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{!date dayname+0}, {!date long+0} Dear {!firstname_fix} Well, today is a busy day in the Jones household. It's the annual "village show" - you know the kind of thing, massive marrows, brilliant baking and fancy flowers. Plus there are all sorts of stalls, games for children and the annual "duck race", where hundreds of plastic bath ducks are set free on the flowing river and we all gamble on them as though they were thoroughbreds...! Oh the joys of the British village. But, this annual event is really looked forward to by hundreds of families because it brings the community together. And I was thinking how powerful the internet has become in re-igniting local communities. Over the years small villages and local areas have suffered as we all "went global", but the internet with things like Facebook and its local groups, is bringing us all closer together again. Rather than being global, the web is actually making us all more local, thanks to its community features. Which begs the question how well are we all using the internet to generate local business? Sometimes we focus on being international because the internet is global - but is it? I reckon the internet is mostly local.
YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED: How can I generate more leads from LinkedIn? LinkedIn is a great tool to connect with existing and new clients. It is also one of the best lead generation tools we have online. But many people simply set up a profile and then hope that someone will read it and go "wowee, just the person I want". But as we all know, hope is not a strategy. You will only generate leads on LinkedIn if you have a plan and if you are active on LinkedIn.  The first step is to ensure your profile is complete. LinkedIn handily lets you know how much you have done - make sure yours reads 100% completeness. Then, edit your profile to remove those dreadful "My Website" links. No-one ever searches for "My Website"...! Change those titles to something meaningful, something which people will search for to find you. Even if you do nothing else on LinkedIn, make yourself findable. And that also means changing your "professional headline" to more than something like "Company Director" - make it interesting, descriptive and searchable..! Next, head off to the "More" menu at the top right of the menubar of LinkedIn and click on "Answers". Here is where you can gain lots of attention from potential customers. People are asking questions every minute of the day; you have the expertise to answer some of them. Use the category tools - hidden away in the bottom right of the Answers page - to find questions on your specialist topic. Answer questions on a regular basis and you will soon become a "best answers" expert. I have received consultancy work directly as a result of answering questions in LinkedIn. You can also use LinkedIn to target particular companies. Decide who you would like to work for, search for their company name and then find connections to them. You will find that you have many links to companies that you were not aware of. All you need to do is ask the individual who can connect you to put in a call to their friend and recommend they get in touch with you. Don't use the automated "please connect" me tools - in my experience they work less well than direct contact between the relevant individuals. It may be slower, but the chances of success appear to be greater. Another way to generate leads is to be constantly visible - always have something happening on your LinkedIn page so that your connections notice you. When they log in they will see you have done something. You will always be in their vision and on their mind. The way to achieve this is by adding applications such as your blog, or your Twitter stream, your latest PowerPoint slides or your events and travel arrangements. You can find all of these in the More menu. Answering questions, using connections and being always visible are the three ways I have generated business directly from LinkedIn. However, these are not the only ways. There are plenty more in "How to Generate Leads Using LinkedIn" which is a handy free guide from the good folks at HubSpot. See: http://uklik.me/linkedinleads
WHAT I LEARNED THIS WEEK: Questions don't matter - answers do...! The other evening I was due to appear on another radio show. This time it was "Talk Radio Europe" the station based in Marbella aimed mainly at British ex-pats. The presenter called me at the allotted time, but couldn't patch the call through to the sound mixing desk. After a check with the engineer and a bit of huffing and puffing I was "on air". The problem was, whenever the presenter spoke all I heard was a lot of crackling noise and the occasional muffled word. So I had no idea what he had asked me...! I was live with up to 1m people listening and I hadn't a clue as to what I had been asked. So, I just started talking about the internet...! I stopped, heard some crackling and the word "Facebook" so I chatted about Facebook. More crackling, the word "education" and so I chatted about the internet and exam success. And so on and so on for 30 minutes..! I had been told the interview would only last 10 minutes, but as a half-hour came to a close, through the crackles I heard "absolutely fascinating" and "glad you spoke to us". It just goes to show, even though there was no real conversation, even though there was no way I could even have attempted to answer the questions, that didn't matter. People are rarely interested in answers to specific questions - providing you give them something interesting in what you do say. Focus on delivering interesting stuff and the questions will look after themselves, that's what I reckon anyway.
THIS WEEK'S "MUST BUY": PaperPort 14  
Take a look around you...how much paper is there? If you are like me, probably quite a lot...! And tomorrow there will be more - letters that arrive, pages of magazines you tear out, printouts from web pages. Who ever said there would be a thing called the "paperless office"? Gosh what planet did they come from...? Well, they might have come from planet "PaperPort". I have been using PaperPort for several years now and would not be without it. It allows you to scan in all those bits of paper, index them and save them in a virtual filing cabinet. It means you don't need real filing cabinets full of "stuff" any more. Instead, all your paper is converted into indexed PDFs (or several other formats if you wish). The latest version of PaperPort has just been released and it adds a whole host of extras making it even more useful. In particular it has a direct link with Evernote, my preferred online note-taking and productivity system. It means you can scan in your paperwork in your office via PaperPort and have it appear directly in your Evernote files, giving you access to your filing cabinet from anywhere you can go online, including your smartphone. Only this week I was at a meeting when I realised the piece of paper I needed with important information on it was back in my office on my PaperPort system. Since I've now upgraded to Version 14, that can't happen because my filing system will be always with me via Evernote. If you want to reduce the paper in your office and be sure to have access to all your online copies of your former paper records, then you need PaperPort 14. To find out more please visit: http://uklik.me/paperport14 Well that's it for another week, Kind Regards
Graham Jones Web:
grahamjones.co.uk Tel: +44 118 336 9710 If you like this newsletter - please share it..! Thank you. If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter than you can delete your name from the mailing list by clicking this link: {!remove_web} Affiliate Links: Some of the links in this newsletter are affiliate links providing me with a small commission when you purchase the item. However, I only use affiliate links for products which I personally value. |
