OK so this summary won't be that precise but it was of a webinar done by Lewis Howes (who many of you know of), an Internet marketer making 7 figures in his sports marketing business. These are the notes I took while watching it. The dots are connected based on my own personal experience, and I give personal anecdotes. It ran about an hour. Hopefully it helps those who didn't watch the thing.
(The webinar was an upsell, and I'm considering buying his course. It was that good.)
DISCLAIMER: I am only a beginner at this LinkedIn game, and I still have a lot to learn and do. But most of this material is from the webinar, and you could say that Lewis is a bit of an expert with 16,000 connections, being the leader of the biggest sports marketing LI group in the world and running a 7-figure passive sports marketing business. It took him about four years to connect the dots, so I'm hoping it'll take me about one to two years to get to where I want to be, and you can too.
---
LinkedIn marketing can help pretty much anyone. Essentially, LinkedIn is a dynamic rolodex, one of the most powerful tools on the Internet today. Not only this, but you don't have to spend a dime learning to use it. Getting an advanced account may help, but it's not absolutely necessary for most purposes.
LinkedIn search optimization
Just like Google, people search for keywords on LinkedIn to find out who the powerhouses in the industry are. People want to connect with people who have authority in the industry, and the best way to appear to have authority is to have lots of connections in a specific industry. For example, if you are an Internet marketer, you want to have many connections with other Internet marketers. Pretty simple, right? When people search for a certain term, like 'internet marketer', people look for people who are on the front page, who are in their own personal network (share groups and connections) and have authority in that specific niche. (The smaller the niche, the easier it is to gain authority, just like with Google).
The network is not the only thing that sets people apart, though. There are five places that you can enter information that will affect your search ranking. These are your headline, your current and past work experience, your summary and your skills. The most important three are the headline and the current + past work experience. If you want to rank for a certain keyword, you want to insert that keyword in as many places as possible. However, don't stuff keywords in the summary: consider density, as well.
Focus on one keyword that is most relevant to your business or expertise. This way, people can find you based on what you want to be known for.
Also: optimize your profile for both search and connection. People will want to connect with people who can help them. Potential sales leads, networking opportunities, etc. That's important to remember. If you have something to offer, people will want to connect with you as your network grows.
Getting Leads Consistently Over Time
After gaining a solid network and a good amount of authority within said network, you need to use the site to get solid and consistent sales leads, since LI is one of the most powerful tools out there. The best way to do this is by creating a LinkedIn group.
Creating a group must be based on three considerations: what industry you're in, how you want your audience to see you and your group, and how you can create something different than what's out there.
The larger your network, the stronger your group can be. People make the mistake of creating a group before they have any authority in their niche, and that gives them and their group zero credibility. If you're a member of every group in your niche and you're connected to the powerhouses in your industry, then you've instantly got a huge amount of credibility and you stand a better chance of people in and out of your network joining your group.
When creating a group, make sure that the outward appearance of the group reflects the industry you're in. Your group has to be broad enough that many people will want to join it, but it has to be specific to your industry or niche. You have to create a delicate balance between specificity and broadness.
Groups can also rank on Google for certain keywords related to your niche. This can help with your business's core SEO strategy.
When you've got a good, solid group, you can leverage the 'Send Announcement' tool and send a newsletter to everyone in your group. You can only do this once a week, and LI does this to prevent groups from spamming their members. When you have a large group, this is one of the best ways to get solid leads, and you have an opportunity every single week. It's just like a newsletter on your Web site, except much easier to join and everybody gets it. People can opt out, however.
Building Leads and Authority Using The Answer System
There's a little known feature on LinkedIn that allows people to ask and answer industry related questions. Use this to your advantage. This is a great way to connect with people in your industry as well as building sales leads.
Lewis said he gets 3 to 5 leads per month using this service. It's possible to get more, if you're willing to put in some time into this. Simply answer questions that involve your niche or service. Since many questions will have more than one answer, your job is to give the best answer that will help the most. If you answer enough questions, you can become an expert on LinkedIn, which gives you instant authority and can increase the amount of leads you convert.
Answering questions alone will not get you connections: instead, first answer it publicly and then send a private answer, with more specific info. Give contact information and offer to connect on the site. Do NOT sell them anything! In fact, don't even mention your business name; simply mention that you are in that industry and you own a business doing whatever you do. They can see what it is on your profile and will be more likely to look into it.
