As many of you know, one of my social networking strategies is to transition at least 5 of my “virtual” relationships to “real” time each week. Needless to say, the relationship is worth more, once I move it off the computer screen.
I thought it might be helpful if I shared with you how I do this.
Let’s start with a quick statement of what I don’t do.
“The Linkedin Two Step”: This is when you’ve either agreed to connect with me or you commented on one of my posts and I take that as a buying signal. You immediately get an email from me in “Pimpmaster” mode giving you my best infomercial.
And just to get this one out in the open, I don’t like to have a virtual handshake with someone and immediately suggest a phone call. I’m sure its just me but that has way too much of a “Hi, Wanna screw?” vibe to it!
So What’s An Aspiring Linkedin Rock Star To Do?
1) Get Social From “Hello” I never send someone one of those invitation templates. Seriously, could you get any F’n lazier. Take the 30 seconds and write a two sentence note. This positions you as different from the get go because apparently the rest of the world has gotten lazy too. When someone sends you an invite, take a minute to write an actual response (even when you get a template invite) Doing this inspires someone to not only remember you, but shoot you a note back. At that point you’re starting to get “social” and that puts you one step closer to real time!
2) Get On Their Radar Screen: Update your status update daily (no play by play por favor) More importantly than your status update is theirs. You might want to circle this next sentence: Everyone has a story and wants to be heard. Seems like we’ve all gotten used to the world not having the time to hear what we have to say. That aint how Uncle Paul rolls! I make it a point to comment on status updates where appropriate. Sometimes I’m congratulating someone, other times I will agree with a statement publicly, if they shared a resource that I found useful, I let them know with a “like” and a comment. You can also get on their radar screen by commenting on their discussions. How about inviting them into one of yours? If they contribute to one of your discussions, acknowledge them publicly and with an offline “thank you”. Here’s a freakin cool idea: When you see a discussion where someone in your network has the expertise to really shine, hook them up! I have this odd feeling that people really dig people who have their best interests in mind!
3) Take Advantage Of “Social” Clues: I make it a point to see if my contacts use the amazon.com feature where they list what they are reading. If I read the book or want to, that gives us something to talk about. If they use the tripit feature, I might wish them a safe trip or get real jealous that they are off to Europe. I might even compare notes with them about cool places we’ve both been to!
Time Out! Are you spotting a trend yet? I basically get “Social” before I transition to “real time”. Isn’t that more of a natural progression?
OK, I could go on and on about how to get “Social” but I still haven’t told you how to transition.
Once we’ve had some communication, I will do one of a few things:
– Shoot them a quick email, suggesting a brief “get to know you” call. I tell them I would like to find out more about them and their business. Note: When I get on the phone with them, I rarely talk about my business which is rather counterintuitive for a sales professional. I don’t talk about my business because quite frankly, most people as so busy trying to network their business that they aren’t ready to hear about mine. I could get ultra competitive and try to dominate our conversation, but it kind of goes back to my statement earlier “everyone has a story and wants to be heard” My mission on this phone call is to not only understand my “friend” its to think about how I can be a “matchmaker” for this person and leverage my network.
– Get Embarrassed. Sometimes I will send someone an email telling them that I’m embarrassed that I haven’t reached out sooner. Note: Doesn’t work so well if they just accepted your invite 10 mins earlier! 🙂
– When someone asks you a question via email, suggest a quick call instead. Nice way to move it to real time girlfriend!
– I’ll use tripit to see if anyone is visiting my area and offer to meet for coffee or a shots of Tequila (wanted to see if you were paying attention)
– I’ll search my network for local contacts when traveling. The “I’m visiting your neck of the woods” thing is an easy way to transition.
– I host “Virtual Mixers” once to twice a month.
So how long should this all take? Well let me ask you this. In a relationship, how long does it take for love to happen? Is it the 7th date, 7th week, 7th year? Why the hell don’t we have a definitive answer? Probably, because it happens, when it happens.
Think “courtship”!
Don’t screw with the sanctity of social networking by thinking this is a short term strategy. Take the time to get “social” and actually have a courtship and then watch how freakin cool the marriage becomes.
So, how do you transition your online relationships?
Paul Castain works with organizations and individuals to achieve higher levels of performance. He is so good that he was granted permission to talk about himself in the 3rd person. For more information on how Paul can help you and your company click here dude.
Fantastic Read- I even had to waste good paper to print it on. Good work!
Thanks Josiane! Nice of you to stop by! 🙂
Another great post Paul. I often wonder how you do all the things you do. Thanks for letting us peek into the mind of a master. As I’ve said before, I want to be like you when I grow up!
The effort is in my red moleskin journal which means it is very cool and will very much get done. Thanks for the guidance Paul.
Mark
Paul, I could not agree with you more on this great post. I do think getting to know people personally works the charm for the long run even it is little things. Additionally to you great advice, I personally, I keep in touch with my contacts through personalized e-cards twice a year (birthday & holiday season) electronically and I try to either meet or call them regularly. I view social media a complementary tool to my face to face social contacts!
Good stuff!
Mic Adam
Picking up the nuggets of gold, and putting them to use right now…
Thank you for a great and useful post 🙂
Thank you..
Great post, Paul. Thank you!
Paul, all I can say is Brilliant!
