CKME Marketing Tips 101: Expand your LinkedIn network

The way business is being conducted is changing. No longer can you do everything on your own.

Having a large network on LinkedIn can be beneficial whether you use the site to network, look for a job, or market your business. Having a large network makes you a resource for others with whom you can share information. You will also be able to utilize the expertise of the people you are connected with, and to create possibilities for business transactions.

I am by no means saying you need to have 15,000 direct connections to make LinkedIn worthwhile; however, there is nothing wrong with having a large network. The way I look at it, every connection could be beneficial in one way or another. When anyone sends me a connection request, I look over their profile. Nine times out of ten, I connect.

Below are five tips to help you expand your LinkedIn network:

1. Give value. I have talked about this before in past blog posts. If people view you as someone who provides valuable information or if you are always paying it forward, you will receive countless invites to connect. Share news articles, information, expertise, and give advice, and you will draw others to you.

2. Utilize the features LinkedIn offers to import contacts from Yahoo, Hotmail, Outlook, and other web mail contacts. These are the people you already know. The process is very simple and LinkedIn walks you through it.

3. Invite people you meet to join your network. One of the first things I do after I attend a networking event is invite the individuals I got business cards from to connect with me on LinkedIn. Often these individuals already have profiles; if they don't, you may have just introduced them to the power of LinkedIn!

4. Ask for introductions. If you come across someone on LinkedIn who is connected to someone you know, and you want to connect with them, utilize the introduction feature. LinkedIn makes this a very simple process.

5. Join groups. I have found that groups are one of the easiest ways to expand my network. Groups offer a platform where you are able to send a message to fellow group members whether you are individually connected to them or not.

Having a strong network on LinkedIn can give you the satisfaction of helping others to achieve their goals, while achieving your own goals at the same time. Would that be worth connecting with some people you haven’t gotten to know yet?

Have a marketing question? Send me an email to ckokalis@ckmemarketinggroup.com, also don't forget to check out www.soccalliveonline.com to learn more about our LinkedIn Live networking events.

Chris Kokalis
President/CEO
CKME Group Inc.
414-755-2410 Milwaukee Office
310-492-5058 LosAngelesOffice
www.ckmemarketinggroup.com
www.socalliveonline.com
www.linkedin.com/in/ckmegroup
www.midwestbusinessexpo.com

Edited by Brenda Bernstein, www.TheEssayExpert.com

CKME Marketing Tips 101: Did you know you can update your LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter profiles all at the same time?

I hear clients say to me all the time I just don't have the time to update my status on all the social media sites I belong to. Well now they don't have an excuse thanks to ping.fm. Ping.fm is a free website that allows you to update your status on several sites at once. Its easy to set up.

Ping.fm currently supports more than 30 services, including microblogging platforms such as Twitter, Plurk and Jaiku, social networking web sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Multiply, instant messaging applications such as GTalk Status and Aim Status, and most of the popular blogging platforms. Once you’ve set up a Ping.fm account and added your credentials for the services you use for social networking and social media purposes, you’re ready to return to your Ping.fm dashboard to send messages out to all of your profiles at once.

Adding you social networks can be a challenge for those who don't have there usernames/passwords remembered. I suggest writing them all down prior to setting up your ping.fm account. Ping.fm does a pretty good job of making the process as seamless as possible.

On the main page of the site which they call the dashboard page, you can send out messages to your selected services. You can choose to have ping send your message to all of your services, or you can also filter profiles by “micro-blogs” or “statuses.” A character counter also lets you know the size of your ping, which is vitally important for squeezing your message in under Twitter’s 140-characters-per-tweet limit, for example. And a “Record Video” link allows you to stream a video recording directly through Ping.fm.

My favorite feature of ping.fm is the ability to send out messages through “from” multiple locations. A huge array of “Services/Tools” on the dashboard allow you to set up your Ping.fm account so that you can ping via email, SMS, instant message, Facebook app, iPhone app, desktop app, and so on. This feature allows enormous flexibility in allowing you to send a single message from anywhere and distribute your message to a large number of profile destinations quickly and easily.

Ping.fm is a simple, easy-to-use, and effective tool that help you get more accomplished with your social media profiles

www.ping.fm

Have a marketing question? Send me an email to ckokalis@ckmemarketinggroup.com, also don't forget to check out www.soccalliveonline.com to learn more about our LinkedIn Live networking events.

Chris Kokalis
President/CEO
CKME Group Inc.
414-755-2410 Milwaukee Office
310-492-5058 Los Angeles Office
www.ckmemarketinggroup.com
www.socalliveonline.com
www.linkedin.com/in/ckmegroup
www.twitter.com/chriskokalis