly.

C. Join OPEN NETWORKING groups. But only if you have decided to practice

open networking. By searching and joining Linkedin OPEN NETWORKING groups as well as joining www.TopLinkedin.com you can rapidly expand your network by hundreds and even thousands of new connections per month. Remember the secret to being found on Linkedin is to expand your 1st level connections which will in turn increase your 2nd and 3rd level connections.

D. Add your Linkedin URL to email signature. Most people in business communicate with their network and via email so by simply adding your vanity URL to your email signature you can easily add relevant connections.

a. See example below…

Regards, Dennis Brown Ph: 716-491-8336 Let’s connect! www.Linkedin.com/in/askdennisbrown


http://www.linkedin.com/people/reconnect

http://www.toplinkedin.com/


Habit #3 - Share & publish content In this section I will go into detail on exactly why you need to be sharing and/or publishing content on Linkedin. But before we get started you have to understand that Linkedin is rapidly becoming a content creation and distribution giant. Content equals users, users equals traffic and traffic equals $$$. Linkedin has allowed sharing of content/articles for a long time but in 2014 they starting rolling out Linkedin Publishing to their users. This has rapidly turned Linkedin into the content creation and distribution method of choice for many business professionals who consider themselves too busy to setup and/or manage a separate blog.

A. Why share other people's content or better yet publish your own?

Here are 6 reasons why you need to be creating and publishing your own content on Linkedin.

✓ Staying top of mind is important ○ Emails, phone calls and face to face meetings only occur so often,

so publishing on Linkedin keeps you and your brand in front of your audience.

✓ It’s either you or your competitors

○ You can either be considered a relevant source of information and a part of the dialogue or not! It pays to lead the conversation because if you don’t your competitors will.

✓ Build credibility and trust

○ By posting content that is interesting to your audience on a regular basis you build trust and credibility. Business 101 says, people buy from people they know, like and trust. Publishing content is a great way to build trust, increase engagement and interact with your audience.

✓ Gain new connections along the way

○ By publishing you will expand your reach as your content is liked and shared. This increased reach and positioning inevitably will lead to more connections. It’s not uncommon for good content to be seen by thousands if not tens of thousands of users both on and off Linkedin.


HINT: By publishing content that your target market is interested in, you will in turn start connecting and dialoguing with your target market. I call them LEADS!!!

✓ Leveraging additional touch points

○ With over 340 million users worldwide Linkedin is rapidly becoming the channel of choice, particularly in the B2B market. Bottom line, if your customers are there you need to have a presence and Linkedin makes it easy and very cost effective to touch your audience.

✓ Minimum time investment, maximum reach

○ Most people that have a traditional blog realize how difficult it can be to get 250-1,000 views but on Linkedin getting 250+ views is pretty easy even without a large number of connections. Why? Because Linkedin has created a very active channel where users are searching for and consuming content at an alarming rate.

B. How to share content on Linkedin? Linkedin makes it very easy to share content. All you need to do is find article in Linkedin Pulse and click the Linkedin share button. This will allow you to share the content to your timeline, a group or directly with one of your connections.


NOTE: Sharing relevant and interesting content to groups that you belong to can be a great way to connect with new people, engage with fellow group members and position yourself as a thought leader.

If you are interested in sharing content from outside of Linkedin like blogs and other sites that contain interesting articles you can do this one of two ways.

a. The first is to look for a social sharing widget with the Linkedin logo on it

and click share. Once you click share you will need to be logged into your Linkedin account to allow the share feature to publish the article to your timeline.

b. The second is to highlight and copy (control c) the entire URL where the

article is posted and then go to your Home page of your Linkedin profile and click “Share an Update” where you can then paste (control v) the link in the update field. Pretty simple and much like sharing pictures, articles and videos on Facebook or other social media.

Tip: After the content window fills in make sure you remember to remove the URL you pasted in and add an interesting intro or question.


C. How to publish your own content on Linkedin?

The secret to getting people to write and publish content is to make it easy and Linkedin did a great job doing that. To publish an article go to your Home page where you will see an option to “Publish a post.” Click the link and the publishing editor will appear. This editor is very simple to use and much like a Wordpress editor. The results are very much what you see is what you get. This makes it very easy for the average, non techie user, to create their first article quickly and easily. So give it try!

Now that you have the basics of editing I am going to share with you 6 tips to publishing on Linkedin.

✓ Quality content matters

● The better your content is the more it will be shared, liked and viewed. Think about what your readers need and why people share content online.

NOTE: Linkedin is not liked Facebook, so if you try to post non business related photos like your day at the beach or what you ate for dinner...it will not fly on Linkedin. Keep it professional and business oriented or your contact will put you on the pay me no mind list quickly and may even remove you as a connection!

✓ Include videos and images ● Its important to break up your article with images and/or videos

whenever possible. Remember people are visual and like the old saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”


✓ Preview your content ● Always, always, always preview your work before publishing.

Double checking grammar, images and formatting before posting your content is very important for obvious reasons.

✓ Best times to post ● In my experience Monday - Thursday between 8:00 - 9:30am EST

are the best times to post. ✓ Use questions

● Questions create engagement, so 1 or 2 well placed questions can significantly enhance the performance of your post.

