In 2011 I moved back to Sydney to start a business advisory firm.
At that stage in my journey, I had failed in my first four businesses and managed to exit two successfully. I loved business and people so it was quite a logical step for me.
Plus I figured given my share of failures and successes.
I can advise people what to do and more IMPORTANTLY what not to do. But what I discovered next was quite alarming…
When I entered the space I quickly realised it was a really tough market. It was highly saturated, extremely competitive and worst of all…
It was FULL of business coaches who were out there advising companies with no business experience.
Still trying to figure out how that works, absolutely no logic behind it WHATSOEVER!
So I needed a way to cut through and I knew building my personal brand was key. One night whilst driving home from the office I got an email from a friend.
It said that 94.2% of journalists and editors are on LinkedIn. My eyes lit up, this is EXACTLY what I was looking for…
So that night I jumped on the platform and started connecting with journalists from all over the world. Within 3 months I got featured in 50 media publications and had 330 media connections.
Total investment: $0. (other than my time)
Not bad hey?
That’s when I focused on using the same process for LEAD generation and PARTNERSHIP opportunities. And let’s just say the rest is history…
I grew that advisory firm from just me to four full-time advisors and that ultimately lead me to launching Linkfluencer.
A company that’s on a mission to transform social selling and to help build the next generation of influencers.
Now back to the story.
As I started testing various ways to leverage the platform, I came across LinkedIn GROUPS. So I joined about 15 of them, based on my target market and industry.
I started posting daily, engaging with other members and even writing articles specifically for the group.
After several months what I found was that most people had their own agenda.
Some of them more hidden than others. Everyone was posting their own blogs to try and get traffic back to their site. And to get their content in front of all the other group members.
As you can imagine this just created CHAOS, and pretty much all of them were getting no engagement.
Yeah sure, in theory, it’s natural to think and get excited about the thousands of members you can get your message in front of.
But in reality, if only a small percentage of them are engaging with your post, what’s the point?
Plus this strategy is VERY time-consuming.
So one day I made the call to cut out groups altogether from my strategy and focus more on the one to one connection…
And as such I’m RECOMMENDING you do too. Do what I did.
Search, find and then connect with your target market and build genuine business relationships.
There are a lot of different tools out there you can use, the one we recommend is Sales Navigator.
It allows you to engage with your prospect’s content before you’re even connected with them, save your prospects into lead buckets. And so much more.
It’s by far the most powerful networking tool online and if you’re not using it then you’re missing out.
Now once you connect with your target market, the key is to add MASSIVE value up front. By private messaging them targeted and highly relevant content through:
– Blog articles
– Infographics
– Videos
And so on…
This will help you start the conversation and make you stand out.
Because I GUARANTEE you everyone else in your industry would be SPAMMING them as soon as they connect. This is a surefire way to ruin your brand and credibility.
Once you start that dialogue, think of ways how you can take them off LinkedIn and into your overall sales process.
Is it a quick phone call? Maybe a download on your website? Whatever it is, make sure you’re guiding people through the path of least resistance.
For example, don’t expect someone to jump on a 1-hour phone call on the backend of a LinkedIn campaign.
Sure you might get a few people but the strike rate would be VERY low.
As well as the one on one strategy start posting up great content through Status Updates.
These updates will then show up in the news feed of your connections. Plus they will also show up in their connections’ news feeds once they engage with your content.
Because anytime someone accepts your invite they become a 1st degree connection.
Share your story, industry insight and knowledge.
This will give your new connections an opportunity to get to know you on a more personal level. Prospects are now reading up to 11.4% of content before they even get in contact with you.
It’s supercritical you do this and do it right.
And if copywriting is not your strong suit, LEARN.
That’s what I did, I failed English back in high school. My highest score was 48.4%. But that didn’t stop me, so if I can do so can YOU.
Over the past few months alone my posts have been reached over 1 million views!
Not to mention the amazing connections I’ve made along the way.
Here’s one of them that went viral.
Now I know what you might be thinking… All of this sounds great, but what’s the ROI?
What can I expect as a result of all this activity?
Well in the past 12 months alone members of our Influencers program have managed to generate over $1.3 Million dollars in additional revenue.
Using the exact same strategies I’ve mentioned in this article. As they say, the numbers don’t lie 
The strategy works, it’s just a matter of execution and unfortunately, this is where 99.9% of people fall short.
So this is where our 3-step system fits in. A structured and proven process to grow your business and influence through LinkedIn.
Written By Alex Pirouz.
Are you looking for a structured and PROVEN process to growing your business and influence through LinkedIn?
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