When it comes to social media platforms, I have 2 favorites and both for different reasons. When it comes to using social media personally and in my down time, I love Tik Tok. With that platform I have found an incredible family and some of the best friends anyone could ask for.
If you have seen any picture of me recently, there’s a good chance that you’ve seen me in a Hoodie, shirt or hat that has the JT or the Just Think logo on it.Â
That comes from a friend of mine, JT Labourne from Utah, a golf pro that wanted to start using a platform to spread love and positivity and from there started a family we lovingly call, the Smiley Crew.
Tik Tok is something I know I should have been using for my business some time ago but for me I wanted to keep that platform separate, I wanted a safe place for me to have fun, be myself and not have to worry about what others think.
It’s a platform where I can be open, honest, authentic and just be myself!
When it comes to business, my favorite platform is LinkedIn. Unlike other platforms this is somewhere I can be professional, network and still, like Tik Tok, be authentic.
That is what I want to talk about in this blog, I want to talk about being authentic in how you grow your following and make connections.
If you have LinkedIn, no doubt you have had many connection requests from other business owners and with each of those requests, everyone has a different style.
I want to first talk about an experience I had recently and then use that to talk about how you should go about making connections.
For some reason this connection request really stuck with me because it’s something I can use as a teaching tool to hopefully help you so you don’t make the same mistake.
This person, who I will keep private, sent me a request that had a personal message telling me that, they thought I did “impressive work and after reviewing my profile†wanted to know more.
Now this is a typical type of message I often get but what made me respond back was the fact it was clear this person used a script and sent the same message to multiple people.
Normally that’s not a bad thing, not a good thing either and we’ll get into that, but what made it worse was it was clear this person didn’t look at my profile as this person said they did.
That’s what set me off, this person wanted to build a relationship with me and started with a lie. It’s a small white lie, yes but no way to start building a professional relationship.
I sent a message back without accepting the request and I asked this person how they felt about gaining connections. I asked if they thought it was better to send a personal message that had details they found after looking at someone’s profile or to use a blanket message (script) they send to everyone that is in no way personal.
This person got back and said they make sure to review every profile before they make a connection and I called them out on that right away. I didn’t even have a chance to decline that connection request before this person blocked me.
I can’t stress this enough, and I know I have talked about it before. One of the best ways to use LinkedIn and make connections is to think of it like you’re doing this in person. Social media is all about being social and LinkedIn is no different.
You want be as authentic as possible and you want to build a relationship with the person you’re trying to connect with. One of the best ways to do this is to provide then with value and keep communicating with them.
Once you’ve started to build that relationship and have provided some value that ultimately helps your connection, that’s when you can talk about how you might be able to help them further with either a service you offer or a product you might have for them.
When it comes to providing value to my audience, aside from the platforms I’m on, I love using our Facebook Group, Entrepreneur Momentum to not only provide value but keep the conversation going.
If you’re not already apart of Entrepreneur Momentum we’d love to have you in the group and hear about what you have to offer.
Just click below to join our community!