DID YOU KNOW: 62% OF MARKETERS CONSIDER LINKEDIN A SUCCESSFUL REVENUE DRIVER?
LinkedIn is the best B2B social network and there is no doubt about that. Whilst LinkedIn has been around for over 13 years, small businesses are still finding it hard to generate sales through the strategic use of LinkedIn.
Because of this, I have decided to share with you my 7-day LinkedIn action plan. This plan has been 8 years in the making, and one which I always refer to, and share with my clients. Regardless of whether you are new to LinkedIn, or you have been using it for a long time, it doesn’t hurt to have an easy-to-follow action plan.
BEFORE THE PLAN
It is really important that you follow a few simple, basic steps before you actually keep reading for the LinkedIn action plan.
Have you filled in your profile headline, picture, summary, work experience, skills & endorsements and honors & awards? These are all basic setting-up steps when creating your LinkedIn profile. You should have also customised your LinkedIn URL.
If you are nodding your head reading the above paragraph, you’re ready to take action, and follow my LinkedIn action plan for small businesses!
DAY 1
Day 1 is where you take the most basic actions around LinkedIn, and begin your week in the best way possible. Most of Day 1’s actions are not time consuming, and are beginner-level based.
ACTION 1 – CHECK YOUR CONNECTION REQUESTS
It is important that when you first log-in to your LinkedIn account, you actually look at who is trying to connect with you. Leaving a connection request sitting too long, may leave the requester feeling impatient, and may forget the reason why they wanted to connect with you in the first place.
ACTION 2 – CHECK “WHO’S VIEWED YOUR PROFILE”
LinkedIn give you amazing insight into who has viewed your profile, and looking at this on day 1 of your LinkedIn action plan will give you the time to research those who have viewed your profile, and get ready to take the next day 1 action.
ACTION 3 – SEND 5 CONNECTION REQUESTS
This is a daily action, and will be repeated throughout your LinkedIn action plan. After looking at who has viewed your profile, you can then send a connection request. Also look at your “people you may know” when sending out a request.
ACTION 4 – CHECK YOUR INMAIL
LinkedIn have a great private messaging feature called InMail. If you don’t have email notifications set up, or alerts for when someone is reaching out to you, this must be a part of your daily actions.
ACTION 5 – SHARE A PIECE OF CONTENT
One of the best ways to expand your LinkedIn network, is to share great content that is relevant to your audience. I do this on a daily basis and it has helped me build my network inside of LinkedIn.
DAY 2
Day 2 will consist of repeating actions 3, 4, and 5 from Day 1 as well as two new actions.
ACTION 1 – RESEARCH ONE OF YOUR CONNECTIONS NETWORKS
You will notice, once inside of LinkedIn that you may have a lot of mutual connections with one connection of yours in particular. Visit their LinkedIn profile, have a read of their summary, work and endorsements and reach out to them if you think you could potentially do business together.
ACTION 2 – JOIN A NEW GROUP
LinkedIn groups are a great way to find new clients, and get engaged with like-minded individuals. Join a new group for action 2, in day 2 and get involved in the conversation.
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DAY 3
Day 3 will repeat actions 1, 2, and 5 from Day 1, as well as three new actions.
ACTION 1 – COMMENT ON THREE OF YOUR CONNECTION’S STATUS UPDATE
How often do you comment on your connections posts? This should be a regular action if you want to increase your network.
ACTION 2 – POST YOUR BLOG CONTENT ON LINKEDIN PULSE
I write two pieces of content a week, and both of those will be shared on LinkedIn Pulse. This is a key step for a small business because of how powerful LinkedIn Pulse can be. So much of my website traffic, and engagement on social media comes directly from LinkedIn Pulse.
ACTION 3 – LOOK UP 3 COMPANIES ON LINKEDIN
LinkedIn is a great source of information and as a small business, you should have a good idea of the type of company you would like to work with. Whether you are selling a product or service, you will have more than one company in mind. Research those companies inside of LinkedIn, and find the best person at that company to have a discussion with.
DAY 4
Day 4 will repeat;
Day 1 – Actions 3, 4 and 5
Day 2 – Action 2
There are also two new actions below.
ACTION 1 – SUBMIT CONTENT TO LINKEDIN TODAY
Contact the business development team at LinkedIn, and share your content with them. As long as you have a LinkedIn share button on your site, and have consistently shared content with your audience then you might just be in luck.
ACTION 2 – IMPORTING CONTACTS
You can import a list of your contacts from the Add Contacts page on LinkedIn. This will run a one-time upload of your address book contacts, as well as their detailed contact information. LinkedIn use this information to suggest relevant contacts for you to connect with, to help you browse, search, and organise your contacts on LinkedIn.
This might be something you have already done when creating your LinkedIn account. If not, this action will only need to be taken once a month.
DAY 5
Day 5 will repeat;
Day 1 – Actions 1, 2 and 5
Day 3 – Action 3
There are also two new actions below.
ACTION 1 – ASK, AND GIVE A RECOMMENDATION
A recommendation inside of LinkedIn holds a lot of weight so make sure you ask every single person you do business with, if they would recommend your product/service inside of LinkedIn. In return, you can do the same for them.
ACTION 2 – GIVE 3 ENDORSEMENTS
You can endorse a connection for a particular skill by going to the “skills & endorsements” section of their profile, and clicking on the name of the skill, or the + sign next to the skill. Do this for three different connections of yours, and they will be notified via email that you have done this and they will do the same for you.
DAY 6
Day 6’s actions will consist of repeating actions 3, 4 and 5 from Day 1, and action 1 from Day 3, as well as two new actions.
ACTION 1 – USE BOOLEAN SEARCH TO IDENTIFY 10 POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS
A Boolean Search uses advanced search operators and Boolean logic to conduct a search. This will help you find 10 potential customers. If you don’t know how Boolean works, read more here.
ACTION 2 – SCHEDULE A CALL, OR MEETING WITH A CONNECTION
Reach out to a connection of yours that you have history with and suggest a mutually beneficial time to either have a call or meeting. This could lead to more business.
DAY 7
Day 7 will repeat;
Day 1 – Actions 1 & 2
Day 2 – Action 2
Day 3 – Action 2 (if you write more than one piece of new content a week)
Day 5 – Actions 1 & 2
There are also two more actions for you to take below.
ACTION 1 – ASK FOR AN INTRODUCTION
Inside of LinkedIn you can be asked to be introduced to a contact who is a 2nd-degree connection of yours (you both have a mutual connection). You can do this by going to the 2nd-degree profile, chose the connection from the mutual connections on the right hand side and “request an introduction”.
ACTION 2 – CHECK YOUR SUMMARY AND WORK CONTENT
Have you changed roles within your business, or changed what your business offers? Whilst this isn’t a weekly task, it is important that your LinkedIn content stays as up-to-date as possible.
I hope the above will give you a better understanding around LinkedIn, and the actions you need to take as a small business. What do you currently do, on a weekly basis to improve your LinkedIn success?
Easy-To-Follow 7-Day LinkedIn Action Plan
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