How to Use LinkedIn Effectively for your Business

LinkedIn is one of the most popular social media networks especially for business. There are over 101 million people on it, with the UK being the 3rd largest country of users with just over 6 million.
For full stats from January 2011 see http://www.slideshare.net/amover/linked-in-demographics-and-statistics-2011

But I've found from talking to loads of local business people that most people tend to just have a profile and in many cases they haven't got a 100% filled in profile.

I was lucky enough to attend a brilliant Social Media conference - What's Next 2011 - in Cardiff a few weeks ago. There were some incredible speakers and for me the 3 highlights were Trey Pennington, Mark Perl and Nick Tadd.

Mark Perl did a brilliant session on LinkedIn. Mark's energy and enthusiasm is infectious and he showed us how to use LinkedIn for business. And I thought it might be useful to share my 4 top take homes with you.

1. Your Connections' Connections

Mark pointed out the importance of our connections. He explained that they all know people who we could do business with. It seemed so obvious after he pointed this out to us!
We spend time each week cold calling and trying to get in front of key decision makers and yet we've got a huge pool of potential customers right in front our noses on LinkedIn.
Mark shared with us how we should spend some time looking at our connections' connections to see who they know. Assuming we know who our ideal customer is then we can look for them within that pool of connections.
Mark explained how he'd been trying to get hold of this guy - John Smith- and after a search on LinkedIn he saw that one of his connections - Steve - was connected to John Smith. So Mark called Steve and explained he'd love an intro to John Smith. Mark explained what he did and how he was going to help John and Steve was so impressed he said he'd be happy to get in touch with John and tell him all about Mark.
A few days later imagine Mark's surprise when he got a call out of the blue from John Smith, the guy he'd been trying to connect with! Steve had called John and because they knew each other; liked each other and trusted each other, John took Steve's word that Mark was a good guy and John was happy to get in touch.
So instead of Mark having to cold call John, the opposite happened! John called Mark and was a very warm lead thanks to the power of the referral from Steve.
Isn't that much better then wasting time cold-calling and trying to get past gate keepers?!!

So take a 15 or 20 minutes, at least once a week, to go through your connections and see if they know the people you're looking to connect with and if they do, ask them for an introduction. You'll be amazed at what can happen.

2. Join Groups & Get Involved

One of the other areas we often over look is Groups.
There are thousands of Groups on LinkedIn and so there will definitely be a few which are relevant to you and your business.
For example, I'm a member of a Group called Business Link in the South West as that's where I'm based and its a great group for connecting with other business people in my area.
You can also create your own group. If you want to create a Group based on your area of expertise you can. You can then invite your other connections to join your new Group.
Once you've found some groups which are relevant to your business, get involved by posting a question if you need help or dive in and answer a question that has been asked by one of the other members of the group.
When you do this your photo appears next to your posting along with a link to your LinkedIn profile page. So it's a great way for people to find out more about you.
If you are answering questions and being as helpful as possible the chances are other people will notice you and want to find out more about you.
The only downside to some groups is you see people trying to answer questions just to position themselves and offer their services or products. As with all social media platforms; it's NOT about broadcasting or touting for business. If you try and do this, you will be found out very quickly.
Try to remember the Know - Like - Trust mantra. People tend to do business with people they know and like and trust so there is no point at all in trying to sell.
Be a genuinely nice person and be as helpful as you can with your advice and you will build a good reputation. Then, and only then, will the business flow.

3. Give Testimonials

This was another gem from Mark Perl. I tried this last week and it felt great and I got some wonderful messages back from people.
The other good thing about giving testimonials to others is that some of the people will return the favour. Now please note - you don't just give testimonials because you want them to give you a testimonial in return!! You have to genuinely want to give someone a testimonial because you think and believe they truly deserve it.
Have a look through your connections and see who you've done business with who you think deserves a testimonial from you; or find a work colleague and give them a testimonial. Try to find two or three people each week and give them a testimonial. This isn't a hard and fast rule; you might only do 2 or 3 a month. Just go with what feels right for you.
It is a great feeling when you do give someone a testimonial. I knew they would be happy and I imagined their reaction as they got the email from LinkedIn telling them about my testimonial. I love it when I receive a nice testimonial from others; it sets you up for the rest of your day.
So get cracking and start giving testimonials to those people you think deserve it.  

