I’ve heard it all. Social media is the greatest evolution in marketing to its the biggest waste of time and money. I agree with both. Its not the tool itself but how it is used.

If I had Tiger Woods’ golf clubs I would still suffer the same severe handicap. I do have a Ken Griffey Jr. autographed Louisville Slugger but I’m not likely to do more than stir air if I faced even your average major league pitcher. Its not about the bat or the club; its about the swing.

Hitters in baseball have batting coaches and even Tiger has a swing coach. Today we’re going to take a look at some basics to craft your social media swing.

Club Selection
Each hole that a golfer plays consists of weighing different factors to determine which club gives him the most likely chance to succeed. On a par 5 the Driver is likely to come out of the bag first. On shorter holes its maybe a Wood or an Iron.

In social media your club selection includes things such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, You Tube, Flickr, Blogs, Websites, Landing Pages, Digg, Stumble Upon, 4 Square, PR Web, and the list goes on and on. You just need to choose the right club that will help you best put the ball in the cup.

Unless a golfer hits a hole in one each hole is likely to involve multiple club selections. The same is true for social media. When you craft your strategy you should be able to determine which of your social media clubs can help you achieve your goals.

The Right Swing
I normally hit my pitching wedge about 120 yards with a full swing. If I’m only 90 yards out I’m going to go a little easier on the swing. If I need to quickly get over a tree I’m going to play the ball towards the back of my stance. I vary my social media content in the same way, dependent upon the shot or response I’m looking to craft.

You really have a tremendous number of opportunities to craft content. Some of your options include Tweets, Wall Posts, Notes, Events, News Articles, Discussion Posts, Blog Posts, Video, Podcasts, Photos, Press Releases, Apps, and more. In golf the swing is the most important piece and in social media its understanding your communication options and crafting content that allows you to share value.

Ratings and Attendance
Professional athletes earn a lot of money for the skills they have mastered because fans buy tickets or the products they endorse. Look at the attendance differences at PGA events over the last 10 years when Tiger woods entered a tournament verses when he didn’t play in an event. There was a definite difference in perceived value.

In social media people will engage with you or your brand if they perceive value. Your job is to understand the value that your prospects are looking for. It could be white papers, applications, tools, or information presented in articles or blog posts. It also might be discounts, coupons, or special offers to those who follow, friend, or connect with you.

Fail to understand and deliver the value your social networks are looking for and you’ll spend a lot of time with little to show in return.

Be the Ball
If you want to use social media successfully then you need to have a plan. Too often companies simply start tweeting or connecting without a defined purpose. Its easy to be a hacker; being a professional takes a lot more time and effort.

Social media can make a difference or it can be a huge waste of time. Its how you use the tool that will determine if you break par.

I’ve been writing this blog since January of 2008.  Be sure to check out some of the other posts.  If you need help or assistance with developing and implementing a social media strategy call us at (404) 663-3997, send an email to results@sonarconnects.com, or visit the SONARconnects site.

I woke up this morning and saw that LinkedIn finally aded the new inbox to my account.  I first saw the inbox about 2 months ago and wondered when it would be released to more people.  Most of my client’s still have the old inbox, so if you have not been upgraded be patient.  It should roll out over the next couple of months.

Here is a video of the new Inbox. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5byAdvz2Pg

www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5byAdvz2Pg

Do you have the new inbox?  What do you think about the addition of a delete button and the removal of the “I Don’t Know” button?

I’ve been writing this blog since January of 2008.  Be sure to check out some of the other posts.  If you need help or assistance with developing and implementing a social media strategy call us at (404) 663-3997, send an email to results@sonarconnects.com, or visit the SONARconnects site.

I was doing some research the other day and decided to see if I could find the definitive moments in social media.  I was able to find numerous yearly top 10 reviews but didn’t have much success finding a list from the early 2000′s to today.  So even though I didn’t find  ”the” top moments, I did find some moments that I think would at least be on the list for consideration.

1. iPhone is Launched
   Prior to the iPhone launch cell phones could access the internet ..the iPhone just did it phenomenally better. From the touch screen, to the emergence of apps, to actually being able to read a website on a smart phone, the iPhone took mobile by the hair and dragged it from cool to useful.

   It didn’t take me long to pass my Blackberry on to my wife so that I could sport an iPhone.

2. Iran Election Protests
   There have been revolutions and protests in closed nations before. Twitter though gave a face to the Iranian elections protests, allowing previous restricted content, photos, and stories to make it past the media monitors and filter to the masses.

   Lack of a free press is no longer a hindrance to the truth being told or shown.

3. 1st You Tube Video
   America’s Funniest Home Videos, still running after 21 years, proved that people would engage in home made content. You Tube took it to another level allowing your average Joe to record a video from his cell phone and share it potentially with the world. What was once a site focused on entertaining video content has now become the number two search engine in the world. If you want to know how to do something, what better way to learn then to watch a video of the process.

   It all started with a 18 second video talking about why elephants are cool …because they have really long trunks.

