The majority of my clients are using social media such as Facebook and LinkedIn, and some of them are starting to embrace Twitter and YouTube as well.
When asked about their strategy and plan for using the tools as part of their pursuit of a new career or getting new clients to their business, very few can provide a crisp reply.
My next question reveals the truth: Most of them are just keeping their profile above water, staying in touch with people they already know and there seems to be little effort put into a solid description of who they are, what they love doing and whom they would like to interact with in the future when looking for a new career or new clients.
In summary, there seems to be a huge potential for boosting their personal brand and positioning themselves as a unique candidate for a job…or why not as the obvious service provider to future clients.
Reflecting back on 2010, I was astonished to see that in fact 20 out of my first 25 coaching clients were the results of my LinkedIn efforts. I had the best selling force available there is: My connections! They know me, they know their own connections, and this resulted in the numbers above over a period of 3 months. My effort? I built my LinkedIn network based on my own criteria and then carefully selected among my connections. I sent 1 mail to all of them, and told them what I was offering. That’s it! In fact, some of my connections returned themselves and hired me as their coach after listening to the experience of their connections.
The power of relationship building when leveraging social media such as LinkedIn is incredible, but in order to succeed You need a strategy and a plan. When listening to my clients, I know that the real challenge has little to do with understanding LinkedIn functionality. The real challenges lie within the area of visibility and limiting beliefs. I found that my clients’ challenges were so similar, that I decided to turn my experiences into a LifeVille group coaching game. In LifeVille, all participants are playing their game, supported by me as a coach as well as by their co-players. From playing other coaching games in the past myself, I know there will be excitement, resistance, insights…and FUN. All the typcial requirements of any great game in life.
What would it mean to You, if You could boost Your personal brand in 28 days?
2 Comments
Michelle Hunter January 30, 2011
This is very encouraging to hear, Katy! Many friends and fellow freelance colleagues quiz me on how effective my social media activities are. I spend a lot of time building up my networks, linking all the places in which I’m present (and active) and keeping an eye on what others are doing (so I can learn from them and gain more knowledge of what’s “out there”). I really enjoy it, luckily, because actual business has yet to come in. That being said, I feel my efforts are about to pay off; my social media activities are on the boil! By working out an actual strategy for proactively managing the networks I’ve built up, as you suggest, I’m going to reap the rewards.
Keep up the good work. Thanks.
Yours,
Michelle
CoachKaty January 30, 2011
Hi Michelle,
thanks for sharing! It’s all about building relationships…and this takes time, in both real as well as virtual worlds. So many people are expecting an immediate result. Let me know how it goes, and good luck to you in harvesting from your time investment!
Coach Katy
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