LinkedIn for Mergers and Acquisitions

Putting LinkedIn to Work
Plus, Intro to Twitter

Welcome
Putting LinkedIn to Work
Plus, Intro to Twitter
834 Design & Marketing
Kim Bode
Telly LaForest
Adrienne Wallace

What is Social Media?
A flexible definition
• Evolution of relationships
• Familiar communication tools
• Built on networking foundations (platforms)
• Real time
• Individualized & Transparent
• 2-way communication on a massive level

Flattening the Earth
Tipping point was identified by Neilson (2009):
Social media (67%) used more than email (65%)

Demographics

Categories

LinkedIn Growth
The most represented industries on
LI are hi-tech (17%), finance (14%)
and manufacturing (10%), while
sales (12%), academics (10%),
administrative (10%) are the most
common job functions.

SM Growth
Not just for job seekers anymore, has become a recognized and
legit B2B sales solution.

About Social Media
3 Things
• Each platform has a distinct personality.
• Many different platforms for different purposes.
• Platforms may change, good communication does not.

About Social Media
Change in Communication

About Social Media
Implications for Business

Effects of Social Media
• Democracy
• Transparency in the everyday
• Meritocracy
• Open sourced comments posted affect
performance-based outcomes
• Authentocracy
• Success from true voices. Drive to be
“authentic self” is a large tenant of SM.

Tools of Social Media
• Search/Audit/Strategize
• Create a policy for your firm.
• Assign ambassadors or educate all members
• Find out what you do, who does it?
• What do your competitors do? How?
• Track/Protect/Monitor
• Google analytics.
• Google alerts.
• Participate/Engage
• Answer the noise.
• Refer and redirect if need be.

How to engage?
• Determine your strategy and your audience.
• Get some headshots for goodness sake.
• Find yourself – what’s your brand?
• Create original content and add to the
conversation.
• Publish stuff worth reading.
• Engage your audience continually.

About Social Media
Implications
• Age of radical transparency.
• Lack of privacy-no one is exempt.
• Longevity of practice.
• Assured of change.
• Flexibility required.
• Evaluate and re-strategize (continually).

LinkedIn Value
Quick Stats
• 20% of LinkedIn users are senior level executives
• 39% of LinkedIn users have titles of Manager, Director, CEO,
COO, CFO, or VP
• 60% are either decision makers, or have direct access to
decision makers
• 43% of all LinkedIn users are located in the United States
• Top four professions: IT, Marketing/Advertising, Financial
Services, Computer Software (all avg incomes over $60,000.00
annually)
Souce: LinkedIn Ads

9 Common LinkedIn Mistakes
• Failing to take social seriously
• Not achieving a 100% complete LinkedIn profile
• No photo, or worse, the WRONG photo
• Not developing and building your network
• Not using LinkedIn to protect your current clients
• Not asking or getting recommended
• Failing to join LinkedIn groups
• Waiting for people to come to you
• Letting your staff “loose” on LinkedIn without
advice

7 Essential LinkedIn Connections
• Co-Workers
• Current and past
• Clients or Customers
• Be careful of conflict of interest or privacy
• Classmates
• Yes, even if you haven’t seen them in a while
• Fellow Volunteers
• Extracurricular connections
• Members of Your Business Network
• There is power in co-marketing services
• Family and Friends
• Ask these people to be your clients or to give a
recommendation on your behalf
• Fellow Members of LinkedIn Groups
• Yes, even if you don’t know them “in real life”

7 Essential LinkedIn Activities
• Sign up AND PUT IN A PROFESSIONAL PICTURE!
• Can’t participate if you don’t join
• Maintain a complete profile
• Don’t let it stagnate
• Update your status regularly – maybe even daily!
• Show you are attentive
• Connect: set a weekly goal.
• Build your network of primary, secondary and tertiary
relationships
• Join a group; hell, join 50…that is the limit
• Connect with people of similar interests, share
strategies, complain about the economy and get
sympathy-it’s like support group
• Share a link or answer a question
• Provide added value and items of interest
• Follow a company [start with your competitors]

7 Essential LinkedIn Settings to Modify
• Profile Photo
• Everyone, network, or connections only
• Public Profile
• Create your branded URL then choose which items
appear in a search to others
• Manage Recommendations
• Public or private
• Member Feed Visibility
• Choose who sees your updates [everyone, network
or connections only]
• Network Updates
• Control what updates you get on your homepage
• Connections Browse
• Control who sees your connections [can your
competition?]
• Authorized Applications

