Unfortunately, it doesn’t come with a ‘User Handbook’ full of ideas on how to get the most value you can from being a part of it.

Here are some quick and easy ways can get more out of being on LinkedIn.

Drop Your Title!

For example, I used to use my title “CCO”. Now, my profile ‘title’ reads: “Helping small business owners attract clients and grow revenues”.

This allows you to inform people how you can help them rather than what you are — which may be lost on them, anyway.

Key Idea

Show your tagline instead of your title

Integrate with Twitter

The new Twitter integration functionality allows you to tweet a message and have it display in your status . . . automatically!.

You can edit your settings to show “ALL” your Tweets or, selective Tweets which you can set up with the hashtag (#) function on Twitter. Very cool!

Key Idea

Use the Twitter integration function on your LinkedIn profile.

Leverage Your Group Memberships

I’ve been writing a monthly article for The National Networker for about two years helping others leverage their marketing and networking to build relationships and revenues. After an article is published, my publisher, Adam Kovitz suggested I post it as a “news article” to the various groups that I belong to on LinkedIn. You can do the same thing with any blog post you write just as easily.

This one simple activity can drive tons of traffic to your blog!

In time, getting people to know of you (brand awareness), like you (brand preference) and trust you (brand value) because they’ve come to appreciate the value in your advice is . . . priceless!

Key Idea

Join the LinkedIn groups where your blog posts or articles will be relevant and post your “news articles” whenever you can.

Join The Conversations

LinkedIn has ‘Discussions’. Are you starting them? Are you commenting on them? If not, you’re missing a huge opportunity to leverage your membership and the value LinkedIn holds for you.

Contributing to LinkedIn Discussions is a great way to position yourself as an authority and showcase your expertise.

Always provide a link to a relevant page on your blog or landing page on your website. For example, if you comment on how to ‘generate referrals’, you should create a landing page where a Special Report on ‘Referrals’ can be downloaded. Remember, you’re offering relevant information in a meaningful context. So don’t just say, “Hey, I’m here!”. Offer value and . . . an easy way to get it!

Key Idea

Participate in the discussions on any LinkedIn group where your ideal clients are likely to be found and post questions to stimulate some discussions of your own.

Respond To Questions

Questions allow you to demonstrate your expertise and build up the “know / Like / Trust” factor you know is so important to your marketing success.

Both the questions you answer for others (and, ask) will be seen by visitors to your profile. Often, what you have to say may be more interesting than anything else a visitor will notice on your profile page.

Key Idea

Seek out questions posed by others on topics you can answer. Use an RSS feed coupled to your Google Reader to show you new questions as they appear and post your answers to your profile as well.

Want To Build Revenues With Social Media?

Check out our Social Media Pro Study Group!

Related posts:

1. Are You Naughty or Nice?
2. Good-bye Old Friend . . . Say Hello To My Social Network!
3. Getting Yourself Noticed Online

Elevator Ptches

If you aren’t familiar with the concept, it’s based upon the 10 - 15 seconds that begins with the time you step into an elevator and the time you step out of one.  Maybe a floor or two. Inside the elevator someone asks, “What do you do?”.

Having a prepared ‘pitch’ or commercial response at the ready can turn such a moment-of-truth with a truly qualified prospect for your services . . . into a highly productive one.

Andy argues that these chance encounters, while prevalent in daily business, have deteriorated into a social convention that is often more polite than productive.  He’s got a good point. Listen to him directly:

Why Elevator Pitches May Not Really Work

If you’re honest about it, do they work for you?  Or, are they merely a social convention that prevents sincere connections from taking place between two people in business?

Lopata contends that delivering a carefully crafted ‘commercial’ has become, for many businesspeople, the sole goal of a ‘new encounter’ rather than using it as the starting point for a meaningful conversation with a stranger.  I tend to agree.

What Does Work?

In a word, ‘Listening‘ –– focusing more on what the other person is sharing with you than on what you say in response to their question: “What do you do?”.

POINT:

It’s only slightly more difficult to listen.  But it’s a lot more powerful.  And, given that it’s a common complaint about people, being a good listener may be better than being a good pitcher!

Related posts:

1. Going Beyond The Elevator Pitch
2. 30 Second Commercial? Forget it!
3. A Beautiful Story Without Any Words

Making your point.

A single, focused, right-on-the money point.

Getting a response.  That’s WHY you create a message, right?

I doubt you can do it much more elegantly and effectively than this.

In fact, I ‘triple-dog’ dare you to NOT be affected by this beautiful commercial:

POINT:

HOW you communicate your message is a key part of WHAT you communicate.