4. 2008 Presidential Elections
   In the 2004 presidential elections Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, and LinkedIn were just getting started or had not even launched. What a difference four years made. Love him or hate him you can’t deny that Barack Obama and his campaign truly leveraged the new tools available to them.  After the 2008 election, election politics have entered a new era.

   I can’t wait until 2012.

5. Facebook Allows Non-college members
   Facebook was successful as a social network for college and high school students, but at some point it was destined to hit a growth wall. Opening up membership removed any restrictions and from August of 2008 to August of 2009 Facebook added 200 million members. Facebook’s fastest growing segment is currently females age 45 to age 65, likely joining Facebook to keep up with children and grand children. Businesses and professionals have also jumped in head first, and its proving its value to drive bottom line results.

   Now we just need to come up with a better solution for businesses other that fan pages or community pages.

6. 2007 SXSW Launches Twitter Over the Tipping Point
   In a stroke of genius the folks at Twitter placed two 60-inch plasma screens in the conference hallways, exclusively streaming Twitter messages. Hundreds of conference-goers kept tabs on each other via constant tweets, panelists and speakers mentioned the service, and the bloggers in attendance spread the word. During the event tweets per day went from 20,000 per day to over 60,000 per day. The conference and buzz generated from it gave the service the traction it needed to grow.

   Three years later over 4 billion tweets were sent in the 1st quarter of 2010.

7. TGIF Fan Woody Promotion
   In September 2009 TGIF launched their Fan Woody promotion promising a free hamburger to every new fan if they reached 500,000 total fans by September 30. They quickly passed that goal and added over 1 million new people. In the process they generated a ton of exposure from the press, bloggers, and individuals passing the promotion on to friends and family.

   TGIF showed its possible to quickly build a mass following with a great offer. The next step is to show that they can continue to engage and sustain their new fans.

8. LinkedIn Adds Functionality to Groups
   LinkedIn groups have been around for a while but initially they were little more than places for members to join. There really wasn’t much functionality to the groups. In November of 2008 that changed. They added the ability to post discussion questions and news articles. Another key addition was that they finally added the ability to search for groups, making it easier for people to find relevant groups to join.

   With these changes groups became a valuable way to connect on LinkedIn and to extend your reach. If you belong to the top fifty groups on LinkedIn you would be able to reach out and communicate with 4.7 million people.

9. Naked Pizza Drives 20% of their Business Using Twitter
   A pizza restaurant with a Twitter account isn’t that exciting, but when you add that they credit Twitter with driving 20% ($200,000) of their revenue it makes you pay attention. Naked Pizza started tweeting in April of 2009 and within a few months had built up a significant local following. A one day Twitter promotion drove 69% of that days sales.

   The key to their success is that they have focused on building their local following, communicating engaging messages sprinkled with promotional offers, and tracking every sale to determine which resulted from tweets. It doesn’t hurt that they created a all-natural, reduced-calorie, multi-grain, probiotic pizza that is not only healthy, but tastes good.

10. Broken Guitar Leads to 10 Million Bad Impression
    Dave Carroll’s guitar was damaged by baggage handlers with United airlines. When the airline refused to replace or pay to repair the guitar he took his case to court …the You Tube court. Dave wrote three songs about the experience and made videos for each which he put on You Tube. Those videos have now been viewed by 10 million people.

    Hmmm, $3,500 to replace a guitar or 10 million bad impressions. Its getting harder for companies to hide from bad service.

If I had enough time I could easily list another 10 or twenty moments, but I do have a real job.  If I had to choose my favorite it would either be Naked Pizza or David Carroll’s videos.  I work with small businesses so the Naked Pizza story resonates.  Plus being from New Orleans its nice to see more good news coming out of the city.

As a consumer I love that Dave was able to take a situation that was out of his control and take back control.  In true lemons to lemonade fashion his simple protest became the differentiator that has broke his career into a new level.

What are some moments that you think could be added to the list?  (be sure to include a link if available)

I’ve been writing this blog since January of 2008.  Be sure to check out some of the other posts.  If you need help or assistance with developing and implementing a social media strategy call us at (404) 663-3997, send an email to results@sonarconnects.com, or visit the SONARconnects site.

I’m fairly open about how people connect on LinkedIn. You want to be an open networker, I’m with you. You want to be a closed networker, hey if it works for you great. Whichever way you choose you still have a obligation to those you connect with to guard the information you have gained through the connection. It really would not be cool to do something like downloading your contacts to a csv file and then trade your file with others like Topp’s Baseball cards.

Here is a LinkedIn message that I received (I’ve chosen to remove the identifying information. I have left some references so that you will recognize the message should you receive it)

“Hi Sean,

My name is xxxx xxxxx and I am a Member of Super Open Networkers Group (SON) and I would like to exchange my CSV. file contact list with you in exchange for yours.