Offer to help them further, but keep it short (15 minute consultation) and don't try to sell it to them. The key here is to connect on a more personal level. Don't use selling words and don't rehash copy from your Web site. You are a person, and they need to know that.
Using LinkedIn to Garner Traffic
LinkedIn is one of the top 10 largest sites in the WORLD for traffic. They get millions of hits per day, and the front page chooses headlines just for you depending on what you do on LinkedIn. You may read them, you may not, but the sure thing is: lots of people do read them.
The reason they are there in the first place is due to the Share feature. It's an underused feature, since most people use Facebook or Twitter to share. However, if you have a large network, many people will have access to what you publish on your blog or what other people have published about you on their sites. This is an excellent way to get traffic in itself, but it gets better. Share with your group, and you have the ability to get your article seen by people outside your network.
If other people share your articles with their groups or their networks, even more people get to read it, and with each person sharing, the chances of you getting on the front page of someone's LI account skyrocket. Just check your own LinkedIn headlines and see how many shares there are. You can share it to Twitter, as well, to expand the people who can read it. If your article gets on the front page of LinkedIn, your traffic will go through the roof. Then, all you have to do is turn that traffic into conversions. It will also do wonders for your SEO due to LinkedIn's high authority on the Web.
Building Your Business on LinkedIn
You have to start somewhere, and what better place to start than LinkedIn? It's the perfect place to connect with industry professionals who may be interested in what you have to offer. It's the absolute easiest way to get an in with people in your niche and it's so easy to start.
When starting on LinkedIn, your first job is to build connections and join groups. Don't sell ANYTHING, don't try to reciprocate likes or links, just connect with people who are relevant to your industry. Start with people that you know (college friends, co-workers) and build off of their networks. It's really easy to cold-connect on LinkedIn, and it all starts with the greeting message.
To network, you have to make a good first impression with your greeting message. The message you send is extremely important. Again, do NOT try to sell ANYTHING. Not your services, not your product, not yourself. Make it about THEM. You want to network with THEM because you find them to have credibility. Come off as professional and friendly with something that you could potentially offer. Mention that you really like their business or the content they share to the group. Just today, my site is planning to partner with another start-up (job finder for medical and healthcare professionals), just because we communicated on LinkedIn. You may not get the big dogs in your industry first, but if you share a group AND a connection, they'll be much more likely to connect with you.
When people get your message, the second thing they'll see is your profile. Style your profile in a professional manner. Make sure to list positions that you had that are relevant to your industry. Use the keywords that you want to rank for in your positions (for example, my profile does not say CEO or Founder of CSurgeons.com, it says "Plastic Surgery Marketing Team Leader at CSurgeons.com" because I want people to know me as the marketing guy, since that's the main thing I do). Make sure your skills and expertise are NOT filled with bullshit and lies, but instead are directly relevant to what your business does.
With each connection you make, your network grows. Be wary of your connections, however: you do NOT want to try and connect with random people. It's almost as if you are a salesman, and people will recognize you as such. Your reputation is VERY important on this site, and you want to have authority, not be a bother. ONLY connect with people you share a group with or a connection with. And grow your network SLOWLY. Don't send more than 10 cold connection requests a day, and do not rehash your same message.
Join open registration groups first, and do not post sales promotions. Instead, post discussions and mention your business, so they'll be willing to check it out. Aggressive sales tactics work with direct cold calling, but they do not work on LinkedIn, especially if you are trying to get authority, which is literally the point of this site. You cannot grow a business on LinkedIn without growing perceived authority in your niche!
When you become a noticed member in your group, you'll have people wanting to connect with you. I get requests from medical professionals and marketers wanting to network, and I'm a 19 year old kid! Actual personal requests that don't just involve reciprocating links! They WANT to be in my network because I provide value (it's minimal, but they see it). And my site's traffic has been growing thanks to this site. Bounce rate went down and everything. Continue connecting with people as your authority grows in your groups. As your network gets bigger, more people want in. Then you can start making groups, answering questions, and becoming a true LinkedIn expert!
Again, do it slowly. I've been doing it for about a month now, and my network is still compact. I spend only a couple hours a day answering messages and connecting with people, but I do it consistently. You can gain connections fast, but the goal is to have people know you and know your business. Authority is gained slowly, no matter how knowledgeable you are in your subject.
