Nowadays, Facebook is all the rage, but if you look at the numbers for appointments and sales, LinkedIn pulls in more leads than the other major social platforms…

COMBINED!

If you’re not on LinkedIn, you’re missing out big time!

Here’s why LinkedIn is so effective:

When people are on LinkedIn, they’re in business-mode. They’re working, thinking about growing their business, further their career, and looking for solutions to help.

With Facebook and Twitter, that’s simply not the case. Sure, they might be doing some business, but they’re also there for entertainment, to catch up with friends, brag about their kids, and so on.

The numbers speak for themselves.

80% of B2B social media leads come from LinkedIn. Click To Tweet
If you’re a B2B professional (or a B2C professional looking to expand your partner network),  let’s start with what you should NOT do when working on LinkedIN.

Most people send messages like this:

It reeks of a sales message…

Who would take the time to read and respond to this? …Especially when these kinds of messages show up by the dozens.

After testing over 200 different messages, there’s a much better way…

First, the “ABCs” for the tone and content of your message:

A. W.I.I.F.M.

Your message should immediately let your product know W.I.I.F.M (What’s In It For Me?).

Nobody cares about your bio or your resume (certainly not at this stage). They only care about getting straight to the point – what you can do for them.

B. You Must Be Relevant

If you’re generic, sending the same message to any old prospect, you’ll be ignored in a heartbeat. You should be using advanced search features inside of LinkedIn to make sure you’re speaking to the people you can actually help.

Send your message to the RIGHT prospects.

C. Don’t Sound Like a Salesperson

Okay, you are sending a message with the intent of making a sale, but that doesn’t mean you have to be salesy. There’s a ton of noise out there, and it’s only getting worse. Your prospect will ignore your messages the moment it sounds like “just another pitch.”

People have finely tuned BS detectors, so just be direct – and don’t go straight for the pitch…

Of all the research we’ve done, the best messages have a few things in common.

Here’s your 5 Step Checklist:

1. Keep Your Messages Short

Just a few sentences are all you need to generate interest. Again, it’s supposed to be about THEM (not you), so you don’t need to launch into some big explanation about your qualifications or services…

Think of it this way:

You don’t know them yet, and you haven’t earned the right to send them a long message.

For example,

I  read your article about XYZ. We recently helped ABC achieve DEF. If you ever want to pick my brain or swap ideas to helping you get GHI, let me know.

– Jamie

2. Keep It Natural

Avoid buzzwords and jargon (i.e. “we offer strategic solutions with an integrated, comprehensive approach…”).

This sounds stuffy and salesy, and will get your message ignored.

The most successful messages are friendly, free of sales rhetoric, and simply say hello and tell the prospect what you can do for them in plain, no-nonsense language.

3. Be Honest and Genuine

This goes right back to that BS detector. When people say things like “I love your work” or “I enjoyed your article,” it comes of as disingenuous at best… And a downright lie at worst.

It only takes a minute for someone to check if you’re on their email list, subscribed to their YouTube channel, a buyer of their services, shared it on social media, etc…

And if you aren’t, how big of a fan can you be?

Avoid this kind of dishonest language – it will only serve to turn people off.

4. Different is Better Than Better

Standing out is important! Sometimes we use humor, or we’ll be surprisingly direct.

For example:

“Hey Heather, pardon this thinly veiled sales message...”

Other times, we’ll link to a highly personalized video using a free tool like Vidyard.Get creative to stand out in the crowd.   

5. Your Goal is to Start a Conversation

This might be the most important.

Your message isn’t designed to fully educate your prospect – much less close a sale. The whole idea here is to start a conversation. That’s all!

You’re simply reaching out to connect, and let them know directly what you can do for them. All the rest – your expertise, how your services work, the whole sales process – that comes after you’re connecting and conversing.

In most cases, starting a conversation is as easy as asking a good question.

This stuff works…

And we know firsthand how powerful LinkedIn can be for generating great leads – as long as you’re using the right tone and the right approach. Develop some short messages and test your results…

This is too great of an opportunity to pass up.