I was honored to be a guest on Alex Mandossian's Marketing Online weekly hangout. In case you don't know Alex, he's been a virtual presentation master for over a decade. He's hosted more virtual online events than anyone, logging over 10,000 hours.

Here's the replay of our hangout, Principles of Lead Generation on LinkedIn.

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Here's the full transcript:

Getting Massive Online Exposure From LinkedIn

(Enhanced Video Transcript from www.MarketingOnline.com/ted)

Alex: You are here for one reason.

It's a reason that every author has been chasing from the beginning of time, ever since books were published. It's a reason that every speaker wants more of and just can't get it because they don't know how.

It's a reason that every trainer who does live trainings needs it badly and wants to learn how to do it, but really doesn't know how to do it.

It's a problem that everyone faces because you can't become a social influencer without this.

In fact, without this, you can't create a legacy, you can't make money to live into the dreams and lifestyle that you wish, and you won't be able to influence others to promote you.

What is this thing?

It's one word. I believe it's the thing that everyone chases and fails to do on a daily basis. No more chasing.

It's called EXPOSURE.

Getting exposure is necessary before getting a click.

Getting exposure is necessary before a re-tweet, before a comment, before sharing, before getting on Hangout, before getting on video or audio or even transcribing.

You need exposure first before. Before you build your list, you need exposure. Before you get a sale, you need exposure. With more exposure and massive exposure, you have social influence.

Oprah Winfrey has it — massive exposure, massive social influence. His Holiness, the Dalai Lama has it — massive exposure, massive social influence. You don't even need to be rich to have exposure.

The Dalai Lama is not physically rich. He pays himself $10 a day, but his wealthy. Wealth is what happens when all the money is not there, but you still have it.

Mahatma Gandhi was wealthy. Dr. Martin Luther King was wealthy. Just go into history. Whether it's wealth in the form of money or wealth in the form of mental, spiritual, emotional wealth, bottom line is if you have more of this, more exposure will get you more of what you want including social influence.

What we are focused on today is getting exposure on what we believe and what this platform believes to be the most powerful publishing platform on earth, and that is LinkedIn.

We are going to talk about the principles of getting massive exposure on LinkedIn. There's a banner you see on all G+ Event Pages, which is on my Google+ page during my weekly hangouts.

It’s an indication of coopetition because of two new media platforms. Those platforms are: Google+, and we're talking about LinkedIn, principles of getting massive exposure on LinkedIn.

In this brief training, you will learn how to…

1) Discover 4 tips to supercharging your LinkedIn business profile.Why business profile? It’s super important because it defines who you are.

2) Avoid 5 social networking hazards when getting found on LinkedInbecause if you avoid these hazards, you’ll win by not losing

3) Learn the 3 tested tactics to get more pre-qualified leads, which are prospects on LinkedIn.

Look, it doesn’t matter if you're a serial entrepreneur, service professional, no matter what business you're in, business-to-business, business-to-consumer, even business-to-government, LinkedIn is the most precise platform, yet they don't have the engagement they deserve like Facebook.

Right here and right now, we’re going to focus on why!

Before I invite my guest, who I'm grilling, my name is Alex Mandossian and the reason why I've earned the right to bring this content to you is I have over 22,000 hours of training time, which makes me a master virtual presenter. What makes me a master is being a disaster along the way.

What I know to be true is what Bucky Fuller and Albert Einstein used to say:“Mistakes are the great, the more I make, the smarter I get!”

All my mistakes and all the money I've lost along the way, I've learned what not to do, and that's what has earned me the right to bring this guest to you and why I'm known for Marketingonline.com.

Now let’s turn to the difference between principles versus tactics.  As a marketer online, I like to focus to principles because they are immutable. Principles don't get old. That's why the title is principles.

Right?

Tactics are great, but they can get old. Email spamming was a tactic around 1995 and it worked really, really well, and then it got old. A principle is utilizing video as root content and repurposing it into audio and then into the written word.

Honestly, I don’t know how you're consuming this content right now, but I do know you may be consuming it reading, listening, or viewing. That's a principle because it is 3 formats of repurposing, with one piece of content.

