Social Media Archives | Jane Tabachnick & Co

Combining LinkedIn and PR can get you more press

This post is based on my interview with Karen Yankovich,
LinkedIn expert on the Good Girls Get Rich podcast –
How to Use LinkedIn and PR Together

Karen: There’s a lot of focus on how to use LinkedIn and PR to get more visibility, because that gives you more credibility. I think that that is something that is so powerful and so overlooked. I’m really excited about having a chance to dive deeper into that today with you Jane.

You and your next-door neighbor competitor may be apples to apples across the board, but when you are the one that’s ‘as seen in’, it takes you to the top. That is completely creatable by you. And, probably, Oprah’s not going to come knocking on your door. You’ve got to go after it. You’ve got to look for the opportunities and I love that that’s what you’re helping people. when you are doing what you love to be doing, I want to shine a light on it so the whole world knows.

Jane: I’m so glad you mentioned that the media don’t come knocking on your door. Sometimes people think, “Oh, she’s lucky. She’s getting press.” Yes, there is always a certain element of luck, synchronicity, timing, but really luck is what happens in my opinion, or publicity happens, when preparation meets opportunity. The people who are on stages, who are getting publicity, who are in Oprah or any other publication, are out there pitching, or they’ve got someone helping them with the pitching. It doesn’t just magically happen.

Look Worthy of Press

Karen: You have to have a great LinkedIn profile and be connecting with people on that level. So energetically, you’ve got to be showing up like an influencer, somebody worthy when they’re checking you out and of being in their publications. And then building relationships from that point. You have to look worthy of press.

Jane: So true. You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. People are going to judge you on your photo, on your profile and on the comments you make. Everything until they know you, and then they may give you a little bit more leeway. You want to be on brand, on message and really coming across as professionally as possible. I know you teach this and we certainly go through a lot of this with our clients on giving that professional appearance and looking like you are media ready. That way if the media want to feature you in a story, they know that any of their audience who goes to check you out is not going to think, “Whoa, who’s this person, how did this happen?”

Karen: Take the time upfront to create a LinkedIn profile that makes you look worthy of their time. You’re making it easier for them to want to be connected to you. If you do all of this, with a LinkedIn profile that has dust bunnies on it, you have no credibility. They’re going to love that you did it, but chances are, they’re not going to be going out of their way to continue to build that relationship.

Build Relationships – Human to Human

Karen: Working with clients on a PR plan, what does that look like?

Jane: Very much like the way you teach your clients to use LinkedIn, PR is really about relationships. Having a great profile is a start. The LinkedIn platform is great for building relationships, I’m not saying to connect and immediately start pitching someone but connect with the media to start a relationship.

I teach my clients to do something we call hug an influencer. When I say influencer, it can be someone who is a thought leader in your industry, someone you respect, or a journalist. It can be an Instagram influencer or anyone in that category. Follow them, share their content and be authentic. Don’t just do this to get in their good graces, but let them know if you like something they wrote- comment, share it and tag them.

The tagging is a really great thing to do. A lot of people don’t do this because some of the tools don’t make it easy. Take the time to find out their social handle and include that. This does a couple of things. It sends them an alert and lets them know you’re sharing their content, which is great. It gives them credit and the recognition which they deserve. Today, as many more media professionals are freelancing, they need to get this visibility. It also helps put you in front of their audience because when you tag someone, it’ll get shared to their network. So, you’re increasing your visibility along with theirs. It’s really a win-win-win.

Karen: What you just described, is really a simple thing to do.

Jane: Exactly. It’s so simple, and it can help you stand out because, so few people take the time to do this.

Karen: So, it’s about paying attention to not just the content, but the person that published the content.

Jane: Exactly. As you know, it’s so frustrating and sometimes a little bit unsettling when you put content out there and no one comments. So be that person that comments and shares and acknowledges someone else’s content.

When you start getting out of your head and responding to people on social media, you build relationships authentically and easily. You just told me something great. I’m human, I have to respond.

