The Blog of Christine Hueber

“LinkedIn Adds New Way to Show Pictures and Video on Your Profile” by Christine Hueber

Christine Hueber — Thu, 02 May 2013 17:32:28 +0000

LinkedIn added the ability yesterday to showcase your talents in a whole new way: pictures and video.

For the first time, you can easily share your unique professional story using rich, visual content on your LinkedIn profile…content that still further differentiates you from everyone else in your field and gives more depth to what you already have on your profile.

This also means you can illustrate your greatest achievements in the form of stunning images, compelling videos, innovative presentations and more.

For instance, if you're photographer you might choose to include several of your best photos, or if you're a copywriter you might upload a video of that ad you wrote for last year’s Super Bowl.

And if you're a musician you can upload videos of past performances.

From the analyst who makes annual predictions on tech trends to the 3D animator who is looking to fund a new short film, the opportunities are limitless for how you as a professional can now use your LinkedIn profile to help showcase your unique stories in a visual way.

On the flip side of the equation, people viewing your profile on LinkedIn can now also like or comment on media you've posted there.

A sharing option — for sharing content you find interesting with others — is also in the works according to LinkedIn.

It's simple and easy to add media to your LinkedIn profile.

Just click the "Edit" button on your profile or the "Edit Profile" link under your Profile tab, and follow the prompts in the summary, education and experience sections.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg for what's in store for you as a LinkedIn member…

The ability to add your visual content to your profile began rolling out to members in English speaking countries yesterday. LinkedIn will be finding new ways to bring this type of rich media across your LinkedIn experience, so stay tuned here and I'll let you know as more becomes available.

Because after all, the more compelling your profile is, the better your results on LinkedIn will be…and visuals are the most compelling content there is!

QUESTION: How you choose to display your professional story on your profile? What content will you add to your LinkedIn Profile? Please join in the conversation below!

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“Marketing mentor Christine Hueber teaches business owners and entrepreneurs around the world how to create and manage profitable marketing that easily gets them more clients. Get her FREE report 'Top 10 LinkedIn Profile Marketing Secrets for Entrepreneurs' at www.ChristineHueber.com"

“LinkedIn Introduces LinkedIn Contacts: A Smarter Way to Engage” by Christine Hueber

Christine Hueber — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 17:25:55 +0000

Do you ever wish you had an assistant to let you know you when your network starts new ventures or remind you when they have birthdays?

Or do you ever want to quickly review the last interactions you had with people before a meeting?

Today LinkedIn announced the launch of LinkedIn Contacts, a smarter way to stay in touch with your most important relationships.

With this new feature, LinkedIn brings together all your contacts from your address books, email accounts, and calendars with the power of your LinkedIn network.

LinkedIn Contacts is available both on LinkedIn.com as well as a brand new app for iPhone.

With the new LinkedIn Contacts experience, LinkedIn is introducing features in three areas:

1. Bring all your contacts to one place

LinkedIn Contacts brings together all your address books, emails, and calendars, and keeps them up to date in one place. It will automatically pull in the details of your past conversations and meetings, including how you met, and bring these details directly onto your contact’s profile.

2. Never miss an opportunity to engage

Get alerted on position changes and birthdays in your network…always a perfect opportunity to nurture your relationship. Also, you can set reminders and add notes about the important people in your life.

3. Take it on your mobile device

Stay connected on the go. LinkedIn Contacts is available as a standalone app for iPhone, so you can stay in touch with your contacts wherever you work.

Over the coming weeks, LinkedIn will start sending invitations to try LinkedIn Contacts to a limited number of members in the United States. If you’d like to be one of the first to check out this new experience, click here to join the waitlist.

QUESTION: What do you think of this new feature? Will you join the waitlist? Please join in the conversation below!

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Adapted from: Official LinkedIn Blog

“New Ways to Share LinkedIn Updates for More Visibility” by Christine Hueber

Christine Hueber — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 17:52:25 +0000

Did you know that you can now share your LinkedIn updates with a larger audience than just your connections?

LinkedIn customer service confirmed for me this week that you can even make your updates public on LinkedIn…which is good news for entrepreneurs and business owners who want to increase their visibility!

Here's how to do it in 3 easy steps:

Step 1: From your home or profile page, click in the status update field to expand it as I've done in the screenshot, above.

