How to answer questions on Linked In

I’m working on a future post about how to optimize a video on YouTube and posted a question on Linked In Answers. I got half a dozen responses, and from looking through them, I had a few thoughts on how to better “answer” a question.

First, I think it’s important to at least look at the profile of the person asking the question, and familiarize yourself with his/her background, knowledge and experience. Remember – you never know where your answers may take you!

When replying, the subject line on your response is the same as the subject line of the question. Here’s a chance to stand out by customizing the response. My question was “How do you optimize a video for YouTube?” A response with a subject line like “5 ways to optimize YouTube videos” would have jumped out at me, and I probably would have awarded that person’s answer as best.

I also think it’s important to keep your answers short and to the point. During the past 5 years or so, we’ve gone from reading full length articles in newspapers and magazines to 140 character responses on Twitter. So don’t stuff your answer full of fluff or promotional URLs. Quality and brevity, although challenging to combine, are the key. Of course, if you have more to say, offer your phone number or open a one-way discussion via a Linked In message.

But, before you type up your response or think through a subject line, open up Word and draft it there. No need to prematurely send a response through the Linked In system. Using an offline tool gives you a chance to review, edit, and make sure reference links work.

Finally, if you know a person who’s capable of answering a question better than you can, forward it! Making connections and conversations more valuable is vital to professional networking, and this is a surefire way to get noticed.

Photo credit by cobrasoft.

How to Set Better Goals

I’m a big believer in planning out my short and long term goals, and have used this goal-setting formula for years. If you’re always spinning your wheels and getting stuck in minutiae, then follow along and discover a better way to set your goals in motion.

Grab a pen and some paper, or open up Word, and detail line by line what it is you want to achieve. Let your mind flow — it’s more important to get everything written down. Let this sit for a day, and then go back to it again, because there are bound to be goals your subconscious mind came up with that just took a little longer to surface. Hopefully, you have a decent sized list.

Second, go through each goal, one by one, indicating if achieving the goal is a “must”, “should” or “nice” accomplishment; and indicate the desired time frame (ex. “I must achieve this goal in 2 years”). File the “should” and “nice” goals away — achieving your “must” goals are too important. Organize your list of “must” goals by date, with the goals due soonest first, followed by those further out in time. You’ll now have a prioritized list of goals.

Take a look at your list. Properly set goals are measurable, specific and achievable. Making “$1MM in 60 days” won’t work. Nor does “being financially independent in 10 years”. As you think about each of your goals, quantify them, avoid generalities and be realistic. For example, “I must book 6 speaking engagements over the next 12 months” seems to pass muster. And it sounds reasonable.

Now break down each into bite sized chunks and tasks you’ll need to do to achieve the goal. Following our speaking engagements example, your tasks may include contacting 10 speaker’s bureaus, writing your bio, and attending 3 industry trade events over the next 90 days. You can further break down each task with due dates and measure your progress along the way. If you follow these steps for each of your goals, you’ll have a logical path to follow, and a much greater sense of accomplishment along the way.

As Robert Heinlein once said, “”In the absence of clearly defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it.” Change the way you think about goal setting today.

Photo credit by Fanginhoon.

3 reasons to use PPC (even if you have great rankings)

I’m often asked at client development presentations and seminars a question like this: “Why should I use PPC? I already rank well with SEO.”

I love these questions, because it gives me an opportunity to talk about my favorite topic — paid marketing. For nearly every business, paid marketing must be part of your mix.

Here are my top 3 responses to the “why should I use paid” question:

1. Control the page. Even if you had the greatest SEO team in the world, the best you can get for any given search is two organic listings. So what better way to dominate the page than with a paid result as well? In most cases, you’ll have two, if not three links (think “chances”) to capture a potential prospect. And when using the same keywords for both paid and organic, you should see far better results overall (for both spots).
2. Control the message. The snippet and URL shown for your organic search results may not be the best possible place for your prospects to visit. Instead, support this listing with a paid result. Within reason, you can say what you want to say in the ad, and direct clicks to the page on your website which converts the best. From another perspective, if you’re facing negative or less than desirable organic results, use paid marketing to level the playing field.
3. Expand your reach. The only way to expand your reach organically is to create content and links which support your additional keywords. But try doing this for more than a few dozen terms, and you’ll never make progress. If you want to be found for hundreds, even thousands, of potential keywords, the only way to get this type of reach is through paid marketing.

With the given change in Google’s search page, organic results are getting further and further down the page. These three reasons apply in all situations, and for all businesses. To borrow a page from politics, you’ve got to pay to play, and the only guaranteed way to get traffic from a search engine is to buy it.

Photo credit by Penny Matthews.

What’s your service like, after the sale?

Do your clients cringe at the thought of calling in to your service number? Sunday night, as I was pulling down our window shade, the right side string broke, and the weight of the unsupported slats brought the entire blind down. Fearing the worst, I called Levolor first thing Monday morning to inquire about repair costs. Fully prepared to go into battle with what I thought would be an overseas customer service department, I was pleasantly surprised when my call was answered by a real live human named Donna, within a ring or two of the phone.

Tip 1: Call your client or customer service number — how long does it take you to get through to a representative? If you grow impatient, imagine how your clients feel.

Donna then quickly looked up my account, all based off of a little tag on the inside of our window shade. She knew when it was made, when it was bought (by the previous homeowner) and based off of that little tag, which window it belonged to.

Tip 2: Do your systems work this fast? Or do you make clients go through hoops validating who they are?

I explained the problem to Donna, and she told me the repair charge was $25. All I had to do was mail in the blind, and they’d do the rest. Not bad – sounded like a fair price to me. While she was writing up the repair order, I chatted with Donna about her weekend. I must have made an impression as Donna informed me she’d waive the repair fee and the return mail charge — again, all I had to do was ship the blind.

Tip 3: Are your client services staff empowered to make impressionable decisions? $25 isn’t a lot, and I was fully prepared to pay it. But her change made my Monday. And we all know what Monday’s could be like…

Your “after the sale” service is often what makes or breaks your business. It also has a dramatic effect on the referrals you get.

Are you doing everything you can to get the sale, only to fall flat afterwards? Or are you like Levolor, which just made me a client for life?

Photo credit by iprole.

Five Things You Didn’t Know About LinkedIn

As readers of this blog will confirm, I’m a huge fan of LinkedIn for selling and consulting. I wanted to share a few additional features many casual users of LinkedIn probably are not aware of:

LinkedIn has a store, where you can buy branded merchandise. Up for sale include mugs, shirts, luggage tags and even reusable grocery shopping bags. For me, I’ve got my eye on the lapel pin for in-person networking.

The LinkedIn blog is frequently updated with all the new and cool enhancements on the network. Writers use the content here for their own blog posts. And for those of you who like to comment on blog posts, the structure here publishes your profile URL, which is a unique twist, and may help you with optimization.

A fairly new feature is the ability to reorder the elements on your profile. Via simple drag and drop, you can move the pieces of your profile around to best highlight your skills, expertise or experiences and stand out from the crowd.

I launched my first DirectAds campaign earlier this week, and the results seem promising. The targeting is robust, but the $10/day minimum is pretty high when compared to Google and Facebook ($1/day or so). More to come on the results of my campaign.

LinkedIn also makes it very easy for you to promote your profile with badges. When logged in to your account, the badges are automatically updated to include your profile URL.

I hope you find these features useful to your networking goals on Linked In, and I welcome your comments, and connection requests.

Photo credit by ilco.