Essential Groups to Join
• Your company’s group
• Engage members in discussion, refer people to other
services and develop reciprocal relationships
• Your competitors
• Isn’t it obvious? Research. Intel.
• Mergers & Acquisitions Network (over 39,000 members!)
• Association of Professional Merger & Acquisition Advisors
(APMAA)
• Mergers & Acquisitions Professionals
• The Middle Market
• DEALGATE global alliance of M&A professionals

Essential Groups to Join
Any group located in your targeted area of interest:
• Healthcare/Medical
• Manufacturing
• Technology
• Automotive
• Distribution
• Transportation
• Services
• Construction
• Investment Properties
• Follow, like, ask, reciprocate, recommend, research, offer
assistance, network, solicit. LI is a powerful search tool for
finding B2B solutions.
• “Blind” connects and asks are not a faux paux, they are a
standard social media networking initiative. Connect before
you ask. Show your value first. Solicit second…or third even.

Use LinkedIn for What Exactly?
• Manage existing clients
• Distribution of quality info to clients
• Generate referrals through clients and referring
businesses
• Secure new clients through search
• Prevent attrition by offering additional services
• Share content
• Give clients valuable connections and referrals
• Increase your own web visibility/SEO rank/traffic in
general
• Low or no cost marketing
• Recruitment of trusted referral source, buyers AND staff
• Research of trends
• Get/give advice

Steps to gain a referral
• Social media flattens the referral process-you are already
connected
• Search for the client you want among your contacts,
networks, or groups
• View your contacts and their contacts
• SM Mastery for Small Biz with 834
• Use the platform to build goodwill through a mutual
connection
• Message them or ask to be introduced through your
mutual contact
• Did someone search you? Connect with them, use
their curiosity to get to their contacts
• Lessen the “creep factor” with 834
• Prospect, search, connect, follow up
• Stand Out on SM with 834

“But I don’t have the time to “play around”
on Social Media”
1. It’s not playing, it’s business development stop being
silly
2. Denying SM today is like saying “nah, we’ve got
enough money, don’t worry about us.”
3. Try to escape it I dare you
4. It’s painless…coming up 15 minutes a day to better
social media maintenance
5. Make it an appointment on your calendar to ensure
follow through
6. You are waiting for the coffee to brew anyway, may
as well do something to pass the time

LI in 15-minutes a day
• Minutes 1–5:
• Complete a status update.
• Have you just landed a new client (no names, of
course, unless your client agrees) or achieved a
personal best?
• It could be sharing of info from someone else
even if you are not feelin’ it
• It only takes a minute, but each posting is far-
reaching thanks to ‘LinkedIn’s Weekly
Updates’ broadcast.

LI in 15-minutes a day
• Minutes 6-10:
• Solicit one new contact a day/5 per week
• Browse ‘All Updates’ on your ‘Home’ page.
• Congratulate a connection or comment on
a profile update, even if it’s just to say,
“Great new photo.”
• All of these comments go out to your entire
network.

LI in15-minutes a day
• Minutes 11–15:
• Glance through ‘People You May Know’ by
clicking on ‘Add Connections’ in the upper-right
corner of the ‘Profile’ screen and selecting it from
the screen that appears.
• These are people who are connected to
your connections. If you see someone you
know, invite him or her to join your network.
• When your invitation is accepted, ‘All
Updates’, shown on your ‘Home’ page, will
reflect that and your new connection will be
included in the ‘Weekly Updates’ broadcast.

LinkedIn Value
James Potter, Insight Marketing
“When you know how to use LinkedIn well, you’ll save
yourself a ton of time. You will walk through open doors
instead of making cold calls; you’ll enhance your personal
reputation and the profile of your practice; you’ll access
outstanding information and opportunities that would
previously have missed and ultimately you will increase
your revenue.”

