Linked to Influence

by Stephanie Sammons

  By connecting on LinkedIn and building relationships with strategic partners, you can help grow their visibility and influence with your network, and they can help you grow your visibility and influence with their networks. It is a win-win.

  Promote your strategic partners to your network on LinkedIn. Introduce them to key people in your network. Endorse their skills and expertise. Give them a written recommendation on LinkedIn. Share their content with your network on LinkedIn. Refer them clients. Refer them for speaking opportunities and media or podcast interviews.

  When you develop these strategic partnerships and foster them on LinkedIn, you can become visible and valuable way beyond your 1st-degree network. You can become known to hundreds, if not thousands, of people in your target audience who already trust the people who have partnered with you.

  Once you establish a relationship with a partner by getting them into your network on LinkedIn, you can explore joint-venture projects that will benefit both of your target audiences.

  What really helps in making strategic partnerships work is clearly communicating on your LinkedIn profile exactly what you do and whom you help. When you specialize in a market or niche area of expertise, you open up more strategic partnering opportunities.

  Showcase and Promote Your Connections Using LinkedIn @mentions

  I touched on using @mentions in LinkedIn status updates in the last chapter. The real value of @mentions, though, is utilizing them to network publicly with your 1st-degree connections.

  With @mentions, you can publicly recognize and promote your 1st-degree connections to your network. You can also start public conversations with @mentions.

  When you are posting a LinkedIn status update or comment, you can tag a 1st-degree connection (or multiple 1st-degree connections) in your update by using the “@” symbol immediately followed by the name of the person (or company) you are mentioning. The @mention will be linked to their actual LinkedIn profile. They will also receive an e-mail and a notification on LinkedIn that you’ve mentioned them in your update.

  Many times, when you use an @mention, the person you mention will engage with your update once they have received notification. When this happens, your update can also be visible to their connections.

  You can also @mention companies in your updates or comments. The @mention will be directly linked to the company’s LinkedIn page. Your @mention will show up in the notification section of the company’s LinkedIn page. This can come in handy if you are looking to get on the radar of a particular company.

  Use @mentions to promote your 1st-degree connections to share content where they have been mentioned in the news, quoted, or interviewed.

  Here is a creative way I have used an @mention to make a strategic connection: I had written about a high-level executive in my industry in a blog article. I wanted to share the article on LinkedIn with my network and @mention her, but we weren’t connected at the 1st-degree level.

  First, I crafted an InMail (a paid LinkedIn feature) and sent her a message to tell her about the blog post and included a link for her to review it. I explained how I wanted to share the blog post with my network and mention her publicly, but we had to be 1st-degree connections on LinkedIn for me to do so. I asked her if she would be okay with me sending her an invitation to connect.

  Not only did she agree to connect, but she was flattered that I had spoken highly of her in my blog article. I promoted the article through a status update on LinkedIn and @mentioned her. She engaged with a public “thank you,” which meant that some of her network members also saw the update. Additionally, a few members of her LinkedIn network commented on the update.

  Can you see the networking power of a single @mention?

  You can also @mention multiple 1st-degree connections in a single status update. A number of my younger peers were recognized for their innovation and written up in an online industry publication. I shared that article with my network, congratulating those who were recognized, and I @mentioned those with whom I was connected.

  There are many creative ways to use LinkedIn @mentions for networking.

  Give Endorsements and Recommendations

  I covered endorsements extensively in Chapter 1 (Rule #1) for powering up your LinkedIn profile. Giving endorsements is also a form of networking.

  When you give an endorsement to one of your connections for their specific skills and expertise, they will be notified and have the ability to publish your endorsement on their profile.

  Endorsements are a good example of a five-minute favor. People appreciate them, and when you give endorsements, you typically will get them in return.

  LinkedIn does a nice job of prompting you to endorse your 1st-degree connections. You will see these prompts frequently, especially when you go to endorse one of your connections. However, I have found that you need to take a few minutes from time to time to go through and endorse some of your connections. It is as easy not to do as it is to do. You need to make an effort.

  My suggestion is to only endorse your connections for the skills and expertise that you have experience with or have seen proof of. Don’t just give blanket endorsements across a bundle of their skills unless, of course, you believe them to be applicable to your experience.

  Look at the top three to five skills your connection has listed on their profile and consider adding your endorsements there. Typically, LinkedIn members are trying to build up their top ten skills by collecting endorsements for them. Getting endorsed for your top skills and expertise can help you get found in relevant LinkedIn searches for those skills!