Step 2: Choose one of the three options from the drop down menu that appears:

LinkedIn + Twitter
LinkedIn
Connections

Step 3: Depending on the goal of your update or being on LinkedIn, choose how you want to share your updates.

For example, if you want to grow your network and your list on LinkedIn choose the LinkedIn option to make any update public on LinkedIn. This means it would be shared with the entire LinkedIn network! So those who aren't connected with you, if they viewed your profile, would be able to see that post.

Or if you want to cultivate a relationship with just your Connections, choose that option. This is a good option if you want to offer them something special, like a preview of something soon-to-be-released. This allows you to offer preferred access to your contacts.

On the other hand, if you want to share an update with the largest audience, share it with LinkedIn + Twitter. This will share it with the entire LinkedIn network, as well as your Twitter followers.

BONUS VISIBILITY TIP: Include a keyword hashtag so that Twitter users who are following your topic see your update in their feed. For example, I use #LinkedIn.

QUESTION: How are you using your LinkedIn status updates to increase your visibility? Which posting option do you use most? Please join in the conversation below!

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“Mention Your LinkedIn Contacts to Increase Your Visibility” by Christine Hueber

Christine Hueber — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 18:23:39 +0000

If you're a LinkedIn member, you are one of the most engaged professionals online.

After all, you are involved in conversations across LinkedIn day after day…especially if you're getting results.

That’s why LinkedIn has now made it even easier for you to start those conversations, share knowledge with other LinkedIn members and ultimately increase your visibility.

I'm excited to introduce a new way to engage with your network through the ability to mention your connections and companies in conversations on LinkedIn!

How does it work?

It works similar to FaceBook mentions. Here are the 3 easy steps to mention a contact or company on LinkedIn and increase your visibility:

Begin by typing the name of a connection or a company in your status update box or a comment field on the Homepage.
Select someone from the list of your connections that appear in the drop-down, complete your status or comment and post it. BONUS TIP: Choose to post your update to LinkedIn or Twitter and LinkedIn to further increase your visibility beyond just your connections.
The person or company you mentioned will receive a notification alerting them that they have been mentioned.

In addition to first-degree connections, you can also mention other LinkedIn members engaged in conversations in the comment sections of posts on the LinkedIn Homepage. Mentions will make it easier for you to start conversations with your network while also enabling you to respond in real-time when someone begins a conversation with you…all of which increase your visibility and, when done effectively, increase your visibility!

This feature began rolling out to English-speaking members late last week, and all global members may receive it soon. And because you’re engaging in meaningful conversations across other areas of LinkedIn, so look for the ability to mention your network beyond the Homepage in the near future.

So stay tuned…according to LinkedIn, there’s more to come!

QUESTION: How do you use LinkedIn to increase your visibility? I’d love to hear your strategies. Please join in the conversation below!

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“3 Easy Habits for LinkedIn Success” by Christine Hueber

Christine Hueber — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 16:55:09 +0000

With so many voices on LinkedIn, from college students to big brand marketers, it’s easy to disappear in all the noise. So how do you create your own unique presence that attracts the right people to your LinkedIn profile?

Because if you are a promotional machine on LinkedIn, you drive your connections away. And if you share irrelevant content, your connections become numb to your message. Both are damaging to your LinkedIn relationships. The right mix of what you share on LinkedIn is important.

It all starts with being truly thoughtful about the content you post, and how you choose to share it. Remember, it’s not just about getting you noticed on LinkedIn once—it’s about getting people to want to engage with you to experience the real connection and value YOU offer…you want to create a relationship with them, so they get to know, like and trust you. And they’ll do this when they resonate with you, your expertise and your insights.

Since much of my coaching and training revolves around LinkedIn, let’s explore what effective updates look like for the world’s largest online professional network. Below are three habits you should put into practice to get noticed on LinkedIn by your ideal market and build trust, rapport, and long-term client relationships (and that means more revenues too!).

HABIT 1: Offer useful content along with promotion

If all you do is offer useful information, that’s great and you’ll build a network, but you may suddenly find your business bank account balance less than you'd prefer. But if you promote yourself all the time, you’ll annoy your contacts. The key is to develop a effective mix of content and building relationships along the way, so your network will be happy to hear about what you have to offer.

