5 must do strategies for B2B marketers on LinkedIn

1) Update your profile to reflect the value you add, not what you do. LinkedIn, or any B2B marketing mechanism, is all about value, value, value. Always value.

With this goes regular updates of your status. But not the salesy stuff. real updates based on where you are, what you are doing, your current thoughts on...

2) Make sure you have real recommendations from people who can speak authoritatively about your work and ethics. These recommendations cannot merely be from anybody. They must be from people who others in your targeted sectors would find trust worthy.

3) Reach out to people who are likely buyers within your field and industries with InMails first.. be humble but do notbe a sycophant. Nobody with real authority needs yet another nodding head around them.

4) Restrict your connections, yes restrict them, to people within your targeted industries. And only those people who are at or near the level where they can sign checks for he amounts you wish to bill.

When you connect with others like this a number of things happen.

• People tend to connect with their peers, so you get to have a deeper reach within a very specific area. Which is great because it is what you are after.

• Your update stream turns from a mush about people you don't know doing things you don't care about - to a fine tuned source of unique business intelligence.

• You don't get spammed by LION's, TopLinked and other variants of "Linkers".

5) Join relevant groups. (Another way to ensure your updates stream is relevant and useful) While building a specific network, as well as joining only relevant groups, you get another bonus.

When you search, or used saved searches, you are able to find all sorts of people who are one or two degrees away from you. Enabling you to start your networking efforts there with a courteous InMail.

6) Use Saved Searches to send you emails once a week (say). This is a real game changer. That way you get automatically notified when people who fill your search criteria come within your network through connections by your peers, or because they have just joined LinkedIn.

I hope this is useful, feel free to let me know how these are going for you.

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3 reasons why LIONs are counterproductive to your networking

If you have LION's, TopLinked or any other variant of "Linker" in your network list I advise you to drop the connection to them immediately.


More than any other networking site, LinkedIn is not about how many - but who. If you wish to be collected as a notch on the profile of a Linker then that is up to you, but there are actually very good reasons why this is not a good idea.


1) Updates stream. My updates streams are filled with relevant, interesting information about people I know within industries I target. In fact, it is a scarce business intelligence resource. 


I knew that two of my companies key clients were moving roles prior to Christmas before anybody else did. I can also see who is connected to whom, who is changing roles and who has been promoted. (Among other things) 


And importantly....these are not random names on my screen. They are people in significant roles in industries I wish to deliver services to.


When I was connected to LION's, TopLinked and others it was just mush. Unrecognizable mush about people I didn't know doing things I didn't care about. 


2) Your network is your most valuable asset. B2B networks are not about notches on profiles, they are about long term mutually beneficial commercial relationships. Your network needs to be valued and treated as the phenomenal opportunity producing asset that it is. 


Why would you expose it to people you do not know? Worse. If you are a consultant, why would you link to somebody who may have links to competitors of yours? Really, why? 


If you connect randomly then you run the risk of giving a competitor some form of access to decision makers within target companies. This seems restrictive but it isn't.


Do you even know the name of the VP for manufacturing from GM and their consulting budget? I do. And I got it from my LinkedIn account, and if you are going to be competing with me for that budget why would I allow you to have that information?


3) It's not about you anymore.


As stated above, networking is about mutual benefit. Connecting with "Linkers" is about helping them to grow their connections list even further. it is not about you, at all, it is all about them and their list. 


Their is a belief that "Linkers" have extra ordinary reach, and they do. But it is broad and general not narrow and specific. They are able to ouch a range of people across a range of industries, but often not able to dive deep into one sector to define the key decision makers moving millions, if not billions of dollars.


My advice? Don't deal with them, don't allow them into your networking groups, don't let them lull others with "Accept all invites" statements, and do not ever curse others with an introduction to them.


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Maximizing the value of your LinkedIn login

I have commented many times on Twitter that LinkedIn is probably the greatest trust based asset in the world today.

Your LinkedIn login gives you the ability to collect recommendations from industry leaders that others will see as a trusted source, the ability to hide your connections and the restrictions and control over connecting and establishing contact places it a world apart from other social tools.

Here are some of the posts I have written recently about the LinkedIn login, how to use it, and how it can add significant value to your bottom line.

• Using your LinkedIn login to get around Gatekeepers. Another post that seemed to strike a chord with many consultants. Fortunately technology has given us another way to get around the gate keepers. 

• The newest Trust Based Asset - LinkedIn Recommendations. A look at how to use the recommendations function of LinkedIn in a way that is effective for generating trust. 

• Turn your LinkedIn login into a powerful revenue generator. Everything I have been using this year to generate seven figures in B2B sales from my network. 

• 7 tips for success in todays job market - A look at some of the ways to use your LinkedIn login to increase your chances of getting the job you want.

And of course, some cautionary tales...

• Why are people so stupid on LinkedIn. Really started off a firestorm with this post. People seem to come down hard on one side or the other. 

• Please don't accept all invites! A cautionary tale about why LinkedIn is not Facebook, and why the "Accept all invites" statements does far more harm than good. 

• LinkedIn, Virtual Handshakes and the danger of accepting all invites. Some more issues and thoughts on why your network needs to be kept safe. It is a valuable asset, don't allow it to be stolen from you!

