Get More Clients with LinkedIn®

How to Leverage the Power of LinkedIn® to

Get New Clients

www.askjohnsmiley.com

LinkedIn® vs. Facebook

• LinkedIn® – More user-friendly than Facebook– Adapted to current day communication preferences– More reliable connections & information

– Presenting more useful options regularly

– Allows you to present yourself in a dynamic presentation

• Facebook– Rules change all the time

Email: [email protected] www.AskJohnSmiley.com

Step 1: Revisit Your LinkedIn® Profile

• Is your profile current?• Have you tweaked it for maximum

effectiveness at getting new clients?• Did you skip any steps in the initial setup?


LinkedIn® Profile Tips

• Make your profile visible to everyone

• Create your unique URL vanity– Go to ‘Settings’ & ‘Edit your URL’

• Create a profile badge to put on your website

• Use a professional profile headshot photo


How to Grab Perfectly Targeted Leads

• Decide on your main LinkedIn® goal– Who are you trying to attract?– What do you want them to notice?– What do you want them to do?

– What do you want your profile to do for you?

– What do they need to know about you?

– What do you want it to say?– Why is this relevant to them?– Who do you want them to see?


Step 2: Connecting with the Right People

• Treat your network connections as treasure

• Do not add connections that bear no relevance to your main goal

• Be ruthless when deciding whether to add people to your network


Connecting with the Right People

• Start with ‘People You May Know’– Click on ‘See More’– This displays many ways to connect with people

• Decide who you want to connect with before you search

• Adding peers in related professions or experts / role models will help you meet prospective clients


Important Tip!

• Do NOT hit the ‘Connect’ button!!– Hitting that link will send an impersonal invitation to

connect– Instead, click on the person’s name– This opens up their profile for further reading

– Allows you to personalize a form letter for a more professional introduction



Other Ways to Search for People

• Alumni from your university

• Different category listings– Search company names & look for their top

executives’ profiles

– Find current employees & past employees

• Take notes of the top executive profiles• What bores you? What makes you want to click

through & read more?Email: [email protected] www.AskJohnSmiley.com

Other Ways to Search for People

• Search particular groups, to join but also for potential clients

• Use keywords to search for people or groups– Notice those people who have the coveted ‘500+

Connections’ notation on their profile

• Study experts & top executives profiles & actions on LinkedIn®


What the Experts Put on Their Profiles

• Mission statement or philosophy• A statement about what’s important to you• A summation of what they love about their

job• Biography• What they do & how they do it• What they can help you achieve• Short summaries


Use Advanced Search to Find Leads


Step 3: Apply What You’ve Learned

• Update your profile (again)– Drop mind-numbing, repetitive or weak phrases– Start with an active statement– Avoid cliche phrases

– Include best keywords in your description, tagline & summary first sentence

– Avoid writing in the third person

– Write short, concise paragraphs– Write summaries in the first person– Be creative


LinkedIn Tips

• Your profile is NOT for telling your life history– It’s to convince your new connections that you are the

perfect person to connect with

• After you add new connections, filter them by company, location or other personalized tags

• Keep your Summaries & Specialties separate


Step 4: Generating Client Opportunities

• Let people know landing clients is your main focus– Start your profile summary with your experience– Join relevant groups with a specific focus

• When joining groups, start with an introduction

• Listen, answer questions, give feedback, listen

• Share resources, create resources when there’s a need, place strong calls to action on your landing pages


Generating Client Opportunities

• Let people know landing clients is your main focus– Look for better suggested keywords– Add different media types to your summary

• Portfolio images, videos, slide shows

• What best represents your work?

– Use a custom background



• Let people know landing clients is your main focus– Ask to be recommended



• Let people know landing clients is your main focus– Share your profile

• Put badge on your website• Add to relevant Facebook pages

• Share when you update with relevant content

• Share profile via .PDF



• Let people know landing clients is your main focus– Check your network updates

• Visit home page daily• Note who has viewed your profile in 90 days

• Check the People You May Know

• Ads that may be of interest to you• Posts & updates that may be useful• Check out LinkedIn® Pulse where you find top

industry influencers


Step 5: Should You Get the Paid Version?

• Analyze the cost– Will you get enough returns to justify the monthly

cost?

• Paid version does offer information not easily accessible in the free version

• Paid version has a one month trial– Paid plans vary depending on what your business

goal is


Examples of Paid Plans

• ‘Unlocking Sales Opportunities’ costs $89.99 CAD per month

• ‘Find & Contact Right People’ costs $60.99 CAD per month

• Paid plans contain other features, such as InMail & enhanced ‘Who Has Viewed Your Profile’


In Conclusion

• Join LinkedIn® centered groups & other targeted groups– LinkedIn for Journalists, LinkedIn Mobile, etc– Check groups regularly

• Keep profile updated & fresh

• Respond to requests quickly


In Conclusion

• Share your LinkedIn® posts on Twitter

• Make your profile public so others find you easily when searching

• Use relevant keywords in your titles & descriptions


Additional Training

• LinkedIn - AskJohnSmiley.com/linkedin

• Social Media - AskJohnSmiley.com/masm

• Internet Marketing - AskJohnSmiley.com/imme


Business

Get More Clients with LinkedIn®