THE 500+ DILEMMA vs 8 MAJOR WAYS TO USE LINKEDIN

If used correctly, Linkedin contacts can be a powerful relationship marketing asset to any professional.  With over 300 million members worldwide, Linkedin has become one of the highest ranking and most popular business networking tool for data management and people-searching.  From the CEO seeking joint-venture partners to managers looking to meet new vendors to  job-hunters trying to find their next boss, everyone looks to Linkedin as the gold standard when it comes to direct contact with just about anyone! So how are YOU using your Linkedin account?

OPTIMIZE YOUR ACCOUNT TO UPGRADE YOUR NETWORKING PERFORMANCE

Before you take on another stranger's invitation, clean up your list to keep only REAL PEOPLE who truly have something of value and significance to you.  If there are strangers in your list, they should have some significance toward your business or account's underlying theme and should fall under one of these categories:

-          LEADS & CLIENTS

-          MENTORS / EDUCATORS

-          COLLEAGUES

-          BUSINESS FRIENDS & ALLIES

-          NETWORK PROMOTERS

-          INDUSTRY LEADERS

-          REFERRALS 

 

WAYS TO CONNECT EFFECTIVELY
Once you conduct a fair evaluation of everyone in your list, performing a SPRING CLEANING of your connections can truly get you to see who's who in your account where connecting with them becomes easier! Here are some of the best ways to take full advantage of your Linkedin connections

1) JOIN GROUPS that your contacts are members of. Check out their profile and find the list of groups that they belong to.  Groups are sub-communities that are intimate and built under a concentration of a specific subject that you may find interesting to blog, comment or share.

2) MEET NEW CONNECTIONS FROM GROUPS: Being part of a special group or social network may greatly spark new connections based on true common ground.

3) SHARE PROFILES with your other friends: Introduce a contact to others. Everyone appreciates a good lead connection.  Let it be vendors, specialized practitioners, clients or just a good business colleague.

4) ENDORSE: Linkedin gives you the option to support one another and co-promote. By endorsing, you are prompting others to look at this person for their special skills. Endorsing also helps your visibility the same way- so to give is to get!

5) SEE WHO THEY KNOW- AND MEET: With the existing list that you have, networking is about getting to know this person- and their friends as well.  Linkedin exposes that list freely. From here, ask to be introduced.  This is the best way to branch out and explore "friends of friends"- a connection with true common ground.

6) RE-CONNECT: There's nothing wrong with a "long time no speak" or a status update.  You may find this to spark a new chapter in your relationship!

7) SET UP A PHONE CHAT: Break away from the cold digital link and use THE PHONE or MEET in person! Find one of many reasons, from partnering, exploring synergies, vendor connections etc.

8) SEE WHO RECENTLY VIEWED YOUR PROFILE: Linkedin is great at snooping on who's snooping you! They maybe interested in something you do- so reach out and connect with them.  By reaching out, this may ignite great dialogue that can lead to business!

For all the reasons for joining digital communities and social media connections, Linkedin has created the means to find colleagues old and new- and stay in touch in so many different ways!

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THE 500+ SYNDROME 
It seems fun and easy at first to randomly AGREE to accept unexpected invitations or to CONNECT with attractive strangers' profiles (think match.com), but once you hit a certain mark, you now have a jumbled list of people that you have absolutely nothing in common with- nor do you have a clue how to approach them.  What's worse, the clutter of names and profiles you have just created for yourself has now become a major task to review and disseminate each member one at a time.
   
Most of us reach this dilemma because we misunderstand the proactive friend-making elements behind Linkedin's connectors. When Linkedin sends people to you asking if you know them, it is not a trick question to get you to mingle with strangers; you really should say NO if you don't know them.  Instead,  we are guilty for "name-collecting" (otherwise known as data-hording) perhaps to rise above that 500+ mark that we see many people have.  

BUT WHO ARE THESE 500+ people?  Whether you know them or not, randomly agreeing to connect them to your contacts list makes for a cluster of "strangers collecting strangers" who may have little or no intent on actually connecting - but simply harvesting numbers.

