Linked Intelligence » Events

LinkedIn Live Training Starts January 17

Scott Allen — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 09:30:57 +0000

Are you getting the most out of LinkedIn? Is it an integral part of your marketing strategy?

When leveraged effectively, you can use LinkedIn to:

Fill your inbox with inquiries from your target market, everyday.
Identify and connect to new lead sources.
Develop a community of thousands that all look up to you or your company as the authority in your niche.
Increase your visibility and improve your connect-ability.
Gain valuable insights from your target market that will tell you what they want and then pay for it.
Perform blind, “reverse,” and company reference checks.
Establish deep trust and credibility in your industry.
Recruit top talent to your organization.
Get top search engine rankings.

Linked Strategies, who provided the LinkedIn profile makeovers we’re in the middle of conducting, is starting the next session of their LinkedIn Live Training on Tuesday, January 17. There’s WAY too much included for me to cover it all here, but in summary:

8 live training sessions on using LinkedIn effectively (also recorded in case you miss one or start late)
5 bonus sessions covering YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, blogging and personal branding
Linked Strategies All Access Pass, which gives you instant access to all their ebooks, workbooks, training videos and master courses (dozens of hours of training)
40 hours of direct access to a pre-screened virtual assistant ready to implement all your new strategies (this alone is worth the price of the course!)
30-day money-back satisfaction guarantee

And as an added bonus, the first 100 people who sign up through Linked Intelligence will also receive a half-hour LinkedIn profile review session as part of the package. It’s not cheap, but it’s an incredible value at $997, which is $500 off the regular price. How many new customers would it take you to make that back? If the answer is “several hundred”, then maybe this program isn’t for you (but you might know someone it is a fit for, and we’d greatly appreciate the referral). If your answer is “one or two or a few”, this is a no-brainer.

If you read this after the 17th, not to worry — the live sessions are all being recorded, so you can start at any time.

Learn more or register now

New Year, New You – LinkedIn Profile Makeover Week

Scott Allen — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:31:02 +0000

It’s the new year, and you’ve got big plans for 2012. Whether it’s finding a new job, landing new clients, or boosting your brand, updating your LinkedIn profile is an essential step for any major business initiative or career move.

So to help you with those goals, we’re declaring January 9-13, 2012, “LinkedIn Profile Makeover Week”. Every day this week, we’re going to share tips and tricks to improve your LinkedIn profile.

PLUS, 5 lucky winners will receive a FREE profile makeover, courtesy of Linked Strategies.

To participate:

Send a LinkedIn invitation to Scott Allen and Nathan Kievman. This is required so we can see your full profile.
Fill out all fields on the registration form below. We recommend copying & pasting your LinkedIn URL to ensure accuracy. In the message field, please let us know your major business goals for 2012 and any additional comments you have about what you’re hoping to achieve with your LinkedIn profile.
We’ll randomly select a winner each morning from all of the entries, so the sooner you register, the better your odds of winning.
Check back daily to see if you’ve won. We will NOT notify the winners via email — our not-so-secret ploy to keep you coming back! Of course, if you’re really clever, you’ll notice in the right sidebar that you can subscribe to the blog via email.
In case we didn’t make it clear already, your free profile makeover will be posted on this blog, and maybe a few other places. By registering below, you’re saying you’re OK with that.

Even if you’re not selected as a winner, you’ll want to be sure to come read the makeover posts and other profile tips — you’re sure to learn a lot.

PLUS…

Everyone who registers will receive FREE copies of:

Rank Your Profile — FAST!
This video will show how you can rocket your LinkedIn profile from obscurity to the 1st page of LinkedIn’s search results.
LinkedIn Quick Start Guide
Discover 7 proven Quick-Start tactics that’ll get you jump started on LinkedIn, including how to take control of your image and brand, master the connection process, and much more!

So what are you waiting for? Sign up now!

LinkedIn to Host President Obama Virtual Town Hall: Putting America Back to Work

Scott Allen — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 14:19:32 +0000

The White House and LinkedIn jointly announced this week that President Obama will be participating in a virtual Town Hall meeting using LinkedIn next Monday:

On Monday, September 26th, President Obama will travel to Mountain View, California to participate in “Putting America Back to Work: LinkedIn Presents a Town Hall with President Obama.” At the town hall, the President will answer questions about job creation and the economy from a live audience made up of LinkedIn members and employees, as well as questions that have been submitted from LinkedIn members across the country.

In conjunction with the President’s visit, LinkedIn has launched a community focused on job creation and the economy [Putting America Back to Work 2011]. Through this group, people are invited to join the conversation with President Obama by submitting questions for the town hall, contributing comments, and sharing content with their own network. This group will serve as a platform for LinkedIn users to continue the discussion on putting America back to work and provide opportunities for LinkedIn members to engage with the White House and Administration officials following the town hall. People can submit questions for the President HERE and watch the town hall live on LinkedIn and WhiteHouse.gov/live.