I am in New York City attending events leading up to my daughter’s wedding in August but will return to my office on Sunday. I would very much like to exchange connection lists with you at that time. In the meantime you can check me out at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/xxxxxxxx Email: xxxxxxxx@gmail.com

Best Regards
xxxx xxxxxxxx(SON)

I’m not certain if this is a real person or a fake account that’s been set up in order to use to collect emails. If its real then the person sending the message doesn’t have a clue. If its fake its just another reminder that not all is as it seems on LinkedIn. Or any other social network for that matter.

I’m all for open networking on LinkedIn, but this stretches the limit an is just wrong. What do you think?

If you need help or assistance with developing and implementing a social media strategy call us at (404) 663-3997, send an email to results@sonarconnects.com, or visit the SONARconnects site.

Actually the blog wasn’t competing but I was using two posts that are currently listed here: “The 7 Worst LinkedIn Mistakes and Their Fixes” and “Are You a Lion, Turtle, HoundDog, or Alley Cat – What’s Your LinkedIn Connection Strategy”.

Here’s a press snippet:

“Blog-Off II, a blogging contest offering social media enthusiasts and professionals the opportunity to be independently assessed by judges and statistics on their capability of implementing the fundamentals of social media marketing, came to a close with the announcement of the winner on December 24th.  This years winner, Sean Nelson author of the Social Media Sonar blog, was able to beat out an impressive collection of 28 bloggers representing 6 countries.  During the 12 day contest. Sean’s two posts generated over 8,000 visits and over 200 comments, with an impressive time spent on each post of 6:17 and 5:09 (that’s minutes:seconds).”

What’s not covered in the results above are the several hundred comments that were made in LinkedIn groups where I posted a link to the articles in a Discussion Post and as a News Article.

While I’m proud of the accomplishment and think the articles were strong articles, there’s only one reason I won. I was able to use the various social media tools to tap into the communities I have cultivated over the last couple of years.

The Power of Social Media:
One of the key points that was emphasized in the contest was the power of social media to engage people and get them to take an action. In this case the action was to read the post and add a comment. This was the conversion.

Sure if there was a cost involved the response would have been lower but that would be more of a factor of what’s in it for the end user. If you have the right message, provide the right value people will respond and take action.

Communities of People:
A second key point was that all other things being equal, large communities of people offer more opportunity. Over the last two years I’ve built up a large number of connections on LinkedIn and a large number of followers on Twitter. These networks were invaluable in driving traffic to the blog posts.

Credibility:  Know, Like, & Trust:
The third key point was that Credibility plays an important part in whether someone will act on your message. I’ve been writing the Social Media Sonar blog for two years now and the people in my communities have been exposed to the value I provide in each article. Ongoing readers know what to expect in terms of value when they a new blog post.

So what I had was some great tools, to reach signifcantly large communities of people, that I have built up credibility with, to deliver a message, and to use a call to action to drive responses. This is the same process that businesses should proceed through to grow their business.

Competition:
Finally I had some great competition. You can find all of the posts at the Community Marketing blog under the Blogoff category. Two particular blogs I’d like to reference are those of the second and third place bloggers.

Sam Diener’s Stuff for Success blog

Tim Ruffners Digital Metal Laser Sintering blog

These are just two of the interesting bloggers that competed and I would recommend checking out some of the other folks who submitted articles.  The contest was created by Andrew Ballenthin creator of the Community Marketing Blog.  Blogoff III is in the planning stages so if you’re ready to put your blog and your writing to the test, stay tuned.

Thank You:
Thank you to everyone who took the time to read the posts and a double thanks to those who left a comment. As an additional way of thanking everyone I’m providing a 50% discount code to anyone who would like to buy one of my LinkedIn books or guides:

The LinkedIn MBA: Beginners Guide (regularly $4.97)

The LinkedIn MBA: Creating a Killer profile (regularly $7.97)

LinkedIn Marketing Secret Formula: How to use LinkedIn strategically (regularly $39.97)

The Insurance Brokers Guide to LinkedIn (regularly $29.97)

To purchase one or all of the books go to http://www.socialmediasonar.com/book.html USE DISCOUNT CODE:  x50blogoff

Have a great day.

Since September I have been working on a 10 part series asking the question “Can LinkedIn Work for You?” The better questions should be “Can Social Media Work for You?”

In both cases the answer is yes. If you’re willing to put the time and effort required to make it successful. What I’ve often found is that many people start experimenting with the various tools but then abandon their efforts when they don’t immediately see results.

Here are the previous 9 articles:

Can LinkedIn Work for You? (part 1 of 10)

Why Are You On LinkedIn? (Part 2 of 10)

Enhance Your Networking with LinkedIn (part 3 of 10)

Expand Your LinkedIn Reach (part 4 of 10)

Building Credibility on LinkedIn (part 5 of 10)

New Opportunities-New Hires on LinkedIn (part 6 of 10)

Prospecting with LinkedIn (part 7 of 10)

5 Ways to Communicate Your Message on LinkedIn (Part 8 of 10)

Growing Your Business with LinkedIn (part 9 of 10)

Within these posts is much of the information you need to make LinkedIn work for you. Many of the same concepts apply to the other social media tools. What’s missing is how you personally can take this information and make it work specifically for you and what it is that you do.

