The Recycler Digital Marketing Column Issue 330

Value based networking on LinkedIn
The global non- stop professional business networking event.
▲ Zoltan Matyas, Founder
of PrintEvery Consulting
I often call myself a value networker. What
do I mean by that? Its quite simple. I love to
connect with people and I’m always looking
to bring value to my connections be it on- or
offline, business or private life. LinkedIn is
the new way of business networking in the
digital age and its one of my new favourite
place.
events and I do believe it brings real value so
here you have the essence of it in a written
form.
I truly believe LinkedIn is by far the most
interesting platform for our industry in
2020. In the last few years LinkedIn have
gone through an amazing transformation.
internet connection and some common
sense.
Does it worth your time? Let’s see some
numbers so you can decide.
The world total population is 7,75 billion
(counting children and elderly), unique
During Paperworld 2020 in Frankfurt a
few minutes before I went on stage to do
my presentation about LinkedIn strategy I
was having a conversation with someone at
the booth. I asked him if he has a LinkedIn
profile. He replied: “No, I don’t need one.
I’m not looking for a job”. That was the
moment when I decided to write this article.
Right after making that decision I basically
begged him to come and listen to me for the
next 45 minutes on stage. I must confess
he did for about 20 minutes and then left…
many others stayed.
Without a doubt my all-time favourite
presentation to give is the one about
LinkedIn. It’s because it’s both strategical
and at the same time gets down to real tactics
and practicality. I even share a working
immediately applicable strategy at the end of
it. Email me if you are interested.
The first version I did at the Recycler Live
event in Brussels and in January I did an
update at Paperworld. Both had great
feedback. Since many of you who are reading
The Recycler magazine did not attend these
I truly believe LinkedIn is by far the most
interesting platform for our indurtry in 2020.
From a job search platform, it converted itself
to a content distribution platform.
I often refer to it as Facebook for adults (okay
business people). It definitely has the scale
and the amount of attention that is required
to make a real difference. If we all manage
to use it correctly and efficiently it will not
only benefit each individual and businesses
who use it but it can potentially connect us
in a way that will raise our industry profile
and ultimately makes us a stronger business
community. And I’m not even talking about
its available premium tools and features and
groups, just the real basics.
What is LinkedIn? Well I came up with
the following definition (not patented yet)
“Linkedin is a huge global never-ending
virtual business networking event… and
guess what ITS FREE!” All you need is an
mobile phone users 5.19 billion (penetration
of 67%), iInternet users 4.54 billion (59%
penetration) and active social media users 3.8
billion (49% penetration).
2020

The latter two has been growing 7 and 9.2%
respectively in the last 12 months. So, what
does that tell us? All your customers are
online. If you are not you are out of the room
and don’t hear the conversation.
LinkedIn has 610 million members and 303
million active users per month, 40% of which
visit it daily. More than half of all LinkedIn
traffic comes from a mobile device. 90%
of LinkedIn members use Facebook – this
is to the ones saying Facebook is not for
my business…. (he chuckles). LinkedIn is
home to over 30 million companies today.
However, not every company manages a
page. LinkedIn automatically generates
company pages when a user adds work
experience within an organisation or when
an organisation posts a job.
The LinkedIn audience is quite different
from other social media platforms, with
more than one-third of its members in upper
management positions. According to the
latest LinkedIn statistics, 2019 counts 90
million senior-level influencers, 63 million
decision makers, and another 6 million
decision makers from the IT sector.
Among LinkedIn’s members, there are
also 17 million opinion leaders, 10 million
C-level executives, and 40 million mass
affluent members. The percentage of
premium LinkedIn users currently stands
at 39%, while 61% of members are still
satisfied with the basic free accounts.
(Source: https://99firms.com/blog/linkedinstatistics/#gref)
I could continue with more stats but I’m
pretty sure you can also find them on google.
My point here is simple. If you are not on
LinkedIn, you are missing out on business
opportunities big time. If your company
does not have a company page and not
leveraging the reach and visibility of its
employees’ professional network it is missing
out. Can you afford it?
LinkedIn is one of the best content
distribution channels out there. 91% of
marketing executives list LinkedIn as top
source to find relevant and quality content.
LinkedIn is the No. 1 channel B2B marketers
use to distribute content. It is by far the
largest and most efficient lead generation
platform this world ever seen. Does your
business need a stable flow of relevant and
highly qualified business leads?
Believe it or not LinkedIn drives more traffic
to blogs and sites than Twitter and Facebook
combined. Over 80% social platform
90 million senior-level influencers, 63 million
decision makers, and another 6 million decision
makers from the IT sector.
generated leads come from LinkedIn.
Does your company site need traffic?
So how exactly does this platform work and
how can you make it work for you? To the
task and clarify the mindset needed I always
say: “Think about LinkedIn as a room
full of business people where you have the
opportunity to be part of the conversation.”
Its basics and a pinch of common sense…
listen, think and talk. Bring value to others,
connect and network.
