Linked to Influence Read online

  Keep in mind that messages to mutual group members are not invitations to connect. You will first want to use these messages to build rapport with mutual group members and let them know that you would like to send an invitation to connect with them on LinkedIn.

  If there are no common connection points between you and the group member, you will need to ask for their e-mail address in order to send them a LinkedIn invitation to connect.

  4) InMail Messages

  LinkedIn InMails give you the ability to send a message to anyone on LinkedIn, regardless of whether you are connected. InMail is a paid LinkedIn feature that requires a premium account. Depending on your account level, you have a certain allotment of InMail credits you can use each month.

  These credits will accumulate month-to-month, but they expire after ninety days. You can also purchase up to ten additional InMails for $10 each.

  Because InMails are paid messages, you will want to make them count! When your messages receive a response back, you will earn the InMail credit back.

  When you send an InMail, you have several predefined choices to choose from that give the recipient an idea of what the message is about, such as “consulting offer” or “expertise request.” What you select here doesn’t matter as much as your subject line, which will show up more prominently.

  Send These Quick but Meaningful Messages to Your Connections

  Make sure you have your LinkedIn settings configured to receive LinkedIn Updates about your network on a daily basis.

  Your LinkedIn Updates e-mail will contain important information about your 1st-degree connections such as birthdays, job changes, work anniversaries, and even mentions of your connections in the news. These updates are time sensitive and provide a unique opportunity to touch base in a personalized way.

  It takes very little time to go through this daily e-mail and send a quick (ideally personalized) “happy birthday” or “congratulations” to one of your LinkedIn connections. A simple gesture like this can go a long way toward building a better relationship with a connection.

  LinkedIn has a mobile app that will show these important network updates in a way that allows you to quickly go through and send your personalized message to acknowledge or congratulate your connections. The app is called Connected and is available on iOS and Android devices.

  LinkedIn has said that by using its Connected app, you could receive six times as many profile views, seven times as many endorsements, and four times as many InMail messages.

  The Connected app will also suggest new connections for you and allow you to send a customized invitation. (Make sure to look for the small menu icon to customize your invitation.)

  Using the LinkedIn Connected mobile app is essential for making meaningful, one-to-one contact. I recommend checking it daily!

  Focus on Your MVCs

  Who are your MVCs on LinkedIn? Have you identified and segmented them? You may recall reading about MVCs in Rule #4, Network Smarter. These are the people you want to focus the majority of your time on with networking and messaging on LinkedIn.

  As a reminder, your MVCs include clients or customers, prospects, decision-makers, professional partners, referral sources, industry leaders and influencers, journalists, and your most loyal advocates. They are your most important connections on LinkedIn. These are the people you want to be in contact with one-to-one on a consistent basis.

  Identify who your MVCs are on LinkedIn and tag them “MVC” using LinkedIn’s tagging system. That way, it’s easy for you to filter through all of your connections and look at just these individuals. Your list of MVCs may evolve over time as well! You will want to continuously upgrade and improve the list.

  Ideally, you want to learn everything you can about your MVCs. The more you know about them, the more opportunities you have to serve them in a one-to-one capacity. You will have good ideas and reasons for reaching out to them.

  Here is a list of questions to answer about your MVCs:

  • What business are they in?

  • What do they do and who do they help?

  • Who would be an ideal client for them?

  • Who could I introduce them to who is also in front of their ideal clients?

  • Who do they want or need to know?

  • What is their business/work/career background?

  • Where have they worked in the past?

  • Where do they live?

  • What are their hobbies and interests?

  • What is their personal family situation?

  • What causes are they passionate about?

  • What community or charitable organizations are they involved in?

  • What is important to them?

  • Where else are they active online?

  There is a lot of information available online about people these days because of social networks. Do your homework. Connect with your MVCs on other social media networks like Facebook and Twitter. Facebook is a great place to connect because you can learn more about their personal lives and connect on a more personal level. Also, run Google searches on your MVCs to see what you can find.

  Your MVCs are the people you want to stay plugged into and keep top of mind. When you have a service mindset with your MVCs and you know what they care about, you can consistently deliver value and help them reach their goals.

  I recommend touching base one-to-one with your MVCs monthly or quarterly using LinkedIn’s messaging system (you can even set reminders for when to contact each person). Send your MVCs relevant, personalized messages that can further build rapport and develop the relationship.