Back in 1999 I was working in internet marketing, first with Budget Rent A Car and then with MyPoints. I remember all of the talk about how the internet was going to change the world and be the end of traditional marketing. And it did too some extent, but more as a new channel to sell and communicate. More of an addition rather than a replacement.

Today you hear the same type of comments about social media and social networking. Once again the new tools represent an additional way to network and communicate, not a replacement of existing methods. Many of the same rules apply you just need to tweak things some to make it work.

I previously posted a graphic that we use to explain the framework we use to implement a social media strategy – Social Media Process in a Picture. This graphic breaks the Social Web into Social Networking and Social Media… sharing the conversation and sharing the content. We use 6 tools/sites to manage the process.

I saw a recent graphic that showed hundreds of social media/networking sites and you could likely find a use for most of them. At some point, though, you need to think in terms of efficiency. There are only so many hours in a day so you need to focus on those that will provide the most bang for the buck (in this case time).

These are the sites we use. You can use them or figure out which make sense to you. The most important thing you can do is take action and participate.

Blogger note: As I finish this blog, likely the last for the year, we come to the end of the second year of blogging. For two years I’ve written primarily about LinkedIn.

The original blog was GotLinkedIn.com. After LinkedIn took exception to the name it was changed to Linked101.com. I decided I didn’t like that name so it was then changed to the LinkedIntuition.com blog. Once again LinkedIn stepped in and asked me to change the name. So this past summer the blog changed to the Social Media Sonar blog.

Many of the posts have still revolved around LinkedIn but in 2010 I’ll continue to expand the focus. You can expect to see more articles focussing on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other tools. I also plan to use more late breaking news and stories about social media.

Thank you to everyone that has taken time out of their busy day to read something I have written. I didn’t set out to be a writer and those who have suffered through my consistent misuse of apostrophe’s would likely say that I haven’t reached that status yet. That’s OK. In the end all I hope to be is a business owner who is sharing what I’m learning to help others more effectively use social media/networking.

Have a Happy New Year and make 2010 the year that these great tools go to work for you.

-As always if SONARconnects can help you or your company understand how to develop and implement a social media strategy visit our site, send us an email to sean@sonarconnects.com, or call us at (404)  663-3997.

Over the last two years I’ve written often about the tips and strategies to more effectively utilize LinkedIn. It’s just as important to consider the mistakes that people make on LinkedIn that will affect their success. Many of these mistakes are often errors of omission. Today I’m going to discuss seven mistakes and then I’m going to show you how you can correct them.

Let’s get started.

1. Bad Photo Choice

One of the first things most people do when they visit a profile is look at the photo. Its natural to want to see the person behind the profile. People connect to people and a photo helps improve your visitors perception.

One of the worst mistakes is to not include a photo. What does it say about you as a business professional if you don’t understand the importance of the profile photo?

Another mistake I see is that someone decides to include the family in their photo. That’s fine on Facebook but on a professionally based network it misses the point. Add to this photos with effects or simply unclear. If someone can’t see your face or recognize you there is a problem.

Finally avoid including a logo or product shot. The same advice goes for cartoon photos. Its a professional site. You’re a professional. Your photo should support your brand.

The Fix

Spend $25 $75 to $200 with a local photographer and get a professional quality headshot. If you choose to take your own photo make sure you have proper lighting. (note: Teryl Jackson a friend, connection and photographer in Atlanta would like to clarify that a good headshot will run from $75 to $200 and is well worth it.)

2. Lack of Detailing Your Profile

Your profile isn’t meant to replace your resume but it should tell your visitors who you are. There are some key areas that not only allow you to tell your story but provide an opportunity to add keywords naturally into your profile.

The first opportunity is your summary. I like to start my profile off with my elevator speech. This short sentence has been refined to capture attention when presented in face to face networking. There’s no reason it shouldn’t work the same on your profile. The rest of your summary should answer the questions of “Who you are”, “How you help people”, and “How they can help you”.

One area of missed opportunity is failing to add in your previous employment. First people want to know the path you travelled from college to your current position. Not including this introduces questions into your profile visitors perception. There’s also the lost opportunity to include keywords into your job descriptions.

There are also some other areas to add information to such as specialties (great place for keywords), Interests, Awards, and don’t forget to include your phone number and your personal contact information (phone number and address if relevant).

You never know how someone will find you

The Fix

Include as many previous employers that are relevant to your development as a business professional. It’s OK to skip that college job delivering Pizzas. Also be sure that when you write the job descriptions to write them from the perspective of how that job contributed to making you better at what you do today.

3. Ignoring Applications

When you look at the number of applications on Facebook (1,000’s) verses the number on LinkedIn (13) you might think that applications just aren’t that important. That would be a bad analysis. While few in number, the applications available are a key to sharing what it is that you do with your fellow LinkedIn members. They provide the opportunity to take your profile from two dimensional to three dimensional.

