What LinkedIn Taught Me About Love

by Matthew Loomis

Did you get a personalized love note from LinkedIn recently? Please say no….

You did? Oh…

I’m feeling less and less special by the minute.

Did yours look something like this?

When I first read my personalized, ego boosting email from LinkedIn, I swooned. My body felt all tingly inside. My heart rate went up to 11. My face glowed.

Thankfully, nobody was around to see me looking like a love-sick puppy.

Staring at the computer screen, I sat in my office chair for several minutes, basking in the recognition. LinkedIn–one of the best looking and most popular social media platforms on the web, noticed little ‘ol me?

*Sigh*

And they didn’t just notice me… They made me feel like a KING. I’m a 5%er, baby!

So then, with waves of infatuation crashing down on me, I jumped on every social media platform I could and shouted like a love struck schoolboy running down the street,”She loves me! Look at the note she gave me! See! It’s right here in her own handwriting!”

I wasn’t myself for the next few days. A continuous smile on my face brought puzzled looks from my family.

But eventually, like all romances, the goo-goo ga-ga stage was squashed by reality.

In my case, the thrill left when I acknowledged the truth… Somebody was cheating.

I had been played.

After the Honeymoon Stage

Seeds of suspicion began sprouting in my mind.

So, I took a closer look at this relationship. Started doing the math. Googled my suitor. Talked with friends on Twitter and Google+ about this whole thing.

Then, it hit me at 3 a.m. the other night.

I was played by a two timer two hundred million timer.

Crushed. Betrayed. I listened to Scott Walker tunes for days.

[Cue song Big Louise: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ-NPo-s9IE  ]

Brilliant Marketing Campaign from LinkedIn

Okay, you can stop worrying about me. I’m obviously just having a little fun here.

As a copywriter and marketer, I think the Top Percent campaign by LinkedIn is pretty ingenious.

They did a fantastic job making frequent users of their site to feel really good about themselves. This marketing campaign tapped into our vanity. Gave us the recognition we crave. Tickled our ego. Stroked us so seductively, most of us who received the Top Percent love letter, er, email, ended up talking about LinkedIn on other social media platforms.

And people who didn’t get one of these emails ended up feeling left behind. Another brilliant strategy called the “velvet rope” technique. Who knows how many of those people started using LinkedIn more frequently as a result of this campaign?

I’m just in awe, actually. As a business writer, I can greatly appreciate what LinkedIn has done here. And glean ideas from it to help my own clients.

MONEY FACTOR

LinkedIn Consultant Andy Foote wrote a great article about this called Insights into the Top Percent LinkedIn Marketing Campaign.

One thing he revealed is the potential money-making component to this marketing strategy.

Here’s How Theses Flattering Emails Make Money
Millions of LinkedIn users were told that their profile was one of the most viewed profiles out of 200 million total users. Some were in the top 2%. Others 5%. Some 10%.

Regardless of the group these people fell into, one common result likely occured: They got curious and considered upgrading their membership to see who all their visitors are.

Here’s why: Most LinkedIn members use the free basic service, and as a result, cannot see every person who views their profile. Most people normally don’t mind this. But if LinkedIn says you get more views than 90% of all users, you might get real curious who is checking out your profile.

So for only $95.40 per year ($7.95 per month) you can discover the identity of every profile visitor you get.

Let’s do the math: If LinkedIn has 200 million users, and you were in the top 5% of most viewed profiles (like me), that means you were one of 10 million people to receive this email. (Still devastated by this. I’m kidding.)

If only 20% of these folks wanted to upgrade their account to see everyone who views their profile, that’s 2 million people paying $7.95 per month…which means LinkedIn makes $15 million per month!

Impressive, indeed.

No Love Lost Between Us

As a freelancer, I love LinkedIn. I have met so many incredible people through this platform.

I like how LinkedIn is…

*all about business
*fun to use
*a good source for finding clients

And I appreciate the little kiss they blew my way this week.

Maybe this year I’ll reach the LinkedIn 2% club?

Hmm… better go log in and see what’s going on.

Getting the Most Out of LinkedIn: 7 Ways Freelance Writers Can Enhance Their Results

by Matthew Loomis

I’ll be honest with you…

While working a full-time writing job for several years, I didn’t pay much attention to LinkedIn.

I knew it was there. I had a profile up. I would get their weekly email… But I rarely logged in to the site and didn’t keep my information updated along the way.

But once I started freelance writing full-time back in July, it didn’t take me long to see how valuable LinkedIn really is.

If you are a freelance writer, you should definitely be using LinkedIn–considered by most to be the premiere social media website for business professionals. It currently has over 100 million users.

Some of you already know this, but I’m sure there are plenty of others out there (like me just a few months ago) who lack appreciation for LinkedIn because you don’t know everything that it can bring to a freelance writer’s table.

I’m still learning new things about LinkedIn, so I know this article doesn’t cover everything. But if you are a freelance writer that’s skeptical about LinkedIn, keep reading. I’m going to share some information here that just might cause you to take a second look at this amazing business tool.

