LinkedIn Tip # 29 - Are YOU Aware?

Did you know that you have 15 free Inmails on LinkedIn every month?

Yay!

Perhaps I should define Inmails. 

Inmails are the free email messages you can send to people who are in the same group as you are on LinkedIn. You do not need to be connected to them. You can message these members directly to ask them a question regarding a post they published in the group or you can ask them about their business, etc. This is a good thing, because it is considered rude to carry on an in-depth conversation with them through the comment thread of a group post.

Here is what has transpired.

We used to be able to send as many Inmails through the groups on LinkedIn as we wanted...well, to a limit of about 300 a day. I know because I had my account temporarily sent to 'LinkedIn Jail' for sending out too many in one day.

There were so many people that I wanted to connect with on a deeper level than just posting blogs and comments in the groups I belonged to. I wanted to invite them to come join my group. I also discovered that going into a group and inviting the members to come join my group is rude...I read the Terms of Use.

That won't happen again!

Here is what LinkedIn has done with their platform and why.

There were a lot of people like me who were trying to meet and chat with individuals through the groups that LinkedIn received many...MANY spam reports! LinkedIn was forced to take aggressive action. So they shut down the ability for those of us on the FREE platform to send Inmails out through the groups. However, this was only temporary.

Now they have reprogrammed LinkedIn so that people on the FREE platform can send up to 15 FREE Inmails per month.  These can be sent to people in the groups we have joined to enable us to build deeper relationships for business.

If you need more Inmails per month, you can also purchase bundles of 15 Inmails at a rate of $150.00 per bundle. If you are considering purchasing these bundles, rethink your idea.

Get on a paid platform for $50.00 per month. Your investment includes 15 Inmails a month + you still receive 15 free Inmails a month. 15 paid + 15 FREE = 30 Inmails a month!

There are also many other benefits you receive on the paid platform. Well worth the investment.

We cannot expect LinkedIn to keep supplying us with all the FREE benefits of their platform forever. Somewhere they need to "pay the piper", and so do we.

For more tips and tricks with LinkedIn come to our complimentary webinar series, Sifting Through the Media Noise.  May 10th at 4pm Mountain Time.

       https://siftingthroughthenoise.eventbrite.ca

Christine Till

The Marketing Mentress

www.marketingmentress.com

     https://ca.linkedin.com/in/marketingmentress

www.2csuccess.com

Thank You...for What?

How do you show gratitude to your customers for doing business with you?

Do you send them an email thank you? Do you send them a card?

Or do you do nothing at all?

We have been taking our car into a local garage to get the tires changed in the spring and fall from winter tires to all seasons and vise-verse. Every 6 months, we call them, make an appointment, they do the work, we give them our hard earned cash, and leave. We never hear from them. There is never a follow-up call to see if the tires are ok, or a thanks for your business. They make us feel like we are inconveniencing them to find time to squeeze us in for a tire change.

There is never any customer appreciation.

Nothing at all.

How do you think we feel about this?

Right! We have moved our business to someone who appreciates our business and shows us some appreciation. The company we used to deal with will never know what happened to us or why we never come by any longer.

Isn't that a shame!

It makes me think about all the companies out in the world who do exactly the same as our first company did. How often does your mechanic call you after a service?

For that matter, have you ever received a thank you note from WalMart?

Nope!

Think I will revisit whether I buy there anymore.

So how is your customer service? Do you think that your customers might leave you for ignoring them? Remember that it is easier and more cost effective to keep an existing customer than it is to get a new one.

Food for thought.

For more tips and tricks with LinkedIn, Marketing, and Branding, come to our complimentary webinar series, Sifting Through the Media Noise.  Next one is May 10th at 4pm Mountain Time.

       https://siftingthroughthenoise.eventbrite.ca

Christine Till

The Marketing Mentress

     https://ca.linkedin.com/in/marketingmentress

www.2csuccess.com

LinkedIn Tip # 28 - What is YOUR SSI?

So when you saw this caption, what were your first thoughts about SSI?