The basic LinkedIn profile is simply a lot of text. Sure you can tell people all of the relevant information about yourself, but I always recall my freshman English teacher imploring me to “Show, don’t tell”. Applications give you the opportunity to show what it is that you do.

Applications give you the ability to post a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation (Slideshare or Google Presentations), add a video (Slideshare or Google Presentations), feed in your blog (WordPress and BlogLink), add PDF files or Word documents (Boxnet), announce and RSVP Events, conduct Polls, share the books you’re reading (Amazon), and the just released Twitter application.

Just about any way you want to communicate a message or information on LinkedIn is available. Your profile visitors can engage with your profile in print, video, even audio (add your podcast to a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation.

The FIx

Start going through your resources to see what information will help you show others what it is that you do and how you can help them. If you don’t have a blog WordPress makes it simple to create one. It’s simple to create a presentation to share, just be sure to make it interesting by including more than just bullet points. Load up those brochures, white papers, and one-pagers.

Finally, add a video to your profile. If you don’t have the tools to record yourself in a professional manner (think lighting and sound), go to http://www.jingproject.com and download this free software. It will allow you to record a 5 minute screen capture as a video. The hardest part is figuring out what to record.

4. Not Securing Recommendations

When I visit at a profile one of the first things I look for is recommendations. There’s no reason why anyone shouldn’t be able to build up to 10 recommendations if they’re good at what they do.

The reason most people fail to get any recommendations is that they sit back and wait for someone to take the initiative. You have to remember that only 24% of the people on LinkedIn are regular users (spend at least 5 hours a week interacting), so the majority of your connections are still trying to figure it out.

These irregular users probably haven’t thought about recommending someone else because they’re still trying to understand LinkedIn.

The Fix

Get proactive about generating recommendations. Whenever I start working with a new prospect one of the first things that I do is connect to them. Then once I’ve finished serving them, or moved to a point where I’m delivering results, I send them a recommendation request.

I keep the request simple and reference the work I did for them and then state “I’m using LinkedIn to build my online brand. If you feel the work that I did on your behalf exceeded your expectations I would appreciate your taking a moment to write a brief recommendation”.

There are some people that feel that you should not do this, but based on the response, and the recommendations, I’ve received from clients I don’t see a downside to sending the request.

I prefer client recommendations but if your position doesn’t involve clients then you’ll have to impress your fellow coworkers and business colleagues.

5. Fail to Join Enough Relevant Groups

There was a time on LinkedIn when you could belong to as many groups as you would like. These days there is a imposed limit of 50 groups, yet many people have not yet joined any groups. Failing to do so severely limits your LinkedIn reach.

Currently I have 4,500 direct connections on LinkedIn so at any moment I could reach 4,500 people. In the 50 groups that I belong to there are over 1.3 million people. These are people that I can communicate directly to or through using discussion posts and news articles.

Groups are also a great place to engage in conversations and cultivate new relationships. The key is to find as many groups as possible that are relevant to your business.

The FIx

Go to the groups directory and search for relevant groups. These might be groups that are alumni, industry, location, networking, topical, etc. Be sure to think about the groups your prospects would belong to and join these. Then you simply need to start engaging fellow group members through discussions and news articles.

6. Overlooking Answers

One of the keys in social media/networking is to seek out opportunities to share or provide value to others. LinkedIn Answers is the perfect vehicle to do so. Each day thousands of new questions are asked by fellow members looking for help. You simply need to find the questions that surround your industry or specialty and share your knowledge.

There are several benefits to answering questions. First you’re building good will with the person who asked the question and potentially everyone else that reads your answer. Second you have the opportunity to demonstrate your expertise.

Your answers are also Linked to your profile which is then viewable by profile visitors. Let’s say you’re a health insurance broker that only sells in Georgia but you answer a question from someone in Louisiana. The person that asked the question will never be your client but at least you were able to help someone (Good Karma). But since your answer is Linked to your profile, anyone in your local area can see your answer and it can impact their perception of you.

The Fix

Go to LinkedIn Answers and search for questions related to what you do for a living. Then start answering questions. Be sure to include a link back to your site or blog in your answer. I find that when I answer a question traffic to my blog increases.

Most categories also have a RSS feed. You can set up a RSS reader that will display the latest questions asked in the category. Using the Google RSS reader I simply check for new questions every morning and answer away.

Just be sure to provide quality answers. Everything you do or say on LinkedIn either adds to or subtracts from your brand.

7. Selling Directly

I’m sure that on LinkedIn someone is having success posting direct sales messages or sending messages to their connections. That being said you are more likely to do harm to your brand over time. People are not looking to be sold to directly on LinkedIn.

That doesn’t mean that there are no opportunities to sell using LinkedIn, its just that you’ll find more success communicating your messages indirectly. The one exception is with the status. It will be interesting to see if this changes with the new Twitter integration.

