Hot off the presses! The LinkedIn survey authored by Jill Konrath and Ardath Albee has published this important report this morning. Their survey research findings offer stunning insight into how usage of the LinkedIn social media platform impacts business and professional development.
There really is an Us versus Them effect in business development and revenue production, contingent on level of LinkedIn usage.
In late 2012, my colleague, Jill Konrath, contacted me about this LinkedIn survey. She asked me to participate. Then she inquired whether I would let my LinkedIn and social media / blog subscriber community know about the opportunity to participate in this unique LinkedIn survey as well. To those of you who chose to participate, our thanks and appreciation! Why?
One of the areas in this study which interests me involves whether selling is perceived to play any role, at all, in professional development. These survey results, gleaned from input from 3,094 entrepreneurs, managers, consultants, and service providers, underscore that Us versus Them mentality is alive and well when it comes to selling. There still appears to be discipline-driven mindset when selling is involved.
That’s a sobering thought for those of you in the engineering, technical, academic, manufacturing, start-up and investment communities with whom and for whom I work. Do you recognize that selling is, indeed, part of your job responsibility? Anyone trying to secure funding for research these days understands that things have changed.
Selling is part of everyone’s job responsibility, whether stated in your job description or not. Learning the fine art of business development and revenue generation, even if you view yourself as a technical professional, is the fulcrum leveraging today’s global marketplace.
I strongly recommend that you download this report and read it immediately. Then re-read. If using LinkedIn for business development and identification of investment and revenue-generating opportunities isn’t on your daily To-Do list, then put there. In fact, put it at the top of your list. The LinkedIn survey provides many surprises, even for the most skeptical of you.
Do you feel that LinkedIn isn’t important or relevant to your profession?
Many academic and technical professionals may want to rethink their perspective. The difference between LinkedIn usage, and business and career-building results, among top sellers/business professionals and all others, is on the scale of 5 orders of magnitude or more.
I urge you to take an objective look at your LinkedIn Profile. It’s the first resume that many human capital and business development/investment folks will access, even if you are job hunting and have applied online. Even if you a recent college graduate and have created a resume on alternative portfolio social media sites. Even if you are a university-based researcher.
Is your LinkedIn profile even close to 100% complete and engaging? LinkedIn is where business is being conducted dynamically.
Have you hung your LinkedIn profile shingle out there and wonder why no one is contacting you for business? If you want to work for or do business with the decision makers, then market yourself where they are looking, when they are looking, with strong and consistent value propositions which are supported by your completed LinkedIn profile. That means engagement and dialogue in LinkedIn discussion groups. That means sharing content and insight. Just like you do when you publish in trade or professional journals or write abstracts or give talks at conferences. Again, the difference between involvement and engagement within the LinkedIn platform among the top-sellers compared with all others is on the scale of 5 orders of magnitude or more.
Download and read the report and come to your own conclusions. I’m interested in your insights about what you learned from the LinkedIn survey report. How you plan on incorporating these findings into your professional development and business processes during the remainder of 2013?
Babette N. Ten Haken, Founder & President of Sales Aerobics for Engineers®, LLC, brings entrepreneurial mojo and business- and revenue-producing collaboration and communication tools to small and mid-sized businesses and startups. Download her newest White Paper at her Free Resources Page. She was named one of the Top 50 Sales & Marketing Influencers 2013. Her book, Do YOU Mean Business? focuses on technical / non-technical collaboration strategies and tools. You can download the first chapter here.
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