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with more than 120 million members worldwide. At “Putting America Back to Work: LinkedIn Presents a Town Hall with President Obama,” the President will hear directly from LinkedIn members who range from small business owners and employees to community college students to veterans.

Trigger-Event Selling with LinkedIn – Free Webinar

Scott Allen — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 20:11:29 +0000

Wouldn’t it be great if you could connect with your ideal clients before they needed your product or service? And wouldn’t it be even more amazing if you knew immediately when something occurred that triggered their need for your service? Imagine running an appliance repair service and receiving an email any time someone in your service area has a broken appliance – before they start the process of finding someone to fix it. Or running a Chinese restaurant and knowing any time one of your regular customers gets a craving for Chinese food.

Science fiction? Well, yes. But the reality of what’s currently possible may be closer to that than you think.

Most marketing is focused on creating a message that matches the prospect’s need and attracts them…after they’ve started the buying decision process. But there’s a window of opportunity before that, between the time that something occurs that causes the need – the "trigger event" – and the time they start the buying process. If you can connect with people during that window, you can establish yourself as a trusted advisor and perhaps even block out the competition entirely.

This is known as "trigger-event selling", and Craig Elias, author of SHiFT! – Harness the Trigger Events That Turn Prospects into Customers, is the world’s leading expert on the topic. He’s also, like me, a very early adopter of LinkedIn and uses it as one of his core business tools. With in-depth profiles of more than 80 million professionals, LinkedIn is one of the best tools for directly identifying and connecting with people who match your ideal client profile. It’s also a great place for identifying trigger events – new hires, promotions, new projects, and other company news that may not make it to the usual public channels.

Craig and I will be conducting a free webinar next Tuesday, November 30, at 2pm EST on using LinkedIn to connect with your ideal clients, monitor for trigger events and establish yourself as a trusted advisor to them before they even start the buying process. This webinar will be jam-packed with practical how-to information that you can put into action immediately.

UPDATE: Watch the replay.

P.S. – This is seriously advanced stuff. I’ve used it with a handful of my high-end clients, but this is the first time I’ve taught it to a group. If you’re serious about using LinkedIn to improve your sales process, you don’t want to miss this.

Top image: Anders Ljungberg

Free Social Media Strategy Webinar – October 7

Scott Allen — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 05:37:07 +0000

In conjunction with MicroAssist, I’ll be presenting a free webinar on creating an integrated social media strategy on Thursday, October 7, at 2pm Central. Register at http://smwebinar.eventbrite.com.

For a growing number of organizations, using social media tools such Facebook, Twitter, Linked In and blogs are mission critical to their success. People within those organizations are using social media to:

* learn information that is critical to their jobs
* form connections with industry leaders
* become recognized as industry thought leaders
* address customer service issues
* market their own products and services

However, without a cohesive social media strategy you can easily end up with a lot of social media activity but very little meaningful business results.

In this webinar, we’ll show you how individual, departmental and enterprise social media strategies integrate to create a total value for the organization that is greater than the sum of the parts. We’ll also provide you the basic strategic framework for developing individual, departmental and enterprise social media plans. And finally, you’ll learn some high-ROI social media strategies that you can apply on any platform – Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, blogging, niche communities, or whatever “the next big thing” turns out to be. Again, you can register, at no cost, at http://smwebinar.eventbrite.com.

Be sure to tell a friend!

Make a Referral Week 2010 Is March 8-12

Scott Allen — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 06:44:58 +0000

I won’t quote you a zillion studies – let’s just accept it as fact that for most businesses, referrals are both the least expensive and most effective source of new business. Referrals are also the best source of leads for job seekers and employers. There are customers and jobs and employees out there – referrals dramatically accelerate the matching process.

With that in mind, last year my friend John Jantsch created Make A Referral Week, a week-long event designed to educate people on making and encouraging effective referrals, and to drive people to action by making 1,000 referrals during the week.

There are several ways you can participate:

Free webinar Wednesday, 3/10, at 1pm EST with John Jantsch hosting a panel with Ivan Misner, founder of BNI and author Masters of Networking, Bob Burg, author ofEndless Referrals and the Go-Givers Sell More, Ben McConnell, author of Creating Customer Evangelists. Register here.
Make a referral (or two or three) and post it on the MARW Referral Counter.
Read guest posts from a long list of referral/networking/word-of-mouth experts all week at the Duct Tape Marketing Blog. Posts are already up by David Meerman Scott on The Referral Multiplier Effect and a podcast with Andy Sernovitz on Word-of-Mouth Marketing.
Join the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #marw.
Keep up with the goings-on at the MARW blog.

I contributed a guest post for later in the week on “selfish networking”.

Let’s make our own economic stimulus package!

Pay It Forward Wave – Let’s Get Our Friends Back to Work!

Scott Allen — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 05:38:56 +0000

Yup, the economic news for the new year isn’t what any of us had hoped. U.S. unemployment held at just under 10%, but only because 661,000 workers have “removed themselves from the workforce”, a euphemism meaning they’ve given up looking for a job because they believe none are available. The picture’s not particularly brighter in the rest of the world either.