And if all that isn't enough for you to start using your LinkedIn login to start generating real revenues and very real cash incomes, then maybe this post of 13 reasons for LinkedIn may help to inspire you to think how you can turn your profile into a powerful resource for job hunting or client hunting.

Good luck...

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Using your LinkedIn login to get around "Gatekeepers"

We all know who gatekeepers are right? They are the powerless middle managers who cannot say yes, but have many ways to say no.

The source of their minuscule influence is through restricting access to the people above them, controlling what they see and who they speak to. In short, they are the defenders of the status quo.

Defending their faint hold on what passes for power and curtailing any efforts of the organization to improve itself if they see it as a threat to them. They are an anathema...

Fortunately, technology had offered us a way around this...

As I have said many times here, LinkedIn is a 24/7 trade show that everyone came to. It's functionality allows you to use this as (probably) the most powerful trust based asset on the planet.

By building your network of trust based relationships, collecting references from people who others would see as a trusted source, and through backing this up in the offline world by developing a track record of achievement.

With this in place, your LinkedIn login becomes far (FAR) more than just an online CV...

With a long line of people willing to tell everyone how great your work is, you are more likely to get referrals and introductions. So if, say, you have a trust based contact who is connected with the CEO of a major organization, you can ask her for an introduction.

When the CEO checks your profile, and sees the recommendations from people he has heard of, or from other senior industry figures, then he is more likely to accept the introduction and risk giving you the time of day. (I say risk because time is exceptionally valuable commodity, it isn't given lightly)

Or, you can go the direct route and send an Inmail yourself. This has worked very well for me in the past.

A humble letter, asking for the opportunity to have a discussion with them, and stating clearly your ability to achieve results.

Remember - you are writing a letter, not a thesis, and you are writing it to a person with the power to write checks for millions of dollars. His time is valuable, and everyone wants to get a share of his magic pen.

So make the most of it.

The benefit? No more gatekeepers. You get to go straight to the decision makers. Staying at that level is another issue altogether, but getting there these days is far easier to achieve than it used to be...

And if you use these techniques on the back of your trust based assets you have spent years or months developing, then you start to appear like the obvious choice, a person with considerable momentum, and someone who they would welcome as a peer.

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What is LinkedIn?

"What is LinkedIn?" is starting to become one of the more frequent questions I get as I travel around the place.

First of all, it is not Facebook. If you go there expecting to just collect connections like you do on Facebook then you have another thing coming. 

But...the short answer is another question, what is a network? 

If you are an executive, middle manager or operative in any of the fortune 500 companies then your network is the key to your future success. It is the place you can go to to get inside industry information, seek referrals on people and companies, find out about the latest technologies, and trade ideas about how to improve aspects of your business.

It plays a major factor in your companies performance, your career prospects, your ability to be seen as an expert, and your ability to tap into the pulse of whatever it is that your business does. 

If you are in the business of B2B services, then it literally means the difference between life and death. If you are in this game and you have not yet realized that it is all about relationships...then I am sure that business is hard right now. 

I think of LinkedIn as the 24/7 trade show that everybody came to. It is the only place where you could find the LinkedIn profiles of people such as:

• Group Vice President and General Manager JD Edwards Enterprise One at Oracle Corp
• SVP Bank of America eCommerce
• CEO, President and Board Member at Alpha Sintered Metals, Inc.
• VP Synthetics at Exxon Mobil Corp
• Vice-President at Exxon Mobil Russia
• Senior Vice President at Saudi Chevron Phillips Co
• President & CEO at AIG Rail Services
• VP Human Resources at Ford Motor
• Vice President Francisco Partners (Venture Capital)

In fact, when used right, LinkedIn will provide you with the ability to expand your professional network to reach further than it could have at any other time in history.

And it will do so without opening you up to spam, uninvited targeting and a range of other common internet problems. 

For those of you in the sales and marketing fields within the B2B industry I have posted some useful information on how to grow and use your LinkedIn network here. 

And for all of us here is a light hearted view of some of the ways you could get it really wrong on LinkedIn. 

I hope this sheds some light on things. 

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Social media Experts and the curse of a little bit of knowledge

I have really had it with social media "experts". 


Over the past few months, as I have delved deeper and deeper into the world of social media, online marketing and web 2.0 technologies - it has become clear to me that there are a heck of a lot of charlatans out there.


Many (if not all) of the people I see online touting themselves as social media experts are nothing of the sort. They are people who have worked out a few tricks, and read some good advice, and then they pass this off to others in eBooks, seminars and courses.


I'm not talking about Robert Scoble or Chris Brogan, or the other bona fide experts who are playing as well as advising. I'm talking about the rash of people suddenly popping up on Twitter, or LinkedIn spouting their thoughts and opinions as if they mattered. 


There is a real danger in this...


If I give advice on LinkedIn it is because I have used it to generate 7 figures for my employer so far this year. You will notice I don't give advice on how to connect to everyone because I don't know anything about it.


If I give advice on how to get more followers on Twitter it is because I have (very publicly) worked out methods of doing that. I don't advise on how to make money or get leads there because I have no real idea. (Yet)


Coaches, mentors and advisors need to be the people who have been able to consistently do whatever it is you want to learn. Not somebody who read Seth's latest book and churns this out as their own advice.


Whats the danger? The danger is false hope, wasted cash, and more importantly wasted time - the only resource you cannot get any more of. 