✓ Watch your analytics ● Linkedin gives you an easy way to track the performance of your

posts allowing you to better understand what your audience likes and dislikes. The # of views, likes and shares can easily be viewed within each post. Rumor has it more advanced analytics are on the way soon!

So by now you can see how investing 30 minutes a day/week to publish short 300-600 word article or by simply sharing other people's content can position you ahead of your competition and build trust and credibility with your target audience.


Habit #4 - Being a connector Most people on Linkedin, the internet and the world in general approach business with the attitude of “what’s in it for me?” versus “how can I help you?” In order to be a “connector” you need to change your paradigm by shifting your focus from getting to giving. So let’s first define a “connector” as someone who builds a network of high quality people with the intent and purpose of giving versus getting. Connectors are always focused on how can they help their connection with by introducing them to a trusted connection within their network.

Here’s an example… You have a relationship with a realtor that specializes in commercial real estate in your local market. You meet a local business owner that is considering expanding his business so he is considering buying another building. You then connect the business owner and the realtor in an effort to provide value for both connections. Why should I connect them? What’s in it for me? Because by providing value to others you become a valued and trusted part of another person’s network. Remember the old saying, “People buy from people they trust” so once you’re considered a trusted member of their network, the opportunity to do business with or connect with someone in their network has just increased 10 fold.


This philosophy and strategy of being a “Connector” is a powerful way to separate yourself from the crowd. Being a connector is a lot like planting a small fruit tree that may not grow to maturity or bear fruit for many years but when it does mature can pay huge dividends long into the future. If you're serious about learning how to network and be a connector I strongly suggest you read “Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirty” by the great Harvey McKay. It is my favorite book on networking and after you read it I think you will agree that he has forgotten more about how to network and develop relationships with powerful and influential people than most people ever learn in a lifetime.


Habit #5 - Engage your audience Engagement is a term that is thrown around a lot when it comes to social media and Linkedin is no different in that respect. Why? Because social media engagement is the act of getting your audience to do something in response to your content. On Linkedin, engagement usually comes in the form of Likes, Shares and Comments. One way to increase engagement is to publish and share content with your network by using thought provoking questions to increase engagement and to begin a meaningful dialogue with your audience. It’s important to note that when your audience does engage you or your content that you respond in a timely manner and in the worst case scenario at least thank them. The second way to engage your audience is to Like, Share and Comment on other people’s content. After all, if you want to get someone’s attention and build a relationship, a great way to start is by engaging in content that they have written or shared….am I right or am I right? Right! I can’t tell you how many times by simply commenting on an post from one of my 1st, 2nd or even group connections has turned into an online or in many cases and offline conversation. Here are 4 tips to increase your engagement on Linkedin.

1. Post status updates in the mornings between 8:30-9:30am Monday - Friday

2. If you post 1 status update per day you can reach up to 60% of your unique audience monthly.

3. Focus on posting content that your audience likes. Did you know that 60% of Linkedin

users are interested in industry insights and 43% are interested in new products and services.

4. Focus on adding links, images and videos to your updates and you you will see up to

200% more audience engagement.


Habit #6 - Create a Linkedin Group As of the writing of this article there are over 2 million Linkedin groups. Do you know why? Because they are an incredible source for connecting with your target audience, user engagement and industry intelligence. By creating a Linkedin group you position yourself as a thought leader for that particular topic as well as the fact that you now control the keys to the castle for communicating with the members. Most people joining a group will automatically want to connect with you, not to mention the fact that Linkedin has created tools for group owners. These tools make it very easy to communicate with and direct group members to connect, join an email list, visit your website or other.

Here’s a quick Linkedin group exercise!

1. Think of your target audience. Let’s say it’s local business owners. 2. Now search Linkedin groups for the term “business owners” and/or for large cities like

Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, etc. Then note the # of groups, the group topics and most importantly the # of members in each group.

3. Now imagine being the owner of a Linkedin group of 1,000 to 100,000 targeted users and the value of being able to communicate with all of those members on a weekly basis for FREE!


Enough said. If creating your own group isn't for you that’s fine, I am sure your competitors will greatly appreciate it. :-)


Habit #7 - Using advanced search Advanced search is one the easiest and most effective way to target your audience on Linkedin. You can search and filter by a variety of fields including title, industry, geography, # of employees, group's membership and much more depending upon if you have a free or premium account.

Once you find a contact you are interested in connecting follow the steps below.

1. Check profile to see if you have a group in common. If no group in common, join an open group that they are currently a member of.


2. Go to group and search member list by the contact's full name and then click “send message” below their name. This is a loophole that bypasses Linkedin’s policy of only being able to message connections beyond your 1st level.


Dear Reader, I want to congratulate you for getting this far. I am proud of you because most people don’t follow through, so I applaud you. YOU ROCK!!!! So now what… 1.Make sure we get connected on www.Linkedin.com/in/askdennisbrown

2. If you enjoyed the report and think you learned something, please take 1 minute to ENDORSE me for Linkedin training, Linkedin marketing, Linkedin speaking, etc.

3. If you REALLY liked what you read, please submit a RECOMMENDATION for my Linkedin Training, Consulting, Speaking business. Get a FREE copy of my Linkedin training course called Linked Academy! HOW??? Just write me a Recommendation and I will add your name in a drawing for SPECIAL BETA testers that will get access to my course before it’s release!



who · create an interesting and compelling headline. fyi your title whether it be ceo, director of...

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