Over time, I have developed a simple schedule to post great free resources, helpful articles, and information…along with making sure I am continually promoting the valuable courses and programs I have to offer those starting or growing their marketing. Here’s what a typical week’s LinkedIn update schedule looks like for me:

Helpful Business Article or Interesting News Item – 5-7 posts per week

Inspirational/Motivational Quote – 5-7 posts per week

Notifications of New Blog Posts and Articles – 1-2 posts per week

Promote Free “Top 10 LinkedIn Success Secrets” report – 5-7 posts per week

Promote Spotlighted Product or Program – 1-2 posts per day, depending if there’s a special offer, deadline, or time-sensitive event happening

And don't worry, you don't have to come up with all the content youself!

You can create some of your own content or you can also use it from other sources. Regardless of the source, it needs to be relevant to your connections. This means that your content must have context.

Confused?

Context means you understand your audience and know what’s of most interest to them. Content and context work together to provide premium value to your connections. When done correctly, content and context feel helpful, not salesy. Think of context marketing as content marketing, but smarter.

Also, content doesn’t always have to be specific to only what you offer. Determine what your clients find of interest, and deliver. Notice which of your posts generate the most “likes” and comments and examine these posts for commonalities.

HABIT 2: Share relatable stories or images

If appropriate, it’s important to let your customers, clients, and community see who you are as a person, beyond your brand. When I share about what I'm doing…an awe-inspiring moment like seeing wildlife during my day or an amazing experience, or even a solution I'm looking for, my audience responds with encouragement, their similar experiences or even disagreement (which can still be good if it gets conversation going and draws even more notice to your profile).

Sharing these moments gives people a chance to see what moves you deeply and personally. It lets people see you as a unique individual, who shares their hobbies, interests and perspectives. Remember, people will buy from you again and again because something about your voice, your unique way of presenting yourself, resonates with them. So don’t be shy about sharing some natural, candid…yet still appropriate posts to add a little personality to your page.

Images tend to engage more than words, and they’re also a fabulous option when you’re busy or traveling and don’t have time to write. It’s a quick yet highly effective way to “touch” your audience. For example, whenever I'm travelling I love to share the experience with a picture. Sometimes, a snapshot is all you need to share your personality.

If your business isn’t personal or a personal brand, or you’re a more private person, look for stories or images your followers can relate to in some way, and preferably related to what you offer or do. As an example, success stories from happy clients or customers are always effective.

So sharing your personal side on LinkedIn is actually a good thing, no matter what you hear otherwise. It gives a pulse to your professional persona on LinkedIn. People are able to relate with you when you present yourself as a real person.

HABIT 3: Respond and participate when you can

If you receive a response on something you’ve shared, it’s always great to comment back to the person and acknowledge them. A simple “Thank You” or “I’m so glad you liked it!” goes a long way toward building your community, and it only takes a matter of seconds. Every day or so, I go into LinkedIn to post a few comments of appreciation and acknowledgement. It helps me stay connected, and it’s one of the best ways to keep my ear close to the ground so I know what my customers want and need.

Sharing your opinion on your connections’ posts is another way to use your updates to bring your network to life. Don’t believe me? Try commenting on your connection’s posts for two weeks. Not only will it make you top of mind with them, but watch their responsiveness to your updates grow. If you let them know you are listening, they will reciprocate.

So it’s important to show that you’re not just feeding information to your LinkedIn account, but that you’re also absorbing other knowledge being shared. That’s when you truly become an active participant in your LinkedIn network. No successful entrepreneur has all the answers. It’s great to get out of your bubble and take some time each day to browse your community member’s updates and engage with them as well.

This is especially important when you are getting started and looking to gain ground by expanding your LinkedIn network. Look in groups for other users who also interact within your industry or with your target market. Comment thoughtfully in groups and, when you're connected with the person, on their posts. Offer insightful add-ons and responses. Be a contributor. Feel free to disagree in a respectful manner to encourage dialogue and increase your visibility.

QUESTION: How do you use LinkedIn to keep your community coming back for more? I’d love to hear your strategies. Please join in the conversation below!

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“LinkedIn Search Upgrades Make It Smarter” by Christine Hueber

Christine Hueber — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 19:43:09 +0000

Several enhancements to the LinkedIn search feature were officially announced by LinkedIn this week, including upgrades that make LinkedIn search even smarter. I mentioned the new streamlined LinkedIn search features in my article last week.