Karen: It’s often human to human and which, by the way, is where the money is. That’s where the profit is. People buy a $50 something off of a funnel and a web thing. But nobody’s buying your $5,000 or $10,000 stuff without a human-to-human conversation.

How to Connect With and Pitch the Media on Linkedin

Karen: Now that I’ve identified some journalists one LinkedIn and I’m doing all the good stuff [optimizing my profile…commenting…]. Do I pitch them? What do I do?

Jane: You can start following them. You can comment on their posts. You can send them a connection request without a pitch. Just say, “I’ve read your content.” It’s always good if you’re specific. Instead of, “Hey, I’ve read your content,” which could be a cut and paste message, instead say, “I just read your article on the new LinkedIn Stories. And I love that you explained how to do X, Y, Z in great detail. It let me get into action right away.” Something so specific it lets them know that you had to have taken the time and read the story. You’re actually speaking personally to them, not sending a blast and just changing the first name.

Karen: You’re building the relationships so that when an opportunity may come down the road where you’ve got something interesting, you can maybe reach out then and say, “I’ve got this idea and I thought of you,” and pitch them.

Jane: Yes, now that you have built up some social currency, you can pitch them your idea or you can offer additional value by offering access to your contacts. “I’ve got a good network here on LinkedIn. You’re welcome to look through my contacts if you need an intro or a source. Or if there’s someone specific you’re looking for, I’m happy to try and make a connection for you.” Be of service and try to give before you ask.

How PR Grows Your Business

Karen: How does this PR help us grow our business?

Jane: The thing about PR, which makes it really the most valuable form of content, is that it gives you third-party credibility. They featured you in the media, rather than your so-called competition or somebody else. That positions you as the expert and it’s as if the media endorsed you, although technically it’s not an endorsement.

How do you use it? You share your press on LinkedIn and you thank the person who wrote the story by tagging them. You tag the publication and again, let them know. Not only does this acknowledge and thank them, but it also puts you in front of their network, so you get even more visibility.

Share it more than once, which is good for you, good for the publication and the journalist. This is a step a lot of people miss and therefore lose out on more visibility. Think about it like this… that old adage, “If a tree falls in the forest and no one’s there to hear it…. you know the rest.” How this relates to PR is that if you’re in The New York Times today, and I haven’t picked up The Times today, for me, it didn’t happen, unless you tell me it happened, right?

It’s important to let your audience know about press you get, because we’re all bombarded with so much information and may not have seen it. When it comes to the publicity you get, it’s not a one and done; you can put your press into your scheduler. Six weeks later, pull out one line, a sound bite from the article or interview and mention it again on socials. Also, add it to your media room. You can add the media logo to your, “as seen in”, or “as seen on” bar, which gives you additional credibility on your website and social media.

Their First Impression of You is Your Digital Footprint

Karen: We’ve learned a lot in the past year of being virtual. And I think a lot of it really is, what is your digital footprint? We learned about how the first impression is what we’re learning about people digitally.

Jane: Yes. If you start now doing one simple thing each day, which could be five minutes of commenting or connecting. By the end of the year, I’m not going to do the math, but you can have hundreds of comments and connections. Amazing things can happen that you weren’t expecting. So, you have to be in it [the pr game] for that to start happening.

Karen: It’s exactly right and you can take control of this by doing yourself. You can control your digital footprint by building these kinds of relationships. Understand how powerful publicity could be for you, no matter what the stage of your businesses is.

Resources:

► Listen to the full podcast interview of Good Girls Get Rich – How to Use Linkedin and PR Together – with Jane Tabachnick

► Take our Visiblity Assessment

How to Get Publicity Using Social Media

How ti get Media Coverage Using Your Existing Social Network

If you are looking for media coverage, you can start by using social media. Chances are there is a journalist in your existing social network. Or just one connection or friend away.