  Here is an example of a message I sent to an MVC leveraging a specific piece of information I learned about through my research:

  Hi John (not the person’s real name),

  How are you? I hope everything is going well! I saw where you recently moved your office. I know how exhausting that can be. From what I can tell it looks like a beautiful space. How is your business going? I’d love to hear about what’s working well for you these days! Let’s catch up soon. Lunch is on me!

  Stephanie

  The idea with this message is to set the stage for John and me to speak over the phone or get together for lunch. Notice that I said, “I’d love to hear about what’s working well for YOU.” I didn’t mention my business. It’s not about me, and it’s not about you either!

  Make your one-to-one messages all about the person you are communicating with. Get them to open up to you. Ask questions. This is how you get a response and take a relationship to the next level.

  Segment Your LinkedIn Connections

  I suggested previously that you tag your MVCs. With LinkedIn’s tagging system, you can tag all of your connections. If you have a large network, that might take awhile, but it can be very helpful in organizing your network connections.

  LinkedIn does some of the tagging for you. They segment your connections by location, company, and job title, for example.

  You can also utilize third-party CRM software to organize your LinkedIn connections. To do this, you would need to export your contacts out of LinkedIn and upload them into your CRM.

  Segmenting your connections can come in handy when you need to send a message to many (up to fifty connections at one time). You can quickly filter your connections using one of your tags and send the message to multiple recipients. There aren’t many occasions where I would recommend sending these types of messages, as I mentioned previously, but there are some exceptions. I will cover this later in the chapter.

  Use LinkedIn’s “Relationship” Tab to Keep Track of Contacts

  LinkedIn does have a feature for keeping notes and reminders about your 1st-degree connections. You can access and edit this information when you visit someone’s profile.

  Add notes, set reminders, record how you met, and tag your contacts. You can also use the “Relationship” tab for people who are in your 2nd- and 3rd-degree networks, as well as mutual group members! It isn’t
just for 1st-degree connections.

  With the reminders feature, you can choose to set an alert for sometime in the future to be reminded to reach out to your contact. You will handily find the person’s contact information right next to the “Relationship” tab. This contact information can be edited as well.

  Messages between you and your contact will also be visible here. This is nice, because it allows you to look back at previous communications.

  LinkedIn seems to be developing this feature more and more to be like an internal CRM system. Don’t worry, all of your notes and information will be kept private in this area. As you spend more time on LinkedIn, it will be nice to have all of the information about your network connections in one place.

  Connect with Out-of-Network Members Using InMail

  As you now understand, InMails are those messages that you can personalize and send to anyone on LinkedIn. (In order to send InMails, you need a premium LinkedIn account.)

  LinkedIn InMails are an extremely valuable tool. They have very high response rates. I have received more benefit from sending InMail messages to influential people I’ve wanted to connect with than any other form of messaging inside and outside of LinkedIn. Access to LinkedIn InMails alone makes the premium account fee worth it, in my opinion.

  In order to make your InMail messages count (and receive a credit back for each one you send), they need to have a strong subject line and compelling message copy.

  Keep your subject line short and try to make it intriguing. Get to the point in your message as quickly as possible, but don’t be afraid to give a little background. With InMails, you have more room to work with, as opposed to sending a personalized invitation to connect on LinkedIn.

  InMails are great for setting up LinkedIn connection opportunities with the people you want to connect with but don’t already know. Or perhaps they know who you are but you either haven’t yet connected personally or you have no other way to connect with them on LinkedIn.

  Sending an InMail before inviting someone to connect with you on LinkedIn will build rapport and set the stage for your invitation.

  Weave common connection points into your InMail so that the recipient can relate to you.

  For example, I sent an InMail to connect with an influencer in my industry who was out of network. I noticed from his LinkedIn profile that he was a musician and played the guitar. I also happen to be a musician and play the guitar. This was a common connection point that I leveraged in my message to build rapport.

  Mentioning mutual “people” connections you have in common with someone is also very effective with InMail. In addition, messages that thoughtfully ask for advice or feedback can work well. Contrary to popular opinion, people love to give their advice. This is especially true when you send a respectful message showing that you clearly value their opinion AND their time.

