Linkedin « Direct Contact

Posts Tagged 'Linkedin'

Information is Free

Beware of sales resources that charge for information on social media.

Tools like Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook are free and hardly new. There is a great deal of information about their use and value for sellers available on the Internet. Charging hundreds of dollars for seminars and using terms like…

“By this time next year, the gold rush to social media marketing will be near complete.”

… are misleading and false.

In addition, announcements like this one (eNewsletter focused on sales and social media) use sales techniques that are just plain cheesy and a turn off for many buyers. It just rubs me the wrong way and reinforces the sales stigma that I try to combat in my own training.

My Method

I freely share information to sellers, marketers or interested persons on what social media tools can do for them through this blog. My way is to share information that people may value and continue to follow. I appreciate this and their ideas/comments. Sometimes, those conversations turn into opportunities or projects – things that I do charge for, but only when it is for my direct services – not for information that is free to all.

Charging for such info flies in the face of what social media marketing is all about.

Ticket Sales and Sponsorship via Social Networks

Published March 31, 2009 Facebook , Linkedin , Marketing , Networking , Social Media , Sponsorship , Sports Marketing , Twitter Leave a Comment
Tags: Facebook, Linkedin, Networking, Social Media, Sports Marketing, Twitter

If you are in ticket sales or corporate sponsorship sales, here are some tips for marketers and sellers alike…

Facebook is a great tool for “soft” networking with friends and family. The idea behind using Facebook as a sales tool is not to use it to sell, but participate in communities, monitor activities, and leverage the PR factor of Friend networks.

Build your network:
- Friends
- Family
- Coworkers (past & present)
- Alumni
- Make it known that you sell tickets
Join local Facebook networks (your city)
Join your teams’ Facebook fan page
- Drive your network to it
- Reference it in your status updates
Join your sponsor’s Facebook pages
- Monitor their use
- Keep up to date on their activities
- Discuss their strategies with them
Keep your profile professional

The primary goal of using Twitter for sports marketing is to allow fans to get “closer” to their team and reward them with offers and real time info they cannot get elsewhere. Once your follower base grows, you can look to leverage targeted sponsorship activation.

Release unclaimed reserved game tickets offers via Twitter
- Include links to purchase them
Follow key brands, see how they use it
Follow your team and other teams Twitter feeds
Share relevant information and links with your followers
Build followers from your other networks

Linkedin’s best fit is for sponsor and corporate partner networking. There are apps to leverage here, like the ability to share documents or slide shows. Networking is all about what you can do for other people, so actively look to help out and connect your contacts. Give referrals to your contacts, and share information with them that can make a difference in their day. Don’t sell here – be informative and available.

Building and strengthen existing contact relationships
- Connect with clients (previous as well)
- Search for existing prospects/contacts
- Build credibility through Recommendations
Search out contacts, but do not sell to them
- - Build relationships, look to understand their goals and ideas
Share information with your contacts
- Give them relevant info that matters to them
- Keep them informed
- Ask how you can help them

Fans, sponsors, brands are all participating in social media communities right now. These are places you need to be representing your organization as well. The approach here is not to sell or to pitch, but to be available, involved and participatory. Building your network and strengthening your relationships is what will provide you the opportunity to sell.

3 Levels for Sales and Social Networking

Published March 23, 2009 Blogging , Branding , Entrepreneurs , Facebook , Networking , Personal Brand , Sales Tips , Social Media 10 Comments
Tags: Facebook, Linkedin, Networking, Personal Brand, Sales, Social Media, Twitter

There are 3 stages that sellers need to go through in order to use the tools of social networks to their fullest. It doesn’t matter if you are starting out, or are already on the path – social media networks are vital in sales today:

Begin with a Profile
Leverage your Presence
Work as a Hub

Begin with a Profile

There are countless people who build a profile and then let it sit… this passive approach won’t work. Just like your phone doesn’t ring, you won’t get much out of building a profile and leaving it alone. A few thoughts on profile building:

Use a good picture - pics are standard now, and not having one reads as absence – especially in sales.
Be in the Right Networks - Consider your use of Linkedin (no brainer), Facebook, Twitter… you need to be where your market already is. Do some searching around to find your spot(s).
Be Active – Update, post, use, build and change your profile; make yourself visible and interesting (and professional).
Keep it 1st Person – Avoid the 3rd person narrative of “Carson is a dedicated…”, Use ‘I’ and ‘my’.