Oh, and that bbq lunch at Fat Matts in Atlanta is still waiting for you. – JS
Interesting topic and quite relevant to one of my stories…LinkedIn was the catalyst for helping me to meet a pretty awesome guy who then helped me to create a powerful presentation on customer loyalty….anyone want to take a guess on whom I may be referring to?!
Thanks Uncle Paul for being a social media rock star and all around great guy!
Samantha
Great insight as always, Paul. Thanks!
Another AWESOME Booster Shot from Uncle Paul….YOU DO ROCK!
Thank you so Much Paul
MR. Ron Young!
Paul,
Great information and advice!
Thank you,
Wes
Wow, Paul, what a great way to start my morning . . . when I asked you about your take on LinkedIn, I thought maybe you’d send me a link to an archived blog post or two, not write a brand-new one. Thanks for the advice & tips . . . I’m sure they’ll come in very handy! 🙂
~ Rebecca
Each and every one of these comments is just awesome! Linkedin is something we could all get better at and in some cases its something that we need to start embracing.
I still think about how I originally quit Linkedin after less than 90 days.
I’m sure glad I decided to get back and give it some real effort.
Thanks for contributing everyone.
Rock horns of appreciation to all!
Respectfully,
Paul Castain
Great info….and what I am really liking about the amount of networking and socializing you do is the number of people I know/recognize – via LI, Twitter, etc – that are also following your posts. Talk about an easy way to break the ice: “did you see Paul’s last post? Hilarious but insightful, wasn’t it?”
Now that was cool, Paul. Gonna copy and post near the water cooler for the other sales “droids” here!
Great post, Paul! This was well written and very timely in this computer-laden age. People need to get off their computers every once in a while. Thanks for sharing this.
Thanks for the information….great stuff!
Paul, like everything else you post, this was awesome. The content Seems so simple and obvious but for some reason I have not done much of it…until now.
Thanks!!
Thanks Paul: Great read . . . proves one again you really are the Jedi Master!
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The information you provide is timely, needed, and EXTREMELY worth the read Thanks for making it concise and putting in layman’s terms. Now…. on to following and implementing it:) Thx
Paul, very nice article and well articulated. Agree that building conversations is important before talking about business making the Social Media more “Social” and less “Media”.
In the similar lines I wrote a simple note how people can follow 80-20 rule to get engaged in all the popular networks. http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=327351898081
Would love few comments. Great effort again. Thx.
Thanks for the great ideas Paul. I am implementing a couple of them today!
Paul,
Thanks for the LinkedIn tips. Finding common ground and showing genuine interest goes a long way toward building relationships.
Here an article on LinkedIn profile photo best practices.
http://www.cyberlifetutors.com/blog/oxriy
April M. Williams
This is very helpful particularly most people that use LinkedIn don’t have a clue how to make it work for you. Thanks for the tips.
Good stuff Paul, like always another homerun, without the steroids no asterisk for you buddy.
Have a great weekend,
Peter
Wow! these are great ways to leverage computer jockeying! Whoda thunk sales skills could translate so effectively into the virtual world?
Thanks, Paul — I missed this when you first posted it last year — very powerful.
Great post Paul. I have not been using LInked In to its full advantage. I had a friend ask if I would introduce them to somebody in my network. This might be a dumb question but how do I find out if somebody in my netword might know somebody I might want to meet. Can I do some sort of search through my network for certain kinds of contacts that are in my network?
Sorry about the delay Ryan!
Yes Sir . . . there is a way!
Click on the profile of the person you would like to connect to. Look over to the right and it will show you how you might be indirectly connected to this person by listing their names.
Hope that helps!
Thanks Paul. Interesting post. Curious, do you find that your “social” approach to transitioning online relationships works equally well with both your entrepreneurial connections and corporate contacts on LinkedIn? Keep sharing your thoughts. Cheers.
So far, so good but things change rapidly in the virtual and real time world so I need to be prepared to adapt.
Thanks for stopping by!
Sorry about the delay Ryan!
Yes Sir . . . there is a way!
Click on the profile of the person you would like to connect to. Look over to the right and it will show you how you might be indirectly connected to this person by listing their names.
Hope that helps!
So far, so good but things change rapidly in the virtual and real time world so I need to be prepared to adapt.
Thanks for stopping by!
Thank you for pointing out a few of the lazy, or more appropriately, stupid things that I do on LinkedIn. I’m starting immediately to implement your tips. Good stuff!
Thank you for pointing out a few of the lazy, or more appropriately, stupid things that I do on LinkedIn. I’m starting immediately to implement your tips. Good stuff!
Paul, I think you recycled this for me. We’ve been at a Sales Summit in Chicago this week and one of the topics was networking from LinkedIn. I used you as an example. Hope you don’t mind.
Jim
Thanks Jim and of course I don’t mind! 🙂
Wishing you an awesome weekend!
Good stuff Paul. I could not agree more. Loving your blog. Good stuff. http://www.fwdmarketinginc.com
Good stuff Paul. I could not agree more. Loving your blog. Good stuff. http://www.fwdmarketinginc.com
Awesome post Paul. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Mark . . . very nice of you to stop by my friend!
Awesome post Paul. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Mark . . . very nice of you to stop by my friend!