LinkedIn, every professional knows about it, but how many actually leverage it properly?
Not many it seems.
Yeah sure, most create a profile, put their 5 year old business photo head shot up and cut and paste a resume straight into it hoping to land their next big gig.
Fingers crossed, Mark Cuban strolls across their profile, tongue wagging with his cheque book out screaming "this is the one I want!"
Unfortunately, it turns out that's actually not really the best way to leverage LinkedIn, sure that's better than nothing, but it's extremely unlikely anyone's going to stumble across your profile with an open cheque book.
So this week I decided to do some further research and find people who have actually got some phenomenal results from leveraging the platform properly and learn the things they did to make it happen.
There were a few people I came across but there was one expert in particular that really stood out, I saw him everywhere, Google, my Facebook feed, Twiiter and of course LinkedIn.
Funnily enough, after digging deeper I realized that it was the same person I had interviewed back in 2014 when I wrote an article on why LinkedIn is the most powerful tool of the 21st century.
His name is Alex Pirouz and he's the founder of Linkfluencer, a world leading LinkedIn training company that teaches the most powerful business to business (B2B) Lead Generation strategy online.
So I decided to reach out to Alex again and I was lucky enough to have an interview so we could do a follow up to chat about the best ways to leverage the platform and some of the results of the people his company has trained.
He was kind enough to share with me some little-known hacks that you can get out of using the network like a BOSS.
Here's Alex's top 3 LinkedIn Hacks.
Hack 1: Major Media Exposure
Alex swiftly informed me that 94.2% of journalists are on LinkedIn. So if you are in the process of forking over a ton of money to a PR agency - think again.
LinkedIn is a hack to getting major media exposure FAST.
One of Alex's clients was able to secure a truck load of media for the launch of his new book, which ended up getting him over 42,000 downloads on Amazon's Kindle.
"If you are smart about it, you can really leverage LinkedIn to get a lot of media. Journalists are hungry for content and you have content. Let them be your sounding board." Says Alex.
Alex went on to say you need to really work on your profile and your approach. Not having a tried and tested method or not having your profile up to scratch will result in disappointment and no results.
It pays to do your research, have a good photo, investing time in making your profile amazing and the work you put in will return to you in spades.
Hack 2: Using LinkedIn for Partnerships
Partnerships are one of the main veins for your business. If you aren't constantly sourcing new partners to help you grow your business then you will slowly wither away.
"Traditionally people have thought of LinkedIn as a place for recruiters to find candidates for new positions. It's definitely a powerful recruitment tool, but instead of recruiting new hires - hunt for partners." says Alex.
Most people are either trying to spam you or are attempting to recruit you to take up another job. Therefore, a partnership proposal is a gold mine in comparison to the other noise.
Through using his own framework, Alex has been able to secure partnerships through LinkedIn that have generated tens of thousands of leads for his business.
Alex then went on to inform me that it's all about the approach for new partners, develop an approach script that works, then start sending it out to the right people.
Be strategic with your approach. Using the advanced search filters within LinkedIn will help you ensure your new contacts are extremely targeted.
Hack 3: Dominating LinkedIn for Leads
We've probably all had people add us on LinkedIn and then within a few minutes we get hit with a spammy canned message asking us to chat to them or buy something from them straight away.
"Avoid spamming people at all costs, there is an effective way to generate leads on LinkedIn and it has nothing to do with spamming everyone you connect with with your product." Alex stated.
Alex added that generating leads on LinkedIn all comes down to providing the right content to the right people then building a relationship that's not only beneficial for you, but for the prospect as well.
This sounds like a lot of work but in actual fact, this is quite simple.
One of Alex's clients who followed his methodology down to a tee got over 2000 leads in under a couple of months.
Similar to partnerships, develop an effective approach but just like if you went on a date you wouldn't get down on one knee and beg for marriage, The same applies with lead generation on LinkedIn.
Don't try and get married on your first date.