Last year alone, there were 5.7 billion searches performed on LinkedIn and every day millions of professionals find others and get found through LinkedIn search. With the new features, whether you’re searching for people, jobs, companies or groups, LinkedIn can now provide you with the most relevant results based on your professional identity, your network, and how the people in your network engage with LinkedIn.

Improvements to search that make it even smarter include:

Auto-complete – As you type your search term you’ll be prompted with options for what you may be looking for, and the more you search, the better it will get at predicting what you want.
Suggested searches – Now when you type in a search term such as “product manager” you’ll see example search queries for people or jobs related to product manager as well as a preview of top results to help you find what you’re looking for in one click.
Smarter query intent algorithm – The more you search for content on LinkedIn, the more it learns and understands your intent over time to provide the most relevant results.
Enhanced advanced search – Not only has advanced search gotten a new look…you're still able to deepen your search with filters like location, company, school and more. The former Signal feature has been integrated into it.
Automated alerts – According to the LinkedIn blog, you can save time by saving your searches and we’ll alert you when the results change. I haven't seen this yet, but it may be still rolled out on my profile.

The updates also mean that even if you search for the same thing as someone else, your results will be customized to you…like Google Search results. The new smarter search is starting to roll out to members today and will be available to all global members in the coming weeks.

QUESTION: How do you use LinkedIn search? I'd love to hear about it in the comments below.

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Are you sick and tired of wasting your money?

Christine Hueber — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 15:09:35 +0000

Do you feel like you're going backward instead of forward in your business life?

Do you know where all the money you’re earning is actually going in your business?

Many small business owners operate in a wave of confusion when it comes to their cashflow and net profits.

That’s why, next TUESDAY, I’m interviewing Financial Management Expert Sue Thompson to help demystify your business finances.

You’ll learn how to generate the real numbers you need to manage your business, how to identify your BEST moneymaking ideas, and how to set and achieve goals based on the cash you want to PULL from the business (rather than chasing “gross revenue” goals). You don’t want to miss these applicable lessons.

It’s all on our call, happening next week. Please join us by clicking here!

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“Get Your Cashflow in Order for Higher Profits…”

with Christine and Financial Management Expert Sue Thompson

Monday, March 26, 2012 at 11am PST

FREE

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This call is FREE, and if you’d like to join us for this call on Monday, March 26, at 11am PST, click here to sign up now.

Dedicated to your success,

Christine

PS — When you sign up for the call today you’ll also enjoy a FREE recording of this call as well as Sue’s free report "Cashflow Checklist." Learn more and sign up here!

“LinkedIn Site Redesign Live Today” by Christine Hueber

Christine Hueber — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 15:09:52 +0000

Have you looked at LinkedIn yet today? I did and got a huge surprise with the sleek new look (see my LinkedIn profile screenshot on the left or live here)!

Here's what's new that I noticed immediately:

The top page tabs are now Home, Profile, Network, and Career.
The Search bar has been moved to the center top of the site and is for the entire site now.
Messages, Notifications and Add Connections are all toward the right now.
Settings is in the far right and is now your picture.

Diving deeper into the tabs, you'll now find:

Contacts and Groups under the Network tab.
Under Career, you'll discover Jobs, Companies, Post a Job.
Search now includes People, Updates, Jobs, Companies, Inbox, Groups.
When you hover over your picture on the right, an Account & Settings menu will appear that includes Sign Out, Upgrade, Language, Privacy & Settings, Help Center, Advertising and Job Posting.

Next week I'll post more about how to make the most of these changes. I wanted to be sure to get this latest news out to you as quickly as I could! This explains, too, why the site has been so slow and hiccup-y for months!

QUESTION: What do you think of the changes? I’d love to hear your opinions. Please share your comments below.

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“How to Stand Out on Social Media” by Christine Hueber

Christine Hueber — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:08:30 +0000

Let's face it, as business owners we're not marketing on social media in a pure, utopian world. You're competing with hundreds of updates that flood your audiences' feeds every minute.

How do you find your competitive edge?

This is the subtlety that separates the successful social media profiles from the ones that fail.

And it all revolves around one question:

Why should people read YOUR updates?

To stay competitive, your social media updates must do something for your readers. They must make them FEEL a certain way, so they view them when they can (or even add you to their Twitter or FaceBook close friend list so they get your updates first), and more
importantly, decide to stay connected with you. And that's when you'll stand out from the thousands of other updates that are vying for your audiences' attention. So, how do you do this?