This hits close to home. Odds are good that you personally know at least 10-20 people who are currently unemployed, or as is increasingly common, under-employed, i.e., they have some part-time work, freelance work, or a full-time position at significantly lower pay than they’re accustomed to.

Sue Connelly wants to do something about that. As founder of KIT List, “an email job posting service where employers and recruiters advertise permanent or consulting job opportunities to over 58,000 high-quality professionals,” she knows that the jobs are there – she sees them come across the list every day.

So what’s her big idea? Simple, really – a “pay it forward wave”, this week – a concentrated effort to be proactive about getting our friends back to work. Here are some suggestions she has for simple ways to help:

Forward a job lead
Write a LinkedIn recommendation
Review a friend’s resume and give objective feedback
Set a time to meet for coffee or a drink (heck, we all need one these days!). In-person meetings are important, it buoys spirits and sparks ideas and energy – plus it’s fun!
Make some calls on a friend’s behalf
Pass on a link to a good job site or a great article on job search
Make an introduction to a friend in a company he/she is interested in
Reach out to a colleague who has been laid off from your company to see how he/she is doing and offer to make connections for him/her
Become a “Job Buddy” – commit to meet on a regular basis to set goals and provide gentle accountability (if you are both looking for jobs, there’s a double benefit)
Offer to do some role playing for a job interview
Tell (and write down!) four strengths/qualities you see in your friend
Review or help write a strong cover letter
Invite a friend to connect to you on LinkedIn with the purpose of giving them access to your network so he/she can see if you have contacts in companies on their wish list
Help with career ideas, brainstorm on other ways to use their skills, suggest good companies to target, how to transition into a new industry

And, of course, you can share about this on email lists, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.

If we each just did 1-2 of these things every day, we may not end unemployment completely, but we might at least help the people we know and care about get back to work sooner rather than later.

Image credit: Photomish Dan

Free LinkedIn Webinar & More

Scott Allen — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 03:19:00 +0000

As part of Vertical Response’s Social Media Webinar Series. I’ll be presenting Opening Doors and Closing Deals on LinkedIn on Friday, December 4, at 10am PST / 1pm EST. This will be focused entirely on using LinkedIn to grow your business, not for recruiting or job search, so all you entrepreneurs and sales & marketing professionals, this is for you! The webinar is free, but registration is required. A free playback will be available afterwards.

You can view the first few webinars…

Making More Money with Your Business Blog – John Jantsch, Duct Tape Marketing
Get Business Exposure by Hosting or Speaking on Podcasts & Radio – Anita Campbell, Small Business Trends
Twitter for Your Business – Chris Brogan, New Marketing Labs

or register for the rest of the series…

Why & How to Use Social Bookmarking for Your Business – Danielle Strle, StumbleUpon
How to Easily Use Web Video to Get More Customers – Andrew Lock, Help! My Business Sucks!
How to Make Social Media & Email Work Together – Janine Popick, CEO of Vertical Response

Webinar 9/23 – Using Social Networking & Social Media to Grow Your Business

Scott Allen — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 08:45:55 +0000

This Wednesday, 9/23, I’ll be conducting a 90-minute webinar on how to use social networking and social media to grow your business.

Most of my recent webinars have focused on a particular tool (e.g., LinkedIn) or a particular business function (e.g., recruiting). The primary focus of this program will be how to do more with less, i.e., how to get the highest returns from your virtual social interaction with the least (or at least a manageable) amount of effort.

As much fun as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, blogging and so on are, it’s easy sometimes to get lost in all that activity and lose sight of the fact that if you’re devoting all that time, you’re hoping for some kind of results!

As we put it in The Virtual Handshake:

People who know how to leverage their networks are called successful. People
who just know a lot of people are called socialites. Do you want to be a successful person or a socialite?

All cocktail parties come to an end, but on the Internet there is always another person with whom you can connect. This can be both healthy and hazardous; it’s very tempting to spend far too much time chatting with far too many people. We recommend focusing only on building your network to the extent that your marginal benefit equals your marginal cost. Otherwise, you will be so busy maintaining your relationships that you will have no time to leverage those you have formed.

So if you find yourself spending a lot of time in social media, but are still wondering when the payoff is going to come, you’ll want to be sure to attend this webinar.

Your investment is 90 minutes and $99, which includes a few cool bonus items and comes with a risk-free money-back guarantee if for any reason you’re not completely satisfied.

Business.com Conducting Social Media Benchmarking Survey

Scott Allen — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 04:52:43 +0000

Business.com is running a survey about how businesses are using social media. Survey participants get early access to the results to help benchmark social media efforts and are entered into a $2,000 drawing.

Take the survey

Disclosure: I’m the Sales & Marketing Community Manager for Work.com, Business.com’s sister site. We’ve got several good articles on LinkedIn there, including: