If you are a small business you should start learning and working with G+ (Google Plus) for several reasons:

1. Google has made several mistakes and learned a lot from them.
2. Google has lots of money to “get it right” and is loosing to much money to Facebook (and is projected to loose more) to not compete in some way.
3. Facebook had been sliding behind in the value of Business Pages that Google is working to fill.
4. It integrates with Google organic search, right from the search page of Google in a way Facebook will never be able to because they are not Google.
5. It give you another free platform of exposure for your business.
6. The studied peoples organic search patterns; what Twitter did best and worse; what Facebook did best and worse; and are seriously listening to the customer in creating Google Plus.
7. They already hooked into Mobile and connecting more and more of their business resources to Google Plus each day.

Setting up a Business Page on Google+

Before you set up a Google business page learn how to use it with a personal account. If you have a gmail account you can just sign-in with that then go to  https://plus.google.com/ and join Google +

Take some time to learn it and just connect with friend then you can build a business page off by clicking on the text in the lower right hand corner that says: “Create a Google+ page” and fill it out.

Take some time and learn about Google+ as a consumer by watching the following videos and using it before you go too far with the business page. The get GREAT content on the business page before you invite people. Will being adding more to this page over time so check back or add in the comments resources you find helpful with Google +.

Getting started with your personal Google Profile:
http://support.google.com/plus/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1355890

Get started with a local Google+ page
http://support.google.com/plus/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1713911

Google Plus Support:
http://support.google.com/plus/?hl=en

These resources created by:

Assistant Angel, Greg Hyer and Me – Martin Brossman

Join  Martin Brossman, Greg Hyer and Angel Lebak by looking us up on Google + by name. You can also directly connect with Martin Brossman on Google Plus by this link: http://BrossmanOnGP.com

 Get my latest books by searching Martin Brossman on Amazon: Social Media for Business written by me and Anora McGaha and Linking Into Sales produced by me and Greg Hyer

Martin Brossman 919 847-4757, Martin@CoachingSupport.com ProNetworkingOnLine.com Linkedin: BrossmanOnLI.com and to connect on linkedin use my above email. On Facebook: BrossmanOnFB.com, Twitter: BrossmanOnTW.com, on Youtube: BrossmanOnYT.com and on Google + BrossmanOnGP.com

Greg Hyer can be reached at HyerMedia.com and LinkingTheTriangle.com

On linkedin at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/greghyer AND Assistant Angel at: virtualassistantsocialmedia.com

If you have a physical address and are not using the core free local business directory listings, you are missing thousands of dollars in free ad space. Here are the basics about the big ones:

Google.com/places
Just look up your company name and address in Google Maps, and if you don’t find your place, go to http://Google.com/places — if you find it and it says in the upper right hand corner “Business owner?” then you need to claim this listing before someone else does. Click on the “Business owner?” link and use your business Gmail account to fill it out. If you don’t have a Google Gmail account, it is free to get one and only takes a few minutes.

infoUSA.com
This is what I call a feeder directory, used by most of the main directories to obtain their base info. Sometimes people will correct an address or phone number in another directory and in a month or two it switches back. When they update their listing at infoUSA.com it will stay corrected after a short period of time.    Scroll to the bottom of the page and select “Find a Business” and first see if you are listed; then go to: “Update My Listing” to add or correct your listing here.

Also you may want to add your business listing to Yahoo or Bing.
For Yahoo go to http://listings.local.yahoo.com/ to list your business after checking to see if it is listed on http://local.yahoo.com/
On Bing go to the “Bing Business Portal (BETA)” site: www.bing.com/businessportal to list your business. First check to make sure you don’t already have a listing on Bing at: http://www.bing.com/maps

If you are a micro, local-owned business let me know the link to your business in the comment area. Learn tips and training by following my Facebook Business page: http://BrossmanOnFB.com

Social Media for Business was written by small and micro business owners for small and micro business owners. If you've got a small business and aren't online yet, or are still learning about it, this book is a must read.