It is lonely at the top. The top social selling entrepreneurs are in the top 1% of the SSI.

North America is the highest in SSI. Some of the LinkedIn gurus in marketing are as high as 96%, which by extension means that they are in the top 1% for their networks.

I was surprised to find my SSI was at 90%!

What does all this mean?

My SSI measures how effective I am at establishing my professional brand, finding the right people, engaging with insights, and building relationships. It is updated daily.

Mine says that I am in the top 1% of the Industry SSI Rank and in the top 1% of the Network SSI Rank.

Sales professionals in the Marketing and Advertising industry have an average SSI of 22. Mine is in the top 1%.

People in my network have an average SSI of 49. I rank in the top 1%.

SSI stands for Social Selling Index.

LinkedIn posts a weekly report of our SSI.

If you want to find out what yours is, go to www.linkedin.com/sales/ssi and it will show you how you rate. I have had a few people tell me that they get a message asking them to check back later, when they visit this link. This is because they probably do not have enough activity on their profile for LinkedIn to be able to rate them yet.

If you would like to improve your SSI, you can check it out on YouTube, or ask an expert to help you.

SSI

Christine Till

The Marketing Mentress

     https://ca.linkedin.com/in/marketingmentress

www.2csuccess.com

Consistency Over Time...?

What does it mean to be consistent and how long does it take?

We have a choice to make with our businesses. Are we in it for the long haul to really make a difference in the world, or are we going to give up?

I read an article the other day about the difference between business owners and employees.

We can work hard for someone else and hate the hard work or we can work hard for ourselves and hate the hard work...but we can put the fur coats on our own wives instead of our boss's.

Pretty significant train of thought isn't it.

The hardest part of being consistent is having a plan and sticking to it, and sticking to it, and sticking to it. Success does not come easy or without many failures along the way.

Did you know that people who are successful fail 70% of the time?

So the next time something you implement or try in your business doesn't work, don't give up thinking you are a failure. Pick yourself up, brush yourself off, and start all over again.

Be consistent, put on a stiff upper lip and keep smiling. Remember you are the only you there is and by extension the most unique business there ever will be. There is no other business like yours, because there is no other person like you.

Keep on keeping on because you can do it!

Time? For as long as it takes.

You can! You Will! You shall NOT be denied!

I believe in you because you have a dream!

For more tips and tricks with LinkedIn come to our complimentary webinar series, Sifting Through the Media Noise.  May 10th at 4pm Mountain Time.

       https://siftingthroughthenoise.eventbrite.ca

Christine Till

The Marketing Mentress

     https://ca.linkedin.com/in/marketingmentress

www.2csuccess.com

Who Buys From You?

How do you know or find out who will buy "stuff" from you?

Well, who buys from you now?

Are you in a health and wellness business? Are you hanging out with health and wellness groups and networks? Remember the members of those groups are all looking for the exact same clients you are!

Start thinking a little outside the box. Are your clients stressed out? Do they own businesses? Are they in stressful jobs? How old are your clients? Why are they needing your products or services?

Think..."What's keeping my potential clients awake at two o'clock in the morning?"

What is their pain? How can I ease that pain?

Where do my clients hang out online? Where do my clients hang out in real life?

What kinds of groups should I join both online and offline, where will my potential clients be?

I was invited to speak at a health and wellness group recently and felt like everyone in that group was looking at me as their potential client. Most of the people in that room were in the health and wellness industry of course. Only a few of us were in another type of business.

This is what happens when you hang out with the people in your same industry.

Sure, you can hang with your associates on occasion, but that is not necessarily where you are going to find your potential clients.

Think about it.

For more tips and tricks with LinkedIn come to our complimentary webinar series, Sifting Through the Media Noise.  May 10th at 4pm Mountain Time.

       https://siftingthroughthenoise.eventbrite.ca

Christine Till

The Marketing Mentress

     https://ca.linkedin.com/in/marketingmentress

www.2csuccess.com

LinkedIn Tip #27 - What is a L.I.O.N.?

The first time I saw this on a LinkedIn profile, it looked odd!

What on earth was a LION?