The Fix

Take advantage of the opportunities to communicate your message indirectly. One simple way to do this is to change your title to a tagline. My title might be “Blogger” but “Helping folks use LinkedIn more effectively with tips and strategies at the Social Media Sonar blog”. The title tells people what I am, the tag line tells them how I can help them. Plus that tag line is visible in a mini profile when I answer questions, post discussions, or add news articles.

Starting conversation using the discussion boards is a great way to interact with fellow group members. Adding news articles allows you to share value through the content. Over time people will get to know you. If they like your content they’ll begin to like you…and check out your profile. Share value consistently over time and people will begin to develop trust.

We discussed Answers above and its another communication opportunity. These are only some of the options available to communicate indirectly. you can also use your applications including polls and events.

Wrap Up

Many of the mistakes I’ve detailed are simply errors of omission. They can be corrected by simply taking some extra time to build your content. Your first goal on LinkedIn is to get people to visit your profile. Then once they’re at your profile page you want to ensure that they understand what it is that you do and how you can help them.

The worst thing that can happen is that they leave your profile with questions and move on to the next profile.

What are some mistakes I missed?

Sean Nelson is the author of the Social Media Sonar blog and has written three LinkedIn eBooks including one of the first books detailing how to strategically use LinkedIn to grow your business. “LinkedIn MArketing Secret Formula”.  He is a Partner inSONARconnects.

LinkedIn is a fairly harmonious place. People tend to act professional and when there are opposing opinions they typically become a case where people “agree to disagree”. Things change though when you began discussing LIONS. Suddenly the conversation isn’t so rosy.

LION’s, for those who don’t know are open networkers. They connect to just about anyone. They see opportunity increasing as the number of connections increases. Those who disagree see LIONS as simply driving their ego’s by counting the connections, as if the purpose of LinkedIn is to proudly claim to have 1,000’s of connections.

For the record I don’t consider myself a LION, yet I’m an open networker. When writing my first LinkedIn book I identified three LinkedIn connection strategies. This year I added a fourth to define how I now connect.

How you choose to connect will impact how you use LinkedIn and in the end your chances of finding success.

Before we look at the four connection strategies I want to make one point. How you choose to connect on LinkedIn should be of no concern to anyone else. It’s your network and your strategy. As long as it works for you thats all that matters.

The Four LinkedIn Connection Strategies:
The LION
As stated above LIONS are completely open connectors. They seek to increase their connections through actively sending out and accepting connection invitations. While I’m sure there are a few who take pride in touting the specific number, the majority simply believe that large networks lead to more opportunity.

Steve Burda is a LION with over 30,000 connections. I don’t know Steve but I’ve seen countless references to his taking time to help others. So yes he has a large network, but no its not about the number. Its about having the opportunity to help a significant number of people. If this leads to new business for him, more power to him.

The Turtle
Turtles are the opposite of LIONS. Turtles primarily only connect to those they know well. They see value in having a tight network made up of individuals that they completely trust. Their networks tend to be highly selective and can be counted on to pass on introductions, much like a private networking group.

I don’t know many Turtles but the ones I do know are like Steve interested in being a productive resource for those they choose to connect to. LinkedIn is a way to enhance their offline networking making their existing relationships a little more connected.

The Hound Dog
When I first joined LinkedIn I was only aware of LIONS. I knew right away that LinkedIn added an additional layer of connectivity to those I knew. I also realized that it could help me meet other local business professionals that I did not know.

At each Chamber meeting they would pass out copies of everyone’s business cards. After each meeting I would see who was on LinkedIn and then invite them to connect. At the next Chamber meeting the connection provided a great ice breaker. It also established connections with those people who only attended a single meeting.

I also used LinkedIn to seek out people I would like to connect with. Doing this allowed me to establish connections with other business professionals who might help my clients, become a referral partner, and some who were prospects. This ability to hunt for specific people led me to define the strategy as a Hound Dog.

A Hound Dog is someone who uses LinkedIn to connect to those they know, to connect to those they would like to know, and accepts invitations from those that would be beneficial to be connected to.

For the first year that I was serious about using LinkedIn I followed this strategy. Then one day I had a thought, “How do I know whether or not a connection I know could benefit from a connection that I didn’t know?” The answer was that I didn’t know.

It was that at this point that I changed my strategy for connecting on LinkedIn.

The Alley Cat
I still only send invitations to people I know or people that I have a specific reason for connecting to. What changed is that I now accept invitations from just about anyone. There is value in knowing your connections but there are also unexpected opportunities that develop from establishing new connections, known and unknown.

This connection strategy supports my overall LinkedIn strategy which is this: I seek to provide value to and help as many people as possible. Much of that value is provided through the Social Media Sonar blog, sharing tips and strategies with others on how to more effectively utilize LinkedIn and social media/networking. Sometimes its through being the hub to connect two people. At other times its through conducting workshops, writing LinkedIn books and guides, etc. The more people I am connected to the more people that I can share with.

