“Oh yeah!…I’m on LinkedIn…I just don’t use it much.”
(‘Wish I had a Neumann for ever time I heard that!)
In about three weeks and three days I’ll take the stage with Terry Daniel and Trish Basanyi at the Disneyland hotel during VOICE2012 to talk Social Media strategies.
Terry will present mostly on FaceBook, and Trish mostly on Twitter (although we will all chime in throughout). That leaves me to talk about LinkedIn, Google Plus and Pinterest.
I’ve long been an advocate for LinkedIn, so I’ve got a lot to say about this social network. In the last month, I’ve gotten job-producing connections out of nowhere on LinkedIn without even really trying, from people I’ve never met.
I get the sense (although I have no hared numbers), that there are thousands of voice talent, producers, agents, casting directors, audio engineers, studio managers and others related to the production of voice-work on LinkedIn. They’re in the discussions, the groups, and best of all, their profiles are available for anyone to see and search.
Because of LinkedIn (and other social media)…you should never have to make a “cold call”. Information on just about any client prospect is public and free.
Resource material on LinkedIn is everywhere, but not all of it is legit, so let me save you the time. At the bottom of this blog, I’m posting a link to a document with some of the best resources I’ve found for LinkedIn. The .doc also includes the following list, which I’m posting here as well, along with the source.
The 7 Habits of highly effective LinkedIn Members:
(http://www.socialmediafaststart.org/)
1. They invest their time strategically by putting fresh content on Linkedin when it’s the best time to do so. Let me explain, for me weekends are times to prepare Linkedin content, but as you will notice most collaboration does not take place on weekends. So hold the great Q/A’s, the awesome discussion topics, or the great status updates until Monday and never late Friday. Think about what your audience is doing and be strategic.
2. They use their status update to post something new every 24 to 48 hours and 80% of those updates include a link that gives a call to action. Such as signing up for your next webinar, promotions to visit your blog, to visit your resume, or visiting your corporate website etc…
3. They answer target specific questions that are related to their target market. This is great exposure for your business that Linkedin Pros are doing everyday!
4. They use the “saved” search “alerts” option for both advanced searches and job searches. By doing this you can be alerted instantly when opportunies become available such as new prospects or jobs. This allows you to reach out before the masses.
5. They answer every Linkedin email/inmail. Maybe not timely, but they never waste an opportunity!
6. They post their company events on the events application provided by Linkedin and use this as a way to measure interest and involvement for such things as conferences, webinars, or seminars. The events application has only been recently used by Linkedin Elite, but many are beginning to wise up to its amazing potential.
7. These highly successful members have identified their target markets on Linkedin, their goals on Linkedin, and are executing their plan every single work day. Social Media can be measured, but most don’t understand how to begin measuring their Social Media efforts because they have never identified their goals for using the Linkedin space. Once you have identified your goals then you can build a measurable matrix to anaylize your efforts. for voice talent.
Click the following link for the list of of other LinkedIn resources I’ve compiled for you.
LinkedIn Resources. doc
CourVO
