LinkedIn Tip #40 - How are you Using Those InMails?

On the LinkedIn free platform, you used to get fifteen FREE InMails a month.

LinkedIn just turned it off this weekend! I went in to check, and the inmails were not working for the free platforms. I am hoping that they will be up and running again soon. Will keep you posted.

Do you understand what those are?

This means that you can send a message to 15 people every month without being connected to them.

The big question is where do you "spend" these precious InMails?

Many of you that did not know you were getting these InMails every month probably have a hundred or more in your " InMail bank".

Woopee! You can have a hay-day!

Here is where you use them:

1. Check out all the saved searches you have set up on LinkedIn with the people these searches produce each week. Check the profiles of these people to find the ones you are most attracted to for business. Then send each of them a personal message. Keep it short and sweet.

Remember! Refrain from pitching to them!

2. Check out "Who's Viewed Your Profile" and reach out to these people as well.

The key is to be genuinely interested in the people you are connecting with. They will respond in kind.

To learn more about marketing and branding best practices, join us on our last FREE webinar coming up June 28th at 5pm MDT/ 4pm PDT.

       https://siftingthroughthenoise.eventbrite.ca

Christine Till

The Marketing Mentress

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

www.2csuccess.com

LinkedIn Tip #39 - Why Do I Need a Professional Headshot?

What do you think about when you see a profile with no picture?

Before I first started using LinkedIn, I read the entire terms of use.

Yup! Took me a couple days to study it.

I was scared to death to put myself online! I thought that as soon as I showed up online, I would have hoards of people knocking at my door, so to speak. I was afraid of getting my identity stolen if I had my picture on there. I was afraid to list any details about myself.

Look at me now!

Here is what LinkedIn's Terms of Use states in paraphrase:

1. You must have a personal headshot where the headshot goes.

You have a lovely picture of you and your spouse, so you think that you will just put that up.

 Here is what happens: subconsciously, people wonder who wears the pants in your business? Seriously!

If there is no headshot, a logo, any other picture, you also leave people thinking, "I wonder what they are hiding from me?"

This is a professional site. We need to be professional. It is no different than going to a live networking meeting, where you dress up professionally and show up without a "bag on your head". People see the real you.

2. Only your name goes on the name line.

This does not include your credentials like "MBA" or "BA" or the like. When you set up your profile properly, these will show up in your education section automatically. There is a trick to do it. I can show you.

3. Your headline is what inspires people to want to read more about you on your profile.

This is where you grab their attention.

Who is going to want to read your newspaper when you stand on the corner and say, "Extra, Extra, Read my paper!" Will that grab their attention? Will anyone want to read your paper?

Your headline is not where you list all your credentials. This is where you show yourself as different from anybody else. This is where you entice people to want to "read the rest of your paper"/profile.

It is obvious to me that many, many people using LinkedIn have not read the Terms of Use. It will only be a matter of time before their profiles will get sent to "LinkedIn Jail".

Come join in on our last FREE webinar coming up June 28th at 5pm MDT/ 4pm PDT. Learn more tips and ideas about marketing your brand online and offline.

(Due to illness, we had to move the date from June 14th.)

       https://siftingthroughthenoise.eventbrite.ca

Christine Till

The Marketing Mentress

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

www.2csuccess.com

  

LinkedIn Tip #38 - What about my personal information on LinkedIn?

Why do you have your correct birthday and address listed on LinkedIn?

November of 2012 I had someone try to steal my identity. Thank goodness for an alert young man at Visa, who noticed.

I was working in my office one day when the phone rang. It was not a rare occurrence, so I thought nothing of it. However, when I answered, I discovered that it was a young man from Visa. He identified himself and then proceeded to ask me if I had moved to Toronto? I told him that I was not moving to Toronto, nor had I been there for several years, and then it was only to change airplanes at the airport as I travelled to visit family In Nova Scotia.

Him: "So you did not purchase over $500 worth of goods at WallMart in Toronto?"

Me: "Of course not!"

Him: "Well we just received a call from a man in Toronto asking us to change your address to one in Toronto. You're sure you are not moving there in the near future?"

Me: "No, I am not even planning to travel there in the near future."

Him: "Well, then we feel that your card has been compromised."

Me: "How did this happen?"

Him: "We think it is an inside job. You will need to contact Equifax and a couple of other credit companies to make sure that your identity is protected."

He gave me the numbers to call for the companies. As soon as I hung up, I made the phone calls.

Here is what I discovered: For someone to steal your identity, all they need is your name and your birthday. They do not need your picture, because they will use their own picture and take on your identity with their headshot.

So, do you have your correct birthday and address listed on LinekdIn? ...You do!

Change it! Right now, go into LinkedIn and change your birthday, either to a fictitious date or remove it all together.

Right about this time I had the honour of presenting some workshops with George Greenwood, THE Identity Theft Guru of the world, renowned author of 5+ books, and professional speaker.

We placed a big screen between us. I would proceed to demonstrate to our audience how to use LinkedIn. Then George would explain how the members of our audience could do what I said and be safe.

George also explained how important it is to not have a birthday even listed on any of our social media.