Leverage Your Presence

Now that you have a profile, you need to actively build out your network. As I have said before, with Sales2.0, there is no prospecting – it is simply networking:

Search for and connect with all your customers on social media platforms
Search for and connect with your top prospects
Business Development: Seek new contacts by profile searching for your ideal contact, reach out with a simple message – not a pitch
Join appropriate groups to expand your network and connect with target industry professionals
Use RSS feeds to share information with your network

Work as a Hub

Once you have been actively operating on social media platforms, the next level is to operate as a hub or central node of your network. What it means to be a “hub” depends on your business and your role as a seller within it.

For a sales force rep- operating as a hub is more of a central network node – someone who is well connected, someone with information to share and is considered a source or a conduit.
For a business owner or solo entrepreneur – working as a hub means to build a core – like a blog, or a group or a specific network, a virtual place or destination for people when they are online to access what you know and share what they have.

These are the 3 main concepts behind sales and social networking – which level are you currently operating from?

Coming Soon: New LinkedIn Contact “Tags”

Published January 29, 2009 Linkedin , Networking , Productivity 2 Comments
Tags: Linkedin, Networking, Tags

Linkedin invited me to try a beta feature which allows users to group their contacts with tags.

Tags like “Colleagues”, “Friends”, “Partners” and such… and it also allows you to create and manage your own tags as well. It’s a pretty self explanatory system and one that I think improves usability.

The heavy lifting comes upfront when you starting organizing and assigning tags to your contacts. For most, this in’t too painful and can serve as some much needed housekeeping. Unless of course you are a LION, and it will take you weeks to tag your 30,000 connections – wait – no… you can simply create a tag for “People I Don’t Know” and mass assign them.

All kidding aside, I’m looking forward to this new feature and to seeing how it integrates into the rest of Linkedin’s functions.

3 Social Media Tools for B2B Sales

Published January 28, 2009 Business Development , Linkedin , Networking , Productivity , Sales Methodologies , Sales Tips , Social Media 2 Comments
Tags: Brightkite, Business Development, Linkedin, Networking, RSS, Social Media

Here are 3 great social media tools for B2B sellers:

Ok – no real need for a deep analysis here – Linkedin is a place you need to be if you are engaged in social networking for business. If you use nothing else – use this. Some tips for use:

Use your LI profile as your core – drive your network here
Get a good photo of yourself
Get some recommendations up there from both colleagues and clients
Connect with all your top prospects and current customers
Don’t “sell” through your profile

If you concentrate on building a powerful network (that means your contacts are active and that they know you), and focus on positioning yourself as someone who brings value to their network and who provides expertise in their field – buyers will seek you out. At the same time, you are always available and reaching out…

BrightKite

Brightkite allows you to “check in” or post your position on a map so your network (or Sales Manager!) will be able to see where you are at any given moment. If a contact can see that you are out on the road – they may reach out to you to leverage your proximity. If your network is using Brightkite, you will be able to see what they are up to as well on any given day which can allow you to meet up. All this is done via your handheld/mobile device. Brightkite increases and promotes your visibility, it helps people find you if they want/need to. Who knows who may be at the same baseball game, or conference, or stuck in traffic…

You can also benefit from using Brightkite with internal resources as well.

RSS

Nothing could be easier and bring more value to your network than RSS feeds. What is RSS? Click here to see a brief explanation of what RSS is and does.

Get yourself a Reader (I use Google) and start subscribing to feeds – things that your network will care about. Things like their industry or your industry, things about their company or your company, things that are important to you in your role. Beyond providing some great background and building your knowledge – you can share this info with your network. Don’t sell… provide something that your network will care about – give them something they can actually use.

You can further leverage your RSS feeds by using other tools like Twitter, Facebook or Delicious to promote and share info with your network. No matter what the platform is – keep finding interesting, informative and valuable information to push out.

