Are you a lurker on LinkedIn? 80% of us are. We watch and read but we're not proactive and and we don't use LinkedIn's newest and best features to our advantage. If you're in the business of creating new business, then you need to start using these 12 LinkedIn secrets.
LinkedIn Secret #1 - Message People in Groups for Free
This is InMails unlimited. Use 'Send Message' to send a message to any LinkedIn Group member. Just search for their name in a group and click "message". However, this LinkedIn secret should be used very judiciously. I'm not condoning SPAM. Your message must be relevant, useful and needs to add value to the recipient. The person receiving it should think, "This is really helpful" or "This is great! I didn't know that."
LinkedIn Secret #2 - Follow, then Like, Share and Comment
Again in Groups, when you follow 2nd. and 3rd. degree people you'll see their updates on your homepage like they were 1 degree connections. You should strategically follow Group members. This LinkedIn secret is incredibly useful when you're looking to start conversions with prospects or prospective business partners. Like, Share and Comment on their updates and interact in ways that will generate new connections and new business relationships.
LinkedIn Secret #3 - Make Your Value Interactive
Upload and add videos links and presentations to your profile. Communicate your value interactively. Multimedia can be much more compelling than words. People can view all of this content without leaving your profile. You can also load all kinds of call-to-actions (CTAs) within your content to get people to contact you for the services you provide or the products you sell.
LinkedIn Secret #4 - Trigger Events: Powerful Reasons to Reach Out
Although these aren't LinkedIn features, it's possible to use these platforms with LinkedIn.
Wouldn't it be great to know if a particular person clicked on a link you sent them? It's possible with bit.ly. Create a free account and send each prospect a custom link.
GageIn.com is extremely useful for tracking people and company in the news. It includes many custom filters to choose from for different trigger events. The platform is extremely useful for people in sales or business development.
LinkedIn Secret #5 - Collect Leads Directly from Your Profile
Are you collecting leads directly from your LinkedIn Profile? It's very easy to do. If you've got a white paper or ebook that you or your company uses for lead generation, why not use it on your Profile. Build a free web form with Google Drive. Place the links to the form as content on your Summary and share the links as updates once a day every day. This is my favorite LinkedIn secret.
LinkedIn Secret #6 - Use Newsle.com to Pay the "Price of Admission"
What about easily knowing when your 1. degree connections and others appear in the news? Congratulating your connections on earned media (appearing in the news) is a nice ego stroke. I use Newsle to monitor 1, 2 and 3 degree connections.
Make sure that every contact with your prospects has value and meaning for them. Do your due diligence and pay the "price of admission." Connect your LinkedIn with Newsle.com and quickly see if your prospects have been in the news. Reference that in your message to them. BTW: LinkedIn just acquired Newsle.com.
LinkedIn Secret #7 - Share Valuable Breaking News with Prospects
Custom Sections on Google News are a powerful way for you to build news that your prospects and network will find incredibly useful. Once built, you can get industry and competitor news that can be easily shared on LinkedIn. All you need to begin building custom news sections is a Gmail account. Love this LinkedIn secret.
Share news as status updates and send to individual prospects. You'll be the man...or the woman!
LinkedIn Secret #8 - Stay Organized with FiveHundredPlus
The more you do on LinkedIn the harder it will be to track everything and stay organized. That's why you need a tool like FiveHundredPlus. Connect your LinkedIn account and start tracking who you need to contact and when. Use Tags to stay organized.
LinkedIn Secret #9 - Premium Account - Yes, Worth Every Penny
I get asked all the time whether a Premium Account is worth the money. If you're in sales or business development the answer is an emphatic yes! Which account? The Basic. It's got everything you need including Advanced search. Advanced search is very powerful. Got more questions about a premium account, email me your questions.
LinkedIn Secret #10 - Teach, Don't Sell with Content Curation
In a Corporate Executive Board survey of 1,000+ IT leaders, it was found that people who teach and provide insights were perceived as a far more valuable resource than someone pushing a new product or service.
Stop leading with your services and lead to your services. Very targeted content curation is one of the most effective ways to move your prospects into a sales funnel. You'll need to create free Paper.li and Scoop.it accounts to easily find content to share. You should also set up a custom news section on Google News to find relevant industry research and competitor news.
LinkedIn Secret #11 - Prospects WANT to Connect with You
It's essential that you connect with as many new prospects as possible. In the new comScore report titled, The Social Bridge to the IT Committee, 2 out of 3 IT professionals are open to connecting with vendors on LinkedIn. That means people who look and sound professional. You should also focus on connecting with people in Finance and Operations, and Marketing.
LinkedIn Secret #12 - Make LinkedIn Your Professional Website
This is not so secret but by far the most ignored factor to using LinkedIn effectively. Far too many professionals don't care about or pay any attention to their Profile. Consider this: 9 times out of 10, your LinkedIn profile is the one place prospects, customers, partners and future employers are going to go to find you and judge you online. Use it to your competitive advantage.