Tag: Networking

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LinkedIn LinkedIn Engagement LinkedIn Network LinkedIn Profile

LinkedIn for College Students & Recent Grads

LinkedIn for College Students

I produced 4 YouTube videos for college students and recent grads.

In this series I discuss the importance of using LinkedIn in their college and career journey.

I then gave lots of best practices related to building a LinkedIn Profile, a relevant and meaningful LinkedIn Network, and building their brand through LinkedIn engagement.

Here are the 4 videos in this series. Please share this with any college students you know who could benefit from these ideas.

Please comment your questions on any of these videos and I will answer all of the questions I receive.

Teddy

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LinkedIn

Ridiculous LinkedIn Invite Messages

teddy Burriss - Foolish LinkedIn Invite messages

I will keep adding to this list as I discover other ridiculous LinkedIn Invite notes:
(I did not correct the Grammar and spelling issues.)
(Share the text you have gotten and if it is ridiculous enough I’ll add to this list & attribute you.)

  • Hey Teddy Burriss, I like your profile. Let’s connect!
  • Teddy and Obi-Wan Kenobi walk into a bar…
  • Noticed that we’ve got some mutual connections, so I thought it’d make perfect sense for us to connect! Up to you though🙂
  • I’m always looking to grow my network and thought it’d be great to connect if you’re open to it?
  • It would be a pleasure to connect with an expert from Care Services Industry. (I’m not in the Care Services Industry)
  • I’m focusing on growing my network with fellow Michigan alumni. (I’m a MD Terp)
  • I came across your profile while searching for Speech Therapists who have experience working with pediatric patients in the North East Chicago area. (Im not a speech therapist or in the North East Chicago area)
  • I’m always looking to grow my network of professionals in the Tech Industry and I see that we have some mutual connections as well. (we have 1 shared connection and I am not in the Tech Industry)
  • Do you currently use any packaging materials when you ship out your product? (I am not a shipper)
  • Hi Teddy, I wanted to connect with you because we are both working with real estate investment in California. (I am not in the real estate industry, let alone in California.)
  • Hey, I’d like to connect if you have a “digital” problem we might help resolve. (So you will connect only if I become a client?)
  • After a quick scan of your profile, it seems you may be the type of person I would introduce myself to at a networking event! (yet you never replied to my message back to you)
  • Hey Teddy – this is shot in the dark.
  • Hey Teddy, let’s connect! Have a quick question for you.
  • Hi Teddy, I noticed we’re both in NYC and know some of the same people. (I’m in NC)
  • On Behalf of IPSOS, We are inviting professional like you to join in the paid Online Surveys on topic of Stationary/Office related purchase you will earn rewards every time you participate in survey maximum up to $300. Share your number you are interested. (really?)
  • I really wanted to connect. As such, I’ve decided not to send you the generic LinkedIn invite! I look forward to making your acquaintance. (and nothing more)
  • Hi Teddy, I just seen you from LinkedIn suggestion and thought that it would be worth to connect.
  • Your profile took my interest, it’s really impressive.
  • “You look like a friend of mine, but he is no longer with us. I feel familiar with you. I hope we can have a good communication”
Categories
LinkedIn LinkedIn Network Sales Navigator

Organic vs Influenced Referrals

We all want referrals.

We spent countless hours networking in real life in the hopes more people will get to know us and what we do and will refer us to others.

We invest time on social networking, sharing, and engaging on LinkedIn with the same hope, someone will see us and our content and refer us to others.

Doing these steps routinely can create what I call organic referrals.
However, organic referrals alone are never enough.

However, we need to execute another process – Creating Influenced referrals.

Influenced referrals are purposefully asking the influencers of our target audience to introduce us for a conversation.

We can’t create influenced referrals unless we are building our networks with both our target audience and their influencers.

This takes time and a constant set of activities of networking, engaging, and inviting these influencers into conversations.

These conversations must be focused on the influencers. Ask questions, listen, and learn about them, their roles, experiences, and anything else they are willing to share in order for us to get to know them better.

We also must be willing to help these influencers. Helping them in different ways is one of the tactics that create relationships with people who may be willing to help you. Maybe with a referral.

As you get to know these influencers and they get to know you more, in time you’ll uncover the opportunity to talk with these influencers and ask them if they could help you. You must ask if they are willing to do so.

Their positive reply is a statement not only to you but to them as well that they will help you, where relevant, appropriate and possible,  by introducing you to the person you want to get into a conversation with.

Once someone introduces you to your target audience it’s important that you return to the influencer and thank them for the introduction.

Organic referrals are truly fabulous things.

Influenced referrals are also fabulous things. And, you are more in control of the frequency and the results.

How often are you seeking influenced referrals?

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LinkedIn

Basic LinkedIn Prospecting Processes – 2020

Purchased Deposit Photos

Prospecting on LinkedIn is the process of finding the right LinkedIn Members to consider moving to LinkedIn Connections and then into conversations relevant to your business or career goals.

Prospecting is not just for salespeople. There are lots of different roles in all industries where prospecting could be beneficial. Possibly for future clients, employees, business partners, resources, mentors, friends from the past, and peers to learn from.

Basic LinkedIn Prospecting is a set of practices I use to grow my LinkedIn Network and build some level of a professional relationship with my growing LinkedIn Network. These basic prospecting tasks can be used by any LinkedIn Member focused on growing their business or achieving their career goals.