A year ago, I began work on my third social media book, looking to create a comprehensive resource to help small and micro business owners really understand why they had to be online and what their choices are when they are online.

There are many great books available about Social Media, and we recommend reading a number of them. Our book speaks directly to small and micro business owners. It was written by small and micro business owners to help boost their visibility, customer relationships, and sales. We included chapters by 20 business professionals with a variety of  perspectives and expertise to make the book as valuable as we could.

Everyone who is starting a business, and is trying to grow their small or micro business needs to have a firm grasp of the virtual world which is available to us now.

This is not business as usual. We now can have a full, rich, genuine, informative, multi-media presence representing our business online almost completely free, except of course for the time to prepare the information.

What will you find in this book?

• Compelling reasons about why you must be paying attention to your online presence.
• A review of most of the types of Internet channels available to you and your business, and how to use them for establishing your online reputation.
• A timeline of the development of social media channels and key technology changes that are impacting our business lives today.
• Explanations about all the parts you need to cover in developing your own social media program.
• Chapters on the different choices you have for managing your social media program, from doing it yourself, to hiring a virtual assistant, to some combination of consulting, coaching or outsourcing.
• Inspiration for taking your online presence seriously.
• Ideas for developing content for your online marketing program.

Still not sure if this book is of value to you, visit our Social Media for Business blog site, and read some of the chapter excerpts. See some of the book reviews that have been posted on Amazon.com.

Take a look inside the Social Media for Business book.

We’re vested in small and micro business success. I’ve been training and coaching business people on LinkedIn and their online presence on the Internet since 2006, and Anora McGaha, my co-author has been working full time in social media since April 2008. Both of us have a demonstrated commitment to helping people launch their own business successfully and take it to the next level.

Where can you get Social Media for Business?

Social Media for Business is available on Amazon for $20.65 as of November 7, 2011; for $8.99 as an ebook on Kindle.

Social Media for Business is also available on CreateSpace, and with the following discount code -UKQS5V6B- you can get it for $18.00.

It is also available on Smashwords for $8.99.

Our book  is 274 pages long, written in readable font, filled with short relevant chapters that get to the point quickly so you can get about applying the ideas to your business sooner.

What’s stopping you from ordering your copy of Social Media for Business? For under $10 you can have a copy instantly as an ebook, and for under $25 delivered in the US, you can have a paper copy to mark up and fold pages on. Order your copy and make a commitment to applying what you learn.

Now you can push all of your Linkedin status updates to Twitter, and send all your Twitter posts to Linkedin. But the question is, should you? Linkedin is a business tool for solving business challenges. Linkedin suggests that you connect with people you know and trust. The Status Update feature was created to let you share with your direct connections what you are working on, what’s going on with your work, or something about your business that you want to share. It is a tool for providing your recent business updates to the business people you know and trust.

It may be relevant to update once a week–maybe even once a day– but not every time you Tweet, which could be an overwhelming number of updates all day. Just think how strange it would make you seem if you met someone in the hall at work or at the local coffee shop and you asked them what they were working on and they answered, “A penny saved is a penny earned!.” Or if you asked them a question like “What are you working on Judy? and Judy answered, “You’re welcome @JayJones! @tommeypinto, Just the best.” You would certainly think there was something wrong with these people. Yet this can be the effect created for Linkedin users when their trusted connections push every Twitter post to the business status update in Linkedin.

This is similar to the person that auto pushes info out to all their social media connections and tells me that they “know they are getting out there, but haven’t had much response.” The reply to that is “Do you talk to pictures on the wall or advertisements in public places? Of course not! If you are not present, why should they respond?” The same principle applies for Linkedin.

The correct use of Linkedin Status is for you to provide useful updates to share with your trusted business contacts. You would not walk into a business associate’s office and say, “Here are all my comments to people all day, out of context and thought,” dropping the packet on their desk and leaving. What would you think about a person who did that to you? That they don’t value your attention or time. Quality networking is not done through the rapid distribution and interruption of large numbers of people… we call that SPAM!