My Personal LinkedIn Testimony

A little over a month ago, I spruced up my profile and began using LinkedIn seriously and consistently. I kid you not, the first day I tweaked my profile, a new “connection” I had just made two hours earlier called me. He wanted to offer me some freelance work.

This let me know pretty quickly that spending some time using LinkedIn would be worth the effort.

Since that first day, I have made some great contacts. For example, just in the last week, two local recruiters who work with freelancers have contacted me. They want to help me find work.

That’s when the clouds parted and I had this epiphany: You know, this whole LinkedIn thing is looking crucially sweet. Probably should keep using it.

LinkedIn is Not Facebook, Twitter or Google+

When using LinkedIn, you should approach it as a unique social media platform that must not be treated the same way as other social media sites.

LinkedIn is a place where you converse and network with BUSINESS colleagues, not your friends and family. So, posting the latest silly cat video will likely turn off most of your connections–and keep others from linking to you. Remember, when using LinkedIn, sticking to business is the smart way to go.

Okay, so maybe you have not yet created a profile, or you have, but it needs dusting off. Either way, here are some tips on…

How to Create a Solid Profile that Attracts Clients

What you see here is only the beginning of my profile.

Here are four steps to help you create a good LinkedIn profile:

1. Choose the Right Photo

The last thing you want to do on LinkedIn is post a profile picture of yourself holding a drink and shaking your tail feathers. Save those for Facebook. Please.

Instead, you will want to use a good head shot of yourself, preferably one where you are looking into the camera.

Although LinkedIn is more “business” in nature, it is still a “social” network, so it is best to let others see your handsome mug, because people want to see who they are dealing with.

I’m surprised at the number of profiles I’ve seen of people with no photo at all. That’s never a good thing with social media.

2. Share Your Unique Story/Personality In Your Summary

You can have some fun here if you choose. The summary is where you want to give a concise and compelling overview of your expertise and what your business is about. You can also use the summary to define your potential clients and paint a picture how you can serve them.

Whatever it is you want to say, just be yourself. This helps to attract the right clients for YOU.

3. Fill In All Areas of Your Profile

The more areas of information you share on LinkedIn, the greater your connections will be, because your background interests and skills will help you relate to more people.

4. Take Advantage of the 3 Links You Can Post

You get the opportunity on your LinkedIn profile to post up to three links. Go ahead and use them–leaving this empty doesn’t help you make connections. You could post a link to your Twitter, Facebook and Blog. Or you could just post links to three web articles you penned…whatever you choose to link to is your decision, just be sure they relate to your career.

Putting a little more effort into your profile can be just the spark to drastically improve your experience with LinkedIn.

Once you do that, here are some additional ways to generate business with LinkedIn.

5. Make Connections

If you like to hide in the corner of the room during a party, please don’t do that with your LinkedIn presence, because you will not get much out of it. Start connecting with others.

An easy way to get moving would be to import the email addresses in your yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail or AOL email accounts. Also, you can add someone’s email address into the “Add Connections” tab. Both ways will send LinkedIn invites to those people you know.

Over time, you may see some of your Twitter or Facebook followers also connecting with you on LinkedIn. Be happy about that–witnessing cross-pollination of your social media platforms is a beautiful thing. LinkedIn will provide those people who follow you on Twitter and Facebook with additional info about your business that they may not have known otherwise. This helps you generate more business.

6. Get Recommended By Your Clients and Colleagues

LinkedIn has a powerful feature called “Recommendations,” which Twitter doesn’t have and Facebook just recently added to their business pages.

Being able to display testimonies from clients about their positive experiences working with you is a fantastic way to establish credibility and build trust with new prospects who are checking you out.

To get recommendations on LinkedIn, the easiest way is to give out copious recommendations to others. Most people will want to return the favor.

Or you can ask former clients and colleagues for one. When asking, I would not just click the “request recommendation” button that sends the other person an automated message, “Would you give me a recommendation?” I think that is too easy and impersonal. If you don’t take the time to write a personal message to someone, do you think they will be motivated to take the time to give you a recommendation?

7. Responding to People Who View Your Profile

Over to the right of the page you will see the box called Who’s Viewed Your Profile?

There is a feature on LinkedIn where you can see other members who are not connected to you but who have stopped by to look over your profile. I have the basic (free) account, which does not show every person, but I find that it does reveal enough people each week to keep me from upgrading to a paid account.

When someone you don’t already know looks at your profile, you can check out their contact information on their profile and see if they list an email address. Many people do. If so, send them a personal email and ask if they need copywriting services. I did this last week with eight people, and I ended up making a good connection with someone.

I have read that a feature called InMail can be very effective as a way to send personal messages to people who are not already one of your connections, but InMail is not available with the free service. You may want to upgrade your account for this feature. I hear it has an excellent response rate.

What Do You Think?

So, that’s my experience with LinkedIn so far. As a freelance writer, I plan to continue using it and learning all I can on how to get the most out of it for my business.

I would love to learn from your experiences on LinkedIn. Do you have any tips or stories you want to share on this? Please leave your comments. The good, bad, or anything in between.