8 Ways to Profit from #LinkedIn - the Forgotten(?) Social Network

I can't let this chance to invite you to connect with me on LinkedIn pass.  Can I?  LinkedIn boasts that it is the World's Largest Professional Network and... I can already tell some of you are yawning even as I imagine you reading this.  Alright.  I'll try to make it snappy, give you some good content and be about my business.

I know for a fact that a lot of you aren't even sure you've got a LinkedIn account up and running and half of you are neglecting yours.  Let's fix that.  I believe you are missing out on some huge opportunities to expand your business and career and here's how you can fix it.  Do these eight things today.

1.  Update your profile.  This should be your top priority. As your online resume, you want to include relevant information and your past experience that will help you stand out above your competitors. Include details that will make a prospective client want to work with you. Include a professional headshot and your current contact information. Grab your names.  If you haven’t already done this, get on LinkedIn and grab your name and your company name (they are more selective with these) and edit the URL on your profile so it reads with your actual name. If you leave what LinkedIn automatically does for you there will be lots of extra numbers and characters which confuse people.

2.  Always include a headshot.  This may appear to be obvious, but you often see pages without a picture. Unlike your Facebook page, this picture should be a little more “professional.” Obviously professional is defined differently based on you and your company, but use good judgment. Creativity can work, but can also backfire.  Generally, LinkedIn is NOT the place to express your creativity.  Use Twitter for that.  Or, even better, Facebook.

3.  Connect to all of your current contacts.  Build your own LinkedIn community by connecting with anyone and everyone you know. Use your Outlook or Gmail database to help. The more connections you have, the more secondary connections you will have, which will allow you to view more profiles, and expand your personal and corporate network.  This is a "dig your well before you're thirsty" kind of thing.  The time to network is before you need to network.  You never know who you'll meet online or whom you'll need to call on one day.

4.  Join groups.  Join groups that are applicable to your business and the connections you are trying to establish. Joining groups allows you to stay on top of market trends and important information within your field.  This is the best way to get your name out there in your field.  And don't just join.  Participate.  Talk.  Give feedback in discussions.  Post your blog articles.  Just don't spam.  Spamming will get your posts blocked or get you kicked out of groups.  You don't want that.  Trust me.

5.) Use LinkedIn as a prospecting tool.  Use LinkedIn as a “search engine.” Search for companies you are interested in, and then find out who the key personnel are. Once you find the right person, send them an email via LinkedIn. Often a message via LinkedIn comes off as warmer than a regular email. Additionally, your message won’t get mixed in with the 300 other emails that person receives daily.

6.) Get recommended by your customers.  A recommendation on LinkedIn is very powerful, and a great addition to your profile. It demonstrates to prospective clients that you are an expert in your field. Even a short paragraph of 100 words can have a powerful impact on your reputation. Encourage clients to recommend you; keeping in mind that a great way to get someone to recommend you, is to recommend them first. The positive energy they get from you may lead to them writing an even better recommendation for you.

7.) Expand your LinkedIn reach with Twitter.  There is a little checkbox at the bottom of your “Share an update” box that copies everything you share with your Connections to all of your Twitter followers.  Use it. Perhaps you've been wondering what else you can tweet about anyway.  Well, here you go!

8. Supercharge your Job Search.  Here's a bonus. If you're looking to use LinkedIn to improve your job search, check out these additional notes specific to helping boost your job search:

Here's a final encouragement for you if you're an online marketer.  I've always experienced better feedback (i.e., sales) from my LinkedIn community more so than from my Twitter or Google+ and, for some things, it's even better than Facebook.  My experience is that people come to LinkedIn expecting to do business as opposed to expecting to exchange recipes and cute videos of cats.  That's a powerful thing that you can put to use with just a little effort.

Good luck!




Mark Anthony McCray helps people live on PURPOSE, achieve higher PERFORMANCE and experience true PROSPERITY.  Be sure to subscribe to this blog so you don't miss a thing and forward this to a friend if you found it helpful. All material © Copyright, Mark Anthony McCray unless otherwise noted!

He can be reached in the following ways:
Mark@LiveBIGDieEmpty.com
Phone: 281-846-5720
Twitter: @LiveBIGDieEmpty
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/LiveBIGDieEmpty
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/markanthonymccray/
Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/103149858138414160703/posts
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/markanthonymccray

For more information on Mark as a speaker or presenter check out http://www.gigsalad.com/mark_anthony_mccray_houston

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There's a lot entrepreneurs can learn from @RealJayAbraham

... at the very least he's a genius.
If you feel like you need some breakthrough insights for your business, I urge you to listen to Anthony Robbins interview Jay Abraham here and here for Part One and Part Two.  It's something special.  By the end, you'll be looking for Parts Three, Four, Five and more!

