7 Questions To Ponder When Using LinkedIn

Today we have another guest post from Lewis Howes, former pro athlete and founder of SportsNetworker.com and the Sports Executives Association. Lewis is a social media expert and co-author of LinkedWorking: Generating Success on the World’s Largest Professional Networking Site. Get more LinkedIn tips on his blog.

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of LinkedIn.

When I co-wrote the LinkedIn book LinkedWorking over a year ago with Frank Agin, there were around 30 million users.  It has doubled to 60 million since then and it also has the highest average household income per user over the top social networking sites (currently $109,000 per user).

These stats excite me, and they should excite you as well if you are serious about your personal brand, your career, and your business.

Are you serious about that?

If so, then LinkedIn is THE place to bring your briefcase, build amazing relationships and get down to work.

Whether you are using LinkedIn aggressively, or you don’t even have a profile, there are a number of questions you should be asking yourself during the time you spend on this sexy business site.

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How to Give Product Samples to Media

One of the best ways to get free publicity is to give samples of your product to the media. Sometimes, the media themselves will approach you, requesting a sample for them to photograph or review.

However, even if you don’t get such requests, you can be proactive in sending out samples.

Doing so demonstrates your confidence in your product. The media themselves –or someone they know and trust–can try your product first-hand and give an unbiased opinion on it.

Plus, it’s much easier and more compelling to write about a product that’s already in your hands, especially if it’s relevant to your beat (a topic assigned to reporters). For example, a beauty editor may be more likely to write about a new moisturizer if they receive a sample bottle to try.

That said, there are right and wrong ways of giving product samples. Below are some useful tips to remember:

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How I Rebuilt My Destroyed Confidence

I’m honored to again have as a guest, Cameron Herold, one of my mentors. Cameron is a coach to CEOs in large corporations all around the world. After helping build multi-million dollar companies, Cameron is now a sought-after speaker, coach, and mentor. But in this post, Cameron shares a past few of us would have imagined for him. However, the fact that he overcame his academic challenges is an inspiration to us all.

I’ve never been a good student. I got about 64% in both high school and university. I’ve never felt smart. I’ve often felt like I have no idea what I’m really doing. And I often feel like I must be doing something wrong otherwise how could it be so easy?

My mind would spin with thoughts of ‘How could someone that was always told by the education system they were a C or D student actually be smart enough to really teach CEOs how to grow companies?’

Something started to change for me about six years ago, when I was already 38 years old.

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How to Get PR for Your Live Event

You may not realize it, but having a live event is an excellent PR opportunity. The event itself is usually newsworthy. If you think it isn’t, then make it so!

Make the most of this opportunity by planning your PR efforts for every stage of your event, as you can see below:

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Press Release vs. Media Pitch: Which One Do You Need?

One of the most common misconceptions about PR is that you need to distribute press releases to get media coverage.

Few people know you can get media exposure without writing a press release — many of my students have done it!

But first, what is a press release, how is it different from a media pitch, and when do you use one or the other?

Press Releases, Simplified

A press release can be a full-blown news article. It has a definite format and conventional style. It’s written in a journalistic tone, which is objective and impersonal.

To be successful, a press release must read like news and be worthy of being published as such. In fact, it should be complete enough to be published as is, or quoted in a bigger news item.

A well-written press release can also get you media interviews. That is, even if journalists don’t use the piece itself, the press release can pique their interest enough to contact you.

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Do You Still Need Traditional Media for PR?

With the rise of social media, many “experts” have predicted the demise of traditional media, whether for information dissemination, advertising, marketing or PR.

In fact, one of our readers recently commented, “I am not so sure I need access to a traditional reporter anymore!”

While I encourage my clients and students to include social media in their PR strategy, I would not advise anybody to drop traditional media.

It may seem that traditional media is losing its usefulness. Many newspapers and magazines have folded up. More and more people are turning to social networks first to get the news. And popular bloggers are reaching incredible numbers of people.

All this is true.

However, we still need traditional media for PR. Here are five reasons why:

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10 Ways to Repurpose Your Media Coverage

Getting your business talked about in media — newspapers, magazines, radio, TV, and the Internet — is what PR is all about.

You rejoice every time you get media coverage. It’s an opportunity to reach more of your target market, as well as potential partners and investors.

However, there’s more to media coverage than just getting exposure.

It also adds to your perceived credibility and authority in your field. It gives social proof that you’re good at what you do, that your product delivers, that your business is legit.

Therefore, you should use any media coverage you get to maximize these benefits. Don’t just clip them and stick them into your media kit. Of course, you should be doing that — at the very least.

Below are 10 ways you can reuse and repurpose your media coverage:

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5 New Year’s Resolutions to Get More PR in 2011

Another year has rolled in, and I hope one of your business goals is to get more PR for your business.

PR doesn’t have to cost you thousands of dollars or hundreds of hours to achieve. In fact, with a few well-ingrained, PR-attracting habits, you can easily become a virtual PR magnet.

Below are five resolutions that will help you get more PR in 2011:

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The Entrepreneur’s Transition Curve: 5 Stages

Today’s guest post is by Cameron Herold, who’s been coaching, speaking to, and helping entrepreneurs all over the world to build their companies. While COO at 1-800-GOT-JUNK, he helped build the company from revenues of $2M to $150M in just six years and built a PR team that landed the company over 5,000 media hits. Cameron blogs at BackPocketCOO.com.

Richard Branson, Bill Gates, and every entrepreneur I’ve ever met has ridden the roller coaster of running a business.

The key to riding it out is that you’ve really got two choices: You can hold on and scream, or you can wave your hands in the air and have fun. Either way, you’re going to ride it.