I chose to have my birthdays listed, so I look normal, but every birth date I have listed online is incorrect.

Once I walked into a networking meeting and everyone started singing, "Happy Birthday to you!" Well I like to sing, so I joined right in. When they finished singing, I asked them whose birthday it was? They said, "Yours!"

I asked them which online platform did you get that from?

I change my birthdates every so often, so they are never the same.

Best rule of thumb is to not have a birthday listed online anywhere.

Regarding your address, only list a PO Box mailing address that is not where your residence is located. Some say that this is unprofessional, but I would rather be safe than sorry, right?

How about you?

To learn more about marketing and branding best practices, join us on our last FREE webinar coming up June 14th at 4pm MDT/ 3pm PDT.

       https://siftingthroughthenoise.eventbrite.ca

Christine Till

The Marketing Mentress

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

www.2csuccess.com

LinkedIn Tip #37 - How to display what you want in the top Profile box?

Oh My, have I opened a can of worms with this one?!

Remember my blog on the "Three Second Rule?" It was all about having only 3 seconds to make a great first impression on LinkedIn. (Some people say it is 8 seconds, but I beg to differ. Time yourself as you check out someone's profile.)

1. Check the headshot.

2. Check the name.

3. Check the headline. ( There you have it...3 seconds!)

How your profile rates in the mind of the reader determines whether they will read on beyond the top profile box and go directly to your Summary or not.

Try it yourself. What types of profiles are you most attracted to? What is it about the profile that catches your eye the most?

If you are on a FREE LinkedIn platform, you are limited to what you can do here. However, it is my intention to demonstrate how to use the FREE platform like a paid one.

Once you have your first 3 seconds up and looking great, you want to have your Experience show up the way you want it to. Since you can no longer move individual segments of your profile around the way you want them, you need to make sure that you type in the place where you worked and add your title in brackets after the company name.

Remember that only your first and last name appears in the name space at the top of your profile, so where are your titles and credentials going to show up? You want them to show up in the top box.

Now do the same with your education. Type in the university and in brackets beside the name, type the designation you received. EG: BA or MBA, etc.

There are "work-arounds" with most things on the Free platform.

Play around with it a bit until you get what you want to show up

.

Your headline does not need to have all your credentials in it. Make them show up in the Experience and Education lines. Your headline needs to draw people to you. That is where you make yourself different from your competition.

Remember that Newspapers never sold with the headline, "Read Your Newspaper Here." 

But the headline "The Marketing Mentress Saves Yet Another Business from Oblivion" does.

How about you? What does your profile box do for you?

To learn more about marketing and branding best practices, join us on our last FREE webinar coming up June 14th at 4pm MDT/ 3pm PDT.

       https://siftingthroughthenoise.eventbrite.ca

Christine Till

The Marketing Mentress

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

www.2csuccess.com

LinkedIn Tip # 36 - How do you reach out to the people from your saved searches?

Now that you have your saved searches producing, how do you handle them?

When I opened up my email this morning, I could have let myself get overwhelmed when I saw that there were over 60 new people listed as a result of my LinkedIn searches. This is a good thing!

Instead of having to redo search after search to find the key people I want to build business relationships with, LinkedIn does all that work for me.

How cool is that!

Now I simply review each profile to find the ones that catch my eye as potential people I would love to work with either myself or through collaboration.

Because I have a fair number of connections on LinkedIn now, I have built many relationships. I know what kind of client many of my network are looking for, so when I find someone in my searches that fits what someone in my network wants, I immediately introduce them.

But before I make that introduction, what do you think I should do? Should I just make the introduction, or should I set up a Memorandum of Understanding with them?

What is a Memorandum of Understanding you ask? It is a one page agreement that states that when I provide someone with a new client, they pay me a small commission. When someone gives me a referral, I like to reward them for their efforts. To me, I would not have had that client if it was not for them and their referral.

But I digress ...

Here are all these 60+ people sitting there for me to reach out to and build a relationship. How do I do that? What do I say? Remember my LinkedIn Tip # 35 - What do I say after I say, "Hello?" That's it!

Remember that they are people and be up front with them as to what caught your eye in their profile. Then let them know what it is that you are looking for and ask them who they know that is looking for that...or are they looking themselves?

LinkedIn is like a large networking meeting. Everyone is there to do business. Try to find what you can do to help them, and they usually will reciprocate.

Just talk to them like you would have them talk to you.

Any more questions? Feel free to ask. That's what I do.

To learn more about marketing and branding best practices, join us on our last FREE webinar coming up June 14th at 4pm MDT/ 3pm PDT.

       https://siftingthroughthenoise.eventbrite.ca

Christine Till

The Marketing Mentress

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

www.2csuccess.com

LinkedIn Tip #35 - "What do you say after you say, "Hello?"

(Dr. Eric Berne M.D. Creator of Transactional Analysis and Author of Games People Play)

Have you stood there at a networking meeting wondering what to say next?

We all have if we have attended a networking meeting or a high school dance!

Dr. Berne had a great formula for overcoming this type of "stage fright, however his book was quite technical and meant to be read by psychologists and professionals of the like.