I tried to figure out what kind of a university degree had those letters! No luck. Then I read something in one of the groups that I joined.

L.I.O.N. stands for LinkedIn Open Networker!

Great! But I still did not understand what that was all about.

The article suggested that I join some LION groups on LinkedIn, so I did. I discovered that there were ... a lot! I chose a few and joined.

Voila! I had more people wanting to connect with me than I could accept in one day! It was a little overwhelming, to say the least.

Then came the big question. Do I really want to connect with everyone? There were people from all over the world wanting to connect with me. I wondered why someone in India wanted to connect with me. What business could we help each other with?

When you are a LION, you are supposed to accept connections from everyone without IDK-ing them. IDK means I Don't Know you.

Well, I knew that I had coached people in many different countries with LinkedIn strategies, so I figured it was ok to connect with everyone.

This strategy does not work for everyone, though. If your market is local, then you do not need to have connections in Australia.

However, you can still be a LION in your local area. You can accept connection requests from everyone in your city or province.

Just one caveat in my humble opinion...do not accept connections with people who do not have a profile picture. It makes me wonder if they are hiding something from me, or if they are a real person.

Remember, it is not about the people you are immediately connected to, it is about who they are connected to.

Think about it.

For more tips and tricks with LinkedIn come to our complimentary webinar series, Sifting Through the Media Noise.  May 10th at 4pm Mountain Time.

       https://siftingthroughthenoise.eventbrite.ca

Christine Till

The Marketing Mentress

     https://ca.linkedin.com/in/marketingmentress

www.2csuccess.com

Why Are Your Newspaper Ads Failing?

You're spending Three Thousand a month on Newspaper Ads and Sales are Plummeting!

Is it the economy or is it your ads?

First let me share a simple statistic. It takes 17 consecutive times being in the same newspaper before you begin to see results. And that does not mean that your potential customers will start buying from you at that time. It means that people will simply start to notice you and make inquiries, perhaps visit your store.

With the print media, there is no personal touch of a voice or a video. When you have a more personal touch, you have a much faster response. This is why social media is working so well.

With social media, you build the relationship online through blogging, podcasting and videos. 

Your potential customers start to get a feel for you and your company much faster than they can through simple print media.

Once you build the relationships with your potential customers, they are ready to learn more about you. You can then bring them to a face-to-face, where real business gets done.

A face-to-face can be a phone call, a webinar, a workshop, a networking meeting, or a coffee meeting.

We are gregarious creatures, we people, and we need to be able to see the body language that happens in a face-to-face meeting. That body language is what helps to close the sale.

You can hear body language through the voice as well as see it through video and real life meetings. It all helps to build that know, like and trust we need in order to buy.

The next time you are thinking of spending three thousand a month on print media, do a double-check. It might be good to take some of that budget and put it into social media instead.

Think about it.

For more tips and tricks with LinkedIn come to our complimentary webinar series, Sifting Through the Media Noise.  May 10th at 4pm Mountain Time.

       https://siftingthroughthenoise.eventbrite.ca

Christine Till

The Marketing Mentress

     https://ca.linkedin.com/in/marketingmentress

www.2csuccess.com

Don't Get Your Feet Wet!

How many times have you heard this since you were a little kid?

Moms are always saying this to their children. We watch them as they go outside to play after a rain, and somehow those left-over puddles attract them like magnets!

What is it with kids and water?

There could be only one puddle in the whole yard, hidden in a remote corner, and voila! 

There the kids are smack in the middle jumping up and down trying to see how big the splashes are that they can make.

They are totally oblivious of how wet they are getting. It is all about the splash!

How does this tie into business?

What kind of a splash is your business making?

Are your potential customers noticing you and flocking to you and your business in a big way?

What is it that attracts your followers to you and thus your business? 

It's all about the "splash"! How are you different? How are you making your customers feel when they interact with you? Do they get excited when they feel that "splash" and want more?

So when you are planning your marketing plan for your business, think about the "splash" you bring to your potential customers and what kind of a splash they are looking for.

Think about it.

