Leveraging LinkedIn

It’s been a while since my last post. Alas, summertime and all that comes with it. Today’s Labor Day, the not-so-official end of Summer. Now it’s nose to the grindstone and back in the saddle with today’s topic – LinkedIn.

Most of you, if not all, are aware of that LinkedIn is a business social networking site. From their About Us page:

“LinkedIn is an interconnected network of experienced professionals from around the world, representing 170 industries and 200 countries. You can find, be introduced to, and collaborate with qualified professionals that you need to work with to accomplish your goals.”

Think of it as Facebook in a well-tailored pinstriped suit.

Here are a few fun facts to know and tell:

• LinkedIn has over 46 million members in over 200 countries and territories around the world.
• A new member joins LinkedIn approximately every second, and about half of our members are outside the U.S.
• Executives from all Fortune 500 companies are LinkedIn members.

Similar to other social media & networking sites, you start by creating a profile. This should include your current and past positions, education and a summary blurb. It’s a good idea to include a mug shot that displays your shining countenance. It’s helps to humanize this digital stuff.

LinkedIn is all about relationships. You probably have a few of those already. The site makes it easy to import your contacts from Outlook, Palm, ACT! or Mac’s Address Book. Plus, you can import your webmail contacts from Google’s Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL, .Mac and a slew of others. LinkedIn will let you know which of your contacts are members. Odds are many will be. You can send out an invitation to connect via LinkedIn for those that aren’t already on the site.

So, now you’ve got perky profile and the start of network. What do you do now? There are a lot of options. You might consider some of the following:

• Find and be introduced to potential clients, service providers, and subject experts who come recommended by folks in your network
• Be found for business opportunities and find potential partners
• Join in discussions with like-minded professionals in private group settings
• Find inside connections that can help you land jobs and close deals
• Post and distribute job listings to find the best talent for your company
• Post news releases and articles
• Ask questions and get valuable answers and insights
• Answer questions posed by members to demonstrate your smarts about various topics
• Feed your blog into LinkedIn
• Tap into the many third party applications like Box.net for collaboration, Slideshare, Google Presentations and Amazon Reading List

Check out the their Learning Center and you’ll find more ways to leverage LinkedIn. Plus, LinkedIn offers several User Guides to help jump start your virtual networking efforts. In addition to the New User Guide, they also offer specialized guides for:

• Job Seekers
• Entrepreneurs
• Attorneys
• Business Development
• Consultants
• Journalists
• Non-Profits
• Venture Capital

And there you have it. At the end of the day, LinkedIn is yet one more valuable tool in your marketing and promotional toolbox. As you explore the site, you’ll find more to help build quality connections, get your name out and build you business.

MeetUp for Meet Ups

Here’s a quickie. Looking for networking opportunities, but tired of Chamber Of Commerce business card orgies, lead groups and industry meetings where everybody does the same thing as you?

Try poking around MeetUp. MeetUp is a web-based service that helps to put like-minded folks together. These are real, live, in-the-flesh meetings. There are groups for all sorts of interests, including business. And that’s what we’ll be addressing in this post.

Fire up your browser, cruise over to MeetUp.com and pop in what you’re interested in and where. If you’re a designer, you might try an American Marketing Association, small business or similar group. A photographer might try a designer group. You get the idea. The point is finding groups where your target prospects hang out.

I do both graphic design and marketing consulting for creatives. So, it made sense for me to attend a creatives meetup. One group I found is pretty laid back and the people all seemed pretty nice. They usually put on some type of presentation and have plenty of time to hook up in a conversation or three.

Give it a shot. Odds are you’ll meet some good prospects and have fun at the same time.

Features are okay. Benefits are better. But, solutions sell.

All companies have problems. Sometimes they’re big. Other times they’re small. Usually, companies within industry niches have the same kinds of problems. If you can identify those problems and find an authentic solution to them you’re well on your way.

So, how and where do you start to scope out some problems? Industry association sites are a good place to start. Check out their articles, news, trends and other information they may have to offer. Odds are you’ll spot some common woes.

Often, business club and association sites will carry a membership roster. Follow some member links and check out their sites. Naturally, Google can be a great help in finding suspects for your detective work.

Many of my readers are web and communication designers. Let’s say you’re one of those. You might find that company sites are having a hard time converting visitors into buyers. They might need a better landing page and stronger call to action. Maybe there’s a lot of “me too” marketing going on with everybody saying the same thing. You just found yourself a differentiation problem.

On the heels of industry associations sites, networking offers some good opportunities. The trick here is to attend networking events that your suspects and prospects are also likely to attend. If you’re a designer, going to a design-oriented event is nice to chum around with your peers, but you’re not as likely to meet potential clients. But, going to an American Marketing Association meeting might be the ticket. Let’s say you’re a photographer. An ASMP meeting is nice, but an Art Directors’ Club or an AIGA meeting would be a better choice for meeting image buyers.

When you go to an event or meeting, listen more than you talk. That’s important. Pose some open-ended questions, not the closed variety that can be answered with a simple “yes” or “no.” For more on how to fire up a conversation and avoid being a wallflower, check Marketing Mentor’s site and blog. Ilise and Peleg have some great advice.

Another inroad is conducting a survey. SurveyMonkey.com is a good one for this. You might also consider running a poll on your site or a fax-back snail mailed version. You can gather some good information from a well thought out survey. Plus, you can offer the results in the form of a white paper or report that can be downloaded from your site in return for the recipient’s email address.

You might consider offering a complimentary consultation for a well qualified prospect. This is a form of consultative selling and it’s a great sales method for service-oriented businesses. It doesn’t make sense to do this for every suspect that comes along because you’ll be investing some time.