Here are the six primary steps you should consider when doing Basic LinkedIn Prospecting:

Step 1 – Before starting to prospect on LinkedIn, I recommend you make sure your LinkedIn Profile is written well, telling the viewer who you are today and what you do in your role. A clear LinkedIn profile can help the people you are prospecting for to be more informed of your relevance to them and your business.

Step 2 – Additionally, building a strong LinkedIn Network with people you know, can help you discover even more people you may want to know.  This is synonymous with the 6 Degrees from Kevin Bacon story. However, it works even better. The more 1st level connections you have, the more 2nd level LinkedIn Members you can get to. Furthermore, the more relevant 2nd level LinkedIn Members you turn into 1st level connections, the more 3rd level LinkedIn Members become 2nd level LinkedIn Members. This amplifies the ability for you to connect with even more relevant LinkedIn Members.  I recommend consistently working to connect with LinkedIn Members you know. Use your ‘Rolodex’ or client list, peers, friends, neighbors, association membership lists, etc to determine who these people are.

Step 3 – Research companies relevant to your prospecting and business goals. Begin building a list of the companies, and even individuals that you need/wish to connect with. This list of companies and individuals should be a living list. You’ll remove names from the list as you disqualify them and add new names to the list as you discover new companies and individuals relevant to your business goals. You may have multiple lists based on different business and/or career goals.

Step 4 – Find relationships between your existing LinkedIn connections and the companies / LinkedIn members you want to connect with. Where possible, reach out to people you know and ask them to introduce you to the right people at your target companies, or with specific LinkedIn Members you wish to get into a conversation with and ultimately connect with on LinkedIn. I recommend asking for these introductions via either email or telephone, not via LinkedIn message.

Step 5 – Create a consistent LinkedIn Engagement routine. With a Strong LinkedIn profile and a growing list of LinkedIn Connections, engaging on LinkedIn will significantly increase the opportunity of being seen, being trusted & respected, and possibly contacted for business/career conversations.

Step 6 – Continue researching, connecting, and engaging on LinkedIn. Find opportunities to help your LinkedIn connections and to get into relevant and mutually beneficial conversations with them.

Practicing these Basic LinkedIn Prospecting tactics can help you to become more efficient with the individual activities and to be able to grow your LinkedIn Network focused on your goals.

Categories
LinkedIn

How much time does it take?

Purchased Deposit Photos

I get asked often, “How much time should someone spend on LinkedIn?” I don’t want to answer this question because it’s not focused on a goal.

I would prefer to answer this question, “How much time should someone put into using LinkedIn in order to create real business results?”

Sometimes I answer the question this way, “Consider reinvesting 10-15 minutes every day using LinkedIn to build your presence, your network, and your reputation. Look at the other related tasks you’re doing today that don’t create the greatest results and invest that time into using LinkedIn instead.” (Example – extended cold calling)

This is hard for people to do because they are comfortable with those other tactics, even if they are not creating real results.

This is hard for people to do because they are not sure yet of the right way to use LinkedIn. They have not experimented enough or been taught the proper use of LinkedIn.

The best answer is this, “I strongly recommend LinkedIn Members who want to create real business value need to integrate the use of LinkedIn into other relevant business processes.” (Example – I never cold call without first doing research on LinkedIn.)

There are lots of actions you can do using LinkedIn. Which ones are right for you is directly influenced by your goals. Here are a few ideas:

  • If you are recruiter you may need to invest more time doing research on candidate Profiles and less time on 1:1 engagement and content sharing.
  • If you work a captive book of business (i.e not hunting for new clients), you’re more likely going to spend time sharing and engaging on relevant content and less time using the LinkedIn Search tools.
  • If you are an inside salesperson focused on current clients, you may spend more time on 1:1 engagement and content sharing than you would on market/industry researching.
  • If you are in marketing you’re likely going to spend more time researching companies, relevant content and influencers and less time searching for people or engaging on content.

These are just a few of the diverse ways different people in different roles could be using LinkedIn.

Look at some of the different functions available within LinkedIn:

  • Refining/updating your LinkedIn Profile.
  • Commenting on and/or Liking Content.
  • Sending new LinkedIn Invites.
  • Managing LinkedIn Invites.
  • 1:1 messaging using text, images, documents, audio, and video, etc.
  • Sharing and engaging on content in LinkedIn Groups.
  • Research of LinkedIn Companies and Content.
  • Reading relevant and useful content.
  • Researching other LinkedIn Members
  • Analyzing your LinkedIn Insights (Profile views, Content activity,
  • Managing LinkedIn Notifications
  • Prospecting through LinkedIn Search
  • Sharing content in your LinkedIn Company Page
  • etc, etc, etc

I sometimes say LinkedIn is like a swiss army knife. Knowing what all the different blades are, helps you to determine which one to use when, and/or at all.

You don’t need to do everything all the time. You use specific areas of LinkedIn based on the specific task and/or goal.

Back to how much time should you spend using LinkedIn, and doing what?

Initially, I recommend investing a minimum of 15 minutes a day reviewing the different ‘knives’ and deciding what steps within LinkedIn could create the greatest initial value for you in your role. Then once you know how to use the tools, align your use of LinkedIn with other business processes while you continue to invest 15 minutes a day learning more about the tool and how you could again, integrate another LinkedIn activity into another business process.

Fact – if you don’t find a way to integrate the use of LinkedIn into other business processes, you will never completely adopt LinkedIn as a business tool in your role.

No one is truly successful using LinkedIn as a ‘stand-alone’ business tool