Yellow Dog Consulting

Sales & Marketing Consulting for solo-preneurs.

5 Things I Want to See on Your LinkedIn Page

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5 things I want to see on your linkedin pageI talk a lot about LinkedIn when I talk about follow up. Why? Because it’s another great place to connect with your network and keep them informed of your awesomeness on an ongoing basis. But if that profile isn’t fully filled out, it’s time to fix that. You spend hours keeping your Facebook page up to date with the latest and greatest, so why aren’t you doing that for your business? Take 10 minutes in the next week and review what’s working with your LinkedIn and what you may need to update. Here’s 5 things to check out.

  1. Images – I want a professional and up to date headshot of you. No cropped out friends, no hats and sunglasses, I want to see a picture of you. Why? Because if I’m meeting you for coffee and we haven’t met before I need to check to see what you look like. Also – make sure you use that background image!
  2. Summary – The summary portion of your profile is meant to be more personable and conversational. This is your summary about how awesome YOU are. Include your niche and specialties here too.
  3. Contact Information – Make sure your contact information is up to date. If you’ve changed jobs make sure your email is up to date so I can reach out if I need to refer a potential client to you or check in.
  4. Experience – For your current position make sure you have this fully filled out. It can be the about piece from your website if you’re a soloprenuer. Or a piece of your bio. This is where you also where you can list out services you offer in your business.
  5. Recommendations – If you’re really as awesome as you keep telling me (which is annoying FYI, don’t tell people, show people you’re awesome) then you should have some recommendations to back that up. Get a system in place to ask for recommendations. If a client sends you a note about the work you did, ask if they’d be willing to post it online for you. You can request recommendations too. Take a minute to think of 2-3 people you can request recommendations from this week.

LinkedIn is a fantastic business tool that you can use for follow up and networking and growing your business. But if your profile isn’t filled out and you’re hard to find, I’m going to question what else you aren’t taking the time to complete in your business.

3 Ways to Automate Your Follow Up

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I had a call today and we ended up talking a bit about how you automate your follow up. It may sound weird that you would automate something so personal. Sure if someone downloads something from your website you should automate that process and then add them to your newsletter (right?) But what about someone you met networking? How do you “automate” that process? Here’s 3 ways you may not have thought of…

  1. Social Media – If you’ve followed your Kickass Follow up Templates then you’ve already connected with them on social media right? Right. Don’t nag them or harass them. Instead be ACTIVE on your social media. Stay on brand and make sure that if they are also active on that social media platform that they have the opportunity to see you’re alive and kicking and available to connect and be hired.
  2. Your Newsletter – I think of my newsletter as a long term drip campaign. It’s a way to get my name in your inbox and to educate you about my awesomeness. This is what it would look like to work with me. This is how my mind works. This is what you’re missing out on. If I have met with someone and sent them recommendations or a proposal for work, I consider that implied consent to add them to my newsletter list. You may decide to be more (or less) explicit about it, and that’s up to you. But don’t underestimate the power of the newsletter. It’s brought me more business than I could have expected.
  3. Networking – Yes, networking. That thing you did where you met that prospective client you don’t know how to follow up with for the 7th time. People need to see you. They need a reminder you’re alive and kicking and a REAL person. Leave your office, put pants on and go to a networking event. It may take months or even years for someone to finally realize they’re ready to hire you. If you keep showing up, it’s a visual reminder that you are alive and kicking and ready to work with them. When the time is right.

How else can you “automate” such a personal process? In your business can a more formal email automation work or does it need to be more personalized?

Another Great Reason to NOT Respond to Reviews

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My June newsletter was about what to do when you receive a review that’s not awesome. It SUCKS to get a bad review, especially when you know there were specific circumstances that lead to it (we aren’t always on our A game, they may have had a bad day, it was an impossible experience, etc.) A good friend of mine responded with another excellent point…

Gwen Montoya always points out that when you respond to a bad review, you are not just responding to that person; you are responding to future clients, who will see this interaction weeks/months/years down the line, and formulate an impression of you and your business based on how you handled this client’s comments.

This is SUCH an excellent point I wanted to make sure to share with you. It can be tempting to respond to a review and state your case. And occasionally you may decide that’s the right fit. BUT before you hit post on that response, think about Gwen’s point. What’s this going to look like to potential clients down the road?

My guess is most of the time you may be better off asking great clients to leave positive reviews for you to counter balance the one bad review.

How do you respond to reviews? Do you?