LinkedIn Is All About… [What?]
LinkedIn Is All About… [What?]
The large number of LinkedIn connection requests coming to me from people who promise to generate leads for me suggests that they think LinkedIn is all about leads. But from my perspective, most business owners already have sufficient leads. What they may lack is sufficient customers.
The problem, converting leads to into buyers, is actually one LinkedIn is well positioned to solve. That’s because LinkedIn is all about relationships.
LinkedIn Is All About RELATIONSHIPS
I can hear the pushback now. “What?! I have thousands of connections on LinkedIn but very few relationships.”
I grant that is true for most of us. But the infrastructure and the tools available through LinkedIn can be used to move someone along from awareness to a sense of camaraderie – and perhaps eventually toward an interest in our services or products. Nothing happens without your commitment to make it so, however. Cultivating relationships requires an investment of your time and attention. It doesn’t happen through automatic canned messages and responses.
Cultivating Relationships
Starting out on the right foot
It’s hard to cultivate a relationship with someone to whom you haven’t yet bothered to say hello. If you send me a robo connection request (i.e. a request without personalization), how interested will I be in getting to know you? I may accept your connection request merely because your profile doesn’t alarm me and your connections will expand my network, but I’m not likely to spend time interacting with you.
Going the other way, if I ask you to connect with me but fail to follow up with any message after you accept, it’s hard to imagine that I’ve built the foundation for friendship. You should greet your new connections authentically and invite a response by asking a question.
Is it essential that we exchange niceties with each connection? No. Only with the people who really interest us — the people whose profile, job title, or something else about them catches our eye and resonates with us. Forming relationships should be a joyous endeavor, not drudgery.
Don’t sell
Selling in our connection invitation or right after we connect is not a winning proposition. There is no bigger turnoff than pushy sales talk without a prior relationship. Never assume that because someone has accepted your invitation to connect that they’ve agreed to be sold to. Sales and referrals flow when you are top of mind, you have demonstrated value over time, and your connection either experiences a problem that is perfect for you to solve or they know someone who they think needs what you are offering.
Relation-building strategies
- Engage online. When commenting on someone’s posts, add real value to the person whose post you are commenting on, to others reading it, and to yourself. Note that neither a LIKE alone nor a comment under 5 words are considered by the LinkedIn algorithm to be “engagement.”
- In your own posts, focus on adding value. Will your post add value to others and yourself?
- Endorse skills. On your connection’s profile, identify three skills that you can vouch for and endorse them for those skills. Why not more? This is an attention-getting strategy you may want to use several times.
- Use the “tag” function when you mention a person’s name online. They receive an email message from LinkedIn that they have been mentioned in a post. This assures that they will notice your kind mention of them and provides an opportunity for them to respond if they choose to do so.
- Use LinkedIn’s messaging function to communicate with people (but only if they are active daily on the LI platform). When you use LinkedIn for sending a note to an individual, your message features your LinkedIn headshot, an important part of your brand.
- Send an article via LinkedIn message to a person likely to appreciate it. This shows that you are thinking of them and that you’re paying attention to the kinds of content they may find valuable. Don’t send the article to several people adding their names to the same message. When you do that, you’ve created a group and everyone who responds will automatically be communicating to everyone in the group.
- Be helpful because it’s the right thing to do, not because you expect quid pro quo. Eventually all the positivity you’re sending into the world will find its way back to you.
LinkedIn is all about relationships. Remember that relationships emerge through your investment of time and attention. Use LinkedIn’s functionality and these strategies to effectively engage, add value, grow your sphere of influence – and build relationships.
To your success!
Named one of six top branding experts in 2022 by The American Reporter, over the past ten years, I’ve helped countless C-level clients use LinkedIn to frame conversations, impress customers, and introduce themselves before their first conversation takes place. If you are a C-suite executive or senior leader, I can make this easy for you. Based on my knowledge of how LinkedIn works and how people respond to what they see there, I can ensure everything is ready and your profile conveys exactly the message and impression you’re aiming for. Let me help you attract the talent you want to hire, increase your visibility and influence, and steer your career.
Contact me through my website https://carolkaemmerer.com for:
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My award-winning book, LinkedIn for the Savv
y Executive-2nd Edition received BookAuthority’s “Best LinkedIn Books
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Other Articles by Carol Kaemmerer
What Can a Sales Conversation Teach You About How to Write Your LinkedIn ABOUT Section?
Strategic Engagement on LinkedIn: How to Become Top of Mind for Right-for-You Opportunities
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What is a Personal Branding Expert? …And Do You Need One?
7 Ways to Elevate Your Online Brand So You Can Love Your LinkedIn Profile
What is a Personal Brand – And How Can You Take Charge of Yours?
Twelve Changes You Can Make in About an Hour to Improve Your LinkedIn Profile
Why Is My LinkedIn Profile Getting So Few Views?
How Can LinkedIn Be Part of Your Company’s Strategy for Responding to the Great Resignation?
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Comfortable in Your Job? Uncomfortable Life Lessons to Safeguard Your Career
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Why Are You Playing Small on LinkedIn?
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Don’t Be Hooked Through a Big Phish: Recognize and Avoid Phishing Scams on LinkedIn:
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Internationally recognized executive branding expert, speaker and author of the award-winning book LinkedIn for the Savvy Executive, Carol Kaemmerer creates powerful brand messaging for senior executives and their companies to increase their visibility, influence, and ability to steer their future.
A member of National Speakers Association and certified as a Virtual Presenter, Carol is also an Advisor to the C-Suite Network.
A member of National Speakers Association and certified as a Virtual Presenter, Carol is also an Advisor to the C-Suite Network.
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