I often write about things you should do on LinkedIn to maximize your effectiveness. Today we’re going to look at the other side of the equation…the mistakes. The five mistakes listed here are related to your ability to eventually monetize LinkedIn.
1. Not Having a Purpose or Not Understanding Why You Are On LinkedIn
Quite simply if you don’t know the answer to this question then how do you know what actions you should be taking on LinkedIn? There are numerous reasons to be on LinkedIn and you may have several. The actions you take should be done to support your purpose.
My ultimate goal is to grow my business (make money) so I focus on growing my networks and communicating my message as often as possible. Because I know my purpose, have determined what actions support this purpose, and implement my strategy on an ongoing basis, I have been successful in developing new business clients.
Action Steps:
a. Write down the top 3 reasons why you are on LinkedIn
b. Determine what actions will support each reason
2. Failure to Participate
There are 50 million people on LinkedIn and a large majority do not interact with others on a consistent basis. This is a direct result of mistake number one. Without understanding your purpose you can’t know which actions to take that will produce a positive outcome.
There are only so many hours in a day and people tend to repeat what works. Social media marketing rarely provides quick results. Most often success is built over time only after people get to know you, like you, and trust you. You have to have the patience to continue participating when you’re not seeing the results.
There are no guarantees that your efforts will produce results, but if you do not participate consistently, I guarantee that you will not find success.
I spent almost a year providing value and interacting before I started seeing results. Now I can count on several inquiries each week from potential clients looking to engage my services.
Action Steps
a. Commit to taking action on a weekly basis
b. Schedule these activities
c. Post them next to your computer or in your electronic calendar
3. Presenting an Incomplete Picture
On LinkedIn people get to know you through being connected, belonging to common groups, the information your share, and your profile. People want to look at your profile and have a clear understanding of who you are and how you might be of service to them.
If you don’t provide enough information for them to know those two pieces they are unlikely to go looking for the information. You need to make sure you have a detailed profile. You need to include a professional photo. You need to have links to your websites, blogs, etc.
If you’ve been fortunate enough to get them to view your profile, you’ve accomplished the hardest part. It would seem a shame to lose them for simply failing to provide enough information.
Action Steps
a. Look at 20 profiles to see how others are presenting themselves
b. Spend an hour each month working on your profile
c. Personalize your profile–add keywords, personalize your public URL, and Change your Web URL’s to the name (go to edit and choose “Other”)
d. Look at the LinkedIn application to see which make sense to add
4. Not Sharing Information or Providing Value
Mistake number three is about people getting to know you. Number four is all about getting people to like you. It’s a simple fact: If you provide value to others without asking for something in return people will start to like you.
The quickest way to generate goodwill on LinkedIn is to provide value to others. Directly this might be responding to a connection or introduction request. You can also build goodwill by providing thoughtful responses to questions in Answers and in group discussion posts. Another great way to provide value to others is through writing recommendations for those who have provided great service or assistance to you.
Everything you do on LinkedIn either adds to or subtracts from your online brand so make sure you put some thought into what you say. Participate consistently and you’ll notice that your profile visits increase and people will start interacting with you.
Action steps
a. Find at least two connections to introduce each week.
b. Answer at least three questions each week
c. Identify connections that deserve a recommendation and write it. Try to find at least 15 people to recommend. Make sure these are 15 people that deserve it. If you can’t find 15 now, build this up over time
5. Failure to Build Credibility
By addressing the previous four mistakes you will have reached a point where people know and like you. You may have even started to build some credibility. There are six ways that I document to build your credibility. These include:
A. Your Profile: first impressions count.
B. Answers: In number four we addresses answers from the perspective of providing value. This is also a great way to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise. Whenever you answer a question it is available for anyone on LinkedIn to view. Your Direct connections are also notified that you answered a question on their Home page.
C. Recommendations: Nothing beats having another sing your praises. I have found that my client recommendations have been a huge part of building my online brand.
D. Your connections: Who you are connected to can have an impact. When I seek to connect to others I will often reference a common connection in the invitation.
E. Your Groups: With groups you have something in common with fellow members. I reference common groups in invitation requests as well.
