Linkedin | Social Sales Buzz

What’s Your Social Voice?

May 19, 2010 By Barbara Giamanco Leave a Comment

I so love LinkedIn! This amazing business networking site boasts an impressive 65M+ user base and climbing. Roughly 65% of LinkedIn’s users are tagged as key decision makers, which is sales code for…they can buy from you! That, in and of itself, is a HUGE reason for you to use LinkedIn as a sales relationship tool that becomes a part of your natural sales/networking process. Decision makers, with money to spend, are using LinkedIn to check out your capabilities (and that of your competitor), polling colleagues for recommendations and doing research into what is available. They are talking about their like’s, dislike’s and sharing their current business frustrations and challenges. Are you listening? For sales people, LinkedIn should be the #1 place they go to prepare for their sales meeting. The amount of real-time information to be leveraged is…well…just plain staggering.

Speaking of leveraging conversation and information…I want to tell you about a really great question that was posed recently by Dana Detrick-Clark in one of my LinkedIn groups. She’s curious about the approach that others are taking in determining their blogging voice. And because the question is so applicable to “What approach do I take/voice do I use when answering group questions in a social community?”, I wanted to share Dana’s question and a part of my response.

Dana asks…Which is more important in a blog: speaking to a particular kind of reader, or speaking in your own ‘voice’? I’m curious as to what other business owners prefer, especially in business and/or marketing related blogs. Do you like the more journalistic approach, where you get “just the facts” for the information you’re after, or would you rather read a blog that’s more personal (even if that means at times it can be irreverent or reveal more personally about the author than what you normally find in a biz blog)?

Here was a portion of my answer…

You asked a great question that comes up a lot with clients. How much is too much information? Of course, like all such questions, the answer invariably is “it depends”.:)

Given that I own my business, I have more latitude with the approach I choose to take. So to be fair, I have a little more freedom when it comes to the information that I share in my blog posts. Each company has to decide what supports their core values and customer loyalty statement. But I urge companies to move away from their fear of “what could happen if someone says the wrong thing” and embrace the opportunity for building brand loyalty through media like blogs. There are a number of great stories about how companies were humanized in the eyes of their buyers and all because they “got real” on a blog. Sure, guidelines need to be established so that people know what’s cool and what isn’t (had to do it with email, remember?). From there, give employees training and then hold them accountable to be responsible when having conversations in the social space.

So what’s your take? Real in the blogosphere or not?

Filed Under: Sales, Social Media Tagged With: linkedin, Networking, Sales, Social Networking, social voice

Follow Companies on LinkedIn – New!

May 5, 2010 By Barbara Giamanco 1 Comment

LinkedIn has made the Company section more robust. It is now even easier to research companies and keep up with the people changes happening with those companies.

The Improvement

You can now “follow” companies. Okay, STOP right there! Before you close your mind to it, because images of nonsensical conversation on Twitter just popped into your head, please hear me when I say that “the concept” is similar, but definitely different. This is the kind of follow that you want to engage in, because…

Sales Benefit

You will hear about key developments such as who’s joined, left or been promoted at the companies you follow, business opportunities and job openings. This moves your ability to research target companies you want to work with to another level.

Once you elect to follow a company… when you log into the Company Home Page on LinkedIn, you will see a list of updates for the companies that you follow. You will also see a “company updates” section now showing up on your LinkedIn Home Page.

This is so much easier than tracking the individual movements of people within in a company. LinkedIn aggregates the list of changes for you. You can easily scan the list to keep up with what’s changed. Here’s a quick screen shot of the company I set up to follow today to check out how this works.

How To

Find Companies under the “More” menu. Click on Companies. Search companies you want to track. Once you’ve pulled up their company page…look to the upper right and click on “follow company”. Scan the updates once a day or once a week.

Definitely check it out! Share your success stories.

Filed Under: Lead Generation, Marketing, Networking, Popular, Sales, Social Media Tagged With: linkedin, Marketing, Networking, Sales, Social Media, Social Networking

Securing Management Buy-In

March 3, 2010 By Barbara Giamanco Leave a Comment

Like any other major change initiative, you must present a strong argument for the value and benefits to the organization. Social media is a new way of thinking and it is still being met with resistance. So, there is still evangelism and education to be done.

To secure management buy-in, I think it is very important to forget all the techno speak…present the business case for WHY developing/executing a social strategy is a critical business imperative. It’s important to focus on the number’s, the sales potential, how social selling shrinks the sales cycle and can be used to increase customer loyalty. Talk about how your sales people can use new media to differentiate the products and services they are selling. And, of course, point out that you can use these tools to gain competitive advantage. In other words, don’t lead with the technology. Before you jump on Twitter, you need to know why you are there.

Start with a clear vision, purpose and plan…then align the technology to your strategic objectives. Focus on measuring your results and build on them. Keep in mind that engaging everyone on your sales team will take time and needs to begin with active involvement from senior leadership. If management is asking their sales reps to use LinkedIn – they need to be acting participating themselves. Leaders model the way for their people!

This is another fundamental shift in how we approach the sales process. Don’t be fooled by the “quick fix” promises of thousands of followers over night. Numbers matter little if the followers aren’t your target customers. Integrating the right social tools will require much more than a few LinkedIn classes. Well…only if you want your financial investment to make a real difference.

Filed Under: Sales, Social Media Tagged With: linkedin, pipeline, Sales, sales management, Social Media

What’s In a Picture?

January 14, 2010 By Barbara Giamanco 1 Comment

Yesterday, Dawn Gartin, a colleague in my LinkedIn network, posed a great question asking what people thought their profile picture did or didn’t do for them. I love the question, because it comes up in every social sales training that I deliver. Some will debate that the picture doesn’t matter or argue that it could create bias in advance. To the first point…well, yes, I feel strongly that your picture does matter, as you’ll see in my response below. As for bias…when you choose not to post a picture that can create a bias in someone’s mind also. Are you hiding something they might be asking themselves. But the way I see it, you are going to meet them at some point anyway, right? Why not let them know who you are right up front? I suspect that often the concern is that you don’t have a great photo to use. That I understand. And it’s worth having a professional take a head shot for you, if you feel unable to tackle it on your own.

Here’s my response to Dawn’s question…

I currently use the same photo to maintain consistency across LinkedIn, Plaxo, Twitter, Blog, Facebook, etc. My business focus is on executives and sales professionals, so I use a professional picture and feel strongly about the importance of doing so to support my brand message and target audience. As sales professionals, it is important to remember that your picture helps people connect with you. They feel they are getting to know you…something about pictures and voice that draws people in. That’s why using video is so compelling.

It’s About Your Brand

Combine your picture with active online participation and you gain important visibility. Crucial to success in this new social world is being seen. You have to put the effort into participating so that when you buyer is ready – they think of you! OK, so back to my colleague, Dawn…if you happen to be in Atlanta, you might be interested in the networking “meet up” she’s got going on Thursday, January 21. You can find the details here. What I think is cool is that you can get a professional headshot taken at the event that you can then use on your social profiles. Do it! The price…incredibly inexpensive at $35.00. Again, find the details here.

BTW – having a current picture on your profiles also means that when you do “meet up” with prospective buyers or partners in person…you both already know what you each look like:)

Filed Under: Marketing, Networking, Sales, Social Media Tagged With: Branding, linkedin, Social Media

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