When we talk about LinkedIn we must
mention the word social selling. What is
social selling? It is a sales process which
outperforms older selling methods by
leveraging all the varied benefits of social
media platforms to reach traditional sales
objectives more efficiently.
Social selling can help you
1. Find new customers
2. Connect with existing customers
3. Understand your customers
4. Nurture possible sales prospects
5. Keeping your brand at the forefront
of your followers’ minds
If you have social media profiles in active
use, then, you’re already using the basics
of social selling. Obviously like everything
in business, if you take and analytic and
strategic approach you have better chances to
reach your goals instead of shooting random
posts in the dark about how great you are.
Then there are the two secret ingredients that
drive Linkedin. First is the algorithm which
decides what content is being shown to who
and when. (By the way organic post reach on
LinkedIn is by far the best compared to any
other social network today). Second is the
social selling index which ranks profiles and
decides whose professional profile is stronger
than others.
If you have a profile you can go ahead and
check yours. To check out your SSI you need
to be logged into your LinkedIn account and
then follow this link. https://www.linkedin.
com/sales/ssi
In case you don’t, here is a screenshot of
mine so you understand that you are being
measured and scored like an asset:
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The SSI algorithm monitors profile quality
and completeness, use of tools, frequency
of activity, quality of activity, engagement
(likes, shares and comments on your posts),
quality of connections, acceptance and
many many more secret aspects…
The better you use the platform the better
the platform will treat you.
Then there is the big beast the LinkedIn
sales navigator. An app that allows you to
build a reliable qualified lead pipeline by
identifying and allowing you to engage with
real time leads who are connected to your
network. Here are a few facts about sales
navigator:
1. It has a short learning curve and easy to
get started
2. It is simpler than what you do now to get
qualified leads
3. Helps leveraging your LinkedIn network
in a new way
4. Advanced search with lead builder
5. Lead recommendations
6. Real time updates, lists and more...
You can get the app going for a price of
€61.97 ($67.63) per month per user and
believe me it’s worth every cent. BUT, if
you are just starting to get familiar with the
strategic use of LinkedIn you really don’t
need if for now.
Before signing up and start paying and even
before you start engaging with potential
connections make sure your profile is up to
the task and helps you to reach your goals
otherwise it will not work.
Here are some practical tips for the profile as
promised:
• LinkedIn ranks very high on Google, that
is the reason if you Google someone’s name
you will most likely get his or her LinkedIn
profile right on the top of the Google
search result page. If you want to be visible
on Google then have a good profile with
keywords relevant to you. Over 25 million
LinkedIn profiles are viewed every day on
Google.
• Show that you care and personalise your
profile url. It’s very easy to do and gives a
professional shareable link to your profile
that again indexes your name on Google. I
will not explain how. Just Google: “How to
personalise my LinkedIn url” and follow
the steps.
• You can upload multimedia to your
LinkedIn profile and to each section of
your experience. You can link a file or even
a video. .pdf, Power point, word txt, .jpg,
.png, .bmp and even in .gif format.
• Have an effective headline and a good
summary. Don’t talk about yourself in
3rd person. Use common sense and think
about how you would introduce yourself
during a live networking event.
• Include call to actions in your profile. Lead
visitors to do what you want them to do.
Connect, email me, message me, visit my
site…etc
• Write articles. The LinkedIn article
platform is extremely powerful to share
your long form thoughts and ideas. It will
tray there forever for everyone to read and
will index high on Google. It is much more
effective than blogging on a site nobody
reads.
• Recommend people and get
recommendations.
• There are many more and I encourage you
to Google around and see “how to make a
LinkedIn profile effective”.
And finally let me attack the most often
asked question I find when I talk about
LinkedIn. Who should I connect with? Who
should I accept as a connection?
Well there is no right or wrong answer to
that and it must be a personal decision.
What I can and will do is share the 3 most
common human approaches and tell you
which one I agree with.
1. “The Open Networker” approach - the
more connection the better it is. Connect to
absolutely everybody and use the number
of connections as a measure of success. The
goal is 50.000+ connections and to be a
proud LION (Linked In Open Networker)
2. The Closed Networker - not connecting
to anyone unless they sit together, eat
together, shake hands and actually like each
other. Nobody else can connect.
3. The Value Networker - a value-based
connection philosophy. Somewhere in
the middle of the two, based on a simple
question. Can we add value to each other’s
world? If the answer is a yes, we should
connect.
Before signing up and start paying and even
before you start engaging with potential
connections make sure your profile is up to the
task and helps you to reach your goals.
I think if you read a bit between the lines
and maybe you even know me, you already
know the answer. I’m a Value networker.
Are you? ■
Zoltan Matyas
Zoltan Matyas is a Digital Marketing
and Sales specialist in the independent
imaging industry with over 15 years
of front-line sales experience. He is
a regular contributor in industry
publications and speaker at industry
events.
You can connect with him on
LinkedIn or email him at zoltan@
printevery.com.
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