A lot stands out and I won't try to re-preach Jay's sermon, but here is something that stands out from his hour plus on "How to Exponentially Increase Your Business."  For starters, if someone asked you "How many ways are there to increase your business?" you might list a dozen approaches.  In reality, there are only three ways to increase the revenue side of your business - any business:

1. Increase your number of clients and/or prospects.  (duuuuhhhh) To do this you must employ more than one way of bringing in clients, e.g., sales teams, outbound sales, inbound sales, direct mail, etc.  Most companies only acquire clients through one avenue but looking at other companies (even in other industries)  can show you some ways to raise the number of prospects.  Risk-reversal is the secret.  You've got to lower the customer's risk of doing business with you.
2. Increase your unit of sale.  This can be done by increasing your prices, pressing more add-ons and up sells or increasing the size of your product bundle so people pay more and also get more value.  While you're working to increase your customer base, also work to increase how much each customer spends with you. 
3. Increase the residual value of each client and/or their frequency of purchase.  More referrals.  More back-end sales.  Sales of warranties.  This can be done by reducing attrition, too, by the way.  The idea here is to deepen the relationship with your customers and involve them in capturing more business for you.

Do any one of the three and you will grow your business geometrically - imagine being just 10% more effective in each area.  If you can do all three of these at the same time even a little bit and your business grows exponentially (10% + 10% + 10% is typically more than a 30% revenue increase) and keeps growing!  And that's your goal!

Go back and listen to Jay's insights.  I guarantee you'll get something you can put to work for you.

Are you looking for more guidance on building and expanding your business?  Get your copy of "From Idea to Ignition: How to Get Your Business off the Ground" today and also check out "The Sales Monster - 10 Ultimate No B.S. #MonsterTips to Help You Sell More and Earn More Money NOW!"  Both are packed full of information and insights you can take to the bank!  Available for download right to your Inbox after purchase with tons of bonus material!

Mark Anthony McCray helps people live on PURPOSE, achieve higher PERFORMANCE and experience true PROSPERITY.  Be sure to subscribe to this blog so you don't miss a thing and forward this to a friend if you found it helpful. All material © Copyright, Mark Anthony McCray unless otherwise noted!



He can be reached in the following ways:
Mark@LiveBIGDieEmpty.com
Phone: 281-846-5720
Twitter: @LiveBIGDieEmpty
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/LiveBIGDieEmpty
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/markanthonymccray/
Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/103149858138414160703/posts
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/markanthonymccray

For more information on Mark as a speaker or presenter check out http://www.gigsalad.com/mark_anthony_mccray_houston

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"Seven Things I Learned from Rap Music"

Since the days of Kurtis Blow, I have loved rap music.  I'll grant you that some of it's becoming hard to justify, but there are some lessons that I've learned from it over the years that have helped me in life. Here are some of my favorites:

"You don't grind, you don't shine." - Mike Jones

If this current economy has reminded us of anything, it's that most of us should no longer expect financial prosperity to come without sacrifice. Solomon said that there is profit in all hard work and the converse is true: if you don't grind, you don't shine. Put your top effort into creating the future you desire.

"If I can't change the people around me, I change the people around me." - Chuck D

The Bible says that we should not be deceived; that bad company corrupts good morals. Throughout the Proverbs, there are warnings to choose our friends and associations very carefully. A lot of who we become results from those with whom we spend the majority of our time. Surround yourself with people who are pursuing purpose.

"Before we go any further, let's be friends." - Whodini

Relationship advice from the great Rappin' Jalil (or was it Ecstacy? or Grandmaster Dee?). A lot of times we push relationships too far, too fast because of infatuation and hormones. I advise my sisters all the time to resist the urge to let relationships become "sexualized" too soon because once a guy has sex on his mind, he can't think. Let's not just get to know one another. Let's be friends.

"You see me? I eat, sleep, _____ and talk rap. You see that '98 Mercedes on TV? I bought that." - Juvenile

One thing that I've always admired in successful people is their focus. Solomon spoke of this, too, when he advised that we should do with all our might whatever it is that we do. This is in Ecclesiastes 9:10 in case you're wondering.

"It's what you keep, not what you cop." ~Beanie Sigel

Making money doesn't profit much if you spend it all. We Americans have developed the nasty habit of spending even MORE than we earn.  W. Clement Stone said, "If you cannot save money, the seeds of greatness are not in you."  Wise words.  Very. 


"Don't let a win go to your head or a loss to your heart." - Chuck D

Fight to stay encouraged when things are tough by taking control of your emotions. Don't take it personally. Things happen to all of us in this life. Also, use the positive emotions of victories to propel yourself forward without becoming complacent. Good seasons don't last always the same way Winter doesn't last forever.

"It takes two to make a thing go ri-ight! It takes two to make it out of sight!" ~Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock (See also Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 because Solomon said it, too: "Two are better than one...")

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Blogging Live from the Texas Social Media Expo

...I am here at the Texas Social Media Expo about to speak on using social media to establish your personal brand. As a Certified Facebook Addict, the organizer thought I would be a good person to bring in for a panel. He's right!

The speaker before me, John Phillippe (I wonder if he's any relation to Ryan?), is discussing some basics that everyone should cover before diving in. Here are some key points from Z Salvo:

1. Post something somewhere everyday.
2. Decide what pain you are solving for people.
3. Decide why people want to connect with you.
4. Capture the name of everyone who visits you whenever you can.
5. Make it easy for people to do business with you.

Good reminders and he did a great, great job! I would write more but I'm focused on what I need to communicate. He brought me up and helped me shoot some video, so that knocked out some of the nerves!  I will be talking from my "10 Be's of Social Media" blog post.  Should be fun. I need more speaking engagements. 

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