4. Complete your Profile
There are a couple of reasons for doing this.

• Other people looking at your profile want to know as much about you as possible. The more information you can give the better. If you are using LinkedIn to find other job opportunities then obviously you must give a full career history as possible.
• Whenever you update your profile, your connections will see this in their timeline. LinkedIn also sends out a weekly email update which tells you which of your connections have updated their profile; changed photo etc. It also tells you who your connections are now connected to.
• Your profile will appear very high on the search engines results. If you search my name "Dickie Armour" on Google you'll see my LinkedIn profile appears 5th on the search result.

So make sure you complete your profile and update it often. Every time it's updated your connections will be notified and this brings you back into their minds again.

These are just my 4 top take homes from Mark Perl's brilliant talk at the Social Media conference - What's Next 2011 in Cardiff. If you really want to learn how to use LinkedIn properly I highly recommend you get in touch with Mark Perl. He'll give you all the help and guidance you need.


So get going - make sure you spend time looking into your connections' connections and asking for referrals to those key decidion makers you want to speak to. Join the Groups you're interested in and get involved in the conversations going on there. Please give testimonials; you'll feel great and you'll feel even better when people start giving you testimonials and get your profile completed to 100% and keep it updated.

If you know me and we're not already connected on LinkedIn my profile is http://www.linkedin.com/in/dickiearmour Please do connect and if I know you I will of course accept.

Please do add your comments below and share how you're using LinkedIn.

Think and Grow Rich - Very Special Offer!

I've been a big fan of Napoleon Hill since I first read his brilliant book Think and Grow Rich back in the late 1980's.
It's amazing that it was written nearly 100 years ago! Everyone should read this book and in fact I have a very special offer for you at the end of this blog post.

Parallels
I love the parallels between the depression of 1929 and today, as we struggle out of our current ongoing recession, which many have referred to as a depression. With the last budget, it seems that we're not quite out of the woods yet!

Hill refers to the 1930s as being a time of great opportunity and it very much feels like that today. In his book he runs us through his thirteen steps to riches, but it's not just about the money. Each step has so many tips and tricks on how we can simply set ourselves up to succeed.

The New Way of Marketing Services
In the chapter on Organised Planning Hill refers to "The New Way of Marketing Services". This section blew me away! He was so ahead of his time on this stuff. He refers to how companies need to care more about their employees and their customers and how we should be treating our customers with courtesy and great service. He refers to his QQS rating which is brilliant!

Q uality
Q uantity
S pirit

Summed up, it means we should give the best quality of service in the quantity we are capable of (meaning to do everything we possibly can) and in the best possible spirit by being courteous and caring and with a smile.

This was 1929 remember! I was constantly amazed as I read Think and Grow Rich and had to keep reminding myself that it was written such a long time ago. Hill even refers to how the bankers have had to change their attitudes and how they engage with their customers. It could have been written last week!!

The book was originally priced at $2.50 and the publisher ordered a print run of 5,000 copies which was a bit optomistic at the time. These 5,000 copies sold out in just 3 weeks! And it's gone on to sell millions of copies all over the world!

It's amazing to me that all those years ago Hill claimed that thoughts become things and stated the now well known quote:

"Whatever the human mind can conceive and believe, it can acheive."

He made these claims at a time when people were locked up for out of the ordinary thinking and claims!

Here's a wonderful video of Napoleon Hill explaning how he met Andrew Carnegie and he outlines the main theory behind his book.




You get what you focus on
Many people I know still don't accept the simple fact that our thoughts can and do become a reality. I used to play a lot of golf and it's a great example of getting what you think about and focus on. Imagine lining up to play your next shot which is over water. If you don't catch your thoughts in time, you won't be able to stop yourself from focusing on the water and saying things like, "I must not go in the water. I must not land in the water. I must not hit my shot short." This is not ideal and you can imagine the end result. You'll land your golf ball in the water because that's what you were focusing on!

