Post-pandemic business strategies. What are yours? Did your business plans pre-pandemic include a top-secret business tactic that would allow you to thrive no matter the environment? If yes, then this blog isn’t for you – and I need to be reading your articles instead!
Personal lives, professional lives, business, etc. has been changed since COVID-19; but such is evolution. The question is: “How can we now aide our business in flourishing moving forward?”
Now that our world is (hopefully) more sanitized, but still health compromised – we are still limited to the in-person meetups that we (especially sales professionals) once got to attend at a drop of a hat. “Free after work? Great, lets connect at the happy hour in midtown!” – are conversations that come far and few in between. But social media, LinkedIn specifically, in 2022 has gone from a supporting role to lead actor when it comes to networking and getting in front of business opportunities.
LinkedIn – the B2B social network. Allowing professionals and companies to interact across the U.S., showcasing business updates, personal career achievements, and more; there are 4 areas of business activities that using LinkedIn has majorly impacted. Becoming proficient in these 4 areas is key to making a big difference in your ROJE – “Return on Job Efforts” …yes, I just made that up and yes, it’s corny: but we’re rolling with it!
1. Social Listening: Are you doing your research/due diligence on your customers, vendors, partners, and prospects? They’re all posting news that’s up to date based on their interests. Hello! Talk about getting the inside scoop from the ice cream man himself by doing a little digging of your own (so many unintentional puns). This is FREE information on who you’re trying to engage with.
While drinking your morning cup of joe and adjusting your work-from-home space (before my new home office, it was my kitchen counter); be sure to open your LinkedIn news feed and read it like the daily paper or like those TikTok videos everyone is becoming obsessed with watching.
Then interact! Comment or start a dialogue with what interests you on your news feed. You never know where or who your next opportunity will come from. You can even get personal and take it off LinkedIn and shoot the person an email or direct message on the topic – ICE BREAKER!
2. Social Influencing: No, I am not suggesting that you become the next best social media model, but since networking cocktails after work is still off the table for most; you can certainly post or create an article about a new topic on your own social platform. Found an interesting article? Cite the link and then post your thoughts to open a discussion.
This puts you in the position as a thought leader and showcases your expertise, involvement, and relevance. Post your real thoughts and see how many engagements you get!
3. Social Networking: It’s silly if we’re using any social media platform that was created for virtually social networking if we aren’t actually socializing or creating opportunities for engagement on our own accounts.
Did you meet someone interesting on your Zoom/Teams call today? Connect with that person on LinkedIn to learn more about them. With social networking you can “meet” more people today in 2 minutes than you could in a month, last century.
4. Social Selling: While you probably won’t close a complex B2B deal on social platforms directly, what you can and will do is start opening the door by engaging with prospects that leads to pipeline and then more direct conversations. There’s an 80% chance that your next sale is in your own network. Use your network to stay top of mind by flooding your connection’s news feeds with your updates. How many of us can say that some of our clients are our personal connections? We all know that growing professionally is about expertise, personal intelligence, and who you know.
Get out there, get connecting, get engaging, and get to posting!
At Leadarati, we can help you use social media to find opportunities within your business network. Our Social Business Opportunity training can get you or your team optimized on LinkedIn and ready to do social networking–without a temperature check.