When I first joined LinkedIn my thought was that this would be a good place to network and connect to other business professionals. What I’ve learned since is that LinkedIn is a great place to communicate your message to millions of business professionals. Most often through indirect methods.
Most people think in term of communicating directly, but that’s a traditional perspective. Social networking/media has its own rules in regards to sales related activites and most often using a direct sales pitch will fail and potentially cause damage to your brand.
There are a few ways to communicate directly on LinkedIn. The most obvious is to send a direct message to your first degree connections. Personally when I receive a direct sales message I immediately archive it. Most often it’s from someone I’m connected to but do not personally know. If I receive several I simply remove the connection.
If you want to sell to me you have to first introduce yourself and then start a conversation. It all starts with the three requirements necessary for someone to choose to do business with you. First they have to know you, second they need to like you, and finally they need to trust you.
Connecting or interacting within LinkedIn groups can accomplish the “getting to know you” requirement. Moving to like and trust requires time and interaction. You’re going to have to share value over time for this to occur.
Here are some of the ways that I communicate my message to tens of thousands of LinkedIn members each week. [Read more...]