Do some background research to scope out the problem. Get a good handle on the company and its marketing/business environment. Develop some workable solutions and make your presentation. If the problem-at-hand is one you’ve successfully solved before, you might be able to simply work it into a conversation or email. The trick is to not show your hand. Whet their appetite for your solution, but don’t give it all away. Perhaps demonstrate your expertise with a written or verbal case study highlighting how you solved a similar problem.

At the end of the day, people ... your prospects ... don’t want to be sold. They want answers. They want solutions. Finding those workable, suitable solutions to common target industry problems can help make you the hero or heroine who saves the day and is worth every penny of your fee.

Networking With Blue Skin

Boy, time flies when you’re freezing in South Florida. This is supposed to be the subtropics. Something’s gone horribly wrong. It’s been cold. Like 40ºF cold. Yesterday, it topped out at around 60º. Yeah, it’s better than 2º, but it’s still dang cold. One tends to get used to 80º and sunny skies right quick. Okay, enough with the blue-skin ramblings.

I attended a local Chamber of Commerce meeting last week. It went better than expected and I had the opportunity to meet some great people. I also got the word out to some friends and family types [again] that I’m still alive and reasonably well (People tend to forget if you don't keep in touch). Both of those activities landed a couple of meetings and one probable gig. So, it’s time to roll up the ‘ole sleeves and start drafting a proposal.

I also broke out my copy of Marketing Mentors’ book, The Designers Guide to Marketing and Pricing. Ilise Benun and Peleg Top did a great job writing this excellent almanac of all things business for the creative entrepreneur. It covers all the nitty gritty from determining your market to how to find prospects and clients, what to charge and how to craft a winning proposal. Sure, I write about marketing and self promotion, but that certainly doesn’t mean I know it all or don’t forget things here and there. So, I keep a shelf of books, articles and white papers for reference.

Speaking of networking, one little ditty I came across is Networking for Professionals. I’m just starting to poke around to see what they’re all about. I found them via a link on the South Florida Business Journal site. NFP holds regular face time networking events and I’m planning to go. Individual memberships are $20 per month in NY, NJ and CT and $10 per month in GA, AZ and IL. If I’m understanding things correctly, memberships out of those areas are free. Free is good. They might be something for you to check into.

I’d like to make a toast

This past Friday, I attended my first Toastmasters meeting. The idea here being, to get out, meet some people and hone the ‘ole speaking skills. Getting involved with Toastmasters was one of those tasks that was always on the list, but I never seemed to be able to get it checked off.

For those of you not familiar, Toastmasters is an international organization that provides a supportive environment where one can develop their communication and leadership skills. That means they tend to not throw tomatoes. Yup, that’ll work. The dues are more than affordable and it sure beats shelling out a boat load of dough for the latest self-help CD set, seminar or training session (typically where you’re supposed to close your eyes, fall backward and hope the guy behind you likes you enough to catch you on the way down to the floor.)

For the record, public speaking ranks higher than death on the stressful things to do list. No kidding. But, even if you’re not planning to become a silver-tongued orator, this kind of training, feedback and experience will help you make better presentations and take a leadership role in projects and client management. Heck, it can even help you convince your significant other that going out for Italian is a better choice than Mexican. That sure can’t hurt.

The meeting was fairly small. The people were friendly and I was addressed as the “honored guest.” It was obvious that these folks don't know me yet. Give it a few weeks. I'm sure "honored" will digress to something along the lines of "hey you." Plus, the coffee was free. What more could you want? They’re a diverse group in terms of age, gender and occupation / vocation. The format was a bit more formal than I expected, but it was kind of refreshing and fun.

There were three speakers, each of whom spoke on their topic for roughly 6 minutes. Speeches are timed and the talks are critiqued by an “evaluator.” I thought the evaluations where honest, and helpful. There’s also a person to check your grammar and word usage and another who calls you on the carpet for using those little gems like, “Um,” “Er” “You know,” or, “Ahhh ...”

All in all, a good time was had. I met some delightful folks, including a guy who is the president of a $40 million company in one of my target markets. Yeah ... I think we’re going to get chummy with him. Plus, he seemed to be a really nice, down-to-earth guy.

If you haven’t done the Toastmasters thing yet, I highly recommend it. It’s an inexpensive way to sharpen your communication skills, meet some great people and get yourself loaded up on java for the day to come.

A New Year ... A New Adventure

Well, it’s a new year and time for a change. I made the leap and moved back to South Florida. Land of sunshine, palm trees, unbelievable traffic, lizards and insects the size of your fist. Ah ... the good life.

I lived here long ago and now it’s time to reestablish myself here in the subtropics. Fortunately, I’ve always kept in touch with folks down here so, I have the remnants of a networks to build on.

I thought it might be fun to follow me through on putting my business together in a new place. The good, the bad and the ugly. Hopefully, not too much on the ugly side.

I came down for the holidays back in December and got together with the family I haven’t seen in years. That’s always interesting. I was talking with my cousin who owns a home remodeling business. One thing lead to another and we started talking about his business and his site. It needs help. Bingo! My first gig. Plus, he’s going to plug me into his network of friends and business associates.

First lesson: Ask and you shall receive. If you don’t ask, you usually don’t get. I simply asked him if he’d like for me to look over his site and make some suggestions. One thing lead to another in the conversation and he asked me to rewrite and redesign the site.

I also called my friend, former boss in another life and major mentor. Everytime this guy gets a new position, I get a new client. He’s a true gem and the arrangement works well for both of us. We’ll be getting together for lunch in a week or so. I also called a couple of old clients who live in the area. More lunches to rekindle some relationships.

Next up, Toastmasters, to hone my speaking skills and meet some folks. Also, calling pretty much everyone I’ve met in my entire life to let them know what’s up and that I’m ready to do the design thingy.

Here we go ...