Getting a great mentor or coach is a shortcut to learning. I advise it strongly and I mentor many people myself. But - make sure you get a coach who has played and won in the field before parting with your limited time or money.


A little bit of knowledge is dangerous... but not to them, to you!


Rant ends...


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LinkedIn, Virtual Handshakes and the danger of accepting all invites.

So you met this character from a rival consulting agency. You hit it off, he seemed like somebody that you could do business alongside at some stage, and you decided to stay in touch.

This happens to us everyday right? You never know, and a good alliance is always helpful for pulling down big contracts.

During the conversation there were a few mentions of mutual contacts, and a few quick mentions of prospects etcetera. But of course, you never lower your guard too much do you. Not because others are unethical, but this is business after all. The survival of your family and so on...

Then you find out that this guy had gone and introduced himself to one of your prospects, and that he had used your name as a way to do it!

You feel like you have been played, and worse, you feel like your trust has been betrayed. But in all honesty you probably left yourself open to it...

When you connect to somebody on LinkedIn you are giving them certain capacities to see part of your network. For example, if I connect to you, and you are connected to (say) a manager in GM, and she is connected to the General Manager of Operations - then I can see the GM's profile when I search for it. 

He is now in my network, thanks for that.


This changes things a little bit doesn't it...should your competitors be given access to your connections and network? If you leave your contacts as visible then they can immediately see who is in your network, how connected you are, and how "dangerous" you are as a competitor. 

And...they now know the names of significant, often economic buyer types, at your clients firms. Information they possibly didn't have access to before connecting with you.

LinkedIn to me is a B2B networking and lead generation tool, and one with a substantial upside if you treat it correctly. Not just a platform for connecting with your friends and past acquaintences. Facebook is great for that...

Please don't misunderstand the message here... I have always expected the best from people and I have very rarely been disappointed. But there is a glaring difference between trust and naivety.

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My LinkedIn back office

As the groups function of LinkedIn  has improved, it has slowly started to become a networking back office for many of us.

One of my groups, Consulting Pulse , now has nearly 3,000 members. it has only taken a short time to get there and I am really glad I started it in the first place.

A pivotal moment was when I asked the group what to do about spam, "Accept all invites" posts and other garbage that was starting to fill up the forum. The response was overwhelming... today we have the Rules of Engagement setting out clearly that this group is professionally focused and spam free. 

Anyone tests that and they're out. great stuff.

The groups now have news items and Job Boards. We encourage everyone there to use the job board as a contractors corner, as well as a source for recruiters and HR departments. it seems to be humming away nicely.

The news items is where the real value of the group comes in. I continually add RSS feeds from all over the web. Seth's blog, Ford Harding's blog, Dan Roam, Alan Mather and ChangeThis.com.

By themselves these are all great feds. The real value of having them in the group  is that we can discuss them, comment on them and disagree regarding points related to marketing, sales, consulting skills or whatever.

I have learned a lot since starting this group, and with 10,000 members as our next goal I am sure that I have only just started to learn.

It really has become a back office for networking. Something I drop into every day to see how the discussions are going, check the news items and see if there are any controversies today. (I love those...)

I hope you will consider joining us .

8 of the highest traffic marketing posts on Consulting Pulse.

Over the past few months I have been posting a lot on marketing and social media in particular. It seemed to draw a lot of attention from many people so I thought I would put all of the high traffic posts together for those of you who have only joined us recently.

They wander through a wide range of areas from Trust Based Marketing to display ads, through to referrals and social media. So hopefully there is something here that can assist you right now.

Elitist Social Media and the value of Display advertising - A look at how display advertising is transforming, and trying to understand where it sits in the pantheon of marketing techniques today.

The Error of Permission Based Marketing (And do-it-yourself branding)  - Do not throw the baby out with the bathwater. While interruption advertising may well be dead, the skills and techniques that the old Jedi's used to use still have their place.

 SEO is a fools errand - A post that set the web alight for a while challenging the idiocy of SEO marketing and pointing out some greater value options instead of this crap shoot.

My Triiibal Experience - A look at one of the tribes I had created several years ago and what it did for me and for the members. Inspired by Seth Godins book to write this one.

Are they hiring you? Or are you giving them access to scarce talent? - Marketing for job hunters. The attitude and a few techniques for you to pitch for work without being a doormat.

The Snowball Effect of Trust Based Marketing - Tips for building the snowball, also links back to another article I wrote on measuring the trust in your client base.

Be the news not the ad s - If you are posting ads on Adwords or banner ads, then you are a distraction. But if you are the news then you are being fed straight into peoples brains.

Maximizing the trust value from your LinkedIn recommendations - A few pointers on how to set up your recommendations in LinkedIn for maximum impact. Remembering that these are trust based assets, and they are in public.

I hope these are of interest to you. I have definitely enjoyed writing them and I hope that you are able to get some value and/or inspiration from them.

Good luck in your marketing endeavors.

8 tips to help you get a job NOW !

Times are tough. Very tough. Many peoiple are, through very little fault of their own, facing a very difficult and discouraging future.

As a 40-something-consultant I have lived and worked through tough years several times in my career. (Hence my experience in Grape Picking)

If you want to get the job NOW, like right now and not in three or six months time, then here are some techniques and thoughts that have always worked for me. 