I believe that to create opportunity you have to first be willing to help others. Then, by consistently sharing value over time, you allow people to move through the Process of Familiarity. A process that has to happen before someone will choose to do business with you.

What I call the Process of Familiarity likely has been called many things by other people. The three components are:

1.  People need to Know You or at a Minimum Know Of You: Often connecting or engaging in conversations will accomplish this.

2.  People Must Like You or Have a Positive Opinion: How you interact with others and the value of the content you share will help here. If people like your content they will like you.

3.  People Must Trust You: Building trust is dependent upon engaging on conversations or sharing value consistently over time. As people see you on an ongoing basis and are exposed to the value you share the “Like” will grow into “Trust”.

Through this process here’s what I’ve seen happen. Each week I write one or two blog posts that show people how to utilize LinkedIn. I then use the tools LinkedIn provides to communicate that there is a new blog post. People visit the blog for the first time or as a repeat visitor. At some point they check out my profile and learn what it is that I do and see how I can help them.

If they like the content they begin to have a positive impression of me and this eventually moves to a sense of trust. At this point if they ever have a need for my services I am top of mind and they will contact me.

Something else happens as well. People like to share content on other Social Media sites so at some point they become my social media amplification system. This introduces my blog to people outside of the communities I’ve built.

Wrap Up
The connection strategy you choose will depend upon how you want to use LinkedIn. There is no right or wrong choice as long as your connection strategy supports the goals you have determined. For me the change to an Alley Cat has helped generate 3 to 5 contacts per week about my services.

Which strategy are you using and why? If you agree or disagree with the post please leave a comment. Your perspective is as important as mine, so share it with everyone.

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Sean Nelson is the author of the Social Media Sonar blog and has written three LinkedIn eBooks including one of the first books detailing how to strategically use LinkedIn to grow your business. “LinkedIn Marketing Secret Formula”.  He is a Partner in SONARconnects.

For the last two years I’ve written this blog to help people more effectively use LinkedIn.  I decided it was time to benchmark the blog’s success by competing in the BlogOff 2 competition.  I need your help to have a chance to win the competition.

Your Task:  Visit my new blog post “The 7 Worst Mistakes on LinkedIn and Their Fixes“.  This post will help you identify and correct the mistakes I see many people making on LinkedIn.

VOTE NOW:  Your click is your vote.  *******Comments on tT7he post are a major component of the voting so please consider adding a comment.*******

Thank you and have a great day.

Sean Nelson

Two months ago I started this series asking the question “Can LinkedIn work for you?”. Today we come full circle and look at expanding on the four keys of success that I listed in the original article:

1.  The Right Purpose = The right Activities
2.  More Reach = More Opportunities
3.  Provide Value to Others = Know, Like, & Trust
4.  More Activity = More Success

Get these four right and LinkedIn will work for you. The components of each of these have been covered throughout the series so if you’ve followed along this should put the icing on the cake.

The Right Activities
There is the ideal and there is reality. Reality is that most of us first joined LinkedIn and begin to explore it over time. Most people get that LinkedIn is about connecting to other people so the first step is that people invite those that they know. After those first connections are made, though, is where most people hit the wall.

My kids love movies and there is a scene in “A Bugs Life” where the ants are carrying food in a neat and orderly line…one after another. Each one is simply following what the other is doing. Suddenly a leaf lands between two ants and the one in front keeps moving but the one behind has no clue what to do. The leaf is the ant’s wall.

After some coaching the ant simply changes directions to go around the leaf and the line continues moving.

On LinkedIn the ability to move around your walls is dramatically increased if you have taken the time to develop goals and a strategy for reaching the goals. Because if you don’t know what you hope to achieve (purpose) how do you know which actions you should be taking.

You need to think about why you are on LinkedIn and develop a strategy to make it work for you. My purpose for being on LinkedIn is to make money. Actions such as connecting, starting discussion posts, posting news articles, joining groups, asking and answering questions, posting status updates, etc. are all done with this purpose in mind.

More Reach
Listen to enough conversations about connecting on LinkedIn and you’re sure to hear the quantity verses quality argument. The LIONS (open networkers) are on one side and what I call TURTLES (closed networkers) are on the other side. Arguing that it better to be one or the other misses the point.

The point is for LinkedIn to help you make more money. Whichever can best help you do that is the right connection strategy for you. For me it was at a point between the two.

There is what I call “Expected Opportunity” and “Unexpected Opportunity”. The expected opportunities are those that came from people on LinkedIn that I already knew. I expect that if I’ve done my job networking and communicating my unique selling position then those that know me will refer me when possible. I don’t really need LinkedIn for these opportunities.

Where I need LinkedIn to assist me in growing my business is by being the tool that brings “unexpected opportunities”, opportunities from people I did not previously know, to my door.

My first year I was what I named a “Hound Dog”. I connected to those I knew and to those I wanted to get to know. This helped me begin to expand my network but it was slow and steady.