This is really starting to make sense, right?

Then there’s contrast of new media versus traditional media. Traditional media is television and radio and newspapers. The thing about traditional media is it's very expensive and it’s hard to access and not sustainable. If you're on Good Morning America, you're on 4 minutes, and you're gone!

You already know it’s very difficult to get on TV, so the speed is slow and sometimes, content providers give up. The cost is very high. You’ve got to work hard and there’s very little tracking or testing to improve results.

With new media, which we're on right now … it's faster, it's a lot more track-able. You're on for 40 minutes instead of 4 minutes. It's very, very exciting when you have your message and new media matched.

That's what we're here to talk about. We're going to teach you how to get massive exposure. Here are the key words: massive exposure. My guest is Ted Prodromou. He is usually hanging out from Marin County CA, where I typically hangout from as well.

Alex: Ted, welcome. What gives you the right to talk about this content?

Ted:  I've been living on LinkedIn for the last 4 years. I like to dig in to stuff. I've been doing this online marketing stuff forever, search engine optimization. I like to figure stuff out. I was just figuring out how LinkedIn works, what changes I can use to get more clients. I only spend 15 or 20 minutes a day is the best part.

Alex:  Ted does a lot of business on LinkedIn. It's his preferred platform of choice. He has nothing against Facebook or Twitter He even wrote a book about Twitter. And he does work on Google+ and other media platforms, but LinkedIn is Ted’s primary and preferred platform.

If you’re reading this carefully, take note here: You must prioritize your social media platform preferences.

That's really tip number 1.

If you have more than 3 priorities, then you don't have any priorities says Jim Collins, a well-known author. Think about that one. Do you have a prioritized social media platform?

So let's start with LinkedIn and why LinkedIn profiles are so important. What makes the profile ultra, ultra important for LinkedIn and most people's profiles just are not good at all?

Ted:  If you have a LinkedIn account, people are looking at your profile, whether you know it or not.

You can even see people who viewed your profile. If you don't have a good picture and you don't have it complete, then you're making a terrible first impression on people, and they'll probably click away and never come back to your profile.

Alex:  First, people who go online look at your profile on LinkedIn even if you don't utilize it, if you just kind of started it.

If you haven't completed it, that's bad not only for you, but for Google as well because Google is not going to give you the ranking that you deserve if you haven't completed your LinkedIn profile.

That's a fact.

Second, people are looking at a half-baked profile and, if they're going to see it physically or if they're going to reach out to you, there's more information on LinkedIn about you than you would find on Facebook or Google+ or any other new media platform.

Would you agree?

Ted:  Correct. Yeah, it's like if you had a half-finished website for your business. It doesn't leave a good impression.

Alex: What are 4 tips to supercharge any LinkedIn profile, assuming you have a profile. Let's focus on 4 ways to supercharge them.

Ted:  The first thing people see is your profile picture. You need to have a professional headshot. Don't pick a cropped picture from where you're standing at a wedding or something or you can see people are cut out of them, or don't do “selfies” with really bad lighting.

Just spend the money and get a professional headshot done.

Alex:  This is your picture and this is you. Correct?

Ted:  Correct.

Alex:  Great. I'm going to go to me now. You don't have to be gentle. Is this is a professional headshot or is that too close, close up? What do you think?

Ted:  (Looking at Alex’s LinkedIn picture). See, it's a little … It looks like it's the wrong size, so you're kind of distorted.

Alex: Is there a size that's ideal?

Ted:  You got to test it with browsers, but they fit it in pretty well, square photo. A 250 by 250 works fine.

Alex: Excellent. What's tip number 2 to supercharge your profile?

Ted:  Right below your name and your profile, LinkedIn will stuff in your job title and where you work by default. That's where you can put your little tagline out there in front of millions of people.

I use like your USP, or unique selling proposition, or your tagline. It just grabs people's attention instantly.

Alex:  I'm going to change my profile.  Your tagline or USP says, Ted Prodromou, America's Leading LinkedIn Coach.  Mine could say something like this: Alex Mandossian, World’s Leading Virtual Presenting Coach.