My tightest situation was in Chile where I had no visa, no work, very little cash, a new girlfriend, a new apartment and only a small skill base to leverage at the time. 

I had work in a week...

1) Do not call HR departments ever. They are there to frustrate you and are possibly the great disgrace of modern enterprise. 

2) Search LinkedIn for hiring level managers in your industry, in your geography (if that is an issue) and in companies that you know about. Send them an Inmail. If you can't do that then consider upgrading your account with LinkedIn. I did, and it was worth it. 

3) When you send the Inmail, or the email, do not pitch. It needs to be a few lines long not a few paragraphs long. You are asking for the opportunity to pitch, you are not pitching now. (Don't call companies, call people)

4) Your job is now to look for work. Every day you need to put 8 hours into telephone calls, emails, visits, interviews, calling etcetera.

5) Where ever possible call instead of emailing. 

6) Write a report on a problem issue, containing various elements of value, and send it direct (with a hard copy to follow) to the hiring level managers who are dealing with this issue. 

7) Remember - your CV, emails, phone conversations, appearance, letters and face to face meetings are all telling a story. Don't make it a hard luck story, there are plenty of those out there already.

Make it a story about impressive and provable value, scarcity of experience and skills, and the fact that the only risk in hiring you is not hiring you. People remember stories. 

8) Toughen up. Some people will talk but can't help. Others won't even give you the time of day. Do not panic and do not get offended. It says more about them than it does about you. (Believe me)

Good luck, I hope this helps. For me the big takeaway item in this entire list is either number 4 or number 2. 

Please feel free to add your own perspective if you feel it will help others out there to find work. 

7 tips for success in todays hard job market

In my career I have held over 60 short term positions as either a contractor or a full time hire. These covered several continents, most industrial sectors and a range of managerial areas. (Including grape picking and selling cars)

It also paid for me to travel around the world a few times...so I know a little bit about getting a job...

Here are the top 7 things that I think will help you to land a great job, even if the market is turning south these days. (I advise you to have a look through the links at the bottom of this post also. Some good additional information there.)

1) Your network is King! Not a shotgun approach, not every person and their dogs. But everyone who matters! If you are in IT then connecting to me on LinkedIn is going to help you get absolutely nowhere. But getting to connect with IT directors, project managers and significant consulting firm leads will help you no end.

I am going to have to do a series of posts on Career Hunting via LinkedIn. It seems that the tools and techniques you have available to you are not well known of used.

2) What is going on in the market? Who is looking for which skills and why? What are the upcoming projects in your industry. (There are STILL projects going on, do not believe anything to the contrary!)

Tuning into the job market means that when you see a job ad you already know who it is for, what project or initiative it is part of, and through your network you are likely to already know who the hirers are.

If you are looking for work then start scanning everything from the business news, to job ads, through to news on tenders. If you don't know whats going on then you are going blind into the job market. (This is a career changer!)

3) Take a short term view. If you have 6 - 8 months worth of funds to support you while you hum and har over every job ad then you can wait for the perfect role to appear. But if you are like me then you don't.

Take the role that is open now. Job hunting doesn't stop just because you have a role. You can work your way into the next steps.

4) The best time to look for work is when you don't need a job. NOT when you are in a desperate situation.

5) Take a longer term view. Every role, every job, every contract is another weapon in your arsenal. Something else bringing you experiences, track record builders, relationships and skills. Make sure that even a temporary role contributes something you are going to need to get to your 5 - 10 year goal of being the grand poobah of whatever it is you do.

6) Build up your recommendations on LinkedIn. A fantastic trust based asset . Not from too many peers - but from people who others in your industry will respect. From people who will be seen as a trusted source of recommendations.

7) Remember where you stand. You are a scarce talent . You are giving them the opportunity to access this scarce talent. Make sure your CV represents the scarcity of what you do, and make sure that your conversations subtly stress the scarcity of you.

Related Posts:

Turning your LinkedIn profile into a Powerful revenue generating tool 
The newest Trust Based Asset - LinkedIn recommendations! 
The Snowball Effect of Trust Based Marketing 
Are they hiring you or are you giving them access to scarce talent? 

21 rapid comments and the curse of diverted attention.

I was recently expelled from a popular forum here on LinkedIn. I posted several articles there, and one of them I wrote about cold calling  received something like 21 comments in the space of a few hours.

Phenomenal response, one of the more aggressive responses I have had on a Linkedin news group. And enough to upset the moderator. He deleted it, and chipped me about posting news items, I reposted it, and he then deleted me.

End of story.. except, theres another story here.

The article, as you can see , is non commercial. I don't sell anything here at present and the only thing that may happen is someone clicks on an Adsense banner. Given that I have earned enough for a couple of cups of coffee from Adsense I don't really call it a commercial concern.

The underlying theme in the post was - "here, try this - I hope it helps".

The crime was diverting attention away from the groups moderator. Instead of being able to dominate the group as an absolute sales authority, attention was being drawn away and it wasn't appreciated.

In the Consulting Pulse network  we have a few rules to try to keep out the spammers, but generally speaking we encourage others to bask in the spotlight of the groups interest.

In fact - I have placed RSS feeds like Seth's blog, Dan Roams blog, Topix on Consulting, Bill Caskey's blog and numerous others in there to make sure that we get a range of diverse opinions and viewpoints through the forum.

