February 15, 2011

LINKEDIN'S JONATHAN LISTER DISCUSSES SOCIAL MEDIA


Your professional reputation is about your contributions, not your achievements.
— Jonathan Lister


The head of LinkedIn Canada, Jonathan Lister (profile), spoke about social media at the Toronto Board of Trade last week. He gave many valuable tips and I agreed with most. Here are highlights.

Why Bother?

You know about the power of word of mouth. Jonathan pointed out the social media is word of mouth at scale. The same principles apply. Success comes from being personal, relevant and passionate.

These days the microphone is always on. You (or people like you) are being discussed in some community, even if you aren't there. Turn that into opportunity.

You can now position yourself as an expert at scale. LinkedIn may be the best medium ever. And it's free.
Jonathan suggested you start with a strategy. Years ago the term "social media" didn't exist. I started by experimenting. These days, you can catch up quickly if you hire the right social media expert.

Five Reasons

Jonathan gave five solid reasons to use social media
  1. Managing your reputation
  2. Networking
  3. Establishing yourself as a thought leader
  4. Branding
  5. Generating leads

Marketing Your Business

To market your business, you need to
  • have a plan
  • get involved
  • use your own voice
Your social media plan has three elements
  1. unified vision
  2. objectives
  3. a way of valuing a customer interaction

The Tools

Once you figure out your strategy, you can then select the appropriate tools. While there is overlap, each platform is fundamentally different. For instance,
  • Facebook is for your personal life
  • Twitter is for broadcasting and listening
  • LinkedIn is for your professional life
LinkedIn shows our business connections and lets you gather their insights. You're more likely to read an article when a trusted connection posts a link and suggests you do.

Suppose you were confronted with the challenge in this video:
Skill testing question
You'll have difficulty getting an answer with a search engine. Your best bet is probably your LinkedIn network. Jonathan noted that the connections of your connections are more important than your direct connections.

To find out more about the aspects that intrigue you, do a web search or ask your community.

Links

PS Complete your LinkedIn profile to 100%

No comments:

Post a Comment