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Learn more (The Course’s intro video)

The Mini Course CheckSheet

The New LinkedIn Power Networking Mini Course Checksheet

This checksheet will show you a recommended method for going through the course and give you links to key blog articles that will enhance your understanding of the topic.

I am currently working on adding more blog references to this guide.

To watch the videos or receive the reports simply click on the item title.

The Mini Course Reports

Report #1 The Five Pillars of LinkedIn Networking

This report discusses five key things you need to be doing on LinkedIn if you wish to be successful. It contains almost twice as much information than its predecessor “Master LinkedIn Power Tips.”

Report #2 The Quick Start Check Sheet for LinkedIn

Learn the secrets to setting up your LinkedIn account correctly.

Report #3 Power Connecting Strategies for LinkedIn

Learn how to get connected with a number of simple strategies that will help you build your network and your business.

Report #4 Working a Room at a Live Networking Event

Learn some little known secrets to working a live room. Then learn how you can use the same strategies in your online networking and on LinkedIn.

The Mini Course Videos

Video #1 Why You Should Be Using LinkedIn

If you aren’t convinced that you should have a LinkedIn account or that you should use the one you have more, this video will give you a number of great reasons to do so. It will reveal the true value of LinkedIn.

Video #2: 3 Vital Secrets of Setting Up Your LinkedIn Account

In this video I discuss three key things everyone should know and do in setting up their LinkedIn.

Video #3 Business Networker’s Ultimate Power Tool

In this video I discuss in some detail why and how to use the LinkedIn Question and Answer forum. This incredible tool is unbelievably powerful if used correctly.

Video #4 The Secrets of Working a Room at a Live Networking Event

In this video I’ll share with you some key principles and one little known secret on how to properly work a room at a live networking event. Additionally I have added new information to this video on how to use these same principles on LinkedIn.

This video is the companion to the report of similar name.

Video #5 The Power Of LinkedIn Groups

Learn the power of LinkedIn groups and some key things you can do to improve your results on LinkedIn.

Video #6 Building Valued Relationships

In this video I’ll show you some of the ways to get new connections started on a valued relationship. I will give you a couple of key things you can do to endear your connections.

Video #7: The Three Biggest Mistakes in LinkedIn Networking

There are three mistakes you simply cannot afford to make on LinkedIn. In this video I will explain each and the reasons they are so deadly.

BONUS Video

The Online Networker’s Workplan for LinkedIn

This fifteen minute video shows you exactly what you should be doing on a regular basis as you work LinkedIn. Besides the core data there are live video examples of how to do each thing on the LinkedIn website.

To get this FREE course simply fill in your name and email. Current members should enter their promo code sent to you by email.

]]> http://onlinebusinessnetworker.net/blog/2010/04/the-new-linkedin-power-networking-mini-course/feed/ 0 http://onlinebusinessnetworker.net/blog/2010/04/monetizing-linkedin-how-do-you-get-to-the-business/ http://onlinebusinessnetworker.net/blog/2010/04/monetizing-linkedin-how-do-you-get-to-the-business/#comments Tue, 06 Apr 2010 14:19:59 +0000 Flyn http://onlinebusinessnetworker.net/blog/?p=574 I did my Power Networking Secrets seminar the other day and one of the participants asked me the following question:

“I participate in a lot of groups fairly actively but its not leading to any business. What can I do to get business out of my efforts?

I think this is probably a very common question so I thought I would share my answer.

The first thing you need to realize about using LinkedIn is that participate is primarily “visibility.” Though you can get business by being visible (more on that in a moment) that isn’t how you get business.

The way you get business from visibility is by demonstrating your wisdom and expertise. This is why I tell people when they answer questions or participate in discussions don’t hold back or be lazy in what you say. Take the time to give a serious answer that really gives value.

Many people have questioned me on this in the past saying you can’t give away everything – or no one will ever do business with you. To this I say, not true. By giving real value you develop reciprocity in others. You also develop a very solid reputation for being an expert.