And I believe it is a vastly better network for it. The news items are always interesting as they are drawn from blogs that are already super successful. And the discussion and job boards are wide open for people to try to get advice, information and support from others in the consulting game.

We could have closed it down. Stopped discussions altogether and just used it as a place we used to capture email addresses. We could use it as a place to blast everyone with news about stuff we are doing. But instead we are trying to use it as a place where the focus can be on others, and as a safe haven for consultants where they won't be pitched to.

As we round 3,000 it seems to be picking up pace - so i am pretty confident that it is working.

Time will tell... your thoughts?

Related Posts:

Should LinkedIn group owners be allowed to download your email address? 

The Notorious Consultant

What are you doing about your personal brand? Do you even know what it is or what it says about you right now?

Do you have any level of notoriety at all? Do people in your game know of you, in any way?

A brand means that when people hear your name there is an image and perception associated with that. Brand = Notoriety. And you want your brand to send out the message that you are a person who can be trusted to deal with their problems, or to satisfy their requirements.

The problem with current thinking on branding is that it has been diluted by much of the talk about Web 2.0 and the social media phenomena.

We have started to act as if we are in Big Brother all of a sudden. Everyone is watching your Tweets, everyone is reading your blog, the boss can see your LinkedIn profile. Oh no! Does she think I'm trying to get another job??

So we are all living in the fishbowl. By itself that's not too bad, but the real problem is that people start to act as they think they should act, not how they actually are.

Political correctness creeps in. Things that, in polite conversation, they might disagree with - they are suddenly fervently in favor of because it is what is expected of them.

And this leads us to the endless stream of blog posts, tweets, profiles and updates telling everyone how you want to help the world, with nobody taking any risk of offending a single person. All very bland, and very boring.

If you want to fit in the worst thing that can happen is that you achieve it.

Is your brand about what people read of your tweets, your LinkedIn profile and your blog posts? Definitely.

Is it the end of the story? No way - it is just a recent addition to an epic novel that has been running for decades. Your brand comes about through getting your name out there.

1) Write a book. Heck, write three. I have three books coming out later this year. In addition to the three I have already written on engineering.

When I enter a conference, a seminar, or even someones office they more often than not know of me. They know my name and often they even know some of my positions on certain issues.

It gives you credibility. Even if nobody reads it. It has to be good, preferably by a third party publisher. (E.g. not self published) and it needs to have at least been heard of. (Books are all about branding. You can earn some money from them, but Harry Potter it is not!)

2) You need to get articles out there. Not through the article marketing channels but through magazines, professional websites (while there are still some left), through other obscure but authoritative sources such as (In my case) the IEEE.

Write for internal company journals, trade magazines who still have a decent subscription base, and try to get into the prestigious journals for your sector. For example, I used to run regular articles in a magazine called Utility Week in the UK. Great for reaching the ears of hard to reach people.

3) Do you have a newsletter? No - write one! Get organized enough to write a few paragraphs for every second week and you will be amazed how much this impacts on your personal brand.


4) Speak. Speak at trade shows, run seminars, speak at industry conferences and do webinars. Get the name out. Regardless of what anybody says you are not stupid if you are not making top dollar from speaking! You are stupid if you do not see the potential that it has to gain you what will ultimately open doors for you...

Notoriety...

Why job boards should be dropped from your job hunting regime

When I was a lad I used to get the Saturday newspaper every week without fail. This was the one with all the jobs in it. The one which I could use to try to fathom what was happening with the local job markets, who was hiring, for which roles, and what skills they needed.

It was invaluable training for the proactive career management I have practiced ever since then.

After a while this time honored tradition was replaced by regular checking of online job boards. In fact job boards such as Monster.com and Seek.com.au (In Australia) all but replaced the job classifieds in newspapers. At least they did for me and I cant recall the last time I bought a newspaper for a professional appointment.

You could set up email alerts for very specific roles, and even apply online. (Imagine that!)

But after a while, it all got very tired.

When you advertise within a state or a city, you get local interest, local applications and there is a limit to the flood of resumes, even during hard times.

But the internet knows no boundaries. From my home in Newcastle, Australia I can apply for jobs all over the globe if I like. And definitely all over Australia.

...and so can everybody else....

So suddenly there are a flood of opportunities, not all of which are strictly relevant. And there are also a flood of people applying for them, not all of who are strictly relevant.

It was convenient, but started to become like the online version of pouring through the classified ads.

Overwhelming information, overwhelming responses to candidate hunters, overwhelming choice for employers... and when the number of decisions is too great - people choose not to decide!

Bad though that is, there is yet another reason why job boards are destined for the scrap heap of history...

Ever heard someone say that "80% of jobs aren't advertised"?

In fact every single survey I have ever seen on the issue, and my own career history, supports the fact that the best candidates, and the best jobs are sourced through professional networks.

And Monster.com/HotJobs.com/Seek.com.au, although great in their short time to shine, don't have "networks" - just jobs.

Enter the social media phenomena. LinkedIn contains the profiles of most people who matter in the business world today. From Bill Gates to John McCain and from the technician through to the CEO of most companies.

Everyone is there, everyone is connecting, and everyone is starting to get the idea that LinkedIn is a 24/7 trade show that everybody came to.

Alongside my profile I have jobs that relate to my main area of work.

I can search for significant people who are within my industry sectors and connected to me in some way.