Provide VALUE

You must deliver VALUE to your audience. This value to your audience could be tangible, like getting a special discount, being the first to know about a new product, or learning something new. Those tangible offers are straightforward. You put a coupon code in your update, an image of your product, promote your latest book or consulting package, etc.

People love those and they can definitely be a good reason they'll prefer to stay connected with you on social media.

But it also could be something less tangible. Many of the most successful profiles maintain an emotional connection with their audience. Their audience looks forward to their updates because they either make them laugh, make them think in new ways, or inspire them to take action in their lives.

When I started on social media, I talked about my running, my outside work life, etc. in my updates, because I noticed that my audience responded positively when I shared personal parts of my life. I didn't overdo it, but I would just share spontaneous updates, like my vacations or what I was doing. You might see on some sites that people think it's inappropriate to share more personal information as a way to build a relationship with your audience.

But when I look at them, I find they don't have the audience or results I have from being on social media. I will tell you from experience that it’s relationship that builds businesses.

And it's something that earns you a lifelong community of friends, new customers, referrals, and fans.

So, if you're posting new content into your social media profiles, without giving much thought to your audience, you're actually doing more harm than good. You want to have your sales strategy in place, but don't ignore the personal relationship. That's where your social media updates can really shine.

Some people like knowing about new products and promotions. Some people might think your updates are amusing, inspiring, or motivating. Others might just like you, and they like feeling connected to you. The benefits really do range from very rational, to very abstract and emotional. So make sure you deliver both in your social media updates.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself when focusing in on how your updates will benefit your ideal reader:
• Do you want them to feel confident in you and your services or products?
• Trusting in your expertise, like they know you personally?
• Motivated? Inspired?
• Eager to receive more of your useful information?
• So impressed with your updates that they retweet, like and share them with their network?

Be CONSISTENT

When I mentor a business owner who is on social media, but not getting the results, it's often the case that they do not post or "publish" their updates on a consistent basis. They post something when they have time, which could mean hourly sometimes, once a day other times, or only once a week if they're really busy.

And it's costing them…

In the professional publishing world, deadlines drive the business. Advertisers count on their ads being launched to the world for the full term of their contracts, and publishers are accountable for making sure their staff produces each issue on time. Your social media profiles are virtual advertising space for your business and any affiliate programs you're part of, and it's crucial that you get your updates out there consistently. So by making consistency a priority when it comes to publishing your updates, you WILL have the advantage over millions of business owners.

The benefits of consistency are two-fold.

For starters, there's the 7-to-10 marketing rule. It's a golden rule that says your prospect has to see or hear your message 7-to-10 times before they'll even take action. People need to get to know you and trust you before they decide to take the next step with you. So, if you're only posting your updates once a week, for example, it's likely that you will wait almost an entire quarter before you start getting traction from it. But, think of how much this window shrinks when you start posting twice a week. It shaves off WEEKS of waiting for new prospects, new customers, and new sales to come in for your business.

So, do not take your posting schedule lightly.

Consistency also builds trust on a very unconscious level for your audience. If your updates pop up from left field at random times throughout the year, people will likely doubt that you're delivering anything of value to them.

Think about it. Would you rather get your news and information from a completely unreliable, "flaky" news source that only reported on things when they could, or would you trust the source that is there for you every hour, day, week, year after year? This again is a subtle, but powerful force that will make your social media profiles successful. It's going back to how your updates make someone FEEL. They feel like you're taking them seriously, yourself seriously, and you're there for them whenever they need you.

Here's the truth: most people won't see your every post. I hesitate to write this because some of you might take it as license to NOT give your social media updates the proper attention on a consistent basis. But, it's true. Some of your audience will see one update, and maybe the next, and some won't them until the week after that when they go to your profile or page. And of course some will devour EVERY update. If you ask me, that's why it's so important to keep your social media updates consistent…making sure that every post is full of that winning combination of strategic and valuable information.

At any point in time, your social media updates could resonate with someone and result in a new referral, a sale, or press.

Get INTERACTIVE

Every day, there are more and more fun ways to add interactive content that your audience LOVES to your social media updates. You can deliver video messages, audio messages, poll your readers, and more. For some people, speaking on a topic comes much more naturally than writing an article on it, so shooting a video or recording an audio message is an easy alternative that would probably save time.