This is great news. It’s never been easier to connect with a journalist, one who can write about you and your company and give you the media coverage and visibility you deserve. And this may surprise you to hear, but you probably already know exactly how to connect with a journalist using social media. You are probably using these skills, perhaps just not in connection with a journalist. Please read on, as I am about to explain.

I speak to a lot of entrepreneurs, authors, coaches and business owners who find the idea of doing public relations or promotion, daunting.

I remember the first time I was considering doing some publicity for my fashion company. I was scared, overwhelmed and intimidated.

That was just before the digital age. No Internet to look up how to write a press release. No online press distribution services. No online directories of journalists, and no social networks.

I needed some information and insight as to how to do my own publicity, so I did the only thing I could think of – I sought out a mentor and asked a lot of questions.

My first attempt at public relations, I probably did at least 10 things wrong and yet I still got some great media coverage! And you know what, it turns out that getting publicity really isn’t hard, if you know a few simple rules of the road. And I am about to share them with you in this post.

Today, you have the distinct advantage of the Internet for information, templates, training and video tutorials. Just do a search on YouTube and you will find a plethora of training on virtually any topic including how to do your own public relations. You also have online social networks that make connecting easy and sometimes instant.

Here is your best news: Journalists are very social

A recent study from the Indiana University School of journalism looks at how U.S. journalists use social media to report the news. Here are a few specific ways journalists are using social platforms:

59.8% find ideas for stories
54.1 % find sources
20% interview sources

Journalists also see social media as a vehicle for self-promotion; 80% state that it helped them share their work and two-thirds say they are more engaged with their audiences thanks to social sites.

As you can see from the study, more and more journalists use social media to promote as well as to facilitate their work, including finding story ideas, finding sources and interviewing subjects. That is where you come in! You can be a source for journalists in any or all of those aspects of their job!

On social media, journalists are more accessible to everyone whether they are PR professionals or folks like you. Therefore, it has never been easier to connect with journalists.

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Does an Author Need Both PR and Social Media

I was recently asked by a fellow publisher “whether an author with limited time and resources should put them into social media strategies rather than trying to include publicity or even going exclusively the publicity route.” Does an author need PR and Social Media to succeed?

Here is my response:

Good question. The first thing I always want to know is where does your audience live, as it should inform a lot of where to put your efforts. If you target an audience that is rarely on social media, then that would not be a great use of all your efforts.

I consider social media as part of ‘the media’ nowadays

Earned media [others writing about you, talking about you…] is the most valuable type of content you can have [no one cares or believes what you say about you to some extent, especially on social media]. Others talking about you is social proof, third party credibility, perceived as an endorsement…

In our review economy [also called trust economy], people trust:

recommendations from friends and family
online reviews & recommendations and
the media [source: Nielson]

You have probably heard it said that people buy from those they know, like and trust… so media coverage/mentions are in the top 3 factors that influence buying decisions

The media are respected, and as it is they who decide what they write about; being the ‘selected one’ has additional value – i.e. they featured you over all the other experts out there.

When you are featured in the media, you get the halo effect of being associated with their respected brands…. that is why we say, as seen in the NY Times or cite a NY Times book review, and we don’t say “as seen on Facebook” or cite a Facebook book review, no matter how glowing.

As you can probably tell by now, I think that authors need PR and Social Media to succeed; I recommend authors use a combination of PR and social media… yes, even when time and resources are challenged [when aren’t they?]… all the more reason to learn how each medium works and learn how to maximize your efforts.

Want to learn more about how to do your own publicity? Please check out our Magnify Your Message program

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6 Ways to Get Readers Lined Up Before You Even Publish

As I was watching the Bourne Identity the other night, I saw 6 ways to get readers lined up. I was seeing it for the umpteenth time and enjoying the commercial breaks for a change, because Matt Damon came on to talk about the soon-to-be-released movie Jason Bourne, and how the movies were made. He gave us some insights and behind-the-scenes looks into all Bourne movies, including the newest one.

It got me thinking about what a great job Hollywood does promoting movies and how there are lessons that can be applied to other products or services and particularly to selling books.

