Archives for October 2014

LinkedIn Influence: How to Build a Profitable Digital Presence

October 24, 2014 by

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This Old New Business Podcast with Jeff Korhan

This is Episode 14 of This Old New Business weekly business podcast with Jeff Korhan.

Are you overwhelmed with digital and social media? Then maybe you need a fresh approach.

In this episode Stephanie Sammons shares her secrets for establishing your LinkedIn influence, while also building a profitable digital presence across every other social media channel that makes sense for you and your business.

The practices Stephanie teaches for mastering LinkedIn are universal social media disciplines that will serve you well for years to come.

Our Featured Guest: Stephanie Sammons

LinkedIn Influence: How to Build a Profitable Digital Presence Stephanie Sammons is an entrepreneur, a digital business and marketing strategist, and a Certified Financial Planner.

She teaches entrepreneurs, business owners, and professionals how to build personal digital influence and create a more powerful, productive, and profitable digital presence.

Stephanie was recently named one of the Top 10 Most Influential women on Twitter and a Top 25 Social Media Expert by LinkedIn.

Leverage Your Personal Strengths

Stephanie is a firm believer in understanding and taking care of yourself first, so that you are then best equipped to help others within your nextwork.

In regards to social media in particular, it’s important to have a clear sense of your own authenticity to know which channels will work best for you. For example, some of us are more comfortable with content creation, while others tend to be more heavily committed to curating and sharing.

In other words, digital can become a roadblock if you don’t have a plan that suits your strengths.

Get in Front of Influential People

When Stephanie left the corporate world she instantly gravitated toward LinkedIn because it allowed her to digitally get in front of influencers in her industry.

Unlike the filtered Facebook newsfeed and the endlessly surging Twitter stream, LinkedIn allows us to see beyond our first degree connections, thereby making it possible to easily connect with just about anyone.

First degree LinkedIn connections are the doorways to hundreds, if not thousands of personal introductions. Another suggestion for building your LinkedIn influence is to upgrade to a premium LinkedIn account and take advantage of LinkedIn InMails to connect with influencers.

LinkedIn InMails can be sent to anyone on LinkedIn. Each premium account receives a given number of InMails every month, depending upon the level of subscription.

Connecting with InMails is a regular habit for Stephanie. She says the trick is the same as when making any connection: Be clear about the value you can offer your new connection.

Share Your Personality, Passion, and Perspective

Stephanie suggests viewing your social media profiles are dynamic digital assets.

Considering the rate at which the digital and social media space is changing, it’s important to completely freshen your profiles at least once every year, while also keeping them personal. That’s what that influencers do, so it stands to reason you should too if you expect to build your digital influence.

Your personality, passion, and perspective are everything when it comes to making new connections and engaging others with the news you share. We can get the news anywhere, but for your community in particular, it’s your perspective that makes it relevant.

That’s your influence. It’s personal.

Lighting Round Tips and Advice

Stephanies’s Top Sales or Marketing Advice – Invest in a professional digital presence.

Her Favorite Productivity Tip – Spend 10 minutes each day personally reaching out and touching 10 people within your network.

A Quote that has Inspired Stephanie’s Success – “Nothing great has ever been achieved without enthusiam.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Key Take-Aways

  • You can connect with Stephanie on Twitter at @stephsammons and learn more about her at at StephanieSammons.com
  • View your social media profiles as dynamic digital assets. Update them regularly so they represent you well.
  • Stephanie and Jeff met as early contributors to Social Media Examiner – the host of Social Media Marketing World. Join us and 2,500 social media practitioners this coming March in sunny San Diego at the world’s largest social media conference: Social Media Marketing World 2015. Yep, we’ll both be speaking on our respective specialities.

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How is your business adapting its selling practices to an environment where buyers have new expectations?

About the Author:  Jeff Korhan, MBA, is the author of Built-In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business and host of This Old New Business podcast.

He helps mainstream businesses adapt their traditional growth practices to a digital world. Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+

How Storytelling Grows Your Social Media Audience

October 21, 2014 by

How Storytelling Grows Your Social Media Audience

Are your social media profiles glorified resumes, or do they tell people what they really want to know – who you are and why they should care about you and your business?