Instead, you should focus on the green and just ignore any hazards such as water or bunkers, but human nature leads us to focus on the things we don't want. Think about it, whenever we ask people what they want they easily come back with a list of the things they don't want, but very few people know with absolute clarity what it is they DO want.


Think and Grow Rich is a truly remarkable book and if you haven't read it then I urge you to get yourself a copy and take time out to read it from cover to cover.

My Offer!!
So as promised earlier, I have a very special offer for you. Every fortnight from May 3rd for the rest of 2011 I am giving away a FREE hardback copy of Think and Grow Rich.

To be in with your chance of winning a copy you just have to do 2 things:
1. Follow me on Twitter - @dickiearmour
2. Like the Business Mentors Club Facebook page

That's it. As long as you've liked the Business Mentors Club Facebook page and you're following me on Twitter, your name will be added into the draw every two weeks for the rest of the year. So you'll have 17 chances to win!

My eight year old daughter will randomly select a person every 2 weeks from a hat and the winner will receive a copy of the book.

Please go to www.thinkandgrowrichoffer.co.uk for more details.

It's NOT about me - it's all about YOU!

This week I've decided to start a little bit of promoting via Twitter.

I've got a few followers now and I was thinking about how I could help them. What's the point of us all being connected if we don't get to know each other? But it's tricky.

We are all mega busy, running around each day, running our businesses, wading through hundreds of emails, arranging meetings, looking afer customers, more meetings, business networking, tweeting, Facebook postings, LinkedIn discussions, Q&A on Quora, conversations on Ecademy, wandering aimlessly around Second Life, recording videos, uploading them to YouTube and Viddler and Vimeo, tweeting, recording audios, uploading them to audioboo or burning them to CD, or trying to figure out how to get them onto our website, tweeting, writing blogs, writing books, writing eBooks, writing posts on forums, email marketing, writing press releases, arranging your new business cards, doing your accounts, keeping on top of your cash flow and so on and so on and so on!

And that's just the business side of things. Our personal lives can be just as hectic and we often have to find time to make arrangements for that during our working hours too. Looking after our loved ones, arranging parties, booking holidays, school trips, children's activities during the holidays, arranging the Mum & Dad taxi service for all your children's parties and functions, shopping, family visits etc...

So I know you're all busy.

Which is why I thought I'd spend some time this week helping you.

I'm going to radmomly promote 2 of my followers' businesses on Twitter every day this week. At 11:30am and 2:30pm  and 11:45am and 2:45pm each day, UK time.

I love people and I love helping people and I realised that whilst I do ReTweet a lot of people's content; I've not done much promoting of other people's businesses.

Zig Ziglar said "If we help enough people get what they want, we'll eventually get what we want".

I hope this will bring me closer to some of my followers and we will get to know each other. I think that's one of the wonderful things about life; it will be great to surprise a few followers with my tweets and it's just nice to help people.I know how it feels when I get a testimonial from someone or when someone says something nice about me and my business.

It's those random acts of kindness that we don't often make enough time for in life. So many people are too busy bigging themselves up and trying to sell and promote their own products and services that they forget about the other people. It's NOT about me! It's all about YOU!

So I'm sorry I can't help with your hectic daily schedules in your business and family lives! But I hope my random week of kindness will at least put a smile on your face and who knows - we may go from just being followers of each other on Twitter to real life friends.

2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report

Have you ever asked yourself any of these questions? “Where are my peers targeting their social media efforts? What benefits are they achieving? Where will they focus their future activities?”

Look no further.

All of the answers (and more) are right here in this free social media report from Michael Stelzner at Social Media Examiner.


Social Media Marketing Industry Report 2011 from Michael A. Stelzner on Vimeo.

To understand how marketers are using social media, Social Media Examiner commissioned the 2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report.

They set out to uncover the “who, what, where, when and why” of social media marketing with this report.