  The ability to write recommendations for your connections is still available on LinkedIn but is no longer as widely utilized. Giving a public, written recommendation of one of your connections is still very meaningful. I do recommend giving recommendations selectively.

  Both endorsements and recommendations are a form of giving and thus a form of smart networking.

  Connect Online and Offline Experiences

  LinkedIn has greatly accelerated our online networking opportunities. When combined with offline networking, the online experience becomes even more powerful. Meeting people in person will solidify an online relationship.

  This can also work the other way around. I attended a conference of female entrepreneurs and met many great women there with whom I wanted to keep in touch. I collected business cards (they have e-mail addresses listed) and contact information for the women I met and sent them invitations to connect on LinkedIn as soon as the conference ended.

  Now I’m able to keep those relationships moving forward through my online networking activities.

  Make it a point to attend relevant conferences and events in your industry and community.

  When you are preparing to go to a conference or event, conduct a search of your 1st-degree connections to see who lives in the city you are visiting. You can easily pull together a small group meet-up or dinner with these connections.

  Also, determine who in your network might be attending certain events and start engaging with them ahead of time. Many times, I will set up one-on-one meetings with people who are both in and outside of my LinkedIn network.

  If you really want to take the offline/online experience to the next level, become a microinfluencer in your community or industry.

  John Willding II is a prominent corporate lawyer in Dallas who did just that. He now has one of the most successful and sought-after professional networking events in town. The event is called “Last Tuesdays,” and it takes place on the patio of the Ritz Carlton hotel. John significantly grew his event by selectively sending invitations to people on LinkedIn several years ago. He now has over five thousand connections on LinkedIn. His business has been built entirely upon referrals from his signature event.

  You don’t have to do what John Willding II did, but you could do something like this on a smaller scale by bringing interesting people together who share a common goal or struggle.

  For exampl
e, you can bring a group of your LinkedIn connections together for a small group dinner, a mastermind meeting, or a local meet-up. It doesn’t have to be fancy. You could even start with a virtual meeting. Your intention of connecting others together just needs to be genuine with the goal of adding value to those who attend.

  Connecting the online experience and offline experience is the most powerful networking combination today. This type of networking is very powerful, allowing you to position yourself as a leader and an influencer!

  Stay Informed About Your LinkedIn Network

  Did you know you can control the types and frequency of e-mails that LinkedIn sends you? There are many nuggets to be found in these e-mails that can create networking opportunities. I set up a filter in my e-mail inbox to capture all of these e-mails where I can quickly scan through them.

  To update your LinkedIn e-mail types and frequency, go to “Privacy & Settings” under your account. Under the “Communications” tab, you will see the option “E-mail Frequency.” Review the e-mail frequency you have set up for messages from other members, updates and news, group digests, notifications (engagement with your LinkedIn activity), and messages from LinkedIn.

  I recommend choosing the “daily e-mail digest” for most of these so that you can stay on top of what’s happening with your network and act in a timely fashion (it helps to set up that LinkedIn filter in your e-mail inbox). For group digests, you might opt to receive a daily digest from your top three to five groups and a weekly digest from the others.

  Exporting and Leveraging Your LinkedIn Data

  Within your LinkedIn account settings, you can request a complete archive of all of your LinkedIn data. Once you click the link to do so, it will take up to seventy-two hours for you to receive it. This is an enormous, comprehensive file.

  There is a lot of valuable information in this archive file, and I do recommend requesting and reviewing this data from time to time. However, for the purposes of gathering network intelligence about your 1st-degree connections, I recommend exporting your LinkedIn connections instead. It is much quicker.

  Under the “Connections” tab from your LinkedIn homepage, you will find an option to export all of your connections. Within this file, you will have a list of first and last names, e-mail addresses, titles, and companies.

  Not only can you organize and sort your connections, but also you can utilize your data outside of LinkedIn to learn more about your connections. You can import your connections list into your CRM, for example, or upload it to other social networks where you can find and follow or friend your connections on platforms like Twitter and Facebook.

  You could also potentially upload your connections list to Facebook and create a custom audience for targeting your Facebook ads too.

  I do not recommend adding your LinkedIn connections to your e-mail marketing list. This is not a good idea for many reasons. Not only is it a poor business practice to start sending unsolicited e-mails to your connections, but it is something they did not willingly opt-in to receive.

  If you want to add your 1st-degree connections to your e-mail list, ask for their permission using personalized LinkedIn messages instead.