In addition to technology changing, everything about people and business is changing too. This means your social media has to meet new expectations.

Media that markets these days does much more than create awareness. It makes meaningful connections, which means it inspires.

The easiest way to accomplish that is by telling stories.

Everyone is a Storyteller

Don’t think that you are not a storyteller, because you have been telling stories your entire life – beginning with your parents, then in grade school, and throughout every aspect of your adult life. Stories are how we build and sustain relationships.

My wife and I recently had dinner with friends for the first time in over two decades. For whatever reason we failed to keep in touch. To refresh my memory and learn what I could, I jumped onto LinkedIn. It’s a habit I highly recommend.

Those bits of information gave me the basis for a new understanding that grew from the stories we all shared for hours that evening. Conversations are a series of intersecting stories. It’s how we relate to the world and each other.

Stories help us thread together those pieces of information that are typically abundant in our social media profiles. Stories provide a setting that gives data context that is relatable, memorable, and a basis for taking the conversation further.

During my podcast episodes we start with the guest sharing their story. That background helps listeners understand why they should continue listening. It sets the stage for what comes next.

That’s our challenge as social media marketers. We have to make the assumption that our audience wants to know more about us as human beings. In other words, we have to assume we have their permission to tell our story.

Build a Ladder of Understanding

So, let’s go back to the basic LinkedIn information that also resides on many of your other social media profiles. This is the foundation of your story, so make sure it’s all good.

Here’s the thing. We are nearly a full decade into social media, and a lot has changed during that time. Therefore, now is the time to clean house to get rid of what’s not serving a purpose, because it only detracts from what’s most important.

Have you ever considered why Facebook is so addictive? One reason is you lose yourself in the conversations that tend to build on each other over time. Facebook is highly personal, but the same principles can be applied to all of the social networks.

You are on a journey, and telling that story will bring your current and future customers along with you.

Social media is a ladder that gives a progressively better understanding of your business. Tweet this

You are on a journey, and telling that story will bring your current and future customers along with you.

Find the gaps that limit the understanding your social media audience has for your business and how it can help them. There are lots of businesses with excellent capabilities, which is why that’s not enough anymore.

What’s the solution? Tell better stories to build a ladder of understanding that will attract and engage a community that enjoys working with you and your team.

Stories validate mutually beneficial relationships.

About the Author:  Jeff Korhan, MBA, is the author of Built-In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business and host of This Old New Business podcast.

He helps mainstream businesses adapt their traditional growth practices to a digital world. Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+

Business Niche: How to Build a Predictable Income Model

October 17, 2014 by

This is Episode 13 of This Old New Business weekly business podcast with Jeff Korhan. Mike Rorie is the founder of one of the largest landscape management companies in the United States that employed 550 employees at its peak, before selling to a national firm in 2006. To grow and manage a business of that magnitude requires a […]

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How to Be Famous for Your Business Content

October 14, 2014 by

As a marketer you no doubt are familiar with the expression “Content is King” – but do you know who is credited with first coining it? I posed that question to my audience at a recent content marketing conference here in Chicago. To my surprise, nobody knew the answer. While it is sometimes disputed, Bill […]

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Community Value: How to Grow Your Business Audience

October 10, 2014 by

This is Episode 12 of This Old New Business weekly business podcast with Jeff Korhan. John Lee Dumas has built a spectacularly successful online business in a very short period of time. He is best known as the founder of EntrepreneurOnFire, a daily podcast show launched just two short years ago that is now approaching one million monthly […]

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4 Pillars of Online Marketing Success

October 6, 2014 by

Too many businesses are overwhelmed with social media, and for good reason. Even those with abundant resources cannot manage all of the major social media channels well. Facebook advertising alone is a major undertaking. If you narrow your focus to one or two channels, then it’s only a matter of building the discipline of doing […]

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Customer Experience: How to Use Social Media to be Amazingly Helpful

October 4, 2014 by

This is Episode 11 of This Old New Business weekly business podcast with Jeff Korhan. In addition to being a Hall of Fame Speaker, Shep Hyken is renowned as one of the leading customer service experts in the world — and with next week being National Customer Service week, it’s timely that we are now having him on […]

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