As someone who has been teaching people about Linkedin since 2006, I was concerned when they said you can send all your Twitter updates to Linkedin without a warning notice! The ability to selectively send Twitter updates (with thought) to your Linkedin profile, or the other way around, is a wonderful feature. Just stop and ask is this relevant for both communities. My concern is that good people with good intentions may not realize how they are annoying their own valuable circle of business people or just forcing them to find the “hide” button so they stop seeing anything they have to say. Remember Linkedin displays only a small number of updates unlike Twitter so if you just push all you Tweets over and have a lot it just dominates the field and would be like talking all the time at a meeting where everyone wants a turn to speak about that they are doing in their business.

Just to check this out, I posted a question in Linkedin asking people’s impressions of the auto push of Twitter posts to Linkedin for Linkedin users, and here is a sample of the responses: http://www.linkedin.com/answers/using-linkedIn/ULI/657379-548650 and here is a Poll I posted on Linkedin: http://polls.linkedin.com/p/87361/jwbsz

Martin Brossman on Twiter at http://www.twitter.com/martinbrossman
and Linkedin at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/martinbrossman

See an informal video I made on the topic:

How to Hide someone’s in the Status area if they don’t respond to you explain how their auto-pushing all Twitter to Linkedin fill up their feed.

I am especally honored that after mentioning this issues to Chris Brogan he wrote a blog post about it. See that post at:
http://www.toddrjordan.com/thebroadbrush/2010/05/diluting-linkedin-with-twitter/

Martin Brossman – Success Coach / Trainer / Author
www.ProNetworkingOnLine.com – (919) 847 4757

Anora McGaha on Twitter as @AnoraMcGaha

I still remember the firm line I drew when social media and small business coach, educator and advocate extraordinaire, Martin Brossman, told me I needed to get on Twitter. I said a flat out no. I was stretched enough. It was a waste of time. Absolutely not. Don’t even bother talking to me about it.

A year later, with four twitter accounts, (and HootSuite) for four different streams in my life – a general one, a publicity one, a creative writer one and a massage therapy one – it’s been more fun than any of the other social media sites combined.

Here are my top reasons, in order of priority to me.

Reason before all Reasons: Martin Brossman told me I had to be. (Truth be told.)

Reason 1: I get more access to more interesting, dynamic, intelligent, creative and cutting-edge people on Twitter than anywhere else. Authors and well-known people have responded more to me on Twitter than on LinkedIn or Facebook.

Reason 2: I get to participate in streams of conversation with people from around the world if I want. I can post my views, my frustrations, my inspirations and my humor. I get to participate in a pretty real time environment. During the Hope for Haiti Telethon, tweeters I did not know answered my questions about the singers and songs!

Reason 3: I get to learn a lot. While some tweets are mundane, and others are outright spam, many tweets are links to fascinating articles, often the tweet itself informs me of a new trend or development or news. I get to choose the areas of news I want to get by choosing the people to follow. Each of us becomes our own news feed – that’s amazing.

Reason 4: I get to find out what is brand new and what people think about products, trends and companies. I like to search for trends. When I learn of new products or companies, I first search Twitter to see if it’s made it there or not, and if so, what people are saying.

Reason 5: I want to be found. If people are looking for someone like me, a creative writer, an internet publicist, a massage therapist, or an American who speaks Mandarin Chinese, French, pidgeon Italian and less Spanish, I want them to be able to find me on Twitter.

Reason 6: I like to share what I find with others. Followers really value getting the latest scoop from others, short cuts, heads up, new information… I want people to save me time and point out important things, so I try to do that for others.

Reason 7: Did I already say I get access to more interesting people on Twitter than anywhere else? Oh yes, that was Reason 1.