Here are 6 Ways to Get Readers Lined Up Before You Publish

Give a Sneak Preview

Create a preview and ‘coming soon’ content. Movies do this really well with trailers for upcoming features; we’re accustomed to seeing these before the main picture is shown in the theater. This starts to build interest and buzz for the upcoming movie. It let’s us know that it exists, and whets our appetite, so we start thinking about going to see it, before it even gets released.

This is something that many authors don’t take advantage of, and the results can be downright depressing. You work so hard to write your book, if you don’t offer some kind of preview, pre-announcement or information about your book to build buzz before it’s finished, you may publish and hear crickets. Not the way to go. You can take a page from Hollywood by giving away a sample chapter, making a video about your book, or talking about the writing process.

Create an Online Destination

A movie gets its own website and hashtag even before it’s released, so anyone interested in finding out more about it, can go to the site and find all the information in one place, making it easy for the interested audience to stay up to date, and plan to go see it.

Authors benefit from doing the same. Build an online home for the book; this can be a landing page, a free-standing website, or a page within your existing website where people can go to find out information about the book. You’ll want to include some information, preview content, when the book will be available for sale. You want to capture email addresses of the people who are interested in your book, so you can notify them of updates as well as when you actually publish. This is really key to making book sales right away on this book and future books.

Get in Front of Your Existing Audience

Hollywood knows where their existing audience is… in the movie houses! They show the coming attraction trailers in theaters, as they know they have an audience in those moviegoers – people who clearly like movies.

As a first time author, you won’t have the same type of existing audience of people you know read your books, but you do have friends, family, and anyone in your personal and business networks who most likely will be excited about your book, want to support you, and will buy a copy.

Find New Audiences

Hollywood gets in front of new audiences by taking out ads in publications, and they are now using social media more and more, including promoting a hashtag for a movie before it’s released.

You can do the same for your books. If you don’t know where your new audience lives, what you can do is find a lookalike audience. If you write erotic books then you could see where people are talking about Fifty Shades of Grey or some other book in that genre. You can assert yourself in the conversation – don’t just promote your books and spam the audience, but join the conversation and find out how to become part of that community. By doing so, when your book is published, you can then engage those people, introduce your book, and turn them into raving fans for your book as well.

Share Social Proof

Social proof is really a key factor in building credibility. People don’t care what a Hollywood studio says about its own movie, but they care what the critics and public say. Movie trailers, posters and ads will feature positive one line accolades from the media such as “The must see movie of the year- David Denby, The New Yorker”. Trailers created pre-release, are updated to include these quotes and any award nominations the movie receives after it’s released, to reinforce the positive buzz about a movie and entice you to see it.

The same is true for your book; just like moviegoers don’t care what the studio says about their own movie, they won’t care what you say about your book. So as an author what you can do for social proof is you can get pre-publication reviews for your book. Before you publish you can ask people to review it and give you a review or testimonial. You can get endorsements from influencers or well-known people in their field, or experts on the book’s topic. You can include these on your book landing page, in your book, or in your book’s promotional materials, as well as on social media to add credibility and positive buzz.

It’s very important to take advantage of social proof, as well as all the ways to build buzz for your book and to get people excited about it, and get them over to your book landing page, where they can optin to your list. Once you publish, you can get readers by directing all promotions right to your Amazon book page to make it easy for them to buy a copy.

A Promotional Tour

Before a movie release, the lead actors will make appearances on television talk shows to raise awareness and build buzz for the movies. A carefully selected clip is shown as a teaser for the audience. The release date and locations will be covered, acting as the audience’s call to action.

As an author, you can create a promotional tour before you publish, and without even leaving your home. There are many podcasts that will welcome you as a guest, before your book is published. Some blogs will also welcome you as a guest pre-publication. This is where your book landing page is key to capitalizing on the experience; when you create a call to action during your guest appearance, you’ll want to direct listeners or blog readers to your landing page, so they can sign up to be notified once you publish.

