This is a Social Influence methodology that I created while working for LinkedIn’s Corporate Solutions team. For business reasons, I have kept it close to my chest sharing it only on relevant client engagements and at certain key speaking events. Now that my consultancy (Freesource Agency) has reached a critical client mass I decided to practice what I have been preaching and simultaneously release it in my blog (I have also embedded a SlideShare deck for visual support)
So…
Nearly everyone is aware of LinkedIn groups and nearly every company has multiple alumni and generic “corporate” groups with their name emblazed on them, but in my experience, VERY few understand how to use groups to generate new business… want to know how? Keep reading…
The idea here is to get your customers to influence their networks to buy your product or service… at Freesource we call this, leveraging the “Human CPM”. When done correctly, your clients will become advertising beacons for your brand.
Take the case of one of my real clients, IT Acceleration. IT Acceleration provides specialty outsourced technology services and they have many satisfied clients and great relationships with the decision makers at those companies.
Every time one of their clients joins the group we created called “Satisfied Clients of IT Acceleration [IT Support & Digital Forensics]” the trusted network of that client (which could include hundreds of IT Acceleration’s prospects) will get a status update displaying their support of the services/product. Talk about hyper-targeted advertising with a social twist!
See example:
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GROUP UPDATES (1)
Kathie J. Smith joined the group Satisfied Clients of IT Acceleration [IT Support & Digital Forensics] Find a group for you » 18 hours ago
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Imagine the thought processes in the head of one of your prospects getting this update when he or she sees that your client has joined your group!
If you need help, try this:
“Wow! I didn’t know Kathie was using IT Acceleration for help desk support and I really am fed up with my provider, next time I talk to Kathie I will ask her about their program… actually, you know what, since I can already see that she endorses their services, I think I will just email the rep that used to call on me last year…”
Stop for a second and think about the power of this public endorsement – if you were able to get 10, 20, 50, or 100+ of your clients to join your “Satisfied Clients” group it could easily generate more ROI then any other of your traditional sales and marketing activities for the year!
Hello? Can you say inbound sales leads?
Other incredible benefits of doing this:
- Your clients publicly display your badge / logo on their profile
- Your clients can now see and communicate with each other inside the group
- As the group owner, you will be able to directly communicate with them 1 time per week through LinkedIn’s group owner InMail system (think about that!)
- Everyone will be able to post articles and start discussion threads
- Marketing materials! This is powerful information to be presenting on sales calls
HOW TO:
The process is simple and powerful and won’t cost you a dime (freesourcing baby!). There are only 2 requirements:
1. You must have satisfied clients (if you are in business this shouldn’t be a show stopper)
2. At least one of your satisfied clients needs to have a LinkedIn account… if you think they aren’t there think again! Chances are MANY of them are on LinkedIn as their community continues to grow at a rate of about 2 million new users a month – use the email integration tool to have LinkedIn cross-reference your address book to look for new potential connections.
The first step is to set up and name your group on LinkedIn. The key to this trick is the naming part… I suggest you use this convention:
“Satisfied Clients of <<Your Company Name>> [short explanation of product or services]”
The resulting group name would look like this:
“Satisfied Clients of ABC Corp [Specialty Accounting Solutions]”
Unless you have a MAJOR brand that everyone recognizes and your prospects require no explanation of what your services and products are, I highly suggest you clarify your company’s expertise/value proposition the brackets next to your name. Keep it short!
Next create a brief explanation for the group; something to this end will work:
“This group brings together the satisfied and distinguished clients of the ABC Corp. Thank you for joining… your support and endorsement is very much appreciated!”
Now upload your logo. If you can, don’t just upload your company logo… I suggest you create a version of your logo that clearly calls out the “satisfied client” distinction. LinkedIn has two different size placements for you group logo so create versions at a pixel ratio of 100×50 and 60×30 – if you don’t, you run the risk of LinkedIn presenting a fuzzy version of your logo.
See my example below:
The next step is to invite all of your satisfied clients into the group on LinkedIn – you can do this manually or upload a .CSV file.
The last step is to sit back and watch your group grow! You won’t believe what an impact this will make on your bottom line… (disclaimer: like SEO, this will take time!)
I have also uploaded a slide show visual representation of this process to SlideShare: http://bit.ly/6WmvL
The process/methodology I outlined above is a perfect example of what my company does – through social media, we help you leverage your past successes and current resources… please feel free to contact me or anyone on my team for more information on customized ways to tap into the power of the social web!
Cheers!
Nathan + The Freesource Team
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Nathan Egan
Founder & Managing Partner | Freesource Agency, LLC
484.732.8018
negan@freesourceagency.com
www.freesourceagency.com
www.linkedin.com/in/nathanegan
www.twitter.com/nathanegan
This is a simple and elegant idea. My question is, once the satisfied customers get there, what do they do? There should be some kind of information and exchange to enable a community or people will lose interest. Or, (shudder) is that even important once they wear the “badge?” I guess that is something your agency could provide?
One possible complication: in some B2B circumstances, customers would also compete against each other. They would strictly avoid participating in a forum with competitors.
There are so many angles and possibilities with this idea. In addition to validating sales leads, wouldn’t this type of forum be a tremendous source or new product ideas and service enhancements? My wheels are spinning on this one! : )
Thanks for sharing, Nathan!
Great observations Mark. A few thoughts:
“once the satisfied customers get there, what do they do?” I think the answer is here, as the group owner – what will YOU do to make this environment rewarding / beneficial for them as you use it as marketing collateral. This group isn’t meant to be its own social network in and of itself, it is a place for you to send special messages for everything from discounts and promotions to new product announcements.
“One possible complication: in some B2B circumstances, customers would also compete against each other.” Your thought process is correct and AND this type of group is not right for ALL of your customers… but based on your relational capital with some of your best clients, you should be able to get some of your customers to step in here and endorse your company’s services or product.
Cheers Mark! Thanks for contributing to the discussion!
Definitely a creative use of some form of “collateral” exposure. Very easy to implement as well. I could see how it is a numbers game though because many people don’t update their profiles, much less check out the groups of others. That is a usage problem with all these social platforms though.
There could be issues between employees and their employers because of naming conventions and the breadth of the reach… difficult to compartmentalize for geographic territories. This is excellent for smaller companies and sole proprietors.
May be problematic at some stages if it becomes a beacon or red flag for savvy competitors to go directly to the users of your service at a given organization. If they are in fact a fan though, it should be OK.