Or I can peruse the groups I belong to - checking for relevant jobs in my area.

Recruiters can plumb the depths of their relationships to try to source the most suitable candidates, rather than troweling the job seekers market with a big net like a newspaper classified or Job Board post.

In fact the value of a recruiter in todays market can be directly linked (and now measured) to the breadth and depth of their sector or discipline specific network connections.

They can check recommendations in an instant, search for potential referees, and check out the candidates work history; all before they even establish contact with them!

And when they do they have one distinct advantage. This person isn't moving because they are disgruntled, unhappy, disappointed or looking for a step up. So any move for them will be positive with decidedly less baggage. Brilliant!

Job boards are suffering the same fate at the hands of LinkedIn and Twitter (to a lesser extent) that they did to Newspaper job ads less than ten years ago. I am sure there are still great jobs out there on job boards... but the odds of finding a great job, and being accepted for it are far FAR smaller than if it comes through your own network of trusted resources, contacts and connections.

Have you had any similar experiences vis a vis Job Boards and LinkedIn in particular?

Newly transformed industries...

One of the key changes that the internet has wrought has been to take out the middlemen. In almost every industry and area that you look we see the connecting role, one that used to be extremely lucrative, has now been shattered into millions of pieces and democratized. 

Travel agencies were the connectors between people and travel companies such as airlines and hotels. Today, there are numerous cut price websites that perform that function. 

Newspapers used to provide the connecting medium between real estate sellers and buyers. Today, again, there are many MANY websites that fill that same function. (The same could be said for classifieds)

Stock brokers connected us to the stock market, today I use an online broker, perform my own analysis, and buy and sell as I wish. 

In the first wave of internet growth we saw amazon replace book sellers, eBay replace many trading floors, Wikipedia replace the encyclopedia, and PayPal replace many other forms of currency movements. 

As we run through the second wave of internet businesses we start to see the medium evolve itself even further. 

We see that LinkedIn is a far more logical place to advertise for workers than Monster.com. In fact, those who work in the recruitment fields may well be judged for their next roles based on the depth and breadth of their network within specific industry sectors and geographies. (Now measurable)

Reference checking is an Inmail instead of a dozen phone calls, and candidates can have some of their references displayed immediately on their profiles for all to see. 

We see threats that Wolfram Alpha will replace Google as the standard for connecting people to information, and Facebook as the connector of choice for old friends, new friends and for reviving old networks. 

Right now I am in the connecting game. Within LinkedIn I use our consulting group to connect people to each other, connect consultants to interesting and informative news feeds, and to connect prospects to jobs. 

In my day job I am working to connect businesses to other parts of my consulting firm, to other clients, and to other sources of information.


Being a hub for connections means to add value - as the world splinters into smaller and smaller fragments the ability to drive connecting lines between these has become more and more important - and more and more appreciated. 


How can you connect your clients and prospect to something they really want or need? And do it faster, better, quicker and cheaper than anywhere else? 


The odds are great that if you have thought of it and don't act on it, then somebody else will. 

Implementing Social Media - Not new platform old rules!

Every now and again I will tip toe over to AdAge or one of the other Advertising industry blogs or publications just to see what they are up to and how they are dealing with the sudden and dramatic assault on their livelihoods.

That was when I stumbled upon a recent post talking about how hard it is to implement Social Media.

The whole thing left me feeling a bit perplexed actually and feeling a bit sorry for them.

Here we have the ad guys, the ones who have made a reasonable living, and reasonable profits from their clients, by using the old advertising routines and tricks. Trade shows, TV ads, newspaper and magazine spreads, mail outs, you name it.

All aimed at, as Seth says, interrupting people while they are doing something else - and trying to snare their attention.

The more you do it, the more likely they are to take notice, the more they take notice the more likely they are to act... and so on. A workable, winning formula - until now.

So what do they do? They try to recreate what used to work on the new platform. In the very early days of mass electronic communications this took the form of spam. Ways to reach everyone they could using the most adequate and direct means. In those days (before CAN SPAM and other innovations) spam filters didn't exist, spam email was relatively new, and people were able to be interrupted while going about their email routines.

That didn't last long...

Today we see another version of this. Blanket blog writing, interlinked Twitter accounts, all blasting out corporate messages, all vying for your attention, and all trying to invade the new space where people can now be found.

But the world is different now. We have choice, and not all social media avenues are created equal, in fact they are vastly different.

If you are selling B2B, then a blog or twitter may not help you at all !!! In fact, they will probably just provide you with a pretty dramatic waste of time if you get the entire team into it.

Thats not always the case, I have a B2B blog on engineering and it helps me quite a bit; but if I wasn't doing it for fun, and for my own B2C aspirations - then I would drop it as a B2B marketing tool.

Social media is not a team sport, it is an individual pursuit.

Second, it can help drive B2C business - but not at first. In fact, often not for several months or more of blood sweat and lots of tears.

Third, the old "grab your attention" type of marketing is dying. We have choice and exercise it. Our trust is harder to gain than ever before in history, and to be frank we don't have time to get to know you so we can work out if we should trust you.

Success in social media is more about personal connections, personal brand building, personal relationships and personalized discussions.

If you want to succeed in social media marketing, then you cannot simply think that it is a new platform with old rules. Thats what the newspapers thought much to their chagrin.