It could be something like that. Then, here, you have accelerated sales using LinkedIn and social selling, a bestselling author, Ultimate Guide to LinkedIn for Business, and then Search Marketing Simplified. You have all of these things up front. This is your landing page. Correct?

Ted:  Correct.  It's kind of like a Google ad. It shows up all over LinkedIn, that section, and the sidebar.

Alex:  Then you have a post here that says, “Live LinkedIn Hangout With Alex Mandossian.” That's what we're doing right now. You can even broadcast LinkedIn through a Google Hangout using 2 media sources.

Ted:  Correct.

Alex:  Awesome. What is tip number 3?

Ted:  Tip number 3, in your summary, which is part of your profile, some people don't even put their summary, but a lot of people will just repeat their job experience there.

People are going to scan through your profile. People don't read in great detail unless it grabs their attention. I like to grab their attention.

Tell a story. Tell the story of how you got to where you are in your career, why you're passionate about what you do or why you became an author or a speaker or a coach or whatever your profession is.

Don't just repeat your job history there. That's your chance to really grab their attention.

Alex:  I'm going to your page again. Where do I find the summary?

Ted:  There's the summary right there.

Alex:  Okay, so, if you're not getting the results you want from LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Google, let me help.

Okay, so that starts with the problem solution. Hey, there's my friend Jay Abraham, look at that, and Viveka and Ryan Deiss. They're all here.

Ted:  See, that's why your professional headline is so important. See where it shows up on the sidebar?

Alex:  Yes. Absolutely.  I know all these folks. That's awesome. Perry Marshall. There he is. Then you put, “Schedule a time with me at Ted Prodromou with your number or your URL,” and then there's a phone number here.

That looks like an interactive text response number. Is that going to a text or is that your personal number?

Ted:  No. There's no interaction, except the links to schedule an appointment on mobile devices do. You can click them now, but not on desktop yet.

Alex:  Awesome. Do people actually look you up from the summary?

Ted:  Yes. I get phone calls from people who say, “Hey, I found your phone number in your summary. I just want to find out what you do.”

Alex:  Okay, and then you're telling me that people just kind of peruse through this summary. This your third tip. What else do they do and what's the fourth tip?

Ted:  The fourth tip is use keywords in there. It's just like a website. LinkedIn is just a search engine, so you want to use keywords that you'd be found under Google and LinkedIn, too.

Alex:  Give me example of keywords that are very relevant for you, because people kind of get foggy with keywords. I don't know my keywords and I don't know what they should be. What are some of yours that are notable?

Ted:  LinkedIn coach is one that I go for.

Alex:  Okay, so LinkedIn coach, here it is right there. Okay, what else?

Ted:  Social media strategist and online lead generation.

Alex:  Oh, so there are 3 keywords right here. Right?

Ted:  Yes.

Alex:  Okay. Now let’s start with 3, LinkedIn coach, okay? I would be virtual presenter coach. A social media strategist, I could be that, too; or, maybe anonline lead generation expert.

Okay. These are keywords, and then they're looking you up. How do these people find you? Is it through the search in LinkedIn here, through the search engine?

Ted:  Exactly. You search LinkedIn coach.

Alex:  Okay, and then don't go too deep because people will be wondering how to do it specifically. We don't want to do that, but when they're choosing keywords, should you be looking up other people that you want to be like and model them so you know what keywords people are looking for?

Ted:  Yes. Look at your competitors or your colleagues and see what keywords they're targeting.

Alex:  Let me give you a 3-part formula that we teach for our Master Virtual Presenters.

Step 1:  Modeling. Model someone that you want to be like. In other words, if they gave you their business, who would you want that person to be? For me, it would be someone like Seth Godin in the marketing world, Guy Kawasaki in the publishing world and then there’s Malcolm Gladwell in the authorship or book publishing world.

Those 3 people are social influencers. I want what they want. I don't have what they want. They have more social influence and exposure than me, so I want to model them, and I would look to see what they're saying so that I have a sense of getting to them faster.

Would that be a good strategy, Ted, modeling?