So let’s get back to how you go about getting business.

Business is developed by cultivating “valued relationships.” This is a relationship where someone is connected to you because of the value you provide. If you bang out enough great answers in the forums and question and answer sections of LinkedIn you will start to get a constant flow of people who connect simply because what you say is of value to them and they want to stay close.

Now that you have a “relationship,” a connection you can continue to build value and in that process put yourself in a position to talk business. Getting in that position is accomplished by being able to make helpful recommendations and supply useful and valuable resources on that subject.

These specific business items give you the opportunity to talk business with your valued relationships.

From Flyn

I have gotten hundreds of wonderful comments about the quality of the material in this blog. I truly hope that my material is helping YOU get more business on LinkedIn.

I would also like to encourage you to ask questions. I am happy to help in any way I can and I will respond to your questions. Please send them to Flyn@OnlineBusinessNetowker.net.

If you like this blog please publicize and tell others about it. Feel share my name with anyone that may need help or has questions about LinkedIn. And don’t hesitate to give my name and invite others to connect in your thank you note to those that connect with you. It’s a great way to develop value in those new relationships.

Thank you.

My episode really isn’t all that serious and I am quite sure I actually did nothing for which LinkedIn management would be upset. But the fact is that you can do things that can cause problems without realizing it beforehand and you should be aware of the best course for correcting it.

My mistake was posting a question related to politics – to be specific a video on the health care bill. My intent was two fold, one I think this is an important issue and wanted to see what I could learn form other. Also the video was quite chilling. It was also possibly a spin on the facts, to what extent I don’t know. The second thing I wanted to accomplish is getting people involved in the issue because it is so important and will affect us all.

What happened is this discussion quickly got very ugly. I responded to posters with questions and opinions to find out what they though and believe. One specific conversation got particularly nasty (not on my part) and the person threatened to contact LinkedIn management.

At this point I realized that the question was too hot and withdrew it immediately. The second thing I did way to contact LinkedIn management and tell them exactly what had happened. I asked them to delete the question completely from the server even though I had already hidden it. I also sent them my side of the story and the note from the person who was upset. Though I would probably have been justified in complaining to LinkedIn for the nasty message I told them I was not filling any complaint – I simply wanted them to know my question got out of hand and caused some ruffled feathers and that I had pulled it as soon as I realized it was out of hand.

I tell you this story to point out to you that your best course in any bad situation on LinkedIn is to act immediately with all the parties involved and send LinkedIn management a note with copies of your handling and an explanation.

If you did something that was improper tell them you will correct it. I can assure you that this is always the best course. With regard to networking on LinkedIn this is one of the benefits of my free and paid courses; you’ll learn how to do things in ways that avoid problems and still allow you to leverage this fantastic tool called LinkedIn.

Lesson – that’ll be my last political question. (Maybe I’ll have to stick to less sensitive subjects like “sex” and “religion” …lol).

From Flyn

Please know that I welcome your comments, opinions, and questions. This blog is here to help you succeed on LinkedIn. If you would like to know how to do something let me know and maybe I’ll publish a post on the topic. Please stick to networking strategy and tactics and avoid user function questions as they can simply be looked up in the help menus.

Please share this post using the social media below and post your comments below.

Of course the first thing one must do is have content in their profile that is directed at what one can produce. Most resumes and profiles are heavily directed at what the person does or can do. There’s a huge difference.

The postcard version is that what one can produce answers the prospect’s questions about “What’s in it for me?” Where what you can do or have done will be likely the same as those who compete with you.

How do you achieve synergy?

You start with something you can produce that you feel is important to those that might engage you. You clearly state the end results you produce for the customer.

Next, you must make sure that your recommendations explore and reveal that you produced for that person exactly what you say in your profile.

Short Example

In the profile it says…
I am able to produce significant increases in sales revenues using specific techniques that increase the key factors within a sales team: The manager’s ability to coach and train, the quality of the sales process, and the sales-call quality of the team members.

