advanced linkedin strategies to grow your businessfiles.meetup.com/1441583/advanced strategies...

Advanced LinkedIn Strategies to Grow

Your Business Creating a Powerful Presence on LinkedIn

Tampa Bay Business Owners 8/28/2012 Presentation

About Me

Outsourced CFO Services • Grow & Improve Businesses

• Increase Revenues, Profits, Cash

• Identify Opportunities

• Unique blend of analytics, strategy and operations

• Experience as a CFO/COO

• Education: BS, MBA

• “Big 4” CPA

Experience and accomplishments in diverse industries:

Business

Services

Technology

Software

Healthcare

Theme Park

Hotel

Environmental

Catalog

Retail

e-Commerce

Telecom

Construction

Insurance

Objectives

This presentation is designed for professionals who want to

unlock and leverage LinkedIn’s hidden power to supercharge

their professional networking.

Learn how to:

• Optimize your profile

• Build your brand

• Prospect

• Research opportunities

• Stay top of mind

• Share expertise

• Gain valuable business advice

Agenda

– Profile

– Applications

– Groups

– Connections

– Advanced Search

– Signal

– Keys to Success

About LinkedIn

• 161 million members in over 200 countries and

territories

• Forecast 5.3 billion professionally-oriented searches

on the platform in 2012

• Used by 82 of the Fortune 100 companies for hiring

• More than 2 million companies have LinkedIn

Company Pages

• Insights and knowledge shared in more than one

million LinkedIn Groups

What can I use LinkedIn for?

• Sales

• Marketing

• Customer Service

• Research and Business Intelligence

• Career

Profile

10 Things You Must Do to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile

1. Photo 6. Skills

2. Headline 7. Recommendations

3. Story 8. URL

4. Current position 9. Links

5. Past positions 10. Questions (Answers)

Professional Photo

Good Photos Bad Photos

You’d like to be unique, novel, poetic, creative. But…

a) SEO

b) 120 characters

c) Word choice

d) Title vs. What do you do? WIIFM?

e) Keyword density

f) Keyword search terms

Headline

Summary & Specialties

1. 2,000-character limit;

Specialties – additional 500

2. It’s an ad, not a resumé

3. How can you help me?

4. Call to action

5. Keywords (Summary & Specialties)

6. Break it up

7. Include contact information

Pain!

How I Can Help?

CTA

Current Position

1. Keywords

2. Consistent with Headline

3. Before adding scattered titles:

- Who do you want to connect with?

- Who is your ideal client?

- What field/industry do they work in?

- What types of services would they be searching for?

- What type of services do you provide?

- Consider the services you provide and use these words in the title of your current

position.

Past Positions

• Keywords

• Supports Brand

• List at least two past positions, for your profile to be

considered “complete”

Skills

1. Allows users to search the

network for a particular skill

2. Select skill and level of

expertise that you want to

be known for

3. Trends of skill in the network

Skills

Recommendations

1. Provides references

2. Can help your cause

3. Give recommendations to get recommendations

4. Ask

5. Provide guidance

6. Quality over quantity

Elements of a Recommendation

1. Names

2. Business Relationship / Length

3. Keywords

4. Skills

5. Benefits Provided

6. Call to Action

7. 60-100 words

8. Spell Check!

9. Thank You!

Public Profile URL

• Non-customized LinkedIn Public Profile:

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/Dennis-Fredrickson/19/a37/4cd

• Customized:

http://www.linkedin.com/in/fredricksond

• Easier to remember, and therefore use

• Use it in emails, business cards, brochures, Blogs, and at the end

of Videos to direct readers to find out more

• Enable your LinkedIn profile link to show up in search results

under your name on all the major search engines!

• Brands your profile!

• Tells other LinkedIn users that you know your way around

LinkedIn!

Customize Links

1. Up to 3 customizable links

2. Do not use “My Website”,

“My Blog”, etc.

3. Websites – choose “Other”

then add name & URL

4. SEO for your websites

Answers

Answers

• Ranked

• Provide value

• Demonstrate expertise

• Strategic

• “Comments”

Create a Business Page

1. 1 Company per domain name

2. Must own domain name

3. Ability to focus and target

prospects

4. Links to documents and

videos

Be Discovered!