In my second year I changed my strategy. I decided I would begin to accept most invitations that I received but still only send out invitation to those I knew or wanted to know. I’ve dubbed this connection strategy a “Alley Cat”. Not quite a LION.

This has led to a significant increase in my direct connections. Why is this important? Because every new connection is an opportunity to share value (we’ll cover this next).

Along with using direct connections to expand my reach I also made the commitment to join 50 groups. About a year ago LinkedIn added the ability to post discussions, post news articles, and believe it or not, finally search for specific groups. These three things changed groups from meaningless connections of people into a powerful tool.

When I discuss reach what I’m really talking about are the number of opportunities you have to communicate your message. With my direct connections I can communicate with about 4,500 people. In the groups I belong to I can communicate with over 1.3 million people.

Communicating your message is an important part of monetizing your LinkedIn presence and through discussion posts and news articles you can engage a significantly larger population than your direct connections. More opportunities to communicate your message means more opportunities.

Provide Value to Others
I’ve talked a lot about the successes I’ve developed on LinkedIn. Most of that success occurred because I first sought out opportunities to help others. Much of the value I share is through this blog. But there are also the countless questions I’ve answered for people needing help.

In business there are three things that must occur for someone to want to do business with you. They have to first get to know you. At this point its enough that they know you exist. This happens through connecting, through group conversations, and through the content you share.

Once they know you they need to like you. Since we’re dealing with an electronic form of establishing this “Like” the content you share is important. How you interact with others is equally important.

The final step is for those who know and like you to move to a point of trust. This requires that you do everything you did to get them to like you on a consistent basis over time.

You also need to ensure that you profile communicates the information needed for someone to answer the questions of “What it is that you do” and “How you can help them”. Recommendations will add to your credibility and factor into the trust equation.

More Participation
The final key is that you have to participate on a consistent ongoing basis. Without participation you can’t hope to extend your reach or build trust. You don’t have to spend your entire day on LinkedIn but you should plan on investing at least an hour a day.

At least several times a week I see a reference to LinkedIn having over 50 million members. What I don’t see as often is that the percentage of regular users (defined as 5 hours a week) is about 24%. There’s less competition in establishing yourself in your industry than you think.

You can choose to participate focusing on how you can directly drive potential business. In this case you’re hoping your message is enough. Or you can choose to let your participation work overtime, providing value to others and in return evntually driving new opportunities. Its the difference between push and pull.

I often receive direct messages on LinkedIn from direct connections. There’s no value only a sales message. And a lost chance to engage me.

I see the same type of activity in groups as well where someone adds a discussion post that is nothing but a sales message. Another lost opportunity.

A better approach would be to post something of value. In health insurance many people don’t understand health savings accounts. I might start a discussion post asking “How can a HSA save you money?” Then I would list a few of the benefits and add a link to a white paper I wrote. Finally I would end it by asking “What do you think about HSA’s”.

The end result I hope to achieve is that you call me with your questions. The purpose of the post is to drive new opportunity, but I’ve first engaged people with the post and I’ve provided value in the form of the white paper.

News articles are another way to share value first. I usually add my new blog posts to my LinkedIn groups. The articles, such as this one, help people understand how to use LinkedIn more effectively.

What I found was that over time people began to get to know me. Since they liked the information I’ve been sharing they begin to like me, at least to som extent. Finally because I’ve done this consistently over time, the like has grown into trust.

Its been interesting that my blog articles about LinkedIn led to people calling me to help them with their health insurance. Now that I’ve partnered with SONARconnects helping companies implement social media strategies the blogs are starting to drive people to call to inquire about how I might help them with their own social media needs.

Answers has been another way to share value and benefit in the long run. Answers allow you to help others while demonstrating your knowledge and expertise. I try to answer questions that involve social media. Each time I do I add a link to the blog. I always see a spike in my visits whenever I answer a question. Its also led to new connections and new conversations.

You also should seek out opportunities to help others. One of the simple things I’ve done is introduce connections of mine to each other by forwarding each person’s profile to the other with a note of introduction. I’ve also passed on introduction requests to help a connection connect to another.

Finally recommendations are a great way to share value. I limit most of my recommendations to people that I have purchased from or engaged their services. I have also written recommendations for people that I know where I can provide some insight into the type of person they are.

These are only some of the ways to participate on LinkedIn. As you become more familiar with the tools and features you’ll discover additional ways to participate. In the process you’ll began to get known and starting moving towards trust.

Wrap up
In the last nine articles we’ve walked through the concepts to help you more effectively utilize LinkedIn. I’m a firm believer that LinkedIn should be used as a tool to grow your business, or stated more directly to make money.

These are not overnight solutions and will likely take time to develop consistent activity. The key is to begin building your communities and starting conversations. Over time this will lead you through the three steps we discussed: Know, Like, and Trust.

In the end it comes down to providing great content and value consistently over time. What do you think?

If you’re struggling to understand how to use social networking/media to build brand awareness and drive new business call us for a Free consultation at (404) 663-3997 or visit our site: http://www.sonarconnects.com.