F. Providing Value: This will help others grow to like you but it also is very helpful in building your credibility.
Action Steps
a. Answer at least three questions each week in your field of expertise
b. Try to get 10 recommendations. You can request recommendations but only do so from people you know that you have provided great service or help to. If you don’t have 10, keep providing great service and you’ll get there. When you do, join The “Top Recommended People” group on LinkedIn.
c. Grow your connections based on your connection strategy
d. If you don’t belong to 50 groups find 50 that are relevant and join.
e. Seek out every opportunity to help others.
Wrap Up
There are many other LinkedIn mistakes I could mention including avoiding typos, having multiple accounts, etc. These 5 though are fundamental mistakes that will impact your ability to monetize LinkedIn.
I’m a firm believer that the true value in LinkedIn is as a vehicle to add to your bottom line. You may have joined to network, to find a job, or to advance your career…all are great reasons… and all that at the end of the day are about monetization.
It’s OK to be on LinkedIn to make more money. It’s what will keep you coming back and participating, which in the end helps every other person on LinkedIn.
SONARconnects is a full service advertising and marketing agency. We help our client’s by showing them how to develop strategies and tactics to build communities of people, communicate their message, and monetize their social networking/media presence. Our client’s include Lenny’s Sub Shop, Copeland’s New Orleans Style Restaurant (ATL), Action Business Coaching (ATL), Aussie Pet Mobile (ATL), The Frederick Group, and MyCustomDay.
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.
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About Sean Nelson
Great advice and very valuable info too. I read the blog daily and get something of value out of most of them. Keep them coming!
Sean,
I also read your blog every day and get valuable LinkedIn info from it.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts with all of us.
David and John,
Thanks for reading. Don’t keep the blog a secret. Share it with friends and tweets on Twitter are much appreciated as well.
Sean
I love how you simplified this for anyone to be able to replicate. This is one of my must have resources now. I’m looking forward to implementing all this information this week. I’ll be sure to share this post with my Twitter followers.
Hi Sean
I have been a Linked in for about 3 years and only began reading your posts a few weeks ago. Your practical and useful ideas and strategies have already contributed to my business results. Thank you!
Jeff,
Thanks for the comments and the retweet. I’m fortunate that I tend to write simple and straight forward. All those years of reading Readers Digest.
Sean
Barry,
I’ll try to keep them coming. Thanks for the comments.
Sean
You thoughts are always link-ed-in and meaningfull.
Keep writing and sharing.
Mahesh,
Thanks for the kind words.
Sean
One can improve by reading this valuable stuff. Thanks….
Anjali,
Thanks for the comments.
Sean
Nicely done. Great reminder to keep updating. One of the things that I often overlook is the “What are you working on…” A couple days will go by and I’ll see it and think “update update update!”
Great tips!
Thanks for info especially since I am new to this. I will print out and look over weekly until it becomes second nature.
Sean, great work! Kudos to you. I hope you noted in one of your writing (tricks of having a good linkedin profile) that you made it up just before going for a camp. It made an excellent reading. I would say this one is better than that. I am sure you wrote this before going for a camp, huh?…I have read a number of your articles and i would say all of them are so knowledge sharing and linked-in. Thanks for your open minded views.
I would love to add another comment. A critical mistake is when people just send out the “generic” invitation. You know the one “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn”. I get very angry when people send me one of those. Very inconsiderate and I think it shows laziness or that you really don’t care about me.
If you want to invite me to join your LI network, tell me who you are and why you are inviting me. What is your relationship to me. Do we belong to the same LI group. You live in the Toronto area and want to network with me? Tell me how I can help you and how you in turn can help me. In essence, all this is just like any relationship. Remember when you were dating your spouse? They were the most important person in your life, and you wanted them to know that. Same thing when sending out a LinkedIn invitation. Tell the other people how much you care about them. Why you matter to them. “Sell” them on the benefits of accepting your invitation. You will increase your LinkedIn credibility immeasurably if you do this.
Greg Brown – Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Greg,
The mistakes I detailed were more fundamental to being able to monetize LinkedIn. The invitation mistake you mention, and its a big one, is more of a tactical mistake. I agree that 99.9% of the time you are making a mistake by not personalizing the invitation.