Do not make the mistake of waiting until your book is published before starting to put these initiatives in place. It’s very depressing to finish the hard work of writing a book and not see any results when you publish. Set yourself up for success by creating a book landing page that captures the email addresses of interested potential readers, so you can notify them as soon as the book is available for sale. You will get lots of sales that way.

You may not be thinking of turning your book into a series like the Bourne books that the movies are based on, but the studio has done something really smart by building a franchise or a series of movies; they’ve built a ready audience for the next one in the series!

You don’t have to write a series of books to benefit from a franchise. By building an email list you have a ready audience for when your next book comes out, even if it’s on an another topic.

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5 Ways to Promote Yourself That Don’t Feel Icky

Mom used to tell me it’s not polite to brag.

And no one likes a braggart!

The funny thing is that people often assume that some who brags a lot is very confident and outgoing, the fact of the matter is that they may actually be insecure and seeking outside reinforcement.

Ok. So you don’t want to be seen as a braggart.

If you don’t share your company’s offerings, your accomplishments, successes and milestones, how will your prospects and clients know about them? How will you share your gifts and service with more of the people who need them?

If a tree falls in the forest…

You do need to get the word out and promote yourself and your services on a regular basis. The great news is that there are ways to do it that won’t make you feel icky or a braggart.

5 easy ways to toot your own horn that won’t make you feel uncomfortable:

Talk about your business in the third person – a simple mindset shift
This is a common problem for soloprenuers. A simple trick to remove feeling uncomfortable about promoting yourself is to think of yourself or your business as another entity, a third party. Think about how much easier it is to share a friend’s accomplishment with others. Treating your business like that friend, makes it easy to talk about your business without holding back or feeling discomfort.

Make the customer the hero of your story
Focus your marketing and content on your client’s success stories [with their permission]. You solved their problem successfully. They are now raving fans. Create a case study, blog post or press release. If you focus on the client, the content you create will feel less like you are being self-promotional. It will also be something that the client will naturally want to share with their audience, garnering your even more mileage and visibility!

Be a customer educator and advocate
Offer great tips and information that will help your audience – both prospects and clients succeed. This will naturally position you as a knowledgeable resource, which will attract people who need your services. Don’t be afraid to give away your best content.

Just calling yourself the expert isn’t going to do it these days. Positioning yourself as an educator and an advocate for your customers success should be your major focus. When a prospect feels you are the source of valuable information, and they know you truly care about their results, then they will be the ones calling you the expert. – Jack Mize

Let others sing your praises – it carries more weight
It’s not what you say about you, it’s what they say about you. Prospects trust recommendations from friends and family, online reviews and the media; these sources directly influence purchasing decisions. Have an active plan for gathering testimonials, getting media mentions…and display them prominently on your website, marketing materials…

When someone asks what you do, you can quote a customer…For example, “Clients say we solve their ___ problems quickly and affordably”

Make it easy for others to talk about you
There are many great plug ins and tools that make it easy to share content from your website or blog. If the share buttons are always available next to your content, your audience is more likely to help spread the word, as it’s almost effortless. I love the Social Warfare plug in as it gives you many options to help people share your content including customized social media images, pre-populated tweets and posts.

Focus on the great work you do, and how you can solve problems and provide solutions. There are folks out there who really need your help and you are doing them a disservice by not letting them know about your services and solutions

Related Content:

How to Use HARO to Get Press

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Your Customer Experience Equals PR

Customer experience is a part of your PR. A very important component.

Studies have shown that there are two types of customers who talk about your brand and your business – ones that are raving fans and love you and those who are very unhappy with you or the experience they’ve had with your company.

What is the experience people have with your company?

Your customer experience equals PR for your brand

A few examples – Let’s start with the happy experience

Fat Witch Brownies, make the yummiest brownies I know. I like to send a box of their brownies as a gifts to help celebrate happy occasions and to thank business colleagues for referrals or other generous actions.

