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As a principal at Desert Rose Design, I have been responsible for cultivating and nurturing client relationships since our inception. Many of our best opportunities have come from networking and referrals from our client and prospect base network. As a growing agency in a difficult economy, we realized that we needed to broaden our relationship marketing efforts to thrive.
Digital media began to play a significant role in our sales and marketing strategy as well as the type of integrated strategies we were building for our clients. As an organization, we started to embrace the impact that social networks could have on business growth and we drafted a social media strategy. It was at this time I began to personally take a harder look at LinkedIn, since it is the business social media tool.
Like many people, I had created a LinkedIn profile years ago and never really thought much more about it. As you may or may not know, LinkedIn is the fastest-growing professional networking site that allows members to create business contacts, search for jobs, and find potential clients. Over 65 million professionals use LinkedIn to exchange information, ideas and opportunities.
The more I dabbled, the more I found benefits to using the site as part of my personal and professional branding, but I wanted to know more. I began to attend seminars, read blogs in order to gain a better understanding of this tool and how it could help grow my network. I started to follow the proverbial thought leaders of social media and improved my profile, added applications and participated in groups.
I found LinkedIn to be an easy way of keeping up with my business network in a more efficient manner.
I also found it was similar to traditional networking. It was very simple to share information and business expertise. Much like face-to-face networking, LinkedIn started to become my resource for building and maintaining business relationships. As I learned more about LinkedIn and social media, I began to share this knowledge with our clients and prospects.
Good things started to happen.
I began training and speaking on the subject of social media with a special focus on LinkedIn. I was quoted in the Chicago Tribune on Social Media best practices and contributed to Marketing Profs “LinkedIn Success Stories”. I have also written a guest blog that appears on LinkedIn's official website and I have been featured in some LinkedIn advertisements.
And just like that, I found myself being referred to as a LinkedIn expert.
I started to think “Does a few speaking engagements and a guest blog qualify me as an expert?” Though it was flattering, I have to say; I was feeling a little uneasy about the status.
The truth is, a number of wonderful things happened while using LinkedIn, I could not equate a direct sale to a contact to this social networking tool. As a Linkedin “expert”, I believe I should be able to make this happen.
So I began to question myself, “Does that mean that I think Linkedin is overrated for business development?” and I realized, “Absolutely not”! I have a strong belief in the power of traditional networking and virtual networking. LinkedIn has been part of our sales process for years, but I know it could be more. So I decided, “I need to do more on LinkedIn.”
I feel that to truly be an “expert”, you have to experience something first hand. I could no longer pepper my speeches with other people’s successes. I decided, I have to make this work for Desert Rose Design and me.
So here I am. I decided to go public with my personal challenge. I wanted to see for myself, if like traditional networking, I could connect more deeply with my LinkedIn network and prospect a new business opportunity. I will be using many of the tips I tell others about and will be researching some new ideas.
My 90-Day Challenge will include includes the following:
- My Plan
- A Timeline
- A Goal
- A Tracking System
Plus… Weekly Blog Confessions – To keep me honest and on track.
In my quest for excellence, I will detail my efforts and change names to protect the innocent.