THE DANGER OF 500+

A rising trend of cautious naysayers express growing suspicion and a loss in interest when approached by invitees with 500+.  Due to the influx of lead-hunters, spammers, solicitors,  data-minters and identity thieves that are now making the news, we grow leery of the 500+ for their questionable intentions.  Unlike Facebook that promotes high numbers to equate with popularity and social vitality, Linkedin's over-popularity can actually work against you! 

PROLOGUE: STOP LEAD HORDING

A large problem with having too many connections is on the administrative side.  "Hording names" brings data clutter and the eventual GRIDLOCK when you finally decide to use Linkedin for anything.

You may find that over time, your list grows without you knowing about it. Check your Linkedin Privacy & Settings and be careful which invites you allow in your network.  Be very selective whom you let in- because you also have a responsibility to your list of connections not to get penetrated, solicited or spammed (a common sport in Linkedin)

WARNING to those who connect with "pretty profilers"; LEAD GENERATION COMPANIES are now getting caught creating fake accounts using fake photos to friend everyone just to get access to your bio, your contacts and your private info (emails and cell phone #).  

 
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All the contents in this article are produced by: LENNARD M. GETTZ, MBA exclusively as part of the How2 Network for distribution by imworx.com, intermediaworx.com, docpromoter.com and modernpainrelief.com.  Lennard Gettz is the CEO and head marketing director of Intermedia Communications, a Long Island based multimedia and promotional agency.  All written works in this blog article and this blog site are published in various social media sites, websites and publications with the express permission by Mr. Gettz and all ranking partners of imworx.com. Staff thanks: Carmen Regallo-Dewitt, Grace Dellavalle, Sean Chan, Stanley Yip, Mark DelAnno, Vincent Barrios and Carmine Galluzzo. Special reference thanks to: Joe Crook of starcommunications.us, Karin M. Caro of bluchipmarketing.com,  Ken Book of totalimpactld.com, Dr. Veronica Greene of truimagedental.com, Bryan LaMarca of kltech.com, Dario Amicucci, Michael Milano and John Endres of greenpatch.com, Gregg Hayim and Justin Ghaw of maseratili.com, Louis Ferrer and Phil Zegarek of mineolamoto.com . Copyright, 2015. Image Unlimited Inc. All rights reserved.

SOCIAL MEDIA 101 + 10 RULES OF ENGAGEMENT

If you're a professional who has not yet tapped into the vast reputation-building options and relationship making channels of SOCIAL MEDIA, take this introductory tour to the world of digital connectivity.  Social media is today's central hangout for just about anyone.  It's the common place to find them, how to learn about them and most of all, the most popular platform to safely and easily reach out to them. 

On a business level, social media enhances YOUR value in society through your writing (blogs), your associations (e-social groups that you belong to) or from your achievements (your well-written bio)- while delivering an easy and comfortable community platform to connect, exchange and chat. 

EMBRACE THE TREND
Relationship-building methods like the proverbial cold-call, the door-to-door approach or direct mail has been deemed "old-school", antiquated and unpredictable in comparision to the high-speed "key sport" activities of texting, emails, tweets, "likes", posts, share, join, subscribe and groups.  Having access to this new world order means understanding and accepting the dynamics of "high-speed connections". To search through any database is done with speed and efficiency where you can pretty much find anyone in any advanced search criteria in microseconds.  But unlike yesterday's society, social media conditions all members to welcome interaction from in this safe virtual community.


RULES OF ENGAGEMENT

1) DON'T SOLICIT.  This is social media so be social.  Nobody wants to be SOLD things within a private community.  The receiving end feels a sense of entrapment and will often retaliate by reporting you as spam.

2) BUILD A REAL FRIENDLY CONNECTION. Be a person- not a sales hunter.  If you are using social media professionally, all the more reason why you need to connect stylishly.  Provide real conversations and exchange.   If you don't really have common ground, don't force it.

