The Three Connection

MethodHow To Generate Leads Through Connections on LinkedIn

2.

Introduction

LinkedIn is a premier social media professional platform with over 500 million members globally.

It is the most effective networking and lead generation tool. Many people use LinkedIn to connect with industry contacts, prospective recruiters, old university friends, and colleagues.

The power of this platform lies in its ability to easily connect with potential and existing clients to generate more busi-ness.

The following will teach the Three step Connection Method

3.

Connect

The first thing you must always take care of is your LinkedIn Profile. Set up your LinkedIn profile and connect with your target groups. Ensure the profile is appealing.

Take them to your database by inviting them to view your page. Make your professional profile picture and create a title or tagline that draws attention. A good profile portrays you as an expert. The profile must support your expertise which you must write using keywords to attract headlines.

The profile must specify your skills and expertize.

Besides, it should be easy to understand and skim through.

Connect your new audience to the database to enable them to view your profile, articles, blog posts and pages to generate leads. Use a polite language if you want them to connect with you. For example:

“Hello, how are you doing? I like your commitment and dedication to your business, can we connect?”

4.

“Hi, am a realtor by profession, am looking for new friends to share ideas and industry challenges with. It

will be a pleasure to connect with you?”

Optimize your profile to invite more connections. LinkedIn has become spammy and for you to stand out your need to have a profile that generates enough interest.

Only then can it trigger a connection request. Do not blindly send out link messages or requests without a good strategy of approach. Start by writing a non-traditional title that will stand out. For example, CEO & Founder, LeadsGen Media.

The title should be eye-catching to grab the attention of your audience. A catchy title will capture the interest of potential clients who will connect with you even before you initiate a connection.

After making the first move, start an engagingconversation to build the relationship.

5.

Upgrade your LinkedIn account

Upgrade your LinkedIn account to a paid account. Thepremium icon that appears establishes trust as theconnections know you are not a spammer.

A premium account enables you to send up to 15 in-mailmessages monthly, view more profiles daily among other perks.

LinkedIn is a platform that allows you to connect withacquaintances and new contacts to generate more business opportunities.

Find the critical connections by searching the names and hitting connect button.

Do not bother whether or not you have met, just send them a personalized message indicating a willingness to join.

6.

Use an engaging message to build a trusting relation-ship. This will strengthen your credibility. Send a follow-up message shortly after connection for the first time.

Thank the person for connecting with you and send them an invitation to join your group. Send them a resource suggestion that will be useful for them.

Inform them about important discussion proposal and invite them to join the focus group. Carefully craft the messages to help you engage your contacts better. This increases your chance of generating leads and inquiries.

Search for terms on people’s profiles that agree with your topics and send them a connection message. Reach out to them to build a network of potential clients.

For example, if you are working for online advertising, simply search for the keywords online advertising and filter the results using second-degree relationships. This enables you to find people connected to your network or those you have a lot in common.

7.

Remember, people always tell when they are interested.Therefore, if you want to establish a healthy relationship,connect with them.

In case they do not have any real interest in your business, simply move on.

Make each connection personal. If you connect to a contact immediately, do not try to sell your products or services to them directly. If you do so, you risk alienating them. Instead, take the time to connect with them at a more personal level and win them over along the way.

If they are running a business, learn about their activities and keep tabs on what they are doing even when it has nothing to do with your business.

Remember, you could be having a connection that needs the services they are offering and likewise. The close relationship builds trust, and with time they can give your referrals which will generate more leads for your business.

8.

Your content must show yours expertize in that field. Use engag-ing questions and do what experts do. Share useful content as you create new ones. Sharing ideas and content makes you trustworthy and more approachable.

Do not make your new connections or target groups feel you are only interested in their money. Put relationship building your priority and not selling your business to gain their trust.

Great companies start with good strategies. Do not over rely on sales pitches.

People do not just connect with you because they want you to sell them something. On the contrary, they connect with you because they believe building a network relationship with you will benefit them just like it benefits you.

However, you need to prove them right that connection with you is of keen interest. Do not just focus on your business, but focus on the contacts, see what their business is about and commend them for their accomplishments.

9.

Engage

Join the relevant groups to build a network that can generate leads. You can encourage your contacts to join your team or connect with the target group. LinkedIn has a vast number of groups that cater to a high number of potential clients.

Use the group search function to help you locate relevant groups. Spend time to know how topics flow in those groups and the discussions and comments. If you spot potential opportunities, anticipate and share it at a networking event.

Share your firms, expertize, and content to engage the target group members. Ask questions to quick start the discussion rele-vant to your field of expertize. Use creative methods to engage the target groups.

Start conversations and share a healthy mix of external content and your firm’s content. Comment on otherdiscussions and offer your experience or expert opinion.

