PP 149: 3 Tips to Help You Maximize Your Efforts on LinkedIn

Over the course of the last couple years in my business, I’ve made a big shift from using Facebook as my primary social media platform for connecting with business owners to LinkedIn.

Previously, I was spending hours and hours going through Facebook groups trying to find somebody who could possibly need my services. However, after I moved to LinkedIn, I realized I was saving so much time, just because I was really refining who I was connecting with, and how.

In this episode, I’m going to go over 3 tips that will really help you to maximize your performance and your networking success when you’re using LinkedIn.

3 Tips to Help You Maximize Your Efforts on LinkedIn #1

Always send out a personalized message whenever you are sending a connection request to somebody.

LinkedIn has recently changed their interface, and unless you go into the person’s profile directly, you will probably not see the option to send a personalized note. I can’t tell you how many invitations I receive on a daily basis that are simply the default message of “Kim, I’d like to connect with you on LinkedIn.”

I would love to know why you’d love to connect with me.

I’d love to see a personalized message. “Hey, Kim, I heard your podcast” or “Hey, I saw a post you did. it resonated with me because… Would you like to meet for virtual coffee sometime? Here’s my link.”

It’s incredible how many simple responses I get asking, “What’s virtual coffee?” and when I take a couple minutes, or not even a couple minutes to respond and tell them what it is, I get so many virtual coffee appointments that allow me to not just connect through LinkedIn directly, but also start creating a real relationship with these people. And that’s what we’re going after is real relationships. We don’t simply want to be spamming. And that leads to tip number two.

3 Tips to Help You Maximize Your Efforts on LinkedIn #2

If you’re using a messaging system that sends out a message to somebody as soon as they connect please make sure that the message is not spammy.

At least three or four or more times a week, I receive the most off the wall messages automatically when I accept a connection requests. The ones that cracked me up the most are asking me if I’d like to set up an appointment to set up my own cannabis business, or telling me how to get the best rate on Bitcoin.

I’m sure you can hear, if you’re familiar with setting up cannabis businesses or if you’re familiar with Bitcoin, I have no idea what I’m talking about there. And to be completely honest, I really don’t want to know anything about them because I have so much on my plate already.

Nothing in my profile — if the person had taken a look — would give them any impression that I would be interested, which leads me to believe that this is an automatic message, simply copy and paste.

Do not copy and paste. If you’re going to connect with me, and you’re going to send me a message, make it resonate with me. And the same goes for anybody else.

Nobody appreciates emails, or InMails on LinkedIn that have nothing to do with anything that they’ve expressed either on LinkedIn or on their website. And speaking of email, let’s go over to tip number three.

3 Tips to Help You Maximize Your Efforts on LinkedIn #3

Do not, under any circumstances, add new LinkedIn connections to your email marketing system without their permission.

I am not just saying this because it is extremely annoying. I’m saying this because it actually violates CANSPAM laws. You could potentially be fined big money for doing this, and I don’t want to see this happen to you.

If you’re using LinkedIn to properly manage you and your business — and by this I mean posting appropriate articles and messages and I would do this two or three times a day — then the people who are interested in your products and services will likely, if they see the message, click on your link and OPT themselves in. Don’t do it for them.

If you have any questions about these LinkedIn strategies, or anything else that I do, please go over to the show notes page at thekimsutton.com/pp149 and simply leave a comment. I would love to engage with you further and help you really maximize your LinkedIn game.

Now with that said, go forth and have a positive and productive day.