Reason 8: I get to study different ways that businesses are using twitter to give me new ideas for my own Twitter communications, as well as that of my clients.

Reason 9: It’s FUN! It’s like talking to strangers in line at a concert, as just one example.

Reason 10: I like the challenge of fitting communications in the constraint of 140 characters. It’s like playing a game, and good practice for poets too.

Reason 11: I get to create lists and help organize the Twittersphere, making it easier for people to find each other.

Reason 12: I am a writer. I like to write. I like to respond. I like to engage. It’s like sport-writing. It’s like a game of Racketball compared to Facebook which is like Baseball, compared to LinkedIn which is like Fencing. (Oh and yes, inSideNetworX (919) which is like playing Frisbee, where everyone has one.

Does any of this mean you have to be on Twitter? Not at all, it’s just exposing the value that I’ve found for me.

Guest contributor  Anora McGaha

Follow her on Twiter at: http://www.twitter.com/clearsightpr

Her website: http://www.clearsightcreativeresources.com

On Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/anoramcgaha

Thanks Anora for both writing this and the kind mention.  - Martin

Posted on Professional Business Networking On the blog by Martin Brossman

http://www.ProNetworkingOnLine.com

Did you leave something?

5 Ways Sales Professionals Leave Money on the Table by Not Using Linkedin by Martin Brossman

For years I have been coaching sales professionals, discovering that they used to pay for similar information with less quality than the data that Linkedin is providing now at the free level. More importantly, all sales professionals that I have personally coached have gained clear value and closed more sales when they began using Linkedin correctly. However, I realize that there are many sales executives who are obviously not using Linkedin effectively, i.e., potentially leaving money on the table. I hope this list of 5 Linkedin omissions gets the attention of all honest hardworking sales pros and spurs you into action.

1. Their profile is so poorly filled out that when I ask them if they would buy from or trust “this person” (looking at their own profile) they say, “I really need to spend some time and clean up my profile.” Which translates to “no, I wouldn’t trust this person.” Some examples of items that might need clean-up are: outdated information, no business phone number, inappropriate photo for what they do, and using terms understandable to their peers and competition but not their customer. Their profile is not optimized for their customer to find them. Some don’t even have a picture and don’t realize how important it is for their professional presence.

2. They don’t even look up prospects and their company before meeting. In coaching sessions I will take several key current prospects that a client is pursuing and look them up, using the correct search tools. I will say, “Would it have been useful to know X,Y and Z about your client before you called?” The reply is, “I didn’t know X,Y or Z about their X,Y or Z. Of course that would have been of value.”

3. Their recommendations are none to poor. Often they just give buddies recommendations to get reciprocal ones, which are usually so transparent they could hurt their reputation. One company with 9 employees had everyone in the company give each other recommendations; there were no other recommendations, with the exception of one employee who had one additional valid recommendation.. That was over a year ago, and the one employee with the real recommendation is the only one who still works for thecompany −all others were laid off. Of course not just because of that, but I can tell you from my experience that this individual was the most productive, competent and loyal employee of all of the staff.

4. They don’t realize how bad they look to Google. They don’t know that their profile can be fully visible to Google, and that it just looks poor, as though they have little experience and qualifications. Sometimes they spend a lot of time on their profile, but do not even have their public profile set up so they can be found outside ofLinkedin. This creates a bad reflection on them and their company. They don’t understand how, with Google, sites like Linkedin are becoming as important, if not more than, their company web site for building a positive image and reputation.

5. They are not building a network that is relevant to the contacts they need. They don’t understand that the more relevant and trusted allies they connect to, the greater their reach in Linkedin. They haven’t figured out that people they know and trust are often connected to more people who could help them than they realize. By being onLinkedin you can discover who your contacts are connected to and how you can help each other. For example, there are referral groups who meet every single week whose members are not connected onLinkedin. They are missing out on the hundreds of connections that may already exist which could be accessed through the Linkedin network.