A significant 3,300 social media marketers provided valuable insight you won’t find elsewhere. In this free report, you’ll discover:

• The top 10 social media questions marketers want answered
• How much time marketers invest with social media activities
• The top benefits of social media marketing and how time invested affects results
• The most used social media tools and services
  
• Marketers’ future social media plans
• Activities social media marketers are outsourcing
• And much more!

If you’re responsible for marketing your business, you’ll want to closely analyze the pages of this free 41-page report and use it to persuade others.

Remember, the nature of social media is to “share,” so if you like the report, please let your peers know about it.

>> Download the report here by right-clicking (control click on Macs). NOTE: Having trouble downloading? The file is large and may not display properly in some browsers. Try right-clicking (or control-click on Mac) to save it to your hard drive.

What do you think about these findings? Please share your comments in the box below.

FourSquare - A Great Way to Get More Loyal Customers

If you own a retail outlet or a location such as an ice cream van or hot dog or burger stand then you can get more loyal customers using this simple to set up social media website - Foursquare.com

Foursquare is a location based social media platform on which users "check-in" to let others know where they are and what they're doing. It uses geo-location on a mobile device such as an Android phone, iPhone, smartphone, iPad, or laptop. So you have to be actually in the venue or very nearby to be able to check in.

Each time you check in you have the option to share the fact with your Foursquare friends and you can also post a message about it to Twitter and Facebook. So it's a great way for retail venues to market themselves, as it increases your exposure on these different social networks each time users check in at your venue.

Earn Rewards
Users can earn points for each check-in and there's a weekly league table of all your friends and also of all the people in the same City as you.

You can also get special deals offered by the different locations you check in at. For example, if you check in regularly, many establishments offer discounts and specials. On the screenshot below you'll see that The Doubletree by Hilton Cadbury House offers a free cookie to anyone who checks in. They also offer 20% discount to the Mayor.

Becoming Mayor
If you check in more often than anyone else over a 60 day period, you become the mayor of the venue. As you can see above I'm the Mayor of Cadbury House and so I get a 20% discount when I buy anything there. This is a great incentive for me, as it's my gym!
Stuart Edmonstone and I are working out regularly as we progress towards our goal of getting a body like Brad Pitt's! See www.bradsbody.com for more details. Stuart and I often pop into the cafe after a workout so it's great to get the discount as mayor.
 
Domino's Pizza
In July 2010, Domino's Pizza attributed strong growth in online sales to its use of promotions on location-based mobile application Foursquare and social media after revealing a 29% surge in pre-tax profits to £17.5m.

In May 2010, Domino's launched a nationwide promotion in the UK on Foursquare that encouraged users to check-in at its outlets. Every Wednesday the mayor of Domino's Pizza gets a FREE small pizza. I know quite a few people in Bristol who love this deal and all compete to be the mayor each Wednesday!

Badges - The Foursquare Trophy Case
As users check in they are awarded badges. These badges are given to users to reward them and motivate them to explore more venues around their location.

Recently Foursquare added The Partner Badge program which allows brands to create their own badges on Foursquare which can then be awarded to their brand advocates. See Everything in its right place: unveiling the new Trophy Case for full details on this.

Start Promoting your Business
So set up your account today and start offering rewards to your loyal customers for coming into your venue. You can find out more at http://foursquare.com/business/venues and if you want to promote your brand to your customers and potential customers go to http://foursquare.com/business/brands. This has details about how you can set up a Foursquare Page to help you connect with your followers on Foursquare.

So get onto Foursquare today and get your business set up so your followers can start checking in with you!

Beware of this Domain Name Renewal SCAM!

Please READ this carefully.

A friend received this letter in the post last week from an outfit called Domain Renewal Group. They were originally called the Domain Registry of America (DRoA).
The Domain Renewal Group have been using this under hand sales tactic for a few years now and it's something which needs to be stopped.

Please click the image below to see large version.

The letter is very clever in the way it's written. It makes the reader assume that their domain name is due for renewal with this company. Most domain names need to be renewed every 2 years and to the less versed on these things it is quite easy to forget who you registered your domain name with. So the assumption is this letter is an invoice which must be paid.