  Can you use InMails for prospecting? Yes, you can, as long as you are thoughtful and targeted with your messages. When your message is professional, personalized, and relevant, you have a much better chance of the recipient being receptive to it. Let me give you some examples.

  My sister, Melanie, is a content writer for a certain type of attorney. She has conducted very specific LinkedIn searches to identify exactly the attorneys she is qualified to help. She especially looks for those who might really need her help now, and she can determine this by researching the prospect’s online presence.

  Melanie put together a professional e-mail script to send to each attorney on her list. She personalized each InMail message to the recipient based on what she had learned about the person through her research.

  Melanie’s message went something like this:

  Hi Jane (not the actual name),

  I work with attorneys just like you to help them attract the types of clients and cases they specialize in online. I do this by creating compelling content for their websites on a consistent basis. I noticed that you are blogging occasionally and that you are active on LinkedIn as well, which is great!

  I’m happy to share some of my work with you and show you how I’ve helped one of my clients attract more than twenty new inquiries per month if that would be of interest.

  Also, do you write your own content or do you outsource this task?

  Thank you and I look forward to hearing back from you soon!

  Melanie

  (Melanie adds a link to her website here, which showcases some of her work.)

  Notice how Melanie’s message is very specific to the person she is contacting. She thoughtfully shares how she has helped an attorney in a similar situation. She ends the message with a question, and her closing suggests she will receive a response. Remember, in order to get a credit back from LinkedIn for your InMail, the person you send it to has to respond.

  If the attorney responds but is not interested in further discussion, Melanie’s next step is to let the attorney know she would like to send an invitation to connect on LinkedIn. That way, she can stay visible and provide value to the attorney on an ongoing basis.

  It is unbelievable how effective these InMail messaging campaigns can be when they are properly constructed.

  When developing these types of InMail campaigns, it is very important that you do your research on the people you are contacting.

  I read about a similar InMail campaign in an issue of Inc. Magazine awhile back. In this case, a custom fabric maker sought out the founder of a company that makes custom bags. The custom fabric maker’s InMail arrived at just the right time. In his message, he asked the founder of the custom bag company if he had any custom-fabric needs.

  It just so happened that the founder of the custom bag company had been searching for a partner who could help him make messenger bags that were highly visible at night. The custom fabric maker was not only up for the challenge, but the two became working partners to create the new, innovative messenger bags!

  It doesn’t matter what industry you are in, you can craft thoughtful and targeted InMail messages to build relationships with anyone on LinkedIn, including your ideal clients or customers.

  Here is something else to keep in mind: the more influential you become in your industry, market, or niche, the less you have to proactively search for new clients and customers. They will seek you out. Your connections will be referring you to their friends, clients, and colleagues. You will be in the position of receiving messages from people who are interested in working with YOU!

  While it is acceptable to contact other professionals on LinkedIn using this InMail messaging tactic, don’t ever stop building your personal influence. Ultimately, your influence can do this work for you!

  Use LinkedIn Messages to Build Stronger Relationships with Your LinkedIn Connections

  Sending individual messages to your 1st-degree connections is easy and free. The greatest benefit of adding someone to your LinkedIn network is having the ability to send him or her a personalized message at any time.

  One-to-one messages allow you to connect on a more personal level with members of your 1st-degree network.

  You can send personalized messages to ask for advice, invite someone for coffee, or let someone know you are going to be traveling to their city. There are all kinds of ways to go deeper with your existing connections through the LinkedIn messaging system.

  Below are several ways you can utilize one-to-one messages with your 1st-degree connections:

  • Compliment or congratulate

  • Ask for advice or feedback

  • Send a relevant resource that shows you are thinking about your connection such as an article about one of their passions, hobbies, or interests

  • Make an introduction or referral

  • Ask who they recommend for something you need help with

  • Invite them for coffee, lunch, cocktails, or dinner

  • Invite them to a group breakfast, lunch, or dinner meeting

  • Ask if they would like to connect over the phone about a particular subject<
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  I’ve used every single one of the above in personalized messages to my 1st-degree connections. These are the kinds of messages that engage your connections in one-to-one conversations. Remember, leadership and influence happen in conversations.

  If you are sincere and thoughtful with your messages, they will be well received by your connections.