Ted:  Definitely. It's the easiest way to get there.

Alex:  Okay, and then, as it relates to Modeling – that is “being, who do you want to be,” the next step is about “doing” and it’s called “marketing.”

Step 2: Marketing. This step is simple to understand, but not easy to master. Yet you only need to know 3 things: your market, your message and the media sources you’ll utilize. (With “media” we are talking about new media in the form of LinkedIn).

Then, the final step is Monetizing. That's making money, but it’s also about “having.” We don’t want to start from having – doing – being. That's how most people do it. Once I have the money or buy the media, then I can be the person I want to be. That doesn't work.

It's being – doing – having, or the be-do-have mindset, which is probably 2,500 years old. That's a little tip on how you can proceed with the M3 Methodology, modeling, marketing, and monetizing.

Step 3: Monetizing. It’s about making money. It’s about getting more visibility and exposure. It’s about getting more marketing reach. And ultimately, it’s about leaving a memorable and sustainable legacy!

Let's talk about mistakes, why mistakes can be great. For me, mistakes are great because the more I make, the smarter I get. I say that often on stage. I like learning from other people's mistakes.

I think fools learn from their own mistakes because you keep learning again and again. If you make the same mistake, great, and you learn, but if you learn from other people's mistakes, you can accelerate your growth.

When I hire a consultant, I start with “what are the biggest mistakes I should avoid.” That way, I'm not doubling up. Why are mistakes important to you, Ted, in general?

Ted:  We're all going to make mistakes, of course, so you want to just learn from them and move on. Obviously, we've all made a lot in our life.

Alex:  Let's talk about mistakes, 5 social network hazards that's a mistake, right, when you're found on LinkedIn. Get this. You're found on LinkedIn and, now, there are some hazards there because you're looking worse now that you're found. What are some of the hazards … Hazard number 1?

Ted:  You talked about this when we were having coffee a couple of weeks ago and it just really resonated with me. LinkedIn is like a library and Facebook is like a playground, so you need to act accordingly.

When you're on Facebook, you can have fun and joke with people and post your vacation pictures. When you're on LinkedIn, you need to be professional. People are kind of over stuffy, actually.

Trying to get people to interact on LinkedIn is difficult. At my LinkedIn classes, I have a Facebook group instead of a LinkedIn group because nobody will interact on LinkedIn.

Alex:  That's a good point. We have a Master Virtual Presenter Facebook group. My sense is, on LinkedIn, they're not going to engage with us in LinkedIn. They'll read stuff. They'll be one-to-one, but they won't go many-to-many.

We sit on the Facebook for that because it's a big party. Maybe we can change that with broadcasting like we're doing most recently, and that at least one-to-many engagement we'll get some comments and things. That's the first hazard, right?

What's number 2?

Ted:  The second one is people come to LinkedIn to build relationships and network. We've all gone to conferences or networking events where people introduce themselves and start selling to you right away.

You got to build that relationship first, so focus on building relationships with people on LinkedIn. Don't sell something.

Alex:  One of my mentors in the world of business is Ivan Misner. He started Business Network International. He sold the business. He's a good friend of mine. He's a mentor of mine. We mastermind together.

What Ivan taught me is VCP, visibility, credibility, profitability. You can't go from IVCP, which is invisibility to profitability, because then there's another “I” before invisible that's called irritability.

You don't want to be irritating. You get visible. Start interacting. You want to date. You don't want that one night’s stand. It's exciting, but it doesn't work, not for long term.

Then, credibility, you build credibility like I'm hoping we're doing in this recording, and then profitability. How long does it take, Ted, with your strategy sessions or your marketing funnel to get a client typically?

Ted:  Funny you should ask that. Somebody asked me that the other day. I got 7 new clients last week by just engaging with new connections and sending them 2 messages, and we had a phone conversation.

Alex:  Okay. How fast a timeframe was that? Now, I heard that you use a very effective template to enroll them, but, besides that, maybe you can talk about that just a little bit. Oh, wait a minute, who's that guy? Who's the guy that I see up there?  It looks like Alex Mandossian …

Ted:  Yeah, who's that guy?