Related posts:

1. Are Elevator Pitches . . . Dead?
2. 30 Second Commercial? Forget it!
3. What’s YOUR Point?

Which outcome — success or failure — is more likely for you? It reflects how you handle six key aspects of your business:

1. Finances:
   Management of money — from income to payout is very important
2. Technology:
   Relying on outdated or inadequate technology is like running in lead boots
3. Leadership:
   Every firm needs a vision and a CEO who, like Moses, can lead the troops toward that ‘Promised Land’
4. Employee Management:
   The difference between your people and your profits is their performance . . . think about it and invest in their skills training
5. Experience Management:
   What separates you from any other firm is the ‘experience’ prospects have with you.  Make yours the BEST available!
   And finally . . .
6. Marketing:
   Identify, attract, convert and retain relationships with people who want what you do or . . . you’ll be in BIG trouble!

MARKETING is what makes all the other functions relevant and your business successful.

Without cash flowing into your business or practice, it doesn’t really matter if:

• you’re using QuickBooks or not — there won’t be anything to put through it
• your computers, smartphones, website, autoresponders, etc. are working — no one will notice
• you have a vision, mission, strategic and operational plan . . . you’ll never get to carry them out
• your staff can perform effectively in the positions you’ve created for them in your business — they’ll have ‘no work’
• you’re ready to deliver a great experience or not — no one will know about you nor will they ever get to do so!

It really starts with your marketing.  EVERYTHING starts with your marketing, doesn’t it?

Are you honoring this truth by the amount of time, energy and resources you’re putting into marketing your business or practice relative to all the other ways you can invest your time, money and energies?

Should you be making any changes in this area?  Would a marketing coach or advisor help you make better decisions and experience better results?

POINT:

Know your priorities.  In business, it’s marketing.  Marketing makes everything else possible.  Even if it doesn’t, you’ll be better able to afford to fix your technology, people, and operating systems than if you don’t!

Fail to do your marketing and you know what will hit the oscillating aerator machine faster than you’ll probably like!

Related posts:

1. Marketing Seminar with E-Myth Worldwide in California
2. “Do I know you? No, Seriously . . . do I know you?”
3. The Power of Clarity

It’s also a stage direction that a playwright uses to guide or direct an actor as they ‘enter’ a scene — e.g. “from stage left, enter laughing . . . ”

Entering The Play Going On Inside Your Prospect’s Head

Whether you enter laughing, crying, or anything else . . . your marketing messages will be more effective . . . more likely to attract the interest of qualified prospects . . . more likely to generate qualified responses to you . . . if you enter the conversation that’s already going on in the head of your prospect.

Your Prospect’s World Doesn’t (Naturally) Include You

I’m not saying that it can’t.  Or, won’t.  Just that it doesn’t normally include thoughts about you and your products and services.

The conversation going on in a prospect’s head, by the way, is happening whether you exist or not.

To quote the famous Miss Piggy of The Muppets fame, “Pardon Monsieur . . . it’s NOT about you.  It’s ALL about . . . Moi!”

Prospects Are Self-Centered

Prospects are like Miss Piggy.  They are centered on themselves.  It’s OK. It’s natural.  It’s normal.  It’s also something that, if you fail to recognize, accept and act upon accordingly . . . will cost you dearly.  How?  In lost revenues.  In revenues your more attentive competitors will be only to happy to collect . . . at your expense.

Do I have your interest, now?

POINT:

Messages . . . starting with your headline, amplified in your copy and concluding with your offer . . . must address the challenges, frustrations and PAIN your prospects know personally, intimately and specifically.

Do that and your messages will be more attractive, compelling and response-able.

Related posts:

1. The Power of Clarity
2. Packaging — What Prospects Want
3. Are You Talking TO Me?

One of the many ways to do that is to create quality content and post it on the internet.

Video content is increasingly popular. And, various video hosting services have sprung up to support you in making your video content readily available.

The best known site is Google’s YouTube service. But there are others. One, which I’ve personally experienced (and, none too pleasant an experience it was, I assure you!) is Vimeo.

In my ‘listening post’, I get an alert when certain terms are being cited on blogs. “Vimeo” is one of them. (I have my reasons!)

Why am I telling you all this? Simple. To share three (3) lessons that will ‘teach’ you how this social media stuff really works better than anything less ‘real world’ ever would.

Lesson #1: You Can’t Hide On The Internet

This is true if you’re good. But, it’s especially true if you’re bad. As in ‘bad customer experience’. Why? People talk. And the mechanisms available — online — to do their ‘talking’ is tremendous.

Check it out for yourself: http://boagworld.com/reviews/vimeo and you’ll see an example of the kind of ‘chatter’ that is waiting for any firm — even yours and mine — if we give people a good reason to want to vent.

Lesson #2: Do NOT P ____ People Off!

In the upper left panel of the above blog, note the number of ‘RE-Tweets’ about this page. This post just went up and in less than a day there are already over 400 re-tweets!!

Now consider this . . . the average social media savvy person has a network online of their contacts. People who are facile with social media are probably pretty well connected. Some people have ‘followers’ that number into the 1,000’s of people.

