1. How to become a great Networker
and avoid the 7 Mistakes of
LinkedIn - the world’s biggest
online Business Community.
A Free Report from Dawn @
TheBizLinks

3. 1.Not taking this amazing platform
seriously!
Linkedin is the world’s biggest business community ever created. It can
provide a path way to just about anybody in business, any time for free.
If you are just starting out in business, an established sales person,
a CEO or a business owner you can find key decision makers in your
target market.
In terms of prospecting what else can give you the means to search with
large companies, markets, locations, job titles and then provide you with
a clear pathway to engagement that removes the gatekeeper.
The community has now grown to over 150million members with 45% of
those major decision makers for their companies. No matter what market
you are in there are 1000’s of people on there right now that need your
services.
I could go on about the amazing benefits Linkedin can bring but in so
many cases it’s a waste of time because too many people just don’t
invest in the time needed to make Linkedin really work.
How to avoid this mistake!
Don’t just set up a basic profile and dabble – develop a clear strategy
Commit to 30mins per day of focussed proactive work.
Make Linkedin a core part of your business strategy, in most cases
Linkedin can help you achieve your short and long term objectives.

4. 2.Not setting any Goals
Creating a Linkedin profile and having a “presence” without any
meaningful goals will merely create extra work and give little value in
return.
Linkedin is an activity just like everything else and it should be aligned
with your overall business strategy, tactics, goals and targets.
At TheBizLinks we encourage our clients to set very specific goals which
sets clear direction and we also like ambitious goals too because we all
know that aiming for the stars means in most cases hitting the moon at
the very least.
The goals you set for Linkedin should, in most cases be set around
generating Sales as Linkedin is one of the most effective ways to find
and develop new clients and customers. Don’t think that you cannot
make money by being “Social” you just need to do it in the right way.
An example of defining your goals, strategy and tactics:
Goal: Increase sales by £x (defined amount)
Strategy: Target (e.g. Marketing Directors) via advanced searching, use
first line network for introductions, making connections and arranging
phone conversations / one 2 one meetings.
Tactics: Create a strong and value driven profile relevant to your target
market.
Build a network of contacts with routes to targets.
On connection offer a free 30min phone session on (e.g. 3 great tips for
digital marketing) once connection has been made.
Repeat process until 5 conversations are made per day.

5. 3. A dull and boring profile!
Your Linkedin profile is critical to your success so don’t think listing your
experience like a CV will cut it as it won’t – CV’s are boring and people
don’t like to read them. You success depends upon your key influencers
taking an interest in your profile. You MUST have the following:
Clear value and (What’s In It For Me) WIIFM quickly and clearly
Crystal clear Evidence that supports your value
Specific to the people you want to engage
The people you want to engage only really care about themselves and
their own world, define your value first before your job titles etc.
For example stating that you can find talented staff that can sell is more
engaging then saying you’re a Recruitment Manager.
Keep it simple and focus on the following 4 keys areas:
Profile picture – invest in a professional picture - this is not Facebook!
Professional headline (see below)
Summary – short punchy and packed with passion!
Recommendations – 20-25 quality ones that back up your value
statement
Professional headline
Your headline gets noticed first and also summarises you when you
appear in searches, groups etc even when you are being Google’d!
You have 120 characters, use them all and follow this format.
[Job Description] ► [who you help / value] ► [Keywords]
See mine below for an example – notice I don’t focus on the benefit
which is making money as no one really wants training.

6. 4. A small network of contacts
Your Linkedin network works like this
1st
Level (your network) > 2nd
Level (your 1st
Levels connections) > 3rd
Level (2nd
levels connections). It is important to build a decent sized
LinkedIn network (500+) for the following reasons:
More opportunities and better results
On average each Linkedin member has around 250 connections; when
you connect to them their network is added to your 2nd
level network
giving you new people you can reach via one introduction.
The larger your network the more effective you can be in the
community
A large network means you can help more people, get more
introductions and be viewed with more value within the community-
its as simple as that!
How to grow your Linkedin network
The key to growing your Linkedin network is to find and connect with
people that are in and around your key influencers and target market.
Rather than simply mass uploading contacts via webmail accounts or
exported CSV files use the following steps to grow you network steadily
making personal engagements:
Always Be Building (ABB) Sounds simple because it is! Every time
you engage a new people in business via the phone, meetings or events
connect with them.
Reconnect – Find those you have lost contact with in business over the
past few years. Your drawer of business cards is a great place to start,
apart from it being good fun there is already momentum in terms of a
relationship.

7. Linkedin groups – Find suitable groups join and then search and
connect with the members, stating your mutual group association as the
reason.
5. Not engaging your new contacts
Linkedin is an amazing platform for finding contacts and making
connections. Once the initial contact has been made LinkedIn’s job is
effectively done. The rest is down to you to then build the relationship
ideally by picking up the phone and making a call to introduce yourself.
It is important however NOT to sell - I have lost count of the amount of
people who have connected with me, and then fired a generic cut and
pasted sales message at me! Playing this numbers game on Linkedin
will not work.
The key to making a successful first contact on Linkedin is to be genuine
and helpful - ask yourself what could you give to the people you connect
with that would be of genuine value? Free advice is always a good
approach, another very effective first engagement approach is to be a
good networker.
Thank you for accepting my invitation to join your network, first of all
please let me know the type of people you are looking for and I will see
if I have any contacts on my network I can help you with.
This works particularly well for contacts that need clients themselves,
if you repeat this you will soon learn which contacts are more valuable
to you and actively seek them on and offline at networking events.
The key to being a success is to use Linkedin to help other people get
what they want, as the saying goes givers gain so don’t play the
numbers game and sell directly to those you connect with.

8. 6. Not Integrating LinkedIn with other
Business activities
The potential of Linkedin as a tool for finding clients and customers
becomes even more powerful when combined in a strategic way with
other business activities.
3 examples of using Linkedin to maximise other business
activities
Twitter is very effective at finding top people and getting initial dialogue
started, Linkedin is far more effective at developing a relationship, used
together they compliment each other very well.
The time invested in attending Business Networking events can be much
more effective if you can plan beforehand and arrange meetings with
key people. Linkedin gives you a massive amount of information about
the business events you want to attend.
After attending a Networking event if you have a handful of business
cards you can connect with them on Linkedin. Check them out, find out
who they know and decide on the most suitable people to engage
further.
Linkedin can help you increase sales, build brand awareness,
strengthen your key business relationships, increase web traffic,
improve customer service, and develop new ideas. The key is to think
outside the box and see where and how Linkedin can help, in most
cases it can in a big way so use your imagination and be tenacious.
The core features of Linkedin include
Advanced search – Search the whole community for specific contacts
Groups – Thousands of groups specific to types of business and
activity
Homepage updates – your community posting their recent activity
Company pages – insight into companies, their employees, activity etc
List all of your current and future activity and see where Linkedin can
add real value.

9. 7. Not making use of my help and support!
From my experience I know one of my biggest challenges after attending
a Workshop is that people go away and get sucked back into life and
don’t take the actions they need. We have the solution - a short term 3
month Coaching Program that ensures you put a strategy in place, take
action and get the results you set out to achieve. Time is the most
precious commodity we have so investing in how to use Linkedin
effectively would be a fantastic use of your time - knowledge is power!
Please give me a call for more details - 07880725564 or drop me a line
and I will contact you for a conversation: dawn@thebizlinks.co.uk
Don’t miss out on the Social Media Revolution!