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Create groups that focus on relevant content and invite your potential leads to join the groups. Be a source of information to establish relationships with referral sources, marketing partnersand potential clients like in the real-world. Use your initialconnections to build a larger network.

There are many ways of sharing content; you can use statusupdates, write a blog to amplify your content or publish articles. Make sure your posts have compelling graphics and titles.Remember, you are in competition with other LinkedIn users for the attention of new connections.

Link Twitter to your LinkedIn to enable your connection network to receive your tweets. The more tweets your system sees, and your expertize, the better for you as it generates more leads.

Only ask questions with a purpose. You can postbusiness issues or questions about latest industry trends.

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Post something engaging that your connection network can share and comment on. Have some useful insights on yourindustry and use your professional connections to start adiscussion to keep your network engaged.

Be active and use smart searches on Google to win over more connections. Be friendly and kind to your connections. It is abetter way of warming them up. This opens a dialogue that can generate more leads to your advantage.

When you are gentle and kind when sending connectionrequests, they will be inclined to respond.

After the response, you can mention what your business deals with and how their business can benefit from your business. This is a straightforward and effective way of convincing newconnections to become clients.

People love to feel admired and appreciated, so give themsincere compliments. This is a good way of starting a relationship and conversation.

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Meaningful relationships are founded on trust. Use the LinkedIn connections as your social media scorecard. Take risks and share with your contacts your secrets. This draws them closer to you and convinces them that you are a good friend.

Ask your connections if they are comfortable introducing you to a third-party. Request in writing and giving a short introduction of yourself which they can use to send to a third-party. A friend of a friend type of connection gets a warmer reception.

However, be cautious with this strategy so that you do not send connection requests to strangers.

Be wise about what you share so that you do not reveal all your secret business plans and ideas. Most of your contacts will not take your thoughts and use them as their own. In fact, they will rather hire someone they can trust and know to do the work for them.

13.

Sharing gives yourrelationship

Credibility and a higher chance of building a strong network that can generate more leads for your business. In case, they use your ideas, simply wish them well. This action sells you out to a mature business person and can turn tables in your favor and generate more leads and increase your popularity.

Stay on top of thingsSome of the people you connect with on LinkedIn may not be ready to buy your services or products. Some may genuinely not be in need of the business because of contractual, buying cycle or budgetary constraints. The goal is to build a healthyrelationship first when the time is right the person will feel the need to engage your business.

14.

Send messages regularly to your contacts or target groups. The messages must be well intentioned and focus on establishing a strong relationship with the key connections.

LinkedIn makes things easy as you can check the list of major events in the lives of your connections from your home page. Use the direct link to these developments to message yourconnections.

For example:“Congratulations for the successful launch of your new production branch.”

“Happy anniversary”

“Congratulations on your promotion.”

The messages give your connections an opportunity to give your insight on how things went down. However, some peopledo not regularly update their LinkedIn profile, so before youcongratulate them, double-check the profile.

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Consistently share updates with your connections. Share videos,quotes and meaningful content as it gives your business anexpert look.

Capture

Post a mix of other people’s content and your business content. Share your thoughts on leadership, but also demonstrate howinformed you are about industry issues. When the need arises, your connections will know they can rely on your expertize.

Make regular posts on the LinkedIn pulse. The goal is to stayunder the radar and to publish regular posts gives you thatadvantage over updates.

Active LinkedIn networking involves building relationships. When you connect with people, they know you are businessprofessionals and expect to inform them about your business.

Once you connect with someone and strike a conversation, look for opportunities to sell them your value without any strings.

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The key to generating leads for your business using LinkedIn lies in your ability to focus on building more relationships.

Real relationships take the time to develop and mature. Bepatient if you want to get positive returns financially, personally and professionally.

LinkedIn has a feature that enables you to know who has been to your profile. This feature allows you to know people who are interested in establishing a connection.

Use the feature to view potential leads. Send them a polite and engaging message. The message should be simple like:“ Hello, do you need help with something?”. “Hi friend, can I be of help?”

This kind of polite message opens up a dialogue which can generate leads. Sometimes new connections need a push to reach out. Take non-promotional first contact.

17.

Never make your first conversation a sales speech. LinkedInusers get advertisements throughout the day and get turned off by the sales pitches.

Continue with your conversation with your network ofconnections. Think of long-term benefits. Keep regular updates of postings on your profile. After building a trusting relationship, take the conversation off the LinkedIn platform. Put your offeron the table. You can achieve a better success rate whencommunicating through traditional mail or over the phone.

LinkedIn is an excellent platform for generating leads. It enables you to make an initial introduction and establish a level of trust.

However, it is not a place you can close a business deal. Once you get a prospective client, schedule a time to speak to them and give them your offer.

LinkedIn has many opportunities for generating leads if you use it efficiently and creatively. Productively engage your network. Make every connection count and stay active on a daily basis.