If you find yourself in any of the 5 points, stop and either do something yourself or get help to get this handled. Better yet, call me! If you find this useful, pass it on to someone in Sales that you care about.

Martin Brossman – 919 847-4757 – www.ProNetworkingOnline.com Martin@CoachingSupport.com

See Linking Into Sales :  www.linkingintosales.com with Martin Brossman and Greg Hyer

This is a new electronic business card that stays up-to-date and includes Social Media links as well as your picture. In the old days we traded business cards that were often hard to read, when we got back to the office we had to type or scan into our computer and used paper from trees (NOT Green).

Today instead of the business card we use the  Poken which costs from $20 to $35  (much less then a bunch of quality business cards) .  You meet someone, touch your Pokens together, and that, with short range wireless, transmits a code to each Poken. You plug your Poken in to your computer back at the office using a standard USB port and all their info shows up on the screen including web address, social media sites, videos and their picture. You can export this data electronically to any other system you want.  If they change a website, a phone number, a job, or their picture you get updated with the change automatically! It also shows you where you met them in time.

The Poken is much, much more than just an electronic business card sharing device. It is a fun way to share your social media and contact information with someone you meet who also has a Poken. It can include your photo, all your social media sites, your websites, phone, address..whatever you want to add. Links are active hyper links AND they don’t have to type your contact info into their computer. You can have it on you keychain and when you find someone you meet that also has one and you would like to share information with them, you just touch your Pokens together. They glow and that means the transfer of the ID’s occurred. Next time you are at your computer you plug your Poken into the USB slot and it transfers all your contacts to the web based Poken contact page. It is a new product by a new company that is already turning a profit. I believe this or something like this will be used more and more in the future over just a business card.

There are two models of the Poken and the Hub:

* PokenSPARK: Cost less (~$20.00 + shipping ), are the the little things with the big hand, has no extra memory.
http://www.poken.com/spark

* PokenPULSE: Cost a bit more (~$35.00 + shipping), looks like a USB memory stick and had 2Gig of re-usable memory as well as the Poken electronics and storage for the Poken data. To see the PULSE:
http://www.poken.com/pulse

* PokenHUB: This is the website you use to maintain and keep all your contact data. Since it is web based you can be a different computer and both view and update it. To see more about the HUB:
http://www.poken.com/website

Benefits of the Poken:

* Don’t have to type in their contact information or re-check check scanned in information like a business card.
* If they change their connections or content information your information on them is automatically updated.
* It includes the time / date when you met them on a time-line.
* Their photo is included.
* You can easily export the data to other electronic devices.

What is required to make this work for you:

* You both have to have a Poken.
* You both have to have internet access.
* You need to carry it with you.
* Every 4 to 8 months you will have to open the little case and change the battery that you can find at Radio Shack.

Click here to lean more about Poken in the Raleigh area.

Some other resource to lean more about the Poken

What is a Poken – Comprehensive video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z51JUot_yUY

Connecting your Poken to your computer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-JFOqeULU0

A videos about the Poken:
http://vimeo.com/6985456
More about it: http://vimeo.com/6955476

More about the Networking concept related to Poken:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61jYzrR5MN4

What the Poken looks like inside:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Js2R6E4Q82k

Text explanation of the Poken including the manufacture and technology from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poken

Blog post comparing the Poken to other Digital Business cards:
http://technology.inc.com/hardware/articles/200906/businesscard.html

To get questions and answers about the Poken and community support:

http://getsatisfaction.com/poken

Place to buy your Poken!:
http://www.pokenzoo.com

Also you can get them from a link on inSide919.com
At FindaPoken

And I am often carrying around a few that I will sell at $19.95 for the PokenSPARK and the PokenPULSE for $34.99 (you don’t pay shipping).
Call me for info (919) 847-4757

Now that you own a Poken, how to connect it to your computer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-JFOqeULU0