Twitter Value
Twitter Good
• Highly flexible (create hashtags, campaigns)
• Best for individuals (thought leaders, etc.)
• Broadcast almost ad nauseum
• Builds relationships
• Simple to interact on an individual level
• Scale
• Succinct
• Optimized for mobile
• Fans can easily create copycats/spinoffs

Twitter Value
Twitter Bad
• Arcane/intimidating
• Higher learning curve
• Limited tools and options
• Requires most monitoring — responses are expected
immediately
• Messages can get lost in the stream

Twitter Value
What’s your motivation?
• Dissemination of news and info
• Soliciting clients or buyers
• Communicating with your community
• Spreading awareness
• Research and strategy
• Getting feedback
• Telling your story 140 at a time

Twitter Value
What’s your audience’s or target’s motivation?
• Getting and giving feedback
• Research, gleaning information
• Presentation of self to others
• Exclusivity
• Meaningless chit chat
• Sharing information quickly and easily (effortless)
• Feeling connected

Twitter: Build an Audience
• Build a Twitter Audience Ethically…
• Don’t buy your friends; make some friends
Adopted from: Next Web

Build an Audience
1. Create Valuable Content
Strategy: Sharing content repeatedly, Buffer
If you want people to follow and share what you publish, you need to
publish content worth sharing. No need to belabor that point, however,
less widely-understood is the value of sharing this content multiple
times.
Twitter is of-the-moment, but the majority of your followers will not be
checking Twitter 24/7. Using a tweet-scheduling service like Buffer puts
your content in front of your audience when they’re most likely to see
it. Increase this likelihood by scheduling multiple posts for a particular
piece of content.

Build an Audience
2. Comment on relevant news/tweets
Strategy: Live-Tweeting
Commenting on relevant news, trending topics, and various other
happenings on Twitter injects your voice into an ongoing conversation.
Pick conversations that your followers – and your brand – would care
about, and join in the discussion.
If you’re a social commentator, lifestyle brand or comedian, you might
cultivate a following live-tweeting #downtonabbey. A more serious
account may publish reasoned comments on #healthcare during a
televised address. Whatever your focus, joining in on a tweetup, story
or other hashtagged event is a great way to meet your ideal followers
where they’re gathering.

Build an Audience
3. Retweet relevant content
Strategy: Search/rank service to identify thought-leaders
Another way to capitalize on ongoing conversations is to retweet
relevant content. Using a management dashboard for Twitter
like TweetDeck or HootSuite, identify thought-leaders in your industry,
and retweet meaningful content they’re sharing. Their voice is
amplified, and yours legitimized. Your brand stands to benefit from
associating with reputable commentators, and you’re laying
groundwork for potential collaboration and reciprocal sharing.
Engagement – Ask. Listen. Respond.

Build an Audience
4. Events to Engage
Strategy: Promoted Tweets
Twitter capitalizes on the immediacy of events and can exponentially
amplify the buzz of contests. Barack Obama’s 2012 Presidential re-
election campaign set a new standard for the use of social media to
build consensus and drive action. Throughout the campaign, well-
timed tweets captured a key moment and made it easy to share
messages and emotions.
By paying to promote the most important messages, Obama’s
campaign owned the conversation at crucial points in the election.
Twitter is the medium of choice for discussing ongoing events. Steering
and leading an event conversation in real-time is exceedingly valuable
– and worth paying for.

Build an Audience
5. Ask for Retweets
Strategy: Ask for help
Now you have content worth sharing, and you’ve begun connecting
with people whom you’d like to share it. It’s important to activate your
follower base and enlist their help in growing your presence. How?
Simply ask for their participation.
Spelling out the word “retweet” in your request makes your followers
12 to 23X more likely to re-share your message. Using hashtags wisely
and asking for help will open your tweets up to searches and people
who may not yet follow you. For example geographic based # like
#GRMI #Austin #DET will net followers and attention in regions that
you might not yet be affiliated.

Build an Audience
6. Promote Responsibly
Strategy: Co-promotion
Following and retweeting content from thought leaders and companies
with healthy followings certainly offers exposure.
Seeking out opportunities for co-promotion, merging offline and online
worlds, offers your brand even greater upside. Endorsements from
brands and celebrities that connect with your audience provide
invaluable credibility in addition to increased reach. As long as
endorsements stay on-message and conversational in tone, your
followers will appreciate this promotional content. Find a partner and
practice responsible co-promotion.

Build an Audience
7. Countdowns
Strategy: Teaser Tweets
Success on Twitter is largely a matter of capturing people’s attention. In
a medium predicated on distraction, refreshed every microsecond, the
ability to build anticipation is invaluable. Countdowns provide a reason
to tweet frequent reminders and an opportunity to construct a
narrative across a series of tweets.
Use countdowns leading up to a new product launch, feature unveiling,
software update, behind the scenes access, or other content releases.
Kick off your countdown with a couple of teaser tweets. Give your
followers reason to check what you’re saying now, later today, and
even further in the future.

