This article is periodically updated. It was originally published in 2013.

Your LinkedIn profile is an outpost for your personal brand. For many, it takes the place of a website. It is a landing page you can manage and share your professional background, positions, experiences and achievements. A LinkedIn profile often takes the place of a resume or CV. We used to think of LinkedIn as the online resume. While it remains important for job seekers and recruiters, it is now a powerful business social network.

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Professional selling is senior selling. It may be a seller-doer model, as in consulting, or an expert-driven sales model for high value products and services. Professional selling is not about directing a junior team of salespeople, it is about senior people doing the selling – establishing their personal brand, actively building a network and engaging both existing relationships and new prospects with thought leadership and insights.

Clearly, LinkedIn is an established resource for professional sales. It helps senior professionals find and engage with specific prospective clients or buyers with personal 1:1 interaction, establish professional credibility and share content and resources to nurture and develop prospects. It also offers paid options to build awareness and encourage lead conversions.

So how can senior professionals take advantage of LinkedIn? You can simplify it with three steps (and a few sub-steps). 1. Develop a strategy, 2. Establish the systems you need, 3. Execute your program(s).

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Join us at our upcoming Lorman Education Services live webinar Using Digital and Social Media to Acquire and Expand Client Relationships on May 7 at 1 pm ET.

This educational webinar is tailored for financial advisors and professionals who would like to navigate the role of social media and digital marketing to grow your professional practice.

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SharpSpring users now have access to a new social media and calendar features.

  • Content Calendar: A bird’s-eye view of your social posts, email sends, and blog articles.
  • Social Posting: Post directly to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn without leaving SharpSpring.
  • Social Listening: Monitor social media activity with customized listening feeds.
  • New Trigger/Filter: Create automations based on when leads interact with your social media accounts.

SharpSpring has updated Lead Scoring and the Life of the Lead to now include social interactions. SharpSpring will be releasing to all clients in a few days.

Ready to learn more? Contact us for a guided walkthrough of these new features.

Blog or BlogsI often hear the use of the word Blogs when referring to what I think of as Blog Posts. While there are no absolute right answers, here is how I suggest you use the terminology:

A Blog: A website with multiple time-sequenced posts. Note, a Blog might not be called “Blog”. It could be called “Resources” or “News”. If it is enabled by blog technology, I call that a Blog!

Blogs:  People usually mean the posts themselves. I would use “Posts” instead… or “blog posts”.

Post: An individual entry or article on a blog.

 

Blog

A blog is short for weblog. A weblog is a website consisting of entries (posts) that are displayed in reverse chronological order with the most recent post appearing first. “Blogs” refers to the universe of blogs – not to individual posts. Blogs are created using software like WordPress or TypePad. Blogging is a verb that means writing posts (not writing blogs).

So if you are wondering if you have “blogs” on your blog…. IMHO you actually have posts… If you have multiple blogs (multiple websites or multiple subject blogs, each with sequential posts), then you might refer to the collection as ‘blogs’.

Good luck marketing, selling – and blogging!

Learn more about how to integrate your blog strategy for revenue growth… Contact Us.

HNWI on LinkedIn

Source: Join the Dots

LinkedIn is the most used and most trusted social media platform that high net worth investors (HNWIs) tap to research financial decisions, according to a 2014 survey of HNWIs by Join the Dots. And they are using it across all investable asset ranges.

HNWI tapping LinkedIn Financial Content

Source: Join the Dots

 

 

 

These HNWIs are tapping various forms of content to inform the financial decision journey, according Join the Dots research.  Those who use it for both discovery and consideration are driven to action.

 

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It has been well over a decade since the digital revolution went mainstream. However, according to Google, 55% of small businesses don’t even have a website. The vast majority of those that do, have a website that lacks key features necessary to make digital a revenue generating channel. A common reason for this lack of focus is the belief that real business comes via traditional channels like referrals.

How to supercharge referrals

The problem is that referrals are heavily influenced by digital channels. Your client base needs to know exactly what makes you great and be energized to make a referral. Digital channels provide the necessary energy. A well thought out digital strategy is vital to guide the referral process.

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Linkedin Investor Usage

Source: Cogent Research


Linkedin is the most prominent social media network that investors use to research financial decisions.

With the large and every increasing number of affluent investors using LinkedIn, their expectations are that you have more than a presence. In order to provide value and differentiate from competitors, independent financial advisors need to actively engage.  Very simply, an active and robust presence on LinkedIn will enable you to better retain and attract new clients. 

  1. Increase your visibility, starting with a robust, search optimized profile
  2. Reconnect with clients and colleagues
  3. Get recommended
  4. Enhance reputation/build influence
  5. Prospect for new clients
  6. Share and join events/groups
  7. Conduct targeted advertising
  8. Set up a Company Page

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