Janice Porter: Hi, everyone, and welcome to this week's episode
of relationships rule. I'm continuing my journey on my four
part solo series on relationship marketing and navigating your
year end connections and beyond. And this is episode three in
this series, we're going to talk about navigating your busy
networks and, and what I would call the holiday hustle. So
welcome. My last episode was a bit on the philosophical side.
And I have to admit it wasn't originally planned that way.
However, when I received the blog post from Seth Godin in my
inbox that day, it just inspired me to dig a little deeper and,
and talk about that. So I do hope that you enjoyed it, and
got some inspiration around the power of giving and receiving
generosity and gratitude, and gave it some food for thought.
My hope is that you begin to think about acting on your
promptings, sending unexpected cards to people in your network,
and paying close attention to details on things like your
LinkedIn profiles and websites that you can use as starting
points to build rapport easily with new connections and
prospects. Thinking how you may serve others, rather than
focusing on what's in it for me, will take you a long way, and
start to build that muscle until it feels so natural, you'll be
operating that way all the time. So now we're gonna take a look
at the importance of strategic networking during this busy
holiday season. With some practical strategies that can be
done easily show gratitude, and set you up with new prospects in
the new year. Let's start with LinkedIn networking tips. Number
one, take inventory of your existing connections, it's a
great time of year to do that. And here's a way that you can do
it. That might yield some new business for you. You can bring
up all your first level connections by going to your
mind networks page and listing your connections and hone in on
a particular type of prospect by using filters, perhaps using
Boolean search logic to create your optimal list. And if you
aren't familiar with Boolean search logic, then let me know
and I'll send you some information. It allows you to
cover more than one option for a name of a title for example, or
some other things that you might want to search by, then choose
one of your first degree connections. To do this, to do
this project with and look at their first degree connections.
Using your therefore your second degrees, and using filter
searches there as well have them do the same thing with your
first several connections. Review the names with each other
with the goal of making a few warm introductions for each
other. Maybe choose five or 10. To get started with. And that's
probably all you could ask somebody to do an introduction
for at one given time anyway, then let the magic begin, send a
threeway message introducing the person to your connection. And
you can ask me for a sample intro message if you like. This
strategy is a great proactive way to initiate and nurture new
connections for the new year. When you take inventory, you can
also identify those prospects, past clients and referral
partners that you may have ignored this past year, and
perhaps send them a mobile video message reconnecting and wishing
them well for the new year. Notice I said mobile video
message because in order to send a video message, you do have to
do it from your mobile device. And it just wanted to remind you
of that it will show up on people's desktops and laptops as
well when it's recorded. But to record it, you must do it on
your mobile device. When scrolling your newsfeed, Don't
be the person who just likes your connections posts. add
value to the conversation by taking the time to comment. So
you'll be noticed and seen for your expertise and leadership as
well. Number two, show gratitude to your LinkedIn network. You
can endorse your first degree connections for their skills,
although I only recommend this if you have experienced those
skills from that person recently and personally. So it is indeed
a sincere endorsement. You can share or repost someone's post
they will always appreciate that it gives them their their
comment there content, a new audience when it lands on your
profile or your newsfeed. So that's always appreciated. And
also you could give some recommendations to some Have
your most recent connections that you've worked with, for
example, or people that you know their character and so forth.
That's always a win win. When you recommend people without
being asked, it's amazing what happens, the law of reciprocity
always comes into play. And it might not be reciprocated by
that very same person. But it will happen, trust me, it's just
the law. Another fun thing you can do to recognize a person or
group is to give kudos. This is a feature that's not used very
often, but it can be very effective. And actually more so
when it isn't overused by you as well. To find how you can give
kudos to somebody, you would go to their profile, and just below
their headline and so on, you will see a more button and one
of the options there is to give kudos. It says that in LinkedIn
that you can use this feature three times a week, but I
actually think that's too much to be. To be honest, I think you
want to send it to your connections once in a while just
to make it stand out and make them stand out. Number three is
seeding new connections. I love New beginnings to you. While
it's time to direct your attention to the New Year and
being proactive to initiate and nurture new connections as the
year begins. LinkedIn can be leveraged for the new year by
doing strategic searches. As you decide what your goals are for
relationship marketing in the new year, you can begin to
search specifically for new connections that will help you
move towards those goals. Do you want to venture into new
geographic locations? Do you want to focus on working with a
specific industry, financial industry health and wellness
manufacturing specific types of entrepreneurs, coaches,
consultants, authors speakers, begin to create specific
targeted searches to find your target market or your ideal
market, and start to build a list on a spreadsheet perhaps,
of people to reach out and connect with. Remember to keep
your connection request note brief. Then when someone accepts
that's when the work begins to build the relationship. How many
new connections can you manage each week? How will you keep the
new connections moving forward. This is a great time of year to
plan your approach your target audiences and your tracking
methods for leverage leveraging LinkedIn to plant seeds for
fruitful relationships going forward. This is also a great
time of year to spruce up your LinkedIn profile for the new
year. So you will start the new year making a strong first
impression. This is the backbone of your presence on LinkedIn. So
remember, if you're busy putting up a lot of content on LinkedIn,
and you don't have your best foot forward with a fully
optimized magnetic profile, showing you in your best best
best light, then it may all be for naught. So now I want to
turn my thoughts to thoughtful gifting. Yes, this is the time
for gift giving. And gifts can be so many different things.
They can be unique time effective ideas that leave a
lasting impression on your clients and colleagues.
Sometimes it's good to shake it up and not do the same thing as
you have done year after year. It disrupts things doing
something new and it gets people talking. It makes them pay
attention. For example, I've already received two calendars
this year. Some print print calendars from two realtors that
have been sending them to me for years. Do you still use a print
calendar? I don't know. I just think it's time for a change
sometimes. There's a motto or credo from Send Out Cards, the
company that I'm partnered with that I love to share and that I
follow. Give to give send out to give. Create joy everywhere you
go. Be kind to those you come across today and all day. Every
day. Choose kindness, kind words kind of actions kind thoughts.
Every time you send a card or gift you are choosing kindness
and kindness matters. sending letters of appreciation,
recognition and joy. It matters. Every single card and gift you
send creates a ripple effect of kindness that reverberates over
and over again. As long as the kindness keeps going. That keeps
happening. Be the start of a kindness ripple in the lives of
your friends and family by sending them what I like to call
a hug. With the folded it.
There is a lot to think about an axon in this episode, and my
hope is that you begin to integrate something from each of
the ideas I've shared with you. Examine your existing
connections and shake the tree a little with those you haven't
spoken to for a long time, rekindle those relationships,
show gratitude to your connections, LinkedIn and out
and elsewhere. Even disrupt your usual urine process, send a
different message, send a Happy New Year card instead of a
Christmas card. Sometimes a small act like that will get
noticed and trigger a new and different response. Seed new
connections for next year, make this app activity part of your
daily and weekly operating procedure. Now I just like to
share a little quote with you that comes from an ancient
Chinese philosopher, Lao Tzu the founder of Taoism. He said
kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking
creates profoundness kindness in giving creates love. I like
that. So I will see you next week with the last episode in
this series in which we will take a look at sustaining those
relationship marketing habits, and how to look at how to be
consistent all year long. So thanks for listening, and if
something inspired you or if you have any questions about this
episode, please feel free to reach out. And in the meantime,
stay connected and be remembered