  Network On the Go

  This chapter also deserves a mention about the LinkedIn mobile apps. Both the primary LinkedIn app and the Connected app can save you significant time by allowing you to network on the go. Check in with these apps when you have idle time throughout your day-to-day life. Again, over 50 percent of LinkedIn traffic comes from mobile. Mobile is the future for professional networking!

  The benefits of networking smarter on LinkedIn are substantial, from saving time and energy to actually making a real difference in the lives of your connections. Who you know is definitely important, but how you treat those individuals and what you do for them makes all the difference.

  Now that you’ve learned how to network smarter, let’s take it a step further and go one-to-one with your connections.

  Chapter 5—RULE #5: Go One-to-One

  back to top

  Leadership happens in conversations.

  - Carol and Jack Weber

  Remember a time before social networks when we couldn’t just blast out our ideas to thousands of people across the world with the click of a button?

  Before social media, we had e-mail and, of course, the telephone.

  In the age of social media, we connect with people through the click of a button…without really connecting with them. We accumulate online friends, followers, fans, and connections, and we interact with each other on these social platforms. However, this is very different than having authentic, one-to-one conversations with our connections.

  The irony is that social media platforms like LinkedIn have made it very easy to engage one-to-one with those we are connected to. Most people just don’t take the time to do so. Social messaging platforms are becoming extended e-mail inboxes, and these new inboxes are not overly saturated with promotional messages (yet).

  It is the authentic one-to-one conversations that build trusted relationships with the people in your professional network.

  Leadership happens in conversations.

  Influence happens in conversations.

  Relationships happen in conversations.

  Engaging the members of your LinkedIn network in one-to-one conversations on LinkedIn can build your personal influence and grow your business more than anything else you can do. Activities such as posting status updates and publishing content on LinkedIn are still important for building your credibility and influence, but nothing is as powerful as communicating at the individual level.

  The only way to personalize your communications on LinkedIn is through one-to-one messaging. The key is learning how to use LinkedIn’s messaging tools professionally and effectively.

  LinkedIn’s Modernized Messaging Platform

  LinkedIn’s messaging platform has been much improved to allow for a more modern user experience when communicating one-to-one. This is great news for the one-to-one strategy discussed in this chapter!

  The updated messaging experience has a chat-like style with threaded conversations. You can attach documents and photos, and you can also add ‘stickers’ to your messages.

  You can access the messaging platform from your desktop, as well as the mobile app for communicating on the go (if you don’t have access yet, you will).

  As this modern messaging platform becomes more widely used, LinkedIn messages will have much greater visibility and response rates rather than being buried in e-mail inboxes.

  Make sure to familiarize yourself with the LinkedIn’s messaging tools as they evolve.

  The Four Types of LinkedIn Messages

  There are four types of messages you can send to LinkedIn members that vary, based on your network and account level.

  1) Personalized Invitations to Connect

  The benefit to sending these invitations to connect with other LinkedIn members is the fact that you can personalize them. As we’ve previously discussed, personalized LinkedIn invitations are more likely to be accepted and to initiate conversations.

  You should send a personalized invitation to connect whenever possible. In some cases, it won’t be possible, even if you know the person you are trying to connect with. When you send too many invitations to connect that don’t get accepted, your LinkedIn account could get flagged or suspended, so be careful.

  2) Messages to 1st-Degree Connections

  Personalized messages to your 1st-degree connections are by far the type of message you want to take the most advantage of when initiating one-to-one dialogue on LinkedIn.

  You can send private, personalized messages to any of your 1st-degree connections at any time. The best way to start a one-to-one conversation with a LinkedIn member is to invite them into your 1st-degree network!

  LinkedIn also allows you to send the exact same message to up to fifty of your 1st-degree connections at one time. There are only a few cases where this mi
ght make sense, and I’ll talk about that later in this chapter. When you send the same message out to multiple people (which happens in e-mail marketing all the time), it is possible to use a personalized style of communication. However, it still doesn’t have the same effect that a one-to-one message has.

  Having exclusive access to communicate directly with your 1st-degree connections on LinkedIn is incredibly valuable. Don’t ever abuse the privilege by sending “spammy” marketing messages (these can be flagged by the recipient) to your connections.

  I’ll give you some ideas on what to say in these types of messages later in this chapter.

  3) Messages to Mutual Group Members

  At one point in time you could send unlimited messages to mutual LinkedIn group members you were not officially connected to. This is no longer the case. Unfortunately, too many marketers abused this privilege.

  Now you can send up to fifteen messages per month to mutual group members across all of your groups, and this includes any of your 1st-degree connections. You will want to use these messages wisely.