Alex:  There we go. This is self-promotion. No. The bottom line is you got them within a week. Yes?

Ted:  Oh, within 24 hours.

Alex:  Okay, so tell us about the process. Tell us the funnel process because it's not a hazard. That's definitely a way to go.

Ted:  Yes. I just search for people. LinkedIn is a search engine, so I search for job titles or company sizes. I have my ideal client profile that I search for and job titles, and I find people.

I invite them to connect and then, once we connect, I have this welcome message I send them, and I engage them there and I send them to my website where I pixel them like you taught me to do.

I have a Facebook audience, the Google audience. I can re-target them, but, most of the time, a phone conversation happens within 24 to 48 hours.

Alex:  A pixel is kind of like the atom to an organism. It's kind of like just 1 dot in the whole matrix of a picture on a website. That little pixel can do re-targeting, which is a word that comes up a lot these days, on Facebook. Your ads will show up. You have to purchase them, but they will show up wherever they go after they've been “pixeled.” Is that accurate?

Ted:  Correct.

Alex: Okay, and you can do that on Google as well. Correct?

Ted:  Correct. I didn't have to get to that stage though. Within 24 hours, we filled up my calendar.

Alex:  Your results may vary if you are listening or watching or reading. Now, the next question is what's the next hazard to avoid?

Ted:  The next hazard is, I used to teach this years ago when I taught social media, you create a tweet or something and you blast it to Google or you blast it to Facebook, the same message everywhere.

LinkedIn, people respond different, so don't send the same message to people on Facebook or Twitter as you do on LinkedIn. Modify it for the business audience.

Alex:  How would you modify it? You don't say, “Hey, dude.” What's the difference in the vernacular that you would use?

Ted:  Yeah, because I know most of the people on LinkedIn that are reading my content are usually in sales or they're financial advisers, people that are selling high-end services or products, so I structure it, so how to get more leads, how to get more appointments, how to fill your calendar in 24 hours, those kind of things.

That piques their interest.

Alex:  Okay. Is there another hazard you want to share?

Ted:  Sure. Let's see here. Interact with people. Like we go to coffee. Pretend the person is sitting across the room. People just talk to me, “I don't know what to do on LinkedIn. I don't know how to engage people,” and I say, “You're engaging with me right now.

Pretend we're friends and we're just having a conversation. Don't try to tell to them. Don't present you're someone else. Be yourself and just engage like it's a friend.”

Alex:  Great. Great hazards to avoid, and they’re super-simple. Those are kind of like the 20% of the hazards that eliminate 80% of the problems, so please go back and review those.

What does tested really mean? That's our next set of tips here. Tested to me means, it's a name that's thrown around a lot, it's a word that's thrown around, tested, tested, time-tested, that to me means I've been embarrassed as the thought leader, so you don't have to be as the follower.

That means I've lost money as the marketer, so really don't have to lose any money as the student. That's means I've looked bad in public as a speaker trainer so that you don't have to once you do the same thing that I'm doing.

That's what tested means.

These are 3 tested tactics. A tactic I mentioned earlier, that may change, so make sure that you utilize these tactics quickly. It's to get more pre. These are pre-qualified leads.

Pre-qualification prevents rejection. That's how you protect your confidence is pre-qualifying. It's better to spend 80% of your time pre-qualifying and sell 20% of the time versus selling 80% of the time, which most people do, and pre-qualify only 20%. They jump to the solution way too fast, most salespeople.

LinkedIn is the world's best social media platform of all time, whether you use it or not, to pre-qualify because there's so much information. Give me 3 tested tactics, Ted.

Ted:  The first is you have to be consistent. I spend 15 to 20 minutes every morning. I just log in. I'll add some connections. I'll reply to some emails. I'll share a comment. If somebody else posted a comment, I'll like it and comment and share it. I just focus on being consistent, 15 to 20 minutes a day. Your profile views will skyrocket.

Alex:  Okay. What else?