Build an Audience
8. Twitter-Exclusive content, contests and promotions
Strategy: #twixclusive(s)
While “twixclusive” may horribly bastardize the English
language, Twitter-only deals are an effective tool that belong in your
brand’s social media strategy. Twitter-exclusive content and
promotions boost engagement with what you’re publishing on Twitter
while also offering a tangible reward to your followers.
Show appreciation for your followers’ attention and make it
worthwhile to revisit your page. Use your Twitter account to give a
behind-the-scenes look at your brand and take exclusive access a step
further. Twitter democratizes conversation and affords unprecedented
connection with elite brands and personalities. Loyalty and interest
increases when you share content accessible only on Twitter.

Build an Audience
9. Two-sided Conversations
Strategy: treat your followers like people
That’s right REAL HUMANS!
Talk with your audience on Twitter in ways you can’t anywhere else.
What often falls under the ‘engagement’ header is really one of
Twitter’s greatest potential rewards. Your brand is on Twitter to join
key conversations. Your followers are on Twitter to converse with you.
People invariably appreciate hearing their own name and knowing that
they’re being listened to. Responding to a follower on Twitter
accomplishes both. Twitter allows your brand to offer an
unprecedented reward: interaction.

Build an Audience
Summary
Content, engagement, and rewards make your Twitter account a
meaningful destination for potential followers. Give your audience
what they want, and more followers will want to join that audience.

Twitter in 15-minutes a day
Minutes 1–5:
• Follow any new followers from the previous day provided they fit
your acceptable criteria. Only you can decide what that is, but in
general, follow people back unless they are vulgar or tweet about
money-making schemes or things you’d prefer not to be bothered
with each day. If you use a service like HootSuite or TweetDeck
(which we recommend)you can see what each person is tweeting
before you decide to follow them.
• What this does: This is part of intentional growth (which is discussed
in The Strategist). In the beginning, when you are following fewer
than 100 accounts, you will still be able to see everyone’s tweets
and not feel overwhelmed. As you start to follow more accounts,
you will need to use lists to sort everyone into appropriate
categories. If someone (or many people) you are following are not
producing valuable content, simply unfollow them.

Twitter in 15-minutes a day
Minutes 6-10:
Set up 3 to 4 retweets of things that fit your area of expertise. To make
this easier, find retweets from people that you follow, or for best
engagement results, specifically find things to retweet from people you
have just followed in step 1.
Scan your Twitter feed pick out 3 to 4 things that you believe have
value, and schedule them. Note: Make it a priority to always click a link
before you retweet it, first to make sure it actually works and then to
quickly scan the page to make sure it’s quality. You can always read it
thoroughly later (or if you are a speed reader, just read it right then).
What this does: This type of activity is to keep your Twitter account
active, engaged, and to stay relevant, attracting more followers and
setting yourself for people to start retweeting your updates in return. It
also helps you stay up-to-date with new content and new trends.

Twitter in15-minutes a day
Minutes 11–15:
Set up another 3 or 4 unique, original tweets of your own and
schedule them. First, you can reply to someone else’s tweet, either in
agreement or disagreement. Then, if I were you, I would set up tweets
that link to recent posts on my blog, or to other content on my website.
Also include a tweet or two that doesn’t contain a link (not all tweets
need links).
What this does: Replies engage your Twitter audience and can help you
connect with someone new. Fresh, original tweets add your own
content to the Twitter stream, so that you are providing something of
value that is completely your own; give added value.

Connect with us!
834 Design & Marketing
http://834design.com/
https://www.facebook.com/834design
http://www.linkedin.com/company/2609249
Kim Bode
kim@834design.com
@834design
http://www.linkedin.com/in/kimbode
Telly LaForest
Telly@834design.com
@chantellalyse
www.linkedin.com/in/chantelllaforest
Adrienne Wallace
adrienne@834design.com
@adriwall
http://www.linkedin.com/in/adriwall

Sources
• Linkedin.com
• InsightMarketing
• Square Martini Media
• Top Dog Social
• LinkedUp Grand Rapids
• NextWeb
• Twitter.com
• TwitterAds
• Social Sprout
• Social Media Examiner
• Social Media Today
• Others as indicated on slides

LinkedIn for Mergers and Acquisitions

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