Think about adding audio or video to your social media updates for just about anything, such as:
• Personal greetings (maybe from your fun trip!)
• Brief interviews with experts
• Special announcements or promotions
• Product recommendations
• Testimonials from clients/customers
• Question and answer

If you prefer to shoot video, use your phone camera or a digital video camera for making short recordings.

A contest is another great way to get people excited and engaged in your social media updates. For one, everyone loves a freebie. And when that free prize is one of your books, e-books, reports, consultations, gift certificates, etc., it's a great way to
spread brand awareness.

For example, you could ask a trivia question related to your business's area of expertise and give free prizes to the first 5 or 10 respondents who post the correct answer to your profile. Then in an update, announce the winning posters' names and tell a bit about them. People love seeing their names posted (just make sure you ask for permission to publish their information).

And here's an extra benefit—you can bet the featured "winning" posters will probably share your updates with their network—they won, and there's their name in print! Not only did you make a reader happy, but they may have just referred several new followers—prospective new clients/customers—to you as well.

These are just a few examples of the ways you can kick your social media updates into high gear and make sure they're holding their own among the competition.

It's also a good idea to keep an eye on your competition. Take a good look at what your favorite social media personalities are up to, as well as updates by people in your industry: what works, what makes you continue to keep them on your Twitter or FaceBook close friends list, and what doesn't work? Add a few social media profiles by leading online marketers to your social media lists (they're usually the ones on top of all the latest trends and shiny, bright new objects).

Remember, your social media presence isn't a one-time only launch. You have time to come up with a formula that works for you. Just commit to providing value, be consistent, get interactive, and adjust as you go.

I'll be honest, it took me some time to really pin down a formula that worked for my social media updates. But once I got it RIGHT, my business was OVERFLOWING. And when I've taught my formula to new and seasoned entrepreneurs, many have enjoyed equally amazing results in a fraction of the time…

QUESTION: What are you doing on social media? How are you standing out? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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“Marketing mentor Christine Hueber teaches business owners and entrepreneurs around the world how to create and manage profitable marketing that gets them more clients easily. Get her FREE Report “Top 10 LinkedIn Profile Marketing Secrets for Entrepreneurs" at www.ChristineHueber.com”

“5 Ways to Get the Most Out of Marketing on LinkedIn” by Christine Hueber

Christine Hueber — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 16:42:42 +0000

I hear it from almost 90% of my new clients… “Christine, I have a profile on LinkedIn, but no sales from being there. And no one becomes my client, even though I have contacts, and I'm frustrated. What am I doing wrong?”

When I dig a little further, I usually find that the sense of overwhelm is coming from the same source: These people haven’t identified their most profitable LinkedIn activities, and placed those activities ABOVE everything else in their LinkedIn priority list.

In other words, they don't have a LinkedIn system.

A LinkedIn marketing system helps you focus on what to do, and when to do it—so you can focus your time and energy into ONLY those activities that will generate maximum results. By using an effective LinkedIn marketing system, you are clear on the activities on LinkedIn that are worth your time, and those that aren’t. It’s a powerful tool to help you stay focused and energized. And it WORKS.

In my LinkedIn Marketing Power program, I show you how to create an effective LinkedIn presence in these 5 easy steps. Here’s a quick peek at what I recommend. Enjoy!

STEP 1: Plan before you create

It's important to set yourself up for success…and you can do it without much effort. But there are a few things you NEED to do that will save you time and headaches later. Just as when you're building a home you need a solid foundation for it to be strong, you need to do this for your LinkedIn presence.

This means identifying your ideal audience, naming and branding yourself, strategizing about how you'll stand out from all your competition, and planning for fast contact growth.

And the quickest way to execute this strategy is to ask yourself these THREE simple questions.

They are:

1. What is my business objective for being on LinkedIn?

2. Who is my ideal audience?

3. What is the next step for them to take with me?

STEP 2: Your compelling content

Content is critical! WHAT you put in your profile is the reason people will connect with you, and the reason they will then take the NEXT STEP with you. There are simple formulas that are easy to use and will help you promote your business, products, and services.

And it’s really important to keep your LinkedIn profile up-to-date. The more people who see you on LinkedIn, the more they are likely to view your profile to learn more about you. And if that person is relevant and potentially interested in your business, they may click through to your blog or website and take the relationship from there…or send you an invitation to connect.

For example, let's say you're a marketer or salesperson and you want to find leads on LinkedIn.