Hope this was informative and please post your additions and comments. If you have a Poken let us know! I have a new list on Twitter called Poken Owners of RTP, if you are one and want to be on this list send me a tweet! Here is the link to the list: http://twitter.com/martinbrossman/poken-owners-of-rtp
Post a note here or to my Twitter account: http://www.twitter.com/martinbrossman

Martin Brossman
ProNetworkingOnLine.com
Raleigh NC

BNI Morning Show - N. Raleigh

Enhancing the Value of Your BNI Referral Group with Social Media by Martin Brossman

I was privileged to speak at The BNI Morning Show, a popular BNI group in North Raleigh, about business use of Social Media and on-line reputation management. To share the highlights with you, here are a few of my short tips for profoundly enhancing the value of your BNI referral group using Social Media and reputation sites.
- You can update LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook status about the meeting with something unique to that day, and the name of the group. Example someone posted: Looking forward to hearing Martin Brossman about Social Media w/business at our BNI Morning Show

- When having a one-on-one with someone, you may want to say something about the meeting and reference the person on any of your micro-blogs or status updates such as Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn .

- Give recommendations to members on LinkedIn after you have worked with them enough to give a specific and valid recommendation.

- Use on-line press releases to announce significant changes or advancements to the group.

- Include a member /reference the group in a blog post.

- Using Facebook “Pages” for business allows a posting to be picked up by Google vs. your personal profile that is basically seen by only the people you have let in as friends. .

- Have a short URL for a Web page or Facebook business page for members to use when posting on micro-blogs and status updates such as bit.ly .

- Post honest and positive comments in on-line sites like MerchantCircle.com or LocalAdLink.com This can also include posting on the person’s “wall” on sites like Facebook.com, LinkingRaleighNC.com  and inside919.com. (LinkingRaleighNC.com  and inside919.com are in the RTP NC area, www.insideareacodes.com to find the one in your local area code. )

- Make sure you have your LinkedIn profile optimized for your target customer, and consider connecting with the people on your BNI team.

The BNI Morning Show is one of the BNI Chapters in RTP, to learn more about them go to: http://trianglebni.net

Martin Brossman is a Business Coach, Trainer and Author who integrates Social Media training and Success Coaching. He offers training for Referral group on using Social Media for Business.  He is the co-founder of Professional Networking on the Web at the Cardinal Club in Raleigh. Find more info and links to Martin’s Social Media universe at www.ProNetworkingOnLine.com and find his new book “Brossman’s Social Media and Online Resource Directory for Business”. A great resource to find out more about Social Media for Business . Martin can be reach at US EST: (919) 847-4757 or Martin@CoachingSupport.com .

Free info you can use

I have been coaching high-quota Sales Professionals for many years and believe LinkedIn is one of the most important free sales tools available today.

Remember, LinkedIn is a professional tool for solving tasks.  It is not a cold calling list or directory of your target clients.  It IS a first place to check for current and future contacts and business, due to the high quality of the data when it is present. Since each profile is about an individual, automatic self-interest is generated for being well-represented on the web.

If you look at a person’s profile, you will get all the information they choose to make available, and also you can get a sense of how much they use LinkedIn.  For example, you can note whether their Public Profile consists of their name vs. the pre-assigned random numbers and letters.  If they have personalized it they are likely using LinkedIn frequently.  Next, notice how many recommendations they have, how many connections they have, if they have a picture, and whether they filled out their profile. These factors all point to how comfortable they are with using LinkedIn, and possibly how receptive they will be in accepting your introduction.
Know your target clients and businesses and observe how close you are to them through LinkedIn connections.   Who do you your ideal clients trust and how well connected are they to you?  You want to keep building your connections closer to your clients and that is done by relating to them and building their trust, not just by sending them an invite to connect.   Are there a few people that seem to be more connected to your ideal clients than others?  If so, these people need to be a higher priority for building and maintaining relationships.