So, that's pretty much it. I found the answers to my questions that I had a couple weeks ago, but I'm nowhere near perfect (I've got months and miles to go, it's a slow-growing process just like my business).
(The webinar was an upsell, and I'm considering buying his course. It was that good.)
DISCLAIMER: I am only a beginner at this LinkedIn game, and I still have a lot to learn and do. But most of this material is from the webinar, and you could say that Lewis is a bit of an expert with 16,000 connections, being the leader of the biggest sports marketing LI group in the world and running a 7-figure passive sports marketing business. It took him about four years to connect the dots, so I'm hoping it'll take me about one to two years to get to where I want to be, and you can too.
---
LinkedIn marketing can help pretty much anyone. Essentially, LinkedIn is a dynamic rolodex, one of the most powerful tools on the Internet today. Not only this, but you don't have to spend a dime learning to use it. Getting an advanced account may help, but it's not absolutely necessary for most purposes.
LinkedIn search optimization
Just like Google, people search for keywords on LinkedIn to find out who the powerhouses in the industry are. People want to connect with people who have authority in the industry, and the best way to appear to have authority is to have lots of connections in a specific industry. For example, if you are an Internet marketer, you want to have many connections with other Internet marketers. Pretty simple, right? When people search for a certain term, like 'internet marketer', people look for people who are on the front page, who are in their own personal network (share groups and connections) and have authority in that specific niche. (The smaller the niche, the easier it is to gain authority, just like with Google).
The network is not the only thing that sets people apart, though. There are five places that you can enter information that will affect your search ranking. These are your headline, your current and past work experience, your summary and your skills. The most important three are the headline and the current + past work experience. If you want to rank for a certain keyword, you want to insert that keyword in as many places as possible. However, don't stuff keywords in the summary: consider density, as well.
Focus on one keyword that is most relevant to your business or expertise. This way, people can find you based on what you want to be known for.
Also: optimize your profile for both search and connection. People will want to connect with people who can help them. Potential sales leads, networking opportunities, etc. That's important to remember. If you have something to offer, people will want to connect with you as your network grows.
Getting Leads Consistently Over Time
After gaining a solid network and a good amount of authority within said network, you need to use the site to get solid and consistent sales leads, since LI is one of the most powerful tools out there. The best way to do this is by creating a LinkedIn group.
Creating a group must be based on three considerations: what industry you're in, how you want your audience to see you and your group, and how you can create something different than what's out there.
The larger your network, the stronger your group can be. People make the mistake of creating a group before they have any authority in their niche, and that gives them and their group zero credibility. If you're a member of every group in your niche and you're connected to the powerhouses in your industry, then you've instantly got a huge amount of credibility and you stand a better chance of people in and out of your network joining your group.
When creating a group, make sure that the outward appearance of the group reflects the industry you're in. Your group has to be broad enough that many people will want to join it, but it has to be specific to your industry or niche. You have to create a delicate balance between specificity and broadness.
Groups can also rank on Google for certain keywords related to your niche. This can help with your business's core SEO strategy.
When you've got a good, solid group, you can leverage the 'Send Announcement' tool and send a newsletter to everyone in your group. You can only do this once a week, and LI does this to prevent groups from spamming their members. When you have a large group, this is one of the best ways to get solid leads, and you have an opportunity every single week. It's just like a newsletter on your Web site, except much easier to join and everybody gets it. People can opt out, however.
Building Leads and Authority Using The Answer System
There's a little known feature on LinkedIn that allows people to ask and answer industry related questions. Use this to your advantage. This is a great way to connect with people in your industry as well as building sales leads.
Lewis said he gets 3 to 5 leads per month using this service. It's possible to get more, if you're willing to put in some time into this. Simply answer questions that involve your niche or service. Since many questions will have more than one answer, your job is to give the best answer that will help the most. If you answer enough questions, you can become an expert on LinkedIn, which gives you instant authority and can increase the amount of leads you convert.
Answering questions alone will not get you connections: instead, first answer it publicly and then send a private answer, with more specific info. Give contact information and offer to connect on the site. Do NOT sell them anything! In fact, don't even mention your business name; simply mention that you are in that industry and you own a business doing whatever you do. They can see what it is on your profile and will be more likely to look into it.
Offer to help them further, but keep it short (15 minute consultation) and don't try to sell it to them. The key here is to connect on a more personal level. Don't use selling words and don't rehash copy from your Web site. You are a person, and they need to know that.
