Yellow Dog Consulting

Sales & Marketing Consulting for solo-preneurs.

Ask Yellow Dog: LinkedIn Endorsements

by // Leave a Comment

imgresI received this email today from a friend of mine:

What is the etiquette for endorsing people on LinkedIn?

Is it merely to gain more brownie points with someone you want attention from?

Is it to attract those people who are reviewing someone’s profile?

And here was my response:

LinkedIn Endorsements- honestly, no idea. I typically DON’T endorse people, especially those I don’t know/haven’t talked to in a couple of years. It’s super obnoxious and I’m trying to decide if I should turn it off (which is an option) or if that’ll hurt my SEO/search results in LI. But, I think it’s just a popularity contest and pretty ridiculous.

I obviously haven’t turned off my endorsements yet, but it did get me thinking- what’s the deal here? You can already see how many connections I have, NOW you want those folks to tell others how awesome I am at certain things? Isn’t that the job of my profile? Yes I get that it’s helpful, but I have not placed any stock in the endorsements I receive or those I see others receiving. It seems similar to the Twitter idea of “I follow you, so you’ll follow me back and we’ll inflate our numbers together!” Kind of useless.

Instead, I suggest you have a really great LinkedIn profile page. A professional headshot (your kid is cute, but does she run the company?), a comprehensive bio, and a thoughtful work history. Make recommendations of individuals because they did great work, not because they’ll write one in response (which we all know is nice).

LinkedIn is ramping up their efforts and updating their engagement strategy. Just because they are, doesn’t mean you have to. Hopefully they continue to make it easy for us to make updates and add details and work history. Don’t worry about doing everything all the time. Make sure you’re hitting the pieces you want and that work for you. And if the endorsements aren’t your thing, turn them off, or hit ignore when they pop up, like I do.

Ask Yellow Dog: Learning to Grow Your Biz

by // 1 Comment

imagesI got a note from an old friend the other day asking:

“Ok, so I have a entrepreneurial idea, want to read and learn more about growing biz. What’s your fav resources?”

Great question! And one that I responded with “I’m not much of a reader-more of a listener. For me the answer is events, pick people you know/like/trust & ask how they did it.” (note, we were sending DM’s through twitter)

So to expand in more than 140 characters…

I know a lot of folks like to read, and I know a lot of folks (myself included) like to write and share their knowledge and wisdom and tell you what to do. But can we all be honest? Not everything works for everyone. No one has the “five things that will change your business” or “3 steps to make a million dollars this year.” I have heard more speakers than I care to remember throughout the years. And most of them had some book or program I could spend a lot of money on. And I haven’t. Why? Because half their stuff is crap, and the other nuggets of information I either wasn’t ready to act on, or were simple enough I could execute myself.

If you want to learn about growing your business, talk to people who have. Ask your friends, reach out to successful folks and ask to talk on the phone for 15 minutes. Be respectful of their time, but ask questions! I have a great network of friends and colleagues that I can ask one off questions of and get a quick and thoughtful response.

And in that Q&A time at a speaking engagement? ASK QUESTIONS. If there’s a free follow up, or they give you their email, USE IT. Sign up for their newsletter. Don’t harass them,  ask them. Don’t sell them your product or service,  ask their advice. Build a relationship, don’t have a transaction.

Two of my favorite newsletters/blogs are local friends and colleagues of mine: Clise Etiquette & Heinz Marketing. Great content, great ideas for growing your business, and great recommendation on how not to screw it up in the process.

Ask Yellow Dog: Customer Referrals

by // 1 Comment

Last week at a workshop I got a GREAT follow up email from someone asking:

How we can encourage and motivate current and past customers to recommend us to other potential customers?

GREAT question! I’m assuming you have a list of current and past customers (hopefully in email form) that you can reach out to. Here’s a few ideas:

1. Referral Campaign– Full Circle Farms does great referral campaigns, any time someone puts my name down when they setup their account, I get $10 off my next box of produce. They do bigger pushes throughout the year where if I refer someone my friend gets a discount AND I get a discount to get started. This could work to send an email to all your current/past customers and say you save 10% for anyone who puts your name in the referral field (which you’d have to add to your ordering page), OR give them a code (FRIEND or MEMORIALDAY), etc. Make sure there’s a limit to it- valid through Monday of Memorial Day or Fathers Day weekend only, etc.

2. Do you notice when you order something from Amazon that after you place your order it says “share with a friend” and you can tweet/FB/email your network and tell them what you just bought? Likewise, when I sign up for a contest sometimes there’s a landing page after I enter that says “share with friends” and asks for the email addresses of friends to send a note to.

3. Promo Cards– my husband bought really fancy Bose headphones and when they came, inside the case the headphones are in there were 5 business cards about the headphones. That way when he’s on a flight and someone asks him about his headphones he can just give them a card. BRILLIANT. Sure he might take out those cards and put his own business cards in there, but I know him well enough to know they’ll just stay right in that headphone case and he’s DREAMING of the day he can talk about his headphones. I’m okay with it as long as I don’t have to hear it! For you, throwing in 3 promo cards with each order, and maybe it has a 10% off code on it (or free shipping, etc.) would be an easy thing to do.