I need to start this post with a confession: I used to use LinkedIn all the time to accelerate lead generation for my B2B clients. It was a fairly elaborate process that involved paid tools and enhancements. I stopped doing it because, if you squinted hard enough, it looked like spam. Spam = bad.

You don't need spammy intro's or battleship budgets to drive lead generation for yourself on LinkedIn. All you need is time for a coffee. Click To Tweet

What I wanted to share today isn’t that. It’s actually the opposite. A fairly simple, free routine that’s enabled me to market myself on LinkedIn with surprisingly good results. It worked for me – it might work for you.

All you need is a cup of coffee.

Lead generation: The daily three

For the better part of 2017, I had an assistant managing my social media. She publicized my posts on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, then sent me reader comments to reply to.

My profile on these platforms went through the roof. But it didn’t translate into lead generation.

We decided to give it all a rest. But my assistant left me with one piece of golden advice. Every day, go on LinkedIn and:

1. Comment on three posts in my feed,
2. Share three posts in my feed with my network, and
3. Send three connection requests.

 

I took her advice, and started to do the daily three.

But as days turned into weeks, without any reward for my efforts (apart from a steadily growing network and a growing familiarity with the folks who shared consistent, quality content) the daily three became the daily two, then one, then… oh well, another experiment bites the dust.

Coffee to the rescue

I knew consistency was key to success. And I knew it wasn’t an onerous task – probably about 20 minutes daily. Why wasn’t I able to manage it?

The simple answer was, I hadn’t made it a habit.

So I examined my daily routine.

Every morning at 6, I took my dog to Starbucks, where I read online news, then walked back home. If I could cut the news a bit short, surely I’d have the time to do the LinkedIn daily three.

It worked.

If you want to do lead generation through social media, the first thing you need is discipline - start by fencing in the amount of time you spend on this every day! Click To Tweet

Now, years later, my daily three takes me one short coffee at Starbucks. Every day. No exceptions. (Full disclosure: Corona Virus has thrown a bit of a wrench in my daily three routine – no Starbucks! But I still get to my LinkedIn from my home office every day, and do at least part of the daily three)

Because I’ve anchored the task with something pleasant (the coffee), I actually look forward to it. And I know that once the coffee is done, I’m out of time. There’s no more going back to LinkedIn (or any other social platform). So I actually spend less time on social media than I used to.

By the way, I’ve got effective tips on crushing your elevator pitch, too – something that you can easily translate into your LinkedIn conversations. Here are the tips.

The win

Leads – The proof of success here is in the lead generation. Four months of daily doing resulted in two companies contacting me out of the blue, asking me to take on their projects. No pitch, no cold call. I’ve also started conversations with a score of others. I see a steady stream of coffee-connected business in my future.

Insights – Before I can share or comment on a story, I have to read it. Which means I get to read at least three good marketing or business stories a day. Definitely better than my previous average.

Network – I’ve also built my LinkedIn network. In fact I’ve found two of three people I reach out to daily take me up on my connection. And many, many more reach out to me to be part of my network.

Marketing – When someone connects with me, I send them a ‘Happy to be connected’ message with links that draw them into my marketing. Here it is:

Hello (name),

It’s great to be connected on LinkedIn.

Let me know if you have content you’d like me to share with my network.

If you’d like to stay apprised of what I’m up to, you can check out my latest blog post – (insert blog post here). If you like it, please do share it, and sign up at the bottom of the blog to get my insights straight to your inbox.

As well, here’s a link to my e-book ‘Stop Busting Your Brand’. Hope you like it.

Keep me posted!

M

That’s it

There you have it. Simple, short, and done in the time it takes to drink a short Starbucks coffee.

Imagine what you could do with a venti?

Liked this story? Want more? Here are some posts you’ll enjoy:

• How better storytelling builds better brands
• The trouble with origin storytelling? The origin.
• I don’t give a damn about your story

 

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