Our Blog

 

I’ve been pretty active lately on LinkedIn, managing two title and mortgage industry professional groups (Real Estate and Mortgage Executive Forum and Title Insurance and Settlement Services Network).  It’s been a lot of fun, but also a good reminder to me that just being on LinkedIn doesn’t automatically bring results.  In fact, when you misuse your involvement, you may find yourself getting bad results.

 

I’ve already blogged quite a bit about social media usage in the past here and here.  But I’ve had enough inquiries recently to justify my trotting out a few tips on getting the most out of your LinkedIn experience.

 

I can’t even count the number of times I’ve been approached by veterans of the title and mortgage industry—usually well-qualified and talented owners and sales execs—and asked why LinkedIn has become such a big deal.  Usually, I hear things like “I’m on it, but I’m not getting anything out of it.”  Or, I get “I just don’t have time to get into it.”  Or, my favorite:  “I really, truly don’t want to know what someone I barely knew in high school is having for lunch.”

 

Nor do I.  Believe me.

 

The short answer to these objections is this.  “LinkedIn, like a telephone or computer is a tool.  It’s a networking, not a direct marketing, tool.  You’re already networking in your business, and you’re finding the time to put into it.  LinkedIn merely makes your networking easier and more efficient.  You didn’t give up on your telephone the first time you received a political campaign call, did you?”

 

Invariably, the follow up question I get is “So what do I do?”

 

Hey, glad you asked.

 

To begin with, I’ve recently come across an excellent and practical blog post about the 7 biggest LinkedIn mistakes right here.  Start with this.  I’ll wait for you—just remember to come back, ok?

 

Done?  Not bad, eh?  And not rocket science, either (and this is by no means a jab at the talented author of the article to which I’ve just linked!).  You don’t need a guru/socialmediaczar/evangelist/certifiedexpert/out-of-work-marketer to tell you how to use social media, LinkedIn in particular.  It’s really just common sense.

 

With that in mind, here are a few more basics.

 

Update your profile as though the reader knows nothing about you.

 

In the spirit of the blog post to which I’ve linked, I see too many profiles on LinkedIn that tell me absolutely nothing about their owners beyond name, rank and serial number.  I understand that these folks have many, many things to do beyond hanging out on LinkedIn.  But I’m willing to bet their business cards are professional and complete.  If you’re going to have a LinkedIn profile, treat it as though it were your business card.  Tell the viewer enough about you to have a decent understanding about what you do (and, if you do it cleverly, why your product or service simply rocks). 

 

Put some time into your new investment

 

I hear this quite often, and I do understand its rationale:  “I just don’t have time to get online—I’m too busy working.”  I get that.  But this implies that networking on LinkedIn (or other sites) does not amount to “working.”  Unless you’re spending that time playing Farmville or stalking old flames, your time on a social media site is work.  You just need to make it efficient and effective.

 

Look, we don’t consider the e-mail or germane trade pub article sent to an old prospect to maintain top-of-mind awareness to be anything less than “work,” do we?  And yet, each such effort can take anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour (if you can’t find his/her e-mail address, if you need to find that article, etc.).  Using LinkedIn (or Facebook, or Twitter), you can do the exact same thing, simultaneously, for 10, 20 or 50 such colleagues in 10 seconds, just by updating your “status” or contributing to a LinkedIn group.

 

Some rumors in the marketplace that your product is getting dated?  A status update along the lines of “Spending a lot of time preparing for the launch of Widget ABC Version 6.1” can certainly help.

 

I do believe that social media’s conscientious objectors truly don’t have the time to mess around.  But I don’t believe that using LinkedIn effectively is messing around.  I think it’s efficient networking.  And nobody knows better than title/mortgage pros that networking is the real root of all marketing, and the highway to sales.

 

So how does one efficiently and effectively use his or her LinkedIn time to update, cultivate and excavate one’s professional network?  Well, you can Google this, and find about 10,000,000 blog posts, articles and books with a wealth of suggestions.  I’m not recommending anything new.  But for the sake of brevity (why do I hear laughter all of a sudden?), I’ll offer a few tips now for using well your time on LinkedIn.

 

• Cultivate your network.  This is easy.  If you spend five minutes a day checking your dashboard, you’ll see your contacts adding new contacts.  Know that new contact?  Click “add them to my network.”  But, a note of caution.  Make sure you really know that person.  Just having heard of him or her is usually not enough.  Remember, the bigger your network, the more people see you when you ask a question, start a discussion or update your status.  Oh, by the way–don’t be shy about removing contacts with little professional value to you as well.  It’s no different than removing bad e-mail addresses from your marketing database.

 

• Join groups and participate.  There is a group (or 100) for any and every industry under the sun.  Usually, you can see which groups your customers and peers are joining right from your own profile dashboard.  Go there and check them out—and get involved!  It’s one thing to be a member.  But you get 100x the exposure and credibility by participating.  Answer a question.  Don’t have any answers?  Then ask a question!  Nothing to ask?  Make a comment about something the whole industry’s talking about.  Terrible with words?  Submit an interesting and germane article.  This is the “small talk” you use to begin a conversation when you network in person.  You know more about this than you think.

 

• Update your status.  Frequently.  This is easy, and doesn’t have to be detailed.  Just use your common sense.  Want your prospects and customers to know your company is strong and stable?  How about posting that your company earnings are up for the quarter (I’d only recommend this AFTER the quarterly earnings call goes public, and if you have a private business, keep it really general.  But you get the point.)  Instantly, you’ve sent (INSERT NUMBER OF CONTACTS YOU HAVE HERE) e-mails to people you want to remember that you (and your product) exist.

 

Please, please, please…for the Love of All that Is Decent and Holy…DON’T advertise.  NETWORK.

 

A link to your product’s Web site is not news.  It’s advertising.  A “discussion” explaining the specs of your product or the range of your services is not a discussion.  It’s advertising.  A direct marketing e-mail to your contacts that has only one point—driving people to directly buy something from you—is a  direct marketing e-mail, and not peer-to-peer communication.

 

Look, there are appropriate times and places for advertising.  LinkedIn is not one of those places.  You don’t generally try to sell your services by annoying your prospects, do you?  So why advertise to them when their expectations in joining LinkedIn, or a professional group on LinkedIn, are to learn, network, discuss, maybe even find a job or new employee? 

 

Do what you do when you meet a new prospect at a trade conference or meeting.  Do you make your very first approach to that person “Hi, I’m Joe.  My LOS has 45% market share among major lenders, and has recently been upgraded to include the 2010 GFE (batteries not included)?”  How’d that approach work out for you?

 

LinkedIn can, indeed, help you win sales.  But it is not a marketing mechanism.  It can work, and work well for you.  But remember to use your common sense and remember why your prospects are involved in the first place before you start typing your product specs in the status line.

 

You may just find that you get better results that way.

 

Oh, and I’m sure I don’t have to tell you—since we’re using the common sense approach—never, ever, ever tell people what you had for lunch, or that it was with your “BFF. “ Unless you were having lunch with the Speaker of the House, an old friend from high school…