LinkedIn Finally Paying Off

January 17, 2012

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This blog covers local SEO which is dominated by Google, Google Places and the need for citations. The blog also covers just about any thing related to Google search results and related topics. I hope that you might glean some useful resources while you are here.

LinkedIn Finally Paying Off

I have been using LinkedIn for several years now with limited success until recently. Then I attended The S.M.A.R.T. group meeting conducted by Christopher Porter. The focus of this training session was LinkedIn. I had recently sat down and had a long conversation with Chris and a small group of the entrepreneurs. He explained how he used LinkedIn for one of his clients. I walked away very impressed and very excited to hear is presentation.

I had put a lot of energy into LinkedIn and had joined about 2 dozen groups. I even started a group but I just didn’t get it. In his presentation he talked about building relationships with like minded people or those in your markets. I spoke up and mentioned that I had done this by phone when I was a national sales rep. But making this approach work online seemed odd to me.

But since what I was doing didn’t work I determined to give it a try. I started using LinkedIn in earnest of Monday, just two days ago. I have already begun to strike up multiple conversation. I simply began to go through the membership lists of groups that I belong too. I chose to take 2 different approaches to this process. I would split my time between local business marketing owners in Tucson and those involved in SEO, Social Media, or Internet marketing outside of Tucson.

I made sure to personalize each connection request by addressing each person by name. For those in Tucson I would mention that we had certain things in common such as we are both in the same city and group. And then I would ask for a connection. For those outside of Tucson I would note that we are in the same group and in similar business fields just as Chris had suggested. The response rate has been surprisingly good!

It’s when they accept the connection request that things get very interesting. Before I thank them for taking the time to accept my request I do some background research. I look over their profile and then visit their website. I am looking for something to use as a conversation starter. Sometimes I find broken links on a website or the website never loads. And I mention this in my thanks for connecting message.

Then I began to notice that most of the profiles were not taking full advantage of the 3 profile links that the site offers. You can turn these generic links into powerful anchor text links very easily. When I saw this on a profile I would respond like this.

I just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to make a connection on LinkedIn.

FYI: I provide SEO and here’s a tip to improve your profile for Google rankings. In the profiles website area you can add a keyword phase to each link like… (Here I individualize my message by adding a keyword phrase from their websites home page.)

This provides 2 solutions. It tells your profile visitors what your website is about much better than Company Website (that they were using.) It also creates a more useful anchor text link that will assist your website in ranking better in Google.

Now, I have really gotten their attention as I am providing information freely that can benefit their businesses. This approach was been warmly accepted and it gets a conversation going.

Speaking of getting a conversation going I just got off the phone with someone that I had just made a LinkedIn connection on Monday. Jennifer does seminars on internet marketing and was looking for someone to refer clients to that need SEO services. Is that cool or what?

I tell you this story as a reminder to you and myself that social media is really about building relationships. I know this but I have had a difficult time implementing it. I teach that websites needs to bring a selling presentation onto their pages. In other words what you do off line needs to be done online when it comes to selling. You must do a features and benefits presentation and then ask for the sale (call to action.)

Now, I will be teaching that you can actually bring the relationship part of sales into social media. Let’s face it, when given and opportunity people generally do business with people that they like. As for me I plan on taking what I have learned with LinkedIn and apply it on other popular sites like Facebook. I can easily see how this can be applied to people who like your pages.

Well, I just checked my email and I have a dozen people who have recently agreed to make a connection so I gotta go!

What say you?

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