In just ONE day, this rather toxic post has already been broadcast (retweeted) to a very, very significant number of people.  Probably a couple hundred thousand when you consider these socially connected types each have a network themselves! And, if the source is credible, they tend to retweet the content they receive over and over and over again. Scary, isn’t it?

Lesson #3: If You Listen, You’ll Find Stuff You Can Use

In my listening post, I spotted another related item . . . http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2357254,00.asp. Seems Vimeo has a little explaining to do about how it’s doing it’s own business –– in a courtroom!

Oh, it’s a little thing, really — copyright infringements being alleged by EMI — the music industry watchdog for this kind of questionable behavior!

Copyright infringement. Interesting. Because people are claiming Vimeo’s telling them what they can or can’t publish . . . and EMI claims Vimeo is just as culpable in the way Vimeo’s handling their own affairs. Think that’s going to engender ‘goodwill’ from the Vimeo user community?  I’d say the jury is still out on that one!

Question:

Let’s suppose . . . you are the chief counsel for EMI. Would knowing about the kind of comments being made online about the firm you’re trying to build a case against be helpful to you? Would it be hurtful to Vimeo? How would you use this kind of information in court? I don’t have the answers. But they’re certainly worth noting, aren’t they?

Look, Vimeo is not a villanous firm. Ok, maybe some appear to argue they’re eccentric and artsy and all. And, yes . . . they appear to be capricious and arbitrary in how they choose to recognize and respond to violations of their ‘terms and conditions’ clause.

But here’s the lesson I want YOU to get . . . social media has made the masses connected . . . in a way we’ve never seen before!

The media that connects all those minds is a superhighway of thoughts that can either build your brand up or . . . tear it down. I say, ‘either’ because, frankly, there’s really nothing in-between. It’s all or nothing.

Now, do you see why it is so important to be listening? And, once you are . . . to respond in a timely and effective manner!

Personally, I’d be giving “thanks” to Vimeo for providing you with a ‘real world’ example of the power of social media on a business. It’s not always a ‘good’ example that teaches us so well. But, what social media is doing to Vimeo is certainly a ‘powerful’ example, isn’t it?

And please remember this — to make social media work FOR you, you must know what people are saying ABOUT you (as well as putting out your own story).

Which is an excellent segue into what we’re going to be learning about in Session #3 . . . on BLOGGING!

Next session . . . session #3 . . . “Blogging” . . . is an excellent way to make sure _YOU_ control the story about you and what you deem to be important to the people — friends and foes alike — in 2010.

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When Richard Branson, arguably one of the most successful entrepreneurs alive and Seth Godin, one of the most prolific thought-leaders on marketing get together, under the auspices of American Express . . . it has to be good.

It is:

The Point:

LISTENING . . . to your customer (or, client or patient or prospect) is essential to your success.

Related posts:

1. “But Momma, WHY?”
2. Social Media . . . Brave New World?
3. Closing The Performance / Expectation Gap

What’s that mean? Good question.

It means using online social media sites to post content so people can find your content and, as a result, find you, too!

Here’s a great example of this:

Dan Zarrella, a noted expert on social media is the author of this extremely good book on social media.

But my point, for this post at least, is that he’s practicing the principle of getting ‘out there’ by posting his content (in this case, video on YouTube) so you can connect with him.

Get Dan’s book. It’s awesome.

More important, get the power of this practice . . . optimizing brand assets on the internet.

It’s good for your brand awareness and . . . your bank account.

ONE MORE EXAMPLE . . .

Here’s one of the ‘related videos’ you’ll be able to view after Dan’s video.

Notice that it’s not likely to be confused with a ‘Hollywood’ production in any way.  But it’s acceptable.  It’s also effective.

Question:
Can you see yourself doing something similar to this video or Dan’s?  Really!  And what would that do for you?  ’-)

Related posts:

1. Social Media and Intelligence Gathering
2. Social Media . . . Brave New World?
3. Are You Naughty or Nice?

Check out this insightful (and, brief!) video from Marcel Lebrun, CEO of Radian6 — a cutting edge social media company:

Social media is changing the very foundations on which business is conducted.

The way you communicate and interact is changing how you and your world interact. As a result, social media is arguably the biggest change in business communication since the introduction of mass media when ‘Mad Men’ become the leaders. Now, those leaders are you and me. How cool is that!

Related posts:

1. Social Media and Intelligence Gathering
2. The Social Media Marketing Book
3. It’s a Mad, Mad World!

Wonder no more. Thanks to an innovative new online service: PeopleMaps.

This new online service enables you to find not only who knows someone you want to know but, with the more feature-rich, paid version you can actually produce a ‘connection path’ that shows you, visually, you how to best leverage your network connections to reach the person you want using the most potent and closest relationships you have in common.

Rather neat, I believe. You will, too. Check it out!

Related posts:

1. The Importance of TRUST
2. Good-bye Old Friend . . . Say Hello To My Social Network!
3. Are Elevator Pitches . . . Dead?