I had recently ordered a gift box of brownies to thank a business colleague for his help on a project, when they didn’t arrive at the recipient’s office, I found out that I had used the wrong address.

I called the Fat Witch and asked if there’s a way to check on where they had delivered my order to, and if there was a way to get them rerouted. I fessed up that I had made a mistake with the address. They said no, unfortunately they couldn’t trace the package, however they would gladly send the brownies again and only charge me the shipping. This had been my mistake, and yet they were willing to share some of the cost to resend my package.

Customers who encounter positive social customer care experiences are nearly 3 times more likely to recommend a brand. Source: HBR

The bad customer experience

I went online to use Haiku Deck, a presentation software that I had been using for awhile. After spending over an hour creating a new presentation I saved it and went to export it. A window popped up telling me that to export it into Powerpoint, I would have to upgrade to the paid version for $9.95. This was a new requirement, but I was fine with paying to use their service – that is until I completed payment and returned to my work area on Haiku Deck only to find that my hours worth of work hadn’t been saved.

Yes, technology is great when it works.

I was extremely frustrated, first about the the loss of time, but also that I had just paid and was now left with nothing. I contacted customer service whose response was that I had done something wrong. They had tested the software therefore I had done something wrong.

95% of dissatisfied customers tell others about their bad experience. Source : Dimensional Research.

Time lost in creating the presentation. Time lost talking to customer service. Not a happy camper. Now the mere mention or thought of Haiku Deck brings up the unpleasant experience, which is now imprinted on my brain.

71% of customers say that valuing their time is the most important thing a company can do to provide good service. Source: Forrester

Now back to how customer experience, and particularly customer service is part of your PR.

Public relations by definition is the practice of managing the spread of information between an individual or an organization and the public.

Consumers trust recommendations from friends and family, online reviews, and the media – in that order. Consumers make buying decisions based on recommendations online reviews and companies they read about in the media.

If your if your customers are going online and writing about you, posting on social media, or making recommendations to friends and family, what are they saying?

Remember, like me your customers remember the excellent and exceptional experiences and the terrible ones, and that’s what they will talk about.

I know which experience I want my customers to have and what I want my customers to be talking about.

The Fat Witch, has a made me even more of a raving fan. I just had to go and tell a few friends on social media to show my appreciation.

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Is It O.K. to Curse In Your Marketing?

Do you think about how you come across?

I know I do. I tend to lean towards being polite and professional – call it a bit old fashioned, but that is how I was raised. I have a humorous side that I am trying to let you see more of….. and in real life, I curse sometimes. But you haven’t seen cursing in my marketing.
How would you think of me if I cursed in my marketing? Would it offend you? Would you quickly unsubscribe?

Allow me to digress for a moment. Last week I attended the Entrepreneur Conference – Winning Strategies for Business with a keynote by branding expert Erika Napolitano.

A few of the things Erika said, which I loved, were “Never Apologize for Who You Are” and “I refuse to turn down my ambition because someone else is uncomfortable with the volume.”

Erika elaborated on how being yourself, even it if offends someone, brings you closer to your ideal customers; those who ‘get’ you and love you for exactly who you are.

Who doesn’t want to work with raving fans? Who needs customers who have you walking on egg shells? This really resonates with me, as it’s something I have been conscious of and striving for myself.

During the panel discussion Erika Napolitano, Chris Penn and Laura Fitton offered a lot of smart business insights and tips. There was also some cursing. Did I mind it? No.

It did get me wondering though. Was it necessary? We spent the drive home from the event talking about authenticity in marketing, how much of yourself you should reveal, and whether cursing is professional or even necessary.

I did get the sense that I was seeing Erika, Chris and Laura themselves – not a ‘manufactured for public’ version of themselves. I felt their authenticity, and that they were there with no holds barred and no information held back. It endeared me to them and also added a trust factor.

So cursing may not be for you. I don’t plan to start cursing in my marketing any time soon, however, I am striving to be more fully ME in my communication with you, as if you were sitting in front of me and we are having a conversation.