It’s important to understand that this is a dynamic process which still involves building trust and connections, just like traditional networking has all along–which means investing in quality people who are on the path to where you want to be.
If you are a sales professional, LinkedIn is not only a big asset to your own career but also to the company you work for.  If you set up your web link back to the company web site (using the Other option) and use the right keywords in your profile that your customers use, you will enhance the web presence of your company and yourself. A true win-win.  This also makes it easier for your contacts to refer YOU to other members of their company by just referring people to your public profile.
That last tip I want to share today about your LinkedIn profile is: make sure to clearly have your contact information easy to find, especially your phone number. Make sure to first include it in the Contact Settings area at the bottom of your profile, but if you are in sales I would also add it at the top in your Summary area.

Last, when should you upgrade your LinkedIn profile to the paid version? When you keep running up against the notice that says you need to upgrade to get the information you need.  LinkedIn is very generous in giving a lot for the free service, so use all of it.
Since LinkedIn does such a great organic job of enhancing the brand of a business by having all their key people correctly listed on LinkedIn, you could add more value to your customers by offering resources for them to be on LinkedIn. That may be you or someone who provides LinkedIn training.
Martin Brossman can be reached at Martin@CoachingSupport.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it (919) 847-4757 – ProNetworkingOnLine.com and see his LinkedIn resources http://usinglinkedin.wordpress.com/ or on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Usinglinkedin

Reprinted from www.LinkingRaleighNC.com – Greg Hyer

Look up your next contact on Linkedin

Last week I convinced my friend Bob of the value of using Linkedin for sales. It happened right after I saw him having lunch with John, another friend of mine. When Bob called me later to let me know that he was doing well in his new position and to make an appointment with me for continued sales coaching, I mentioned that I knew John well. I asked him if he had used Linkedin before he talked to John. Bob said no, he hadn’t. I was sitting at my computer at the time. I asked, “Did you talk about the fact that you are both big Hurricanes fans? “No, I didn’t know that,” Bob replied. Then I asked him, “Did you discuss that you both did your undergraduate work at North Carolina State University?” Again, Bob said no.”Did you tell Bob he knows your best customer, Richard Jones? Bob replied, “No, that would have been great to know, but it didn’t come up–how did you know this?” I told him I knew it because I had looked at John’s LinkedIn profile. “If you had just taken a moment before you met John to look up his Linkedin profile,” I explained to Bob, “you would know all this information and more. Also, since John posted his profile on Linkedin, it is information that he is clearly comfortable having others know, so it’s okay to mention. You could have said, ‘I looked you up on Linkedin and noticed that you are a Hurricanes Fan, or that we both went to NC State.”"Now, on the other hand,” I continued, “if he looked you up on Linkedin, he would see that you had 15 connections, that your profile says you still work at the company you left two years ago, and that you don’t have a single recommendation.” “Bob,” I said, “you’ve done your best to always sell top-quality products with a personal commitment to give the best quality support to your customers. Would you want an easy way for potential customers to see your years of experience and be able to check you out before you meet? I know you have a large number of customers that would be pleased to give you a recommendation on Linkedin if you simply asked. Bob replied, “Can we include some Linkedin training along with regular sales coaching-as soon as possible?I told him to start immediately by making sure his Linkedin profile was fully filled out and to start looking up customers before meeting them. And I noted that there’s also a large amount of information available by looking up the company that many people aren’t even using, which gives info which would have traditionally cost money or a lot of research. Several key things for a sales professional about Linkedin: Start looking up companies you are involved with, including your own. Before you meet with someone see if they are on Linkedin and review their profile. Make sure that when your future customers look you up on Linkedin, current information is there that enhances understanding and trust of you. Linkedin is a valuable tool for a successful Sales Professional and offers a great deal at the free service level.

—Martin Brossman: Success Coaching & Trainer offering Social Media, Personal Branding and Linkedin training since 2006. www.ProNetworkingOnLine.com -Martin@CoachingSupport.com (919) 847-4757 (Article re-printed from www.LinkingRaleighNC.com )