They send the letter out about 3 months prior to the renewal date of the domain before your normal reminder gets sent out by your current domain name registration company.

It is NOT an invoice
It's an attempt by DRoA to get you to pay them for a domain name that they don't even control! Many people and businesses fall for this trap. Make sure you are NOT one of them!

If you get one - DO NOT FILL IT IN!!

Consequences can be disasterous
You need to know what happens when someone does pay this dodgy outfit. The consequences can be disasterous to your business.

When you pay them, they email you telling you to transfer your domain name to them. Most people will ignore this email, thinking it's just a confirmation of payment.
A few months later, you will get a reminder email from your current provider. You'll probably scratch your head at this time wondering why you're getting another reminder when you've already paid to renew!
Most people will ignore the email assuming it's an over sight.

PLEASE NOTE: If you get an email reminder then contact the person or company who sent the email and check to see if your domain name needs to be renewed.
If these reminder emails are ignored your domain name will expire and the first thing you'll know about it is when your email and website stops working.

Remember the look of this Letter
Please click the image above and familiarise yourself with the look of the letter.

If you receive one of these in the post, ignore it and call the person who looks after your domain name and website.

If you have any doubts please get in touch and I will be happy to advise you.

So you want to start Blogging?

I speak to business owners every week who aren't blogging and get frustrated and worried about the fact. Everyone is talking about blogging as the next big thing. Gary Vaynerchuk talked about the personal brand Gold Rush back in 2008 and it still holds true today. It's not too late for you to find your niche and then you should talk about it and blog about it.

So if you want to start blogging - where do you begin?

The 2 main tools for setting up a blog are:

1. Blogger - A blogging website set up by Google
2. WordPress - a hosted software platform available with most mainstream hosting companies.

Blogger is probably your best option if you aren't too technical.

WordPress is much more powerful and with the help from your friendly web designer, it can be used to create very impressive looking blogs and even fully fledged websites.

Blogger is accessible on the Internet via a browser at www.blogger.com There you can set up your account and get going straight away.

You can follow a tour of Blogger via this link http://www.blogger.com/tour_start.g which is great for anyone who is new to blogging.

The other option is WordPress.
As I said, your hosting company will probably support WordPress. You can find out all about it at the WordPress website. http://wordpress.org/

The great thing about Blogger and WordPress is that they are both FREE to use.

If you need help getting either of these set up and working then please get in touch and I can point you in the right direction. I'm sure others who can help will be adding their comments here so keep a look out in the comments section below this article.

What's your Subject?
Once you've got your preferred blogging platform set up you need to write your first blog. I'm not going into the mechanics of each and how they work etc. Both are very intuitive and won't take you long to get to grips with writing, editing and publishing.

What you need to think about is what you are going to blog about? What's your area of expertise? What are you passionate about? What industry are you in?

Have a look at some of the other blogs you like or blogs written by others in your sector. This will give you some good ideas.

Get Writing
But it's important you find your "place"; your vibe for what you want to write about.
Then just go for it. Get writing. By following your passion and writing about stuff you find really interesting, it will be far easier for you to keep going. You'll also find that other like-minded people will also find what you write about interesting.

I keep a list of blog ideas on my Notepad app on my iPad and iPhone and I add to this list constantly. This blog was an idea I got from reading another blog. So make sure you start and keep a list of new ideas for blog articles and add to it as often as you can.

How often?
Once you know what you're going to write about and you've got a few ideas for articles then you need to decide how often you're going to write. I would suggest once or twice a month to begin with. If you're good at writing then you could go for once a week, but remember; once you get an audience - even if it's just an audience of 2 or 3 - they will get used to how often you write your blog and people like consistency. So don't write loads of articles and then stop for a month or two. This will lose you readers, and one of the reasons for you blogging is to increase your audience size.

Marketing
You also need to think about how you let your connections know about your blog. I'd suggest an email to your close friends and family is a good start. They'll help spread the word. You can also drop an email to your customers; if you're writing about your industry then your customers should find it interesting.

Then use the different Social Media networks like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Ecademy etc and before you know it you'll be blogging like a pro and your blog will be gaining in popularity.