Forrester Research Study confirms the Power of the Magic Mail

In our presentations, training courses and in “How to REALLY use LinkedIn” we talk a lot about the power of what we call “The Magic Mail“.

In that email you are introduced by a common contact to the person you want to get in touch with.

We already knew from experience that this approach works like magic (hence the name :-)).

Now I’m glad that a research by Forrester confirms what we have been speaking about the whole time.

This is the conclusion of the study sent to me by Bill Cates, President of Referral Coach International (sign up for his referral tips, they are great!)

The Forrester Research Study measured the level of trust people place in different sources of information.

At the bottom of their trust scale was a “company blog” – receiving a trust rating of 16%.
In the middle were such things as “radio” – at 39% – and “social networking site profiles from people you know” – at 43%.
At the top of the list was “email from people you know” at 70%.

70% is already a great number (especially when compared with the other sources!), but it can be higher if the right words are used. More about that in a future blog post.

To your success !

Jan

Sharing is giving without losing it

I have written many times about the fundamental principles of networking.

One of the principles about the networking attitude I call the “Give and Receive” attitude.

Many people still have a hard time with the word “Give”.

Either they think it is what they can sell (while it is about giving without expecting anything in return) or they think they have to give up something (in other words: they lose it).

A better word to use might be “sharing”. When I share my insights with you, I give them to you and I still have them myself.

All of us have a lot of insights, experiences and great tips that can benefit others.

So my question to you is: what can you share with others without expecting anything in return?

Think about it, do it and see the magic happening.

To your success !

Jan

LinkedIn Tip: How to Add Your Blog in Your LinkedIn Profile

The last weeks I have been writing about the leverage factor of blogs when combining them with LinkedIn.

As a consequence the question we have received the most recently is: how do I add a blog to my LinkedIn Profile?

There are two Applications you can use: the WordPress application and the Bloglink application.

WordPress Application (use this one if you have a WordPress blog):
1) Add the WordPress Application to your personal LinkedIn Profile
2) In the WordPress Application: add the URL of your blog.

Bloglink Application (use this one for all blogs but WordPress):
1) Add your blog to “Websites” in your personal LinkedIn Profile
2) Add the Bloglink Application to your personal LinkedIn Profile (it will automatically look for your blog in “websites” in your Profile)

How does it work?

Every time a blog post appears on the original blog, your LinkedIn Profile is automatically updated.

Remark: if you have a personal blog and also want to show the company blog, you might want to use the WordPress application for one blog and the Bloglink application for the other one. In this way both are shown on your personal Profile.

To your success !

Jan

PS: get your free light version and free updates (50 pages in the meanwhile!) of the book How to REALLY use LinkedIn (or in Dutch: het boek Hoe LinkedIn nu ECHT gebruiken)

How Solo Entrepreneurs Might also Benefit from the LinkedIn Lever when Blogging

Last week I shared some insights and numbers to show how a blog might benefit large organizations.

Many readers of this blog are solo entrepreneurs, so they might have felt “left out”.

However it doesn’t have to be the case.

Remember that the power of networking is in the second degree.

How apply this to blogging in a business environment?

These are the steps:

1. Define your target group.
2. Think about other suppliers to this target group.
3. Invite them to start a blog TOGETHER.
4. Make a list of topics and who’s going to write about which topic.
5. Make a timeline and make sure the team has a blog post at least every week.

The advantages are:

• You don’t have to write so much yourself. For example: if there are 5 contributors each if you only has to write 10 blog posts a year!
• You benefit from each other’s network: their network will read it and you will appear on their radar screen. The same thing happens with your network and your fellow bloggers when you post your tips and insights.
• You have partially the same advantages as larger companies when using Twitter, LinkedIn Status Updates and posts in LinkedIn Group Discussions.

To your success !

Jan