In Closing…

In the world of Sales 2.0 there is no “Prospecting” or “Following Up” – it is simply networking. In the Sales 1.0 world there was your “network” – a group of people who gave you tips and referrals and there was your “prospects/customers” – the group of people you sold to and who bought from you. It doesn’t work like that anymore…

Now – there is just 1 network. Some are people who will buy from you, some never will. Some will refer you business, others will receive your referrals. Some are your friends and family. Some are on multiple platforms (like Facebook or Twitter). Some are colleagues and some are clients.

3 Survival Strategies for Change

Published January 13, 2009 Business Tips , Linkedin , Networking 1 Comment
Tags: Economy, Linkedin, Networ, Profiles

In the current economy, it is important to be ready for change.

People want to find a clear answer, an idea to build a strategy on – they want a path. For the time being, change and uncertainty are the new normal. So when things are unpredictable, now is a good time to:

Network: both in the workplace and externally as well; build some new connections; expand what you can see
Update: your profiles… linkedin and similar places; increase your visibility/how you are seen
Prioritize: list your current projects… evaluate and rank them; focus on what is under your control

Network

How well do you know your contacts? Consider a review of your connections in order to maintain a strong network. If there are people you don’t know very well, take the time to better understand them, or consider purging them entirely. It’s a good time to clean house and build out strong.

Update

Your profile represents you online so take some time to review and update it. I think it’s best to write in the first person (use “I” instead of “Carson”) when talking about yourself. Updating your profile will drive attention and increase your visibility. Have a look at what other contacts/people are doing and look to leverage tools and apps to make the most of your presence.

Prioritize

The main idea is to evaluate what you are currently doing and look for easier/better ways of getting things done. This will probably also indicate some things that just shouldn’t be a priority right now, so delegate them or put them on the shelf for now.

How to Make Your Market Care About You

Published January 5, 2009 Blogging , Business Tips , Google , Marketing , Sales Methodologies , Sales Tips , Social Media Leave a Comment
Tags: Delicious, Google, Linkedin, Marketing, Prospecting, Sales, Strategy, Twitter

When considering your marketing and sales strategy, ask your yourself a question – why should your market care about you?

People buy when they have a need. Outside of those who buy quickly, Sellers always seem to be concerned with 2 things:

Follow up until they do buy
Drive them to your website

While these are actually good ideas, most times they are not done very well. Let’s break it down…

Turn Prospecting into Sharing

Most times that a seller follows up, they are basically saying, “Are you ready to buy yet?“. Endless calls and emails are sent with very little or no results. All this does is continue to flood your market with annoying and unwanted messages. The main goal in following up with any prospect is to offer them something they value – and the most sensible thing to offer them is information.

How? Use some simple tools like Google Alerts to search for articles and information that your market can benefit from. Send them links, but don’t don’t sell to them – just share information. This strategy can work very well for individual sales people to connect with their prospects. BTW – your prospects are part of your network too… so treat them like it. Give them referrals, helpful information and things they can use.

Your Website – Why Should They Care?

For a larger, organizational approach strategy – give your market a place to go for information. Consider again – unless someone had an immediate need to buy, why else would they ever visit your website?

Your website can be a place for people to learn and share information. By building this idea at the core of what your website is, you will be positioning yourself as a thought leader, a resource, an organization of value. By using blogs (like this one on WordPress), and creating opportunities for your market (with tools like Twitter, Delicious, Groups on Linkedin…) to learn more about your industry and current topics, you are giving them something they can really use and that is what will bring them back. What you are really doing here is positioning your brand into the conversation that is already going on – and that is a very valuable way to build engagement and awareness.

	Carson McKee on Networking and Sales
	Nigel Edelshain on Networking and Sales
	Carson McKee on NHL Teams on Facebook: FanPage…
	M. DiLorenzo on NHL Teams on Facebook: FanPage…
	Fiona on NHL Teams on Facebook: FanPage…

Direct Contact

Posts Tagged 'Linkedin'

Coming Soon: New LinkedIn Contact “Tags”

3 Survival Strategies for Change

Topics

Recent Comments

Archives

Blogroll