PR and marketing

Is LinkedIn still a mystery for you? I still find it hard to figure out how to use it for lead generation so I asked Social Media Lead Generation expert, Tom Skotidas for his hot tips.

You have identified your target market on LinkedIn. You are ready to start inviting prospects and influencers, and expand your network. Yet you are not sure how you're going to approach complete strangers and ask them to connect with you. In fact, you are worried about being perceived as a networking "spammer" and harming your personal brand.

So how do you grow your network, in a safe and sound way?

My advice is simple: look for Human Connection Points.

Human Connection Points are the commonalities you find by reviewing your intended connection’s LinkedIn profile, Twitter posts, personal blog, and other online mentions. There are dozens of human connection points you can use, but here are some of the obvious ones:

• People you know in common (available on their LinkedIn profile)
• LinkedIn groups you share
• Their blog posts or published articles (i.e. the ones you have read and enjoyed so much, as to form an opinion)
• Schools you both attended

Once you have identified your human connection points, you are ready to write your LinkedIn invitation.

Be relevant. Make sure to address your invitee by their first name, and to clearly reference your connection points. Throughout your invitation, be genuine and respectful. Tell them how you found them, and why you want to connect. And make sure to pump up your credentials as well, via a strong LinkedIn profile.

If you follow this approach, you will experience a consistently high acceptance rate, and grow your LinkedIn network faster among your target market. You are now in a position to start marketing your company to a progressively larger audience, who will get to know you through your status updates and group participation.

Of course, not all will accept, but that’s ok. By following the principles mentioned above, and optimising as you go, you will find your acceptance rate (and LinkedIn network reach) continues to increase.

Tom is running a course on LinkedIn for Lead Generation on 7 December 2010 (which I am looking forward to attending!). For more information click here.