For more tips and tricks with LinkedIn come to our complimentary webinar series, Sifting Through the Media Noise.  May 10th at 4pm Mountain Time.

       https://siftingthroughthenoise.eventbrite.ca

Christine Till

The Marketing Mentress

     https://ca.linkedin.com/in/marketingmentress

www.2csuccess.com

LinkedIn Tip #26 - What is the Relationship Tab For?

LinkedIn is all about building relationships and tools to help you remember them.

You will not see it when you are checking out your own profile. You can only see it when you are checking out a profile from one of your 1st connections.

So you connected with a great person that you have had a conversation with and you would like to follow up, how are you going to do that without using at least a couple of other reminder tools?

LinkedIn has a simple system built in for you. It is the 'Reminder' tab!

Yay!

No more shoeboxes of card filing systems! Or online spreadsheets and calendaring systems for managing your LinkedIn relationships.

This little Reminder tab lets you type in some notes, set up a reminder alarm, tag your connection, and it keeps a list of all the conversations you have had with this connection.

Easy-peasy!

Try it! You will love it!

For more tips and tricks with LinkedIn come to our complimentary webinar series, Sifting Through the Media Noise.  May 10th at 4pm Mountain Time.

       https://siftingthroughthenoise.eventbrite.ca

Christine Till

The Marketing Mentress

     https://ca.linkedin.com/in/marketingmentress

www.2csuccess.com

LinkedIn Tip #25 - How to Remove a Connection on LinkedIn.

Is there someone who you feel is stalking you on your LinkedIn platform?

Often when I am speaking with groups about marketing online, I meet individuals who are concerned about being stalked by old boyfriends or x-spouses or old bosses. When this is happening to you, there are some very simple steps to take that will eliminate the challenge immediately.

Here is what to do.

Linkedin has made this very simple with their new platform.

1. Go to the person's profile that you wish to remove.

2. Click on the tiny arrow beside the blue 'send message' tab in the top part of their profile page.

3. A drop-down menu will appear.

4. Scroll down to the bottom of that menu list to 'Remove Connection' .

5. You can also choose 'Block or Report' which will also remove the connection.

6. Click the response you wish to use and you will not be bothered any longer by this person.

Now this works great for people that you are connected to. However, if you are not connected to them, and the perpetrator is following you without making the connection, you may not be able to use this simple method that I just mentioned.

When people are not connected to you, here is what to do.

1. Go to your setting menu located under the tiny icon of your headshot in the top right side of your profile page.

2. Scroll down to 'Privacy and Settings' in the drop-down menu.

3. In the first profile tab, scroll down to 'Manage people you are blocking'.

4. There is a list of frequently asked questions that will help you solve your challenge.

If you need more help, feel free to contact me and I will help point you in the right direction.

If you are new to this platform, or any online platforms, remember that you can always 'Block and Report' people.

For more tips and tricks with LinkedIn come to our complimentary webinar series, Sifting Through the Media Noise.  April 12th at 4pm Mountain Time.

       https://siftingthroughthenoise.eventbrite.ca

Christine Till

The Marketing Mentress

     https://ca.linkedin.com/in/marketingmentress

www.2csuccess.com

LinkedIn Tip # 24 - Endorsements vs Recommendations?

What value do endorsements have when people endorse you without even knowing you?

Have you noticed that many times you receive a connection request and immediately after you accept, the new connection endorses you for every specialty you have?

What use is it to receive these endorsements?

Let me share a story to explain the value of endorsements on LinkedIn.

I was invited by LinkedIn to attend a major conference they were holding in Vancouver a few years ago. I was excited to attend because first of all, it was free and second I wanted to meet all the local gurus that I had met online and at networking groups.

When the day of the event arrived, I enthusiastically entered the large conference center in downtown Vancouver. It was gorgeous, on the water, sunshine, light breeze blowing, many people arriving!

As I started looking around the room, I did not see many of the so-called LinkedIn gurus that I knew. Perhaps there were 5 or 6 that I knew. The rest of the audience was totally new to me.

Here is what happened!