The Amway business took "What do you say after you say, "Hello" to another level, transposing Dr. Berne's book into the acronym F.O.R.M. It stands for Family, Occupation, Recreation, Message.

I have personally used this many, many times during my networking and "warm" calling. It works like a charm when you have practiced with it.

Once people have this acronym, it seems to help ease the stress of what to say next when meeting someone for the first time.

Often I just use the F.O.R. part and never even deliver my message.

You can tell very quickly when you learn how to steer the conversation ever so slightly whether someone is interested in hearing your message or not.

I never force my message on anyone not interested in hearing it.

Have you had someone deliver their message to you without your permission? That is called spamming you. They tell you their pitch whether you are interested or not. And after they have delivered their pitch, even if you were interested, you definitely are not interested any longer!

This technique is what Dr. Berne was trying to explain.

Personally, I think that the Amway business summed it up pretty well, don't you.

To learn more about marketing and branding best practices, join us on our FREE webinars.

       https://siftingthroughthenoise.eventbrite.ca

Christine Till

The Marketing Mentress

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

www.2csuccess.com

LinkedIn Tip # 34- How do you save your LinkedIn Searches?

Have you been trying to figure out how to save your LinkedIn Searches?

You are not alone!

But why do you want to save LinkedIn searches in the first place?

The reason we want to save our LinkedIn searches is to automate our LinkedIn and save ourselves time online. Our goal is to help you get to the point where you are only spending 15-30 minutes online once or twice a day. Once we have saved a search, it continues to send you emails of lists of people that LinkedIn has found that fit your search criteria for your specifically targeted market. These are the people you want to build relationships with.

When I first started using LinkedIn, we were able to go into each and every group and do a specific search in those group members. Then we could send up to 300 individual messages out to the key members that we would like to build relationships with for business. The reason I know this number is because when I sent out more than this, my account would temporarily be frozen for a couple days, then I could start my searches again.

However, because this was being done by many...I mean MANY people! LinkedIn was receiving a lot of complaints from its members.

People got a little upset about this because many people were not doing it for themselves. 

They  were sending messages inviting people to other people's blogs and  just asking them if they knew someone who they could refer them to for someone else.

This is also perceived as spamming people.

Get my drift?

Then, with only 18% of the membership being on a paid platform, LinkedIn had to make some drastic changes in order to stay afloat, I suspect. (I cannot prove this with numbers, but having been a business consultant for over 300 businesses, one only has to crunch some numbers and you can get a general idea of costs involved.) My question is, "How can LinkedIn continue to afford to offer the free platform the way it was before all the changes last year?"

Consequently, the free searches with the individual groups as we once knew them had to disappear ... temporarily.

Now we simply use the "Advanced" search button and can set up searches for each individual group we belong to. Then we can save these searches. But how do we do that?

In the top right hand corner of the window where we set all the parameters for the "Advanced" searches, we can click on the words, "Save Search". Another window opens up where we enter the criteria for our search in the dialogue box.

There are two caveats here!

1. On the free platform, you can only save 3 searches at one time.

2. Remember to click the tiny checkmark to the right of the dialogue box. It will tell you if it is saved or not. If you fail to click the check mark, your search will not save.

Clear as mud?

Feel free to ask if you need further assistance. That's what I do.

To learn more about marketing and branding best practices, join us on the last of our FREE webinars June 14th, 2016 at 4pm MDT/ 3pm PDT.

       https://siftingthroughthenoise.eventbrite.ca

 Christine Till

The Marketing Mentress

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

www.2csuccess.com

Calgary BizBrigade Women's Conference

So you are wondering what to do next with your business?

Where can you go for help with your business?

Tight budget with no marketing allowance?

Trying to be a lone wolf?

Here's your solution.

When Do I Pitch?

Every day I am bombarded with pitches from my connections on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn!

It seems that when we have an event coming up, that is when we start to get online and tell the world. Come to my ...this...buy my that...!

How does that make you feel?

I for one feel like I am being slapped in the face when I continually receive pitches. I like to be educated and informed first. Why should I come to your...this...or buy your...that...if I know nothing much about you or your products and services?

Tell me about the challenges you solve with your customers and how you were inspired to start your business. Answer some of my questions that keep me awake at 2am.

You can always be assured that when you practice the "Rule of 10 Posts" you will always be reaching out in the right way.

You can attach your link at the bottom of your posting with a tiny invite to your free info session, or the like.

But please DO NOT pitch to us every time you post something online!

That said, here is my 1 in 10 posts that is my pitch:

If you are looking for solutions to getting your LinkedIn profile and marketing program up and running the right way, this is the webinar for you. Prerequisite is to at least have your profile started on LinkedIn with your headshot, name, headline, and resume'.

The first 10 people who sign up for my upcoming webinar, MM 101 Doing it Right the First Time Out, will receive a 60% discount!

Date: June 14th Time: 7:00pm MDT

Grab your spot: https://mm101doingitright.eventbrite.ca

Christine Till, The Marketing Mentress

LinkedIn Strategist

Cell 780-904-9557

marketingmentress@gmail.com

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

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheMarketingMentress/

www.marketingmentress.com