I didn’t come up with the idea of the Transition Curve but what I figured out what entrepreneurs should or shouldn’t do when they are at each stage.  It’s one thing to identify the feelings at each stage, and another thing entirely to know what to do when you’re on the ride itself.

WARNING: DO NOT THINK THESE WON’T HAPPEN TO YOU. IF YOU’RE HUMAN THEY WILL!!

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10 Reasons You Should Create A LinkedIn Group

Today’s post is a guest post by Lewis Howes, former pro athlete and founder of SportsNetworker.com and the Sports Executives Association. Lewis is a social media expert and co-author of LinkedWorking: Generating Success on the World’s Largest Professional Networking Site. Get more LinkedIn tips on his blog.

LinkedIn groups are by far the most powerful aspect of LinkedIn.  Hands down.

I have seen people build their entire business, market a number of products and services, sell out their paid events, and become thought leaders in their niche all around a single LinkedIn group.

Most people who have created groups on LinkedIn know the benefits. However, for those who have not created one yet, or don’t think it is valuable to do so, here are my top 10 reasons that you must start one today (before someone else beats you to it):

1.  Builds Thought Leadership

I have several LinkedIn groups.  One has more than 20,000 members, and around five of them have 5,000+ members.  Each group has (one of) my websites as the featured site for the group.  This is one of the first things people see when they join the group.  My name is also featured as the owner of the group.  Based off of perception alone, the owner is a thought leader for that groups niche (until proven otherwise).  The more you back this up with quality content, and positive group management, your community will support you and anoint you a leader in that niche.

2.  Connects A Thriving Community

People love to belong to a community, or a Tribe as Seth Godin puts it.  The more you are able to connect like-minded people together, the more they will appreciate you for doing so.  Create an opportunity for passionate people to come together because the leader that does this *usually* reaps the benefits.

3.  Drives Traffic To Your Site

Looking to drive traffic to your blog or company website?  Look no further, a LinkedIn group is a great way to do this.  Here are a few ways you can drive traffic to your site from your group:

• Put your website link in the group profile
• Add the site RSS feed to the News Section
• Send a weekly message to you group, and include a niche related article from your site
• Add your site in the group welcome message (more on this below)
• Create a discussion and include your link

4.  Builds Personal Network

I get roughly 15-20 new invites to connect (as a 1st degree connection) every day.  Most of them come from my groups.  Why?  People love to connect with the community leader.  Since I run a number of “communities” within my LinkedIn groups, I am looked at as someone to connect with.  This is almost true for all group owners, they seem to rack up bonus points from starting the group, therefore having more connections than the average LinkedIn user.

5.  Sending Weekly Messages

This may be the most powerful feature within the groups.  A great example is Robert Flemming, who runs the eMarketing Association group on LinkedIn.  It has almost 200,000 members.  Instead of having to spend thousands of dollars each year on email marketing you could simply create a group, and send them a weekly message for free.

The downside to this is you can’t brand your emails they way you could from a custom email marketing provider (affiliate link), but you can still do some damage in terms of getting your message out there to your members.

The upside, Robert has events with ticket prices of over $1,000 and he sells a ton of them because of his group.  His LinkedIn group helps him achieve his event marketing goals, and it doesn’t cost a dime.  Tough sell, eh?

6.  Create Auto-Responder Email

This is a no-brainer.  Who wants to send a message one-by-one to someone every time they join a group?  Not me, that would take hours of management time every week.  LinkedIn was wise enough to make this easy for the group managers by enabling a welcome message.  Every time someone joins, you can send your own automatic message that delivers to their email account (not their LinkedIn account, but their actual email provider).

This means that you can create a decent sales funnel by first welcoming people to the group, telling them a little about how the group can benefit them and where they can go to get more information.  Hopefully you have them sign up for your newsletter, or connect with you on other social networking sites.  This will help you generate sales in the long run… if you set it up correctly.

7.  Lead Generator

The more you give, the more you will receive.  Dr. Robert Cialdini talks to us about the proven power of reciprocity in his best selling book Influence, and it holds true within a LinkedIn group as well (on LinkedIn, or any other social networking site for that matter).

Connecting people, providing job leads, referrals, valuable content to help them achieve their goals: these are things that you can give to people, and by doing so they will give you an abundance of leads (or whatever it is you need in your business) in return.  It has happened to me, and a number of other group owners who are “doing it right”, and it will also happen for you.

8.  Creating Sub Groups

Want to target people in various locations around the world, or sub niches within a niche?  LinkedIn allows you to create up to 10 subgroups.  It’s a great way to throw events all around the country and only have to send a message out to the subgroup, as opposed to the entire group about a regional event.  Make sure you take advantage of this feature (in an ethical manner of course).

9.  Managing Content

If people are posting MLM type content, or someone is using foul language or attacking others in an unproductive way, you have the ability to remove individuals or delete inappropriate content.  Simple as that.  If it isn’t helping the community, you have the power to make it better.

10.  Helping Others

Ultimately, every good leader helps his team or community rise to the top.  I’m sure 99% of group owners have their own agenda when creating a group, but the more they focus on helping it’s members achieve their goals, that group owner will achieve their goals as well.  It feels good to have the opportunity to help others.  LinkedIn helps us everyday by letting us see how we are connected to one another, and allows us to build stronger, more meaningful relationships.  Let’s face it, business (and life) is about all about the relationships we have, right?

In closing, LinkedIn is a powerful platform to help you achieve your business goals, and the groups aspect is a vital part to helping you achieve those goals faster and in a more meaningful way. Be willing to take some time to better understand them, as you may find a new way to help yourself, or others, by using them each day.

Got a question for Lewis? Post it in the comments below, and you’ll get an answer from Lewis himself.

You can also send your comments or questions to me via Twitter or Facebook.

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