3) - BE INTERESTED.  Read about them and find a common ground... yes, just like a real relationship.  And when you get into discussion, stay being a person and resist soliciting.  Everyone knows why you're in Linkedin and they can read what you do.  If and when you build trust, business will happen organically.

4) BE INTERESTING: work on your bio, spotlight the best of who you are and when you connect with others, choose words that bring positive response and energy.

5) SLOW DOWN... NO BLIND OVER-FRIENDING.  When you land on a screen with lists of people, don't just "friend" or "connect" with everyone.  That makes you a "social pig" and all websites are watching for it.  Over-friending gets you frozen or blacklisted.  Take the time to read about them and really find common ground. The rules are to protect everyone from spam but also from predatory connections.

6) POST & BLOG. The best way to get attention is to write about things that can help the community.

7) COMMENT & ENDORSE: By inserting your 2 cents about something they wrote, you are supporting the blog article and are also helping them and you get more visibility through that blog.  This also means roam the website for articles that are worth commenting.  At best, if you don't have time to comment, click LIKE where it's called for.  

8) CHAT: Unlike the old definition, our impatient and fast world needs messages short and concise.  Chat is modern dialoguing condensed (and abbreviated) to the least amount of words possible. As we all communicate on screens, today's high-speed digital user frowns on reading a torturous 300 word email or an over-lengthy text.  Chat is about a quick thought or two, then wrap it up with a 'what to do next'.  Where over-abundant writing is called "NOVELING", advice to maintaining your connections is to keep words to a well-calculated absolute minimum.  

9) SHARE GOOD CONTENT: Pass on links that are important.  Show great videos. Refer people, sites, resources and vital info that others could benefit from.  Announce some good news! Remember, this IS a community.  They will honor you for it.  By sharing, you increase your appeal, your value as a person and advance your public image.

10) SOCIAL CUES: When reaching out or connecting with strangers, respond according to their response.  Never get too comfortable with anyone to let your guard down (especially online) by writing inappropriate things or prompting odd-ball topics.  Stay positive with your comments (no negative comments to anyone- that builds hostility) and keep a respectful outreach.  As social media is a 'safe community', people on the other end are all cautious from predatory characters.


END OF PART 1
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This blog is written by Lennard M. Gettz, Carmen Regallo and the editorial team @ imworx.com.  Copyright (C) 2014- Image Unlimited Inc. All Rights Reserved.  Contributing content by: Karin Caro, CEO of BluChip Marketing.

ENDORSEES & DEDICATIONS
This article is dedicated to the undying generosity and giving energy of MS. ILANA EBERSON, president and CEO of NYCBNG for over a decade of commitment and loving service to the social media community and business networking.  She wins the annual "OSSUM-YENTA AWARD", a top recognition for efforts above and beyond the call of duty for bringing a vast number of individuals together and generating solid business relationships in NYC and is one of the most recognized business event promoters in the community.  For more information on Ms. Eberson, visit: nycbng or visit her on Linkedin @ www.linkedin.com/in/ilanaeberson

How2 Export and Back Up your LinkedIn Database

LinkedIn can be a great business networking platform-  but to operate the user interface (UI) is not always as friendly as the connections you make.  The database of friends you create are vital to you and from time to time, you must do a backup just in case something may happen to your account. Also, you can use this same database should you want to do a direct mail blast, a mass-mail campaign or a telemarketing campaign later.

Here's a simple step-by-step way to extract (or export) your database from LinkedIn.

 

 

 

 

If you learned something here, be a good friend and share it with someone.  Please leave a comment below and tell us if this was easy enough for you.  If you have any questions about LinkedIn that we can do an instructional, please drop us a line at lg@imworx.com

This educational freebie is brought to you by your friends at IMWORX.com, midislandpromoter.com. the How2Station.com-

Special thanks to Dr. Andrew Rochman, Dr. Veronica Greene, Amanda Gabbard, Ken Book, Robert Massone, Sean Chan, Joe Crook, Steven Blank and Bryan Lamarca who requested this How2 blogpost.