LinkedIn Is Business, true.
This according to Colleen McKenna a LinkedIn specialist, CEO and founder of Intero Advisory. Her consulting firm works with people and organizations, helping them take advantage of all the business opportunities LinkedIn has to offer. She’s so serious about using LinkedIn for business, she has even coined and then trademarked the tagline, “It’s Business, Not Social™.
This is certainly true. I just recently advised a consulting client, that is updating their company website, to put more emphasis on updating their LinkedIn presence than the website. This not only will save them money, but LinkedIn is where their customers are.
That’s where people find them, where conversations begin, and with these exchanges, come sales.
However, if you are marketing your products and services by posting “articles” to LinkedIn, they do not always need to be business advisories or educational content. And they certainly should never be advertorials.
But they can be about personal items from time to time. And there is an excellent reason for this. One of the business goals possible by using LinkedIn is to get visitors to Know, Like, and Trust you. We must get these three elements in place for a sale to take place.
Here’s an example. Daniel Disney is a sales whiz and a LinkedIn specialist. Because he
travels so much, the time he spends at home with his kids must be quality time. Recently, he shared an article on LinkedIn about taking his youngest son on a boat trip.
Included in the article were pictures of him and his son on the boat.
“The post allowed people to see me as a human being, a hard-working human being who works for his kids,” he said. “In a day when most prospects see salespeople as untrustworthy and aggressive, this is a powerful way to change that impression.”
This became one of his most successful posts, leading to conversations and exchanges.
The same thing happened to me.
I posted an article on LinkedIn about my 1975 Cadillac Seville. I did some hunting and I found and then contacted the granddaughter of the original purchaser of the car, the folks that purchased the car 45 years ago. She was thrilled to hear from me and find out what had happened to the car.
According to her, “there’s a lot of love in that car.” Apparently, her grandfather purchased the car for her grandmother, and the two “had been lovebirds since high school.” It was the last car the grandmother owned before her death.
As to the number of viewers, that was also one of the most successful articles I ever posted. Many people on LinkedIn later sent me comments about their cars, about old Cadillacs, and how much they enjoyed the granddaughter’s comments.
It also helped people get to Know me, Like me, and Trust me, which, as I say, is at the top of the sales funnel.
More Insights can be found here.
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