It is a new platform with new rules; some of which we still don't understand as yet.

But it definitely is not about blanket coverage and trying to be everywhere your potential customers are... it is more about being what they are looking for (through personal brand building) and being extraordinary when they finally find you.

(Not an easy thing to say when you have a terrible blog template like mine is right now...sorry about that)

LinkedIn, sycophancy and the deceit of good intentions

Deceit and dishonesty are often masked by good intentions. Sounds counter intuitive doesn't it?

We already understand many of the common forms of dishonesty; touching up the track record or CV, bait and switch marketing (or hiring), blatant lying and misrepresentation are stand out examples of deceitful practices.

But what about something a little more subtle? For example, what about the annual budget game? 

You know the one. You send in the budget that is 15% larger than you want because you know your manager is going to cut it down. She (your manager) sticks to the rules and sends it back for you to revise down. Or when you hurriedly spend every cent you have in the last month to make sure that they don't take it away from you next year.

This is not business tactics, it's dishonesty. In fact it is fraud. 

That's heavy isn't it? Fraud. Defrauding the shareholders and owners of your company into giving you more money than you need to do the work that is set for you.

What about something a little more obscure still... what about blogging? 

There are a rash of bloggers out there who will bend over backwards to not offend anybody. They fire off veiled criticisms and sanctimonious rants while maintaining a veneer of "Why don't we all just hug?"

It is false, is is annoying, and it smacks of insincerity. 

Something we have all learned from our time in business is that, unfortunately, sycophancy works. In fact many managers stack their staff with sycophants. People who fill the role of nodding head to every wild idea, stupid claim or delusional forecasts.

These are the people who nodded their heads while Enron went off the rails, in fact - they did the auditing!!

They nodded quietly while GM decided that SUV's were wiser than efficient cars, when Angus and Robertson decided not to become Amazon and when eBay decided Skype was aligned with their core business. (Really..how did that happen?)

Thats because sycophancy is not about helping you it is about helping themselves. (Often to either your cash or just your good graces)

In the social media universe they are potentially more dangerous than ever. They tell you "it's all about you", "if thats the way you want to do it then thats okay", and they will go to great lengths not to state an opinion or concept that any person (ever) could ever find even slightly offensive.

This is dangerous because the world really doesn't work like that. I don't mean the network you choose to interact with, or the city where you live, or even the country where you work. I mean the world!

The world is shrinking, and you are more likely today to do business with or in the wider international environment than at any other time in history. Nations are still engaging in institutional slavery, misogyny, high level corruption and rampant injustice. 

...and they (some bloggers) are trying to prepare people for the world by telling them anything they want to do is okay, by holding back on giving them the hard news, and by allowing them to continue with thinking, practices and techniques that make them feel good, but are ultimately disastrous.

Shame...

I tend to be more direct. I write about what I know, and if I say something works that is because it really has worked for me. Advice rooted in experience. Don't get me wrong, I am not a fan of rudeness for the sake of being rude, but I tend to call it like it is. 

And sometimes you need to shout at people to get their attention, sometimes you need to be pushy so that they get the message. Particularly when it is a message worth hearing. One that can change the course of their careers. 

I got slammed by a guy recently as "rude". Fair enough. But the stuff he wrote about in reply was somewhere between wrong and just lightweight. A sanctimonious attack, supported by lightweight and incorrect advice, and even advice seemingly in support of fraud. 

This is the point.. false sincerity may get you started, but it is not going to deliver the content and value for the readership to keep you going. Sycophancy may keep you around as a willing servant, but it will not allow you to produce advice that is of value.

And despite all of the good intentions in the world... it is dishonest, misleading and counterfeit. It leads to the wrong decisions being taken and it restricts the candor of others. Even if you do it with the best of intentions.

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Please Do Not Accept all Invites !!!

In my view "Linkers" are the scourge of LinkedIn. They turn what is a professional and powerful networking forum into a lightweight race to see who can get the most connections.

This isn't Facebook or Twitter, it is a professional forum where your connections can contribute to 6 or 7 figure earnings. it is also not a B2C environment, or not much of one anyway, it is far more powerful when used as a B2B platform.

Here's why "Accepting all invites..." is a bad idea...(My approach anyway...)

1. It devalues connections. I am not a notch on somebodies profile, and neither are you. My view is that every connection reflects a relationship that does or could exist in the off-line world. Sometimes commercial, sometimes purely professional and sometimes just a network contact that you have held for years.

2. The audience is different. Very few of my clients are on Facebook. My clients are economic decision makers for significant manufacturing, infrastructure and resource / commodity producers. Almost all of them are on LinkedIn.

These are not the sorts of people who are going to accept a stock-standard invite like "I wanted to add you to my network because you are a person I trust". They don't know you, they have no idea why you trust them, and they are not going to go for it. Period.

3. LinkedIn is not very viral. My view. People may look at your news article, they might see your slideshare presentation and they could even take time to read your blog. Bu the audience is not the type to tweet it, book mark it, pass it to others, email it around and so on.

They read it, take what they need, may recommend it once or twice, and they move on.

The real value of LinkedIn is to supplement networking in the off line world. Think of it as a 24/7 trade event that everyone came to.

The sooner you realize this and act accordingly the better your cashable results from LinkedIn will be.