Using LinkedIn to Garner Traffic
LinkedIn is one of the top 10 largest sites in the WORLD for traffic. They get millions of hits per day, and the front page chooses headlines just for you depending on what you do on LinkedIn. You may read them, you may not, but the sure thing is: lots of people do read them.
The reason they are there in the first place is due to the Share feature. It's an underused feature, since most people use Facebook or Twitter to share. However, if you have a large network, many people will have access to what you publish on your blog or what other people have published about you on their sites. This is an excellent way to get traffic in itself, but it gets better. Share with your group, and you have the ability to get your article seen by people outside your network.
If other people share your articles with their groups or their networks, even more people get to read it, and with each person sharing, the chances of you getting on the front page of someone's LI account skyrocket. Just check your own LinkedIn headlines and see how many shares there are. You can share it to Twitter, as well, to expand the people who can read it. If your article gets on the front page of LinkedIn, your traffic will go through the roof. Then, all you have to do is turn that traffic into conversions. It will also do wonders for your SEO due to LinkedIn's high authority on the Web.
Building Your Business on LinkedIn
You have to start somewhere, and what better place to start than LinkedIn? It's the perfect place to connect with industry professionals who may be interested in what you have to offer. It's the absolute easiest way to get an in with people in your niche and it's so easy to start.
When starting on LinkedIn, your first job is to build connections and join groups. Don't sell ANYTHING, don't try to reciprocate likes or links, just connect with people who are relevant to your industry. Start with people that you know (college friends, co-workers) and build off of their networks. It's really easy to cold-connect on LinkedIn, and it all starts with the greeting message.
To network, you have to make a good first impression with your greeting message. The message you send is extremely important. Again, do NOT try to sell ANYTHING. Not your services, not your product, not yourself. Make it about THEM. You want to network with THEM because you find them to have credibility. Come off as professional and friendly with something that you could potentially offer. Mention that you really like their business or the content they share to the group. Just today, my site is planning to partner with another start-up (job finder for medical and healthcare professionals), just because we communicated on LinkedIn. You may not get the big dogs in your industry first, but if you share a group AND a connection, they'll be much more likely to connect with you.
When people get your message, the second thing they'll see is your profile. Style your profile in a professional manner. Make sure to list positions that you had that are relevant to your industry. Use the keywords that you want to rank for in your positions (for example, my profile does not say CEO or Founder of CSurgeons.com, it says "Plastic Surgery Marketing Team Leader at CSurgeons.com" because I want people to know me as the marketing guy, since that's the main thing I do). Make sure your skills and expertise are NOT filled with bullshit and lies, but instead are directly relevant to what your business does.
With each connection you make, your network grows. Be wary of your connections, however: you do NOT want to try and connect with random people. It's almost as if you are a salesman, and people will recognize you as such. Your reputation is VERY important on this site, and you want to have authority, not be a bother. ONLY connect with people you share a group with or a connection with. And grow your network SLOWLY. Don't send more than 10 cold connection requests a day, and do not rehash your same message.
Join open registration groups first, and do not post sales promotions. Instead, post discussions and mention your business, so they'll be willing to check it out. Aggressive sales tactics work with direct cold calling, but they do not work on LinkedIn, especially if you are trying to get authority, which is literally the point of this site. You cannot grow a business on LinkedIn without growing perceived authority in your niche!
When you become a noticed member in your group, you'll have people wanting to connect with you. I get requests from medical professionals and marketers wanting to network, and I'm a 19 year old kid! Actual personal requests that don't just involve reciprocating links! They WANT to be in my network because I provide value (it's minimal, but they see it). And my site's traffic has been growing thanks to this site. Bounce rate went down and everything. Continue connecting with people as your authority grows in your groups. As your network gets bigger, more people want in. Then you can start making groups, answering questions, and becoming a true LinkedIn expert!
Again, do it slowly. I've been doing it for about a month now, and my network is still compact. I spend only a couple hours a day answering messages and connecting with people, but I do it consistently. You can gain connections fast, but the goal is to have people know you and know your business. Authority is gained slowly, no matter how knowledgeable you are in your subject.
So, that's pretty much it. I found the answers to my questions that I had a couple weeks ago, but I'm nowhere near perfect (I've got months and miles to go, it's a slow-growing process just like my business).
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