It’s not that I haven’t been authentic with you, I have. I think my own position about whether to curse in your marketing comes from having a notion that marketing is marketing, and my life is my life, and n’er the twain shall meet.

But life, and marketing aren’t like that. Have you noticed? There are lessons that each can learn from the other… and all business and none of me, doesn’t make it relatable. We want to work with people, and we want to have that “know, like and trust” feeling before deciding to do business with them.

So, feeling empowered about being myself, I was surprised to get a long email from someone who attended my webinar on Wednesday, telling me how I offended her.

I have to say, my initial response was good! I am being more of the Me I want to be in business.

Don’t get me wrong – my goal is not to make people feel uncomfortable or to be offensive just for the sake of being offensive. That would be professional suicide right?

What I had done was to be authentically me on the webinar. I had provoked such a strong reaction that this attendee felt compelled to let me know. This is why it’s a great thing on a few levels:

~ that they shared their feedback – I am sure they feel better, and I value the time they took as well as the information they shared

~ we both now know that we aren’t a fit to work together – that frees us both up to move onto prospects or service providers who are a better fit for each of us

By sorting out those who don’t get you, or are offended, you make room for those who do ‘get you’ and like your style. If you are busy worrying, there won’t be enough business left – you are going down the wrong rabbit hole. There is plenty of business around, made up solely of your raving fans.

To be authentic, I know I don’t need to curse, and neither do you. What you do need to do, for more engagement and deeper client relationships, is be yourself.

As Oscar Wilde said, Be Yourself – Everyone Else is taken.

It’s the best positioning you can have in your business and in your publicity!

How can you be more authentic in your own business and create more know, like and trust with your audience? I’d love to hear your feedback on this.

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Building More Relationships and Business Using Linked In Tagging Feature

The great debate amongst business friends of mine is about whether it is better to have a Linkedin network comprised of people that you actually know, or it’s better to have as many connections as possible. I don’t believe we’ll solve that debate today, as it’s a topic that people are pretty passionate about.

With the help of the tagging feature in Linkedin, you can benefit from employing both methodologies jointly. By being able to tag, or label your connections you have the ability to segment them into specific groups; one of which could be your ‘real connections’.

Tagging can be useful beyond segregating those you are personally acquainted with from those who you have not yet met or personally spoken to. It can turn your Linkedin account into a simple CRM system. Consider the following examples of potentially useful tags:

People I have spoken to: If you take the time to connect with and reach out to new people through Linkedin, it can be useful to track who you have spoken to. That way, you can build on the next interaction and deepen the relationship with this connection by referencing your prior communication, and not having to wonder if you had already spoken or risk offending a connection by not remembering your earlier conversation.

Ideal Prospects:
Business development and sales are most effective when you target ideal prospects and make them a priority. Identifying them can help you maximize your time and efforts in knowing which connections you want to spend time getting to know and cultivating relationships with.

Media:
Getting more publicity and visibility is part of your overall strategy – if its not, I probably don’t need to tell you it should be. Journalists, bloggers and folks who are active on social media, are also on Linkedin. This is another great way to not only build a list of media contacts, but to build relationships with them. That way when you have a story to pitch, you’ll have a warm network to offer first dibs on covering it. [tip – date before you propose…… build a relationship before you start to pitch them stories ]

Thought Leaders/Influencers:
You are probably already following some of your industry thought leaders and influencers. I use a tagged list of these connections to remind myself whose activity I want to check up on, so that I don’t miss any of their pearls of wisdom. I also use it when I need an interview subject, speaker, quote or tips for an article or event I am creating.

Interesting Profiles: For business or for fun, profiles that stand out can serve a few purposes; they can be examples of good LinkedIn profiles that grab your attention that you want to bookmark for future reference, or profiles of people you might like to get to know when your time permits.

Are you using tagging for another purpose? Let us know in the comments below

Here is how to get started tagging your Linkedin connections:

Build a Media List Linkedin Networking Social Media