Recommendation says…
XYZ Company produced an increase in the sales revenues of our team of over 100% in the first 30 days of their program. The have increased our manager’s ability to coach and guide the team and this has resulted in direct increases in the quality of our sales process and quality of the sales calls made by team members.

How powerful is the fist statement after reading the second? It’s a lot more powerful because the writer didn’t say it, someone else did! People are far more likely to give credit to a third party than to what you say about yourself.

This kind of synergy is only achieves by purposeful pro active action to make it happen. However, you can see how powerful and compelling those two items become when synergy exists.

From Flyn

Did you know this strategy? Have you seen this anywhere else? This site is filled with information on how to make your LinkedIn networking efforts far more profitable. Please participate by commenting and sharing this post with others. Take the time to explore this site and learn even more about using LinkedIn.

Consider our power networking course (while it’s cheap) and if nothing else take our free LinkedIn networking mini course. It will get you started in the right direction.

Asking questions is one of the best ways to engage others on LinkedIn. Asking questions has advantages over answering them. Learn how and why in this blog article. Many people on LinkedIn don’t ask questions, they answer them.

You should realize that when you answer questions you really only get to engage one person, the questioner. However, when you ask questions you have the ability to engage many.

The engagement is easy as you can use their answer as the focal point for the start of the conversation. You can complement them on their opinion or ask a sub question, or even just investigate them and start a conversation re your interest in them.

If you chose your topics correctly you can get 20, 30, or even more people to participate in your question. This gives you the ability to start a conversation with each of them.

One of the keys to asking questions is choosing a hot topic. In almost every field of endeavor there are subjects that are highly contested or disputed. There are also new trends where only the early adopters are participating. These are subjects that will get you lots of responses and opportunities to engage others in conversations.

There is another opportunity in asking questions that most people don’t realize. Although I would be the first to tell you that when you ask a question you don’t want to use the LinkedIn feature that sends the questions to your connections, I do suggest that you can use your question to engage people that you don’t know.

How? By going to the profile of people that are expert or likely knowledgeable of your subject and sending them an email via the “Send Message” link and asking if they might provide their input based on their expertise.

This message should be similar to an invitation in that you tell the person why you would like their opinion and give them a great reason for selecting them to ask.

If you are careful and very professional you should not have any problems. And though some may not participate some will.

You could also reverse this process in an interesting way by researching a person (or group of people) first – then asking a question that would be perfect for them. The invite them to answer your question is the way suggested above.

A connection of mine recently sent me a copy of his new follow-up to any one connecting to him. In the note he provided a number of values to his new business networking connections including five or six names of people he recommends connecting with.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the above strategy. However, it can be empowered by giving less more often. By giving one or two names or value items in the first message and then sending another some time latter and so on, you get much more bang for your buck. Someone seeing your name and getting value from you once is great, but if it happens three times they’ll never forget.

When I asked him why he had not split up the message in the first place he indicated he had no way to track the folks.  It occurred to me that there is a LinkedIn solution to this. Its not the greatest but it would work.

Using the tag feature of your connections list you could simply tag them with a date represented by number 030110 followed by a letter representing the message thus: 030110B.

You could then send your first message, tag the connection and use the tag to know when to follow up – if you scheduled them all for Friday’s for example you could make retrieval and follow-up a bit easier.

Though this is not the most streamline version of a follow up program it is a workable one that has the potential to make a huge impact on your business networking activities.

Though I have focused this on LinkedIn, the method is sound for any networking activity or social and business networking.

Your comments and sharing of this post are appreciated.

Use your new relationships to feed your old ones more value buy appropriately connecting them to your existing contacts. As your business networking efforts generate new people, introducing them to existing contacts adds value to both.

In making these connections you must of course make appropriate referrals. Don’t just connect people to connect them; do it in a way that it will provide value to both.