At the end of the day, as the LinkedIn presenters wrapped up their presentation of all the latest features of LinkedIn, suddenly my headshot appeared on the huge video screens at the front of the room!

Shock! What was this all about?!

The person on the podium announced, "Would Christine Till please come up! We have an award for you!"

Of course I jumped up and approached the stage?

As I approached the stage, they announced that I was receiving an award for having the most endorsements of anyone in British Columbia!

More shock! I could not believe my ears!

Big lesson!

Here I had thought all along that endorsements had little or no value and that they were pretty much bogus things to have, but this experience demonstrated to me the true value of accepting endorsements and allowing people to find great things to compliment me on, and that I should be more open to doing the same.

Today I endorse people every day, multiple times a day. Here is my caveat: I endorse the people I know and/or have done business with, or have had recommended to me by someone I trust.

Mind you, the written recommendation still carries more weight, because that means someone has taken time to actually type out how they have felt about doing business with you. These are the best by far.

There is a secret when it comes to written recommendations. Never ask for a written recommendation on LinkedIn! Be pro-active and write one for the people you do business with first. People love to receive a glowing compliment in writing that is heart-felt and honest. Then guess what happens? They feel inspired to write one for you!

In all the years I have been using LinkedIn, I have never asked for recommendations from anyone. I now have over 200 written recommendations on LinkedIn. They have all come to me from people who responded to my recommendation that I sent to them first.

So the next time you are wondering what else you can do with LinkedIn, sit down and write some recommendations for the people you have done business with. They will love you for it, and write you one back.

It is all part of building your brand and making money on LinkedIn.

Endorsements and Recommendations keep your face in front of your audience, so the next time someone on LinkedIn needs what you have to offer, they will think of you first.

For more tips book into our series of complimentary webinars. The next one is April 12th at 4pm Mountain Time.

       https://siftingthroughthenoise.eventbrite.ca

Christine Till

The Marketing Mentress

     https://ca.linkedin.com/in/marketingmentress

www.2csuccess.com

LinkedIn Tip #23 - What's Happening to Your Group?

Have you noticed that you can no longer message people directly through groups?

Then what is the use of having a group, if you cannot message people directly?

I have noticed that many groups on LinkedIn are now becoming stagnant. People can no longer message people directly in the groups and make those valuable interactions with the people they want to know and do business with on that personal level. The reason this has happened is because people were abusing this feature. Members of the groups were getting spammed every day multiple times!

In order to message people directly without being connected to them, you now need to be on a paid platform, so you have "Inmail". Inmail allows you to send a message directly to anyone on LinkedIn you choose, even if you are not connected to them. So if you want to save time and get directly in touch with key people, you must be on a paid platform.

Here's how you can make your group work for you on a FREE platform or a paid one:

1. When you own your own group, you have the opportunity to message your tribe with a pitch once a week.

2. You can manage your group by inviting people to connect with you and offer them your email to connect with you.

3. You can also invite members of your group to be featured once a week with a special post in the discussion thread. Invite them on a first come basis and feature one member once a week. Have them send you a post that tells about who they are and what inspired them to start their company and what they can do to help others. They can invite your members to attend their free webinars or workshops or meetups.

Remember one important feature about your group...your group is not all about you. It is about how you can help your members and by extension, it all comes back to you.

Come visit the MarketingEnthusiasts:  https://www.linkedin.com/groups/4061720

Here are several groups that I help manage:

Digital Consumer Marketing:  https://www.linkedin.com/groups/6940322

ConnectME:  https://www.linkedin.com/groups/4270982 (L.I.O.N. group)

Seattle Business Network:  https://www.linkedin.com/groups/4127831

If you would like to be featured on any of these groups, feel free to ask.

It is all part of building your brand and making money on LinkedIn.

For more tips book into our series of complimentary webinars. The next one is April 12th at 4pm Mountain Time.

       https://siftingthroughthenoise.eventbrite.ca

Christine Till

The Marketing Mentress

     https://ca.linkedin.com/in/marketingmentress

www.2csuccess.com