Thanks for the comment.
Sean
I love the steps that you put into this article. This shows the value you have to linkedin. Great insight to what to do, how to do it and how often. Thanks so much and keep them coming.
Excellent step-by-step advice to making the most of LinkedIn. It does take time to build up value and credibility, but it’s well worth the effort. I don’t know about others, but I tend to listen more closely and react more quickly when I see a request for help on LinkedIn then I would on forums where I don’t feel I know the people, or share the same interests.
Thank you Sean.
I’m now a proud member of the Top Recommended & LinkedPros
Wouldn’t have known about it without you.
Greatly appreciated.
Theresa,
Thanks for the comments.
Sean
Clare,
Great points. It takes time and requires patience. and people are willing to help. I fact, helping others is one of the top ways to build goodwill.
Sean
Sean,
I stumbled upon this blog through one of the LinkedIn groups I belong to and have enjoyed reading it and have found it helpful.
Thanks,
Paul
Paul,
I’m gald it is providing value. I’ll try to keep the posts coming.
Sean
Thank you so much for taking the time to share this valuable information. It looks like I have some work to do. I appreciate your detailed and articulate plan of action and look forward to implementing it.
Elizabeth,
The work never stops. As soon as you have these down LinkedIn will add something or you’ll find something else to make better. Keeps it interesting.
Sean
Sean,
Great topic and masterful handling. I especially appreciate the detailed action steps.
I have subscribed to your blog and plan on sharing it with others.
Well done!
Norman
I appreciate this information.
Hi! Sean
An excellent note. Something very fundamental to networking and also just common sense (which is not very common!). Article like your helps bringing the focus.
As Greg mentioned earlier, lazy requests just puts you off big time.
One of the challenges I face with groups on LinkedIn is that there are many with the same interest and it become a difficult decision to opt. What do you recommend?
Cheers!
Deepak Garg
Deepak,
A lot depends upon your perspective. If you want to use LinkedIn to make money you have to interact with prospects. You should be joining the groups where they hang out. It’s OK to join some for pleasure or interest, but from a monetary perspective be sure that there is a business related reason for joining a group.
Duplicate groups re OK if they have enough members.
Sean
Good advice.
I am carving out a niche as a cutting-edge communications consultant, specializing in Twitter. If you have been following public relations and marketing, the professions have been energized by the unexpected popularity of Twitter and the growing influence of social media in our daily lives. Longtime professionals are declaring this new territory. But, Twitter and social media seem old and familiar to me.
One-on-one communication, which seems to be central to your argument, is not something you can giving passing attention. It requires planning and, you learn soon enough, comfort with fluid environments. Twitter today, for instance, is not the Twitter of tomorrow, which assuredly will be different.
A good communication plan should have good execution and that means investment of time and effort.
I joined Twitter six months ago as @NextwaveRay, a science micro-blog that recently ranked No. 28 on the 100 Best Science Twitterers. This Twitter account is becoming a new breed of publisher/journalist. Essentially, a news aggregator, @NextwaveRay posts links on subjects that are distant and cold: space, nanotechnology and sustainable energy. The plan was to make discussion of these subjects approachable. When Twitter is monetized, the strategy will make more sense. By the way, I’m not a scientist. I am writing a book on Twitter.
@NextwaveRay is small in terms of numbers, but is growing in influence as recognition arrives. The followers of @NextwaveRay are people, many of them business owners, who have invested time and effort into their own accounts, and these are the people whom I find valuable resources as well as attentive audiences. Some are prospective clients.
A relationship is after all the point of performing all this work. Simply posting articles is insufficient to bring about a relationship. It is only a start. I discovered early on that people want a shared experience. And, they are further impressed that they can communicate readily with someone who is knowledgeable and will sometimes find articles of shared interest. I should note that I studied nanotechnology for years, collecting bookmarks and articles before joining Twitter. I have been a lifelong fan of astronomy. And, I have a desire to work with emerging technology businesses.
I have other projects on Twitter, and I am becoming more active in LinkedIn. I have plans to expand into additional social media. As friend and author Brian Schwartz notes: It doesn’t happen overnight. You master one area and then concentrate on the next.