First of all, it’s important to build a compelling personal profile on LinkedIn. You need your prospective clients and customers to be able to understand what you do without using any fancy terminology. Be very clear in what you do, whom you help, how you can help and what the next step to take with you is.

Your compelling content is the first step (I'll touch on the others later in this article) if you want to create an effective lead generation process. Here's how it looks:

Build a great personal profile.
Activate that profile so you begin to share interesting, valuable, helpful content with your network.
Be consistently visible and stay top of mind.

For helpful ideas to use your content to get more clients, see my post, “How To Generate Leads for Your Business on LinkedIn in 15 Minutes or Less.”

STEP 3: Easy updates

How do you decide what’s most effective to share? YES it's as easy as pressing send, but you have to consider frequency and timing, contact management, and a few final steps before hitting that send button. For maximum effectiveness, it's easiest to use a pre-send checklist.

Use your updates to position yourself as a thought leader. Grow your influence with your network and niche. If you want to attract leads and people to your business, it's the easiest thing to do. And the more value-focused you are in your marketing, the less people realize you are marketing to them.

Your main goal is to aim to be consistently visible and valuable. Studies have shown that it takes someone 7 exposures to you before they really start to pay attention, listen and determine whether it makes sense to take the next step.

I use my updates as opportunities to position myself as a resource within my niche.

Your updates are the “meat” of your LinkedIn presence, and it should have great information to keep your idea audience, including your contacts, engaged.

And it’s not about selling. You have to educate and provide great information if you want to engage your audience.

For example, one of the tools I use, LinkedIn Today, is a great way to quickly find easy updates that are relevant to my target market and then share it on LinkedIn. Try it and you’ll quickly discover the benefits of using these easy and value-rich status updates to stay top of mind.

STEP 4: Manage your contacts

There are easy tools out there that will help you grow and manage your contacts…that will also prevent your account getting restricted from connecting! And the good news is once you start using a system, it will all mostly be on autopilot.

As you grow your network on LinkedIn, it’s a personal decision whom you connect with and how you use those contacts to generate leads. It all depends on your business situation and if you want to make your network as big or small as possible.

For example, I prefer to work on the depth and breadth of my network. Since I'm on LinkedIn to attract new clients and joint venture partners, the more connections I have, the more opportunity I have for visibility and the more business opportunities I'll create for myself. And I'm going to show up in more LinkedIn searches.

And 90% of my new business comes from LinkedIn.

So if your goal is to generate business and leads on LinkedIn, you need to think about growing your connections. Think about peers in your industry, clients, prospective clients, joint venture partners, thought leaders, etc.—anybody you may know and have a good reason to be connected with. I'll share another connection tip in the next section.

STEP 5: The next level

Once you go through the above steps you might be ready to ramp-up your LinkedIn results. Some of my students have turned LinkedIn into their primary marketing vehicle because they have found such success from it, and that may be the case for you, too.

Some the things you can do next on LinkedIn would be to promote your blog, ebook or webinar on LinkedIn with your status updates and in your profile.

Another great LinkedIn tool that takes your presence to the next level are Groups. In group discussions, you have the opportunity to interact with mutual group members whom you might not necessarily know. As you get to know some of the members in the group, you can message them and ask if they'd like to connect with you.

You can join up to 50 LinkedIn Groups. They're a great place to add value and can easily lead to potential clients and customers.

So how much time do you need to commit to get the most out of LinkedIn?

Once you have a system, you only need to spend 15 minutes a day to make a good impact on your network.

It’s about having a focus and a purpose when you go in.

Remember the Silent Benefits of Your LinkedIn Presence Too!

Keep in mind that even if you aren’t getting direct business from LinkedIn at this time, it’s still delivering many benefits that may be less obvious. Your presence is helping to establish you as an expert in your field. It’s giving you larger online exposure. You’re gaining further credibility with your current clients and customers. And it’s forcing you to write compelling content, which you can recycle for many other marketing uses!

QUESTION: How has LinkedIn helped your business or your credibility grow? Please share your experiences in the comment section below.

To practice what I’m preaching above, did you know I’ve created a step-by-step manual that walks you through planning, creating and promoting your own LinkedIn profile and presence? It’s called “LinkedIn Marketing Power: How to Use LinkedIn to Attract Hot New Prospects, Win Loyal Customers, and Grow Your Revenues FAST." Get all the details here.