Keep in mind that it doesn’t necessarily have to be a “business” reason; it could simply be that the person you are sending them to is simply a valuable business networking contact. In fact, a good networking contact may be worth more as a referral than a specific business lead. The power networker will help your existing connection in building more of their own valuable relationships.

You will find that when you regularly connect others in your business networking efforts that your network will grow in strength and power. And you’ll also discover that the reciprocity you develop with your network turns in to a windfall of opportunities for you as those you have helped decide to reciprocate.

From Flyn

Please share this post and your comments with others. Tweets, DIGGs and other social promos are much appreciated.

Tomorrow I will discuss some “excuses” for making contact with your connections so as to build those relationships.

This is a very important concept for working LinkedIn.

The best way to be very successful on LinkedIn is to work on “attracting” rather than tracking down or prospecting business.

When your motivation for contacting or engaging someone is to get their business the nature of your conversation and actions will change. Even if these changes are subtle they will be seen by the prospect and thus change his or her perception of you and thus their reaction to you.

If you keep your primary motivation in communicating with others focused on helping and providing value you will not ever be perceived as a prospector and you will have a far more open communication line with the other person.

Once you have established that you are a valuable resource and connection you can put yourself in positions where you can get business and you will not, as in prospecting, cut off your access to that person’s sphere of influence.

Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays

The tip is simply this: Never respond to a personal attack.

If you participate in the question and answer forum or the group discussions long enough you will eventually have someone that disagrees with you go beyond normal debate and start to attack you.

The smart thing to do in this instance is to not respond in any way to the personal attacks. By responding you will make the discussion bigger and possibly nastier. This is not the way you want to display yourself in the public forums.

You may even find within the personal attack some factual items re the content of the discussions to which you disagree, but don’t respond to those either. Any response you make is an incentive or opportunity for your attacker to respond and make the discussion worse.

If you should ever get in such a situation where you have made some posts in response to a negative post or personal attack, I suggest that as soon as you realize the conversation is going down hill that you simply delete and withdraw all of your comments and responses in that line.

In my opinion this is the only way to handle this situation on LinkedIn or in any other public forum. You’ll find that most of the other options work similarly to pouring gas on a fire.

It can be difficult to approach decision makers directly, especially when it is obvious that you would be a natural vendor or job seeker. In this post I would like to share with you a technique using a job search example that can be adapted for connecting with anyone.

As with prospecting most companies have significant road blocks set up for direct contact with decision makers. Additionally, people are just generally cautious. One way to break this down in a job search situation is to approach from a different angle and develop some sort of a rapport before you move on talking about the job. All of what I am about to say can be applied to trying to connect with the decision maker in a sales effort.

The first “right angle” approach you can use to get connected or start a conversation is “I need advice.” In other words, you are asking the individual that you’d like to approach for a job, not about the job, but about your career. You might do something like this:

Sue

I work in the field or manufacturing and am looking for advice on how to further my career and make ready for my own advancement in the future. As A manufacturing manager I would be grateful if you could give me some advice/tips on….

Bob

A second angel is company. In this case you would be asking the other person about the company, it’s culture,  and quality. You could start out by saying:

Tom

I have always been interested in ABC Company — I’ve heard its a great place to work could you tell me a little bit about what you think and do you think someone that is considering a move should consider this a good choice. I ask because I’m starting to consider my options. Any thoughts you have would be valuable.

Jan

These specific examples aren’t important. The key is that you get into a conversation on an completely safe topic. If you can get the other person to engage you in any conversation you can move to the next step of asking if they would connect. There are many other routes to this end than the ones above. The key is developing a relationship of some sort that leads to a conversation.

This may get them to check you out and discover that you are a vendor of something they’re considering or a person they could potentially  hire. If you get them in other conversations you may get the opportunity to tell them about you in an indirect way that gets your foot in the door.

You can start these engagements in many ways, re a common group, re a discussion or question they have participated in or even via a second party or direct message to them. It is obviously key here that your initial discussion be outside the job search or sales approach. This is not a quick fix strategy but a long term approach to developing connections and relationships with people that can help you.

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