Ted:  The next thing is always send a welcome message after you connect. I used to teach when you invite people, send a custom message, but LinkedIn has removed that ability when you do connections on mobile devices. About 60% of the people are using mobile devices on LinkedIn now. I just connect with people and I send them this unassuming welcome message which says, “Do you want to [inaudible 00:23:30] network? Let me know. I'll introduce you. If you need any help, here's my phone number and here's my email address.” At 35% of the people reply to that and say, “Thank you.”

Alex:  One out of three basically say yes. What's tactic number 3?

Ted:  Number 3 is you can actually categorize your LinkedIn connections after you connect with them and send them messages periodically. It says, “Hey, we haven't talked in 3 months. How are things going?” It's really effective. It get you back on their radar.

Alex:  Let's do a quick summary. This is a review rampage…

Exposure, that's what an author, a speaker, a trainer wants. It doesn't matter what business you're in.

I don't care if you're a dentist, chiropractor, CPA, attorney. Whatever you do, you need more exposure because exposure always precedes a pre-qualified lead, and pre-qualified leads always precedes a lead or a prospect, and a prospect always precedes a sale or a buyer, and a buyer always precedes multi-buying which will create a legacy and wealth for you.

Next, we talked about principles versus tactics. Principles are immutable. They last longer. Tactics can be temporary, so go after the principles, which is what we're after.

New media, LinkedIn is a part of new media. CBS, NBC, that's traditional media. New media is here to stay. It's more sustainable. It's easier to access. It's more targeted, less costly, of course, and you can get to the thought leaders a lot easier.

Massive exposure on LinkedIn, let LinkedIn do all the work. It's a search engine within a search engine. These are business-to-business people, so, if you're selling business to consumer, you may find distributors there and intermediaries. Remember, this is a business venue. It is not a party like Facebook or ADD on Twitter.

No offense, guys, but Twitter is much too fast for me.

Why LinkedIn profiles are so important? Go back and watch the video or read the piece that we covered already or listen to the audio, depending on how you're consuming this.

It may be video, audio or written word, visual word, spoken word or written word. I have no idea how you're consuming this right now. You know what it is. Go back and review. We talked about the 4 tips that supercharge your LinkedIn profiles and why profiles are so important, why mistakes can be great and how to avoid them, learning from other people's mistakes.

If you're in the Mastermind, rather than asking Masterminders in the room or in the virtual room what is your best strategy this year, as them what are the 3 costly mistakes you made all year, and you will learn what their strategies are by default.

Focus on what they've moved away from. That will save you a lot more money. That's a big takeaway if you are paying attention and committed to this content.

The 5 social network hazards when you're found on LinkedIn, we covered all of them. What does tested mean? It means I went through suffering so you don't have to. Right?

The 3 tested tactics to get more pre-qualified leads. We just covered that. Go back and review. It's not learning that makes a difference because there is the “learning-doing gap.” It's relearning. Sloppy success is better than perfect mediocrity, which means getting started is a lot more important.

Ted, let me go back to you. Do you have any final words on what is the first step to take on LinkedIn? Is it the profile? Is is the picture? Is it the summary of the profile? What is it?

Ted:  Obviously, your profile is the first thing they see of you, so you really have to focus there. Take LinkedIn out the picture first. How did we do business before Internet? We actually met people, build relationships and started doing business. Learn how to meet people and network with people, and focus on helping them. Plug in the technology and it supercharges it.

Alex:  You do the fundamentals, putting the fun back in the fundamentals. My name is Alex Mandossian. On behalf of Ted Prodromou and his team, this has been about pre-qualified lead generation on LinkedIn. I hope our paths cross again soon.

 

 

 

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About the author 

Ted Prodromou

Would you like me to help you?

I'm the #1 best-selling author of Ultimate Guide to LinkedIn for Business and Ultimate Guide to Twitter for Business. People call me America's Leading LinkedIn Coach.

I'm the founder of Search Marketing Simplified, LLC, a full service online marketing agency. The SMS team designs and implements advanced LinkedIn and social media lead-generation strategies for small to medium-sized businesses. SMS will set up and manage your marketing funnels using organic, social and paid traffic.

Did you know I've been working with the internet since 1991, long before Al Gore invented it?

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