Search on Keywords

#1 out of 1,103 results !

#3 out of 379,222 results !

Be Discovered!

Your personal stats!

Applications

Applications

- Applications are added to your

homepage and profile

- Enable you to enrich your

profile

- Share and collaborate with

your network

- Get key insights

Showcase Your Work

This is how I help organizations:

Groups

Gaining Value from LinkedIn Groups

1. Finding Groups

2. Selecting Groups

3. Creating Groups

4. Participating in Groups

Finding Groups

• Groups directory

– Keywords: subject, location

• Through groups already joined

– Suggestions from LinkedIn

• Through connections

Group Statistics

Make sure the Group is active!

Does Size Matter?

Large Groups

Small Groups

Pros • More exposure • More specifically tailored to

member interests

• More useful updates and

information

Cons • Information is more

promotional or irrelevant

• Less exposure

Selecting Groups

1. Can join up to 50 Groups

2. Mix of large and small groups

3. Strategic blend of professional peer groups and

your target prospect & customer groups

4. Vocation/Industry relevance

Target Customer Examples

1. Business owners, local owned, revenues from

$1MM - $10MM

2. Office managers – physician practices

3. Hotel managers – local owned

4. Start-up internet technology companies

Creating Groups – the “Why”

• Control the discussion & agenda

• Control membership

• Become known as a person of value &

resource

• Create visibility

• Instant communications with all members

• Another avenue to grow connections

Creating Groups – the “What”

• Monitor similar groups before you

establish yours

• Create a group that focuses on prospects

• Create a group that focuses on customer

service

Participating in Groups

1. Actively participate regularly in up to 5 groups

2. Regularly monitor and participate occasionally in other

groups

3. Provide value-added information, comments or

discussion

4. Do not sell!

5. Do not self-promote!

6. Do not make “off-the-cuff” comments

Connections

Connections

There are two camps on LinkedIn. They believe:

1. Connect only with a small percentage of

professionals you know and trust

2. Connect with everyone, even if you

vaguely know them

Who to Connect to?

1. People you already know

2. People you should know

3. People you should meet

4. Blend of peers, subordinates, superiors and leaders

5. Connect to connectors

6. Target prospects

7. Customers

Connections

1. Make yourself visible

2. Don't use LinkedIn's standard invitation "form letter“

3. Say "thank you“

4. Go beyond the connection

5. Participate in discussions

6. Invitation survey

7. Don’t sell

Advanced Search

Using Advanced Search

1. Only shows up when People, Jobs or Answers is selected

2. Context specific – different for each category

Advanced Search – Section 1

Advanced Search – Sections 2 & 3

Signal

Filtering Information from the Noise

Too Much Information!!!

Using Signal

Signal lets you see and filter updates from LinkedIn professionals who choose

to make their updates visible to anyone.

Signal features:

• Browse real-time updates with content summaries.

• Filter updates to show only those that you care about.

• Search for keywords, topics, companies or people across the updates stream.

• Find trending links and Industry top headlines.

Signal Menu

By Me, 1st, 2nd, 3rd Level connections

City / Area

Last: Minute, Hour, Day, Week, 2 Weeks

LinkedIn Groups

Hashtag topics (e.g., #cloudcomputing)

CXO, Owner, Manager, etc.

Connections, Groups, Answers, Profiles,

News, etc.

Other

LinkedIn Events

LinkedIn Paid Accounts

Keys to Success

• Build relationships

• Establish trust

• Become a thought leader

• Establish expertise

• Develop your brand; be consistent

• GVF – Give Value First

Resources

For more Information:

YouTube: Search

• “LinkedIn SEO”

• “Optimize LinkedIn Profile”

Google: Search

• “Optimize LinkedIn”

HubSpot

• “How to Use LinkedIn for

Business”

Call to Action: Connect with Me

Dennis Fredrickson

http://www.linkedin.com/in/fredricksond

Special Introductory Offer:

Free 30 Minute

Consultation

If you sign up now

Questions?

Dennis Fredrickson

813-390-5545

Dennis@CFOsolve.com

www.CFOsolve.com

Are you satisfied with your business performance ?

-- Move your success from chance to choice ©