Can LinkedIn help you grow your relationships?
Many UK professionals are spending time on LinkedIn and the 'savvy' firms are generating fee income through this online platform. Our Top Tips today gives you advice on how you can use it to grow your relationships and fees.
1. Ice Breaker
Connecting with lapsed clients and contacts through LinkedIn is a great way to re-connect with them, without having to resort to a cold phone call that you'd probably feel uncomfortable making.
2. Intelligence
Connecting with prospects before you meet for a pitch is excellent for identifying mutual contacts. By having trustworthy people in common you automatically help build mutual trust between you and your new contact. You can also find out a great deal about their business interests and helps you understand the personalities involved more than from just visiting their website.
3. A light touch
Often we are the subject of grand gestures from firms wanting to build a relationship with us, from seminars to in-house training to corporate entertainment. However it's the people that are 'front of mind' that normally win the work. So a well timed connection or offered opinion on LinkedIn might mean they pick up the phone to you instead of your competition.
4. Networking follow up
Do you follow up with people you meet at events? Rather than send them a regular email with suggested dates to meet again, we'd recommend that you search for them, connect and send your message through LinkedIn. Then refer back to Point 2 (Intelligence) to help accelerate the relationship.
5. What are you up to?
LinkedIn has a 'status update' feature which allows you to share with your contacts what you are involved in at the moment or links to good reading material etc. This is a great way to subtly demonstrate your areas of expertise in which you are being instructed.
6. Do me a favour?
Providing people you trust with a recommendation on LinkedIn will help them develop their own business. The basic reasoning is that if you do someone a good turn, human beings are 'hard wired' to return the favour. If you are interested in the psychology of influence then we recommend that you read Robert Cialdini's book of the same title.
7. Build your own reputation
Treat your own network of connections like a party held at your home. Invite only people that you like and trust and don't let anyone in the door who you wouldn't leave near the family silver! Never foresake quality for quantity.
8. Free advertising
LinkedIn has a feature to promote your events for free. Make sure you include relevant key words in the title and content that people might be searching for.
9. Join Groups
LinkedIn has thousands of Groups that people and firms have created. View them like 'private members clubs'. The idea is that these are formed for members to share knowledge, insight, help each other and build relationships. Look to see which Groups your contacts have created or joined themselves, and ask to join those that interest you.
10. Thought leader
Offer suggestions and sign post people in your Groups to articles that you or your colleagues have written on topics that are up for debate. Also don't be afraid to ask for advice from your fellow Group members, that's what they have been created for.
10 1/2. Create Groups
Creating your own specialist interest Groups (your own Private Clubs, remember!) is definately the 'way forward' for creating effective enviroments to generate new leads on-line in the future. You've heard it here first!
Want to understand the basics of LinkedIn?
Follow this link to watch a 2 minute video about LinkedIn.
Keen to learn more?
Size 10 1/2 Boots have been delivering half day workshops on LinkedIn recently and are offering special rates for BootClub members (like you). Please contact Courtney for details.
This month's 'Famous Feet'
Our new addition to the team, Angela Bostock, asked Sir Alex Ferguson for his shoe size before the Manchester United v Stoke City game on 9th May. "Eh, What?" was his first reply under the noise of the crowds, but Angela persisted and he happliy shared he is a Size 8.
What our clients say about us
In a world looking increasingly bleak and in particular working in a sector which has been on the ropes since late 2007, it was extremely useful to get everyone focusing on where new opportunities may lie and the practical steps they need to take to access those opportunities. The sector appraisal exercise certainly stimulated some lively debate. It got the team thinking about which organisations or businesses may be in the market for property based legal services, how we could access those organisations and how we might define our service to give us a real competitive advantage.
Jonathan Cavell, Partner, asb law, Law Firm
Size 10½ Boots created innovative sales and management training solutions, tailored specifically to our needs. During the entire training cycle Size 10½ Boots were attentive to our company's exact requirements - spending much more time planning and researching than previous training providers and remaining contactable for both delegates and managers throughout the programme.
Douglas McPherson, Regional Director, SPG Media Limited
Famous feet
Elle MacPherson
Supermodel/Actress
Shoe size: 10½