4. It exposes your connections. if you connect to me, you then see my connections as in your network. And you also see then as 2nd degree connections. While I don't have a network stacked with the mightiest industrialists on the planet - I am definitely connected to a few of them.

Why on earth would I let my connections, who have connected to me because they trust me to a degree, be exposed to people I don't know - with intentions that I am not sure of?

5. Not how many but who. For me LinkedIn is the quintessential example of "not how many but who" you are connected to.

Some of my connections run gigantic organizations, with budgets that contribute significant percentage points to my nations GDP. They are connected to other powerful economic decision makers. And they may only have 10 or 20 connections....

Thats a privilege. It allows me access to at least communicate with others in the field, and maybe even to ask for introductions.

Please don't accept all invites, it makes it worse for the rest of us.

A B2B view of Social media

It is easy to get lost in all the hysteria about social media and the Web 2.0 trends. We are bombarded daily about new products, new sites, new functionalities and many more things to distract our attention.

The reality is that there just isn't enough time in each day for us to evaluate all of these, let alone try to make valuable use of them.

My view on Social media in general is that it is great for B2C companies. Amazon.com, Airlines, Hotels, Authors, Speakers, Audio Books, eBooks, Public Conference Organizers and so on. If your targeted prospects mingle in with the general population then you will do pretty well out of this.

But if your prospects are the very hard to reach high level executives that inhabit the corridors of economic power, then things just became a heck of a lot difficult.

The CEO of Zappos may be on Twitter, but the VP of operations for BP is not. Neither would be the VP/CEO of (say) Exxon, or Rio Tinto, or even GM. (Although the latter probably should be)

Some of the next level down will be, and maybe some of those further down the chain. But they are not getting the benefits from (say) Twitter or Facebook that B2C marketers are. Or they are using it for fun and entertainment - which is unlikely among that set.

And why would they? What are they going to get out of Facebook, or Twitter?

Facebook is intriguing. Many decision maker are on Facebook, but they use it as I do. As a means of keeping in touch with old friends and my extended family. And thats about it. I don't market there because friends and business really don't mix. (It would bore them to tears basically)

Twitter is another that is intriguing. I am really taken by Twitter, I use it daily. But I am pretty sure that most of my prospects and clients would have absolutely no time for it.

However, there are some real advances happening in terms of client side use of Twitter, so they may well be there soon for utility sake if for nothing else.

And then there's LinkedIn. Many, (most), of my clients and prospects are on LinkedIn. And they are there for many reasons. real networking between professionals being a large part of that.

In fact, when I was looking for work, pitching for new contracts, trying to get in touch with some high level player or just expanding my network, LinkedIn is always my tool of choice. (But you do have to know what you are doing.)

SO thats great. Facebook - Not Likely, Twitter - Maybe, LinkedIn definitely - but thats not the really important point.

The really important point is that it is never going to replace man of your present areas of marketing in the B2B world. It is just going to supplement them.

You still need to call them on the phone, meet them in meetings, work your way through the "getting to trust you" stages of a commercial relationship, and you will still need to provide concrete proof of the value you can provide.

I think of it like a giant 24/7 trade show or trade conference. An event where everyone who matters is there and I can work my way through the room slowly trying to get to the people I realize are valuable relationships for me to hold.

What have been your experiences? Am I wrong about Facebook in terms of B2B business creation? Have you had success in B2B networking on (say) Twitter?

I am very keen to understand some of the experiences out there. Thanks.

The mistake of believing your own BS...

Arrogance: an attitude of superiority manifested in an overbearing manner or in presumptuous claims or assumptions - (Miriam-Webster online Dictionary)

A recent post on Seth's Blog  has prompted me to write about an encounter I had the other day with one of the leading consulting figures in the world. (Amazing how often that happens actually)

This guy was obviously having some major troubles with LinkedIn. An older guy, he couldn't come to terms with it, didn't understand some of the basic functionality, and really couldn't work out how to sift the wheat from the chaff  and get great value from it.

I have read some of his stuff over the years, and it was helpful - so I reached out to him. I mentioned I have made around $300,000  through contacts made with high level clients. (from my other career in engineering) I offered to advise him on some of the techniques that I have been able to use to maximize my presence there.

It was the least I could do I thought. We had exchanged various emails previously, so I thought nothing of sending the note.

The response left me gob smacked and wondering why this character had achieved the success he has done.

Basically he accused me of lying, and told me in no uncertain terms that he didn't want my help.

No "thanks but no thanks" and no realization or admission that there might be something that he has missed. Something that somewhere near 38 million others may have an idea about.

No skin off my nose, but he lost a fan, a proponent, and someone who others trusted to refer them to good materials on subjects related to consulting.

The real thing that stood out to me, and has stood out to me for years if I am honest, is that he has reached his limitation in terms of growth of his professional career. His writing is all regurgitated from one book to another, and he has fallen for one of the greatest traps of people like us.

When you get to advise the leaders of industry for several years, you have to be very careful not to start believing your own BS. You have to make sure you realize that with a networked world like it is today, it will only take a handful of disgruntled people to start to cut into your aura of invincibility.

Arrogance is probably the least attractive of character traits. It shows a disdain for those around you, and limits your ability to continue to grow.

But most of all, it attracts sycophants while driving away thoughtful people. And there have been more than enough examples of what happens when you are surrounded by nodding heads only.