So, for my two cents, I believe you should participate and get the feel of social media. Make a decision to cut out some time for new relationships you establish and then methodically set out to become more proficient, expanding your social media tool kit. There are ample web and software offerings.
Thanks for your article.
Best,
Raymond
As we are all traversing the social sphere I think that you should make strategic decisions before implementing any social marketing plan. The holy Grail of social marketing is “how to monetize the social sphere.”
As our customers have more power than ever before we must realize that it is the engagement that matters. We can forget about push marketing techniques and think about how to pull traffic.
Your post is most informative because it encompasses more than Linkedin these practises should govern your actions on all the social platforms. And yes being on as many as possible is a good idea.
Without interaction and putting in the time,it is very hard to succeed in business.These strategies have been very effective for me. Any executive with a sales background should know that networking is the ultimate profit maker.
Greetings Sean!
I am a newbie to LinkedIn and I am learning the value of being involved in the LinkedIn community. I joined before I really understood and now I am grateful for the opportunity to interact and learn from others.
I found your post informative and clear. I will be implementing what I have learned to the best of my ability. I will be reading The Top 5 Tactical Mistakes on LinkedIn next. With much gratitude!
Bob,
Thanks for the comments. For business to occur two people have to interact and each provide value. Same with networking as you stated.
Thanks,
Sean
Vanecia,
The fastest way to learn is to just dive in and start “doing it”. Read the different LinkedIn blogs and tap into the knowledge of others.
good Luck,
Sean
What an eye opener to become more active and outgoing on this valuable network. Thanks for the great post!
Joerg,
Thanks for the comment.
Sean
Very useful article and easy to implement. However what is easy to do is easy NOT to do. Your Action steps motivates me to use Linkedin more effectively. Thanks
Lalitha
Want to explore the Entrepreneur in YOU? For tips go to http://www.elbeeservicesllc.com
Sean,
I too stumbled across this by accident. I realize that I need to utilize LinkedIn more effectively, and that for any job, not just sales, it’s all about cultivating relationships…and it takes time. We tend to forget that the job hunt is really about marketing yourself and having a unique brand…confidence in the search results from how effectively the tools are applied. So I know that I have more work to do.. improve, refine, research, upgrade, etc. Keep the momentum going!
Randi,
Stumble back some more. I added three new posts this week with valuable info.
Sean
Hey, thanks for sharing this very valuable information. I am brand new to linkedin and still overwhelmed by the vastness and possibilities of it. Yet, as a very busy person, I want to cut right to the chase and see how it can help me and allow me to help others. I see I need to get a strategy in place asap and stay focused. I’ll keep reading! Thanks!
Great suggestions! Thank you. This has given me some fresh ideas and ways to approach my LinkedIn life.
Hey, I feel like i have been shown the path to effectively use the Linkedin as i have been on Linkedin for almost 3 years now without knowing how i can benefit by using Linkedin but now iam confident and all credit goes to you, it was informative. Thanks.
Lorraine, Michelle, and Hardeep,
Thanks for the comments and for reading. There are 18 months of posts so feel free to browse around.
Sean
Thanks so much for the info! A great reminder and excellent points to be aware of! I have received valuable business connections through LI and its been a great way to stay in touch with people I have worked with in the past (clients and candidates). I think my favorite “mistake” was about Purpose! I have a very good friend/mentor who has said, if you don’t know a purpose of a thing, you will abuse it”! I will be going over the points and making sure I am staying on top of my profile in order to put out the right message! Thanks!
Great article, I think we take it for granted that you only get from something what you put into it.
Stacee,
Purpose is my favorite. I will likely be writing more about this as I am currently fixated on the question “Why are you on LinkedIn”.
Sean
Art,
I agree. The hard part is it usually takes that investment of giving more than you receive to eventually benefit. And the time to return is a big unknown.
Sean
Great list of action points. I’ll not only take these on board to do myself but will add to the advise I already give my clients about maximising their online presence. I also particularly like that its ok to be on LinkedIn to make money. Incidently I am also committed to helping business owners succeed and to love the work they’ve created – not much point otherwise!
Jonnie,
Own it, accept it, and thrive with it. Thanks for the comments and for reading the blog.
Sean