#2 CONNECTIONS - 7 FAST WAYS TO CONNECT ON LINKEDIN

The second fastest way to connect on LinkedIn is CONNECTIONS. LinkedIn will find and actually display people you have connected with at your first level when they have a birthday, a new job or promotion. Double click on Connections bar located on the upper left side of your LinkedIn page.

As you can see below LinkedIn will automatically bring up all those who have posted a birthday or a new job and then prompt you to message them and “say congrats” or “say happy birthday”. Think about this…when you get a birthday acknowledgment doesn’t it make you feel good?

My CPA every year sends me a birthday card. When I get it I always open it and read it. And it always puts a smile on my face and makes me feel good. My CPA is not cheap! In fact he is very expensive, so why do I keep him? Because he is personal and shows it by remembering me on my special day.

This may surprise you, but my online friends are a lot closer to me than my physical friends in my own home town. You see I talk to my online friends constantly, whereas my personal home town friends I talk to on occasion. Building a community is important to any business. Customers are important! Your customers should be your best friends and you need to take an interest in their lives. Today, we are all so busy trying to make a buck, that our friends come second. I am here to tell you that on social media friends come FIRST!

I love my online friends! One of the most important aspects to community is culture. I love it when companies tout out about, “We are family,” and then promote their products and events using this theme. I am sorry but I bought this lie too long. I remember working so hard when I first got into network marketing. I was out every night doing home meetings. I actually became a good speaker because of all the practice. I was young and full of energy and honestly, I loved it.

I remember hitting my first real rank in Amway and receiving a letter from Rich Devos and Jay Van Andel, the fathers of our industry. The letter was filled with gratefulness with Rich and Jay thanking me for all the hard work my wife and I did. They related to me about their dream and how they started their business in their garage. They told me it wasn’t easy, but they believed it was the greatest opportunity on the globe, and they were determined to see it through. You see, I believed them and after reading that letter I started crying thinking of all the hard work I put into this. The fact they took the time to write me personally meant the world to me.

You know the sad part. I never got a phone call, or even a letter from my upline, none of them! When we went across stage the top leader didn’t even know our names to announce us. But, Rich and Jay did. Isn’t that the way it should be? Shouldn’t you be important to your company, boss, and upline, so that they recognize your accomplishments and even your birthday’s? When you congratulate people and recognize them you are taking the first step and following the example of two of the greatest entrepreneurs of all time. My wife and I are very proud of our plaque hanging on the wall in Ida, MI at Amway headquarters. Jay and Rich’s letter made it special.

Another great person I had the privilege of knowing, who believed in me, and encouraged me was Onyx Coale. She sends out achievement cards to her downline. Understand how difficult this is, as she at one point was the highest paid woman distributor in the direct sales industry. Her downline was in the hundreds of thousands. It didn’t matter, everyone got a card from her. You would see them hanging on the wall above their desk. People in my downline would show them to me. Some leaders would get upset with her, even though they were in her down line. I put Onyx up there with Jay and Rich, as one of the all time great industry leaders. If it was not for Onyx, I would not be writing today, nor would I have the recognition and success I so easily enjoy today…though never published, she inspired me to write two books. I will always be grateful to her and she will always have my love.

If great people like Rich, Jay, and Onyx who have achieved great heights in our industry, can reach down, recognize and acknowledge people, then why can’t you?

True culture comes from the heart, and it comes from within, it is not an advertising ploy. Culture brings togetherness, love, sharing, and caring. True culture puts your friend, client, customer or downline first. These simple gestures of acknowledgements can build you an online community faster than going to a hundred meetings, doing a thousand one on one’s. You are only a click away from meeting some of the most fabulous people in your life.

Happy birthday James, congratulations Lance Gordon, oh, by the way, Lance is the bestselling author and one of the most successful men I know in network marketing. He even offered me a chapter in one of his books. We became friends a few years ago. I have always had wonderful and kind words with Lance, and as I was writing this I realized how I miss talking to him. Time to catch up with Lance and give him a call. Another great friend and mentor is Ken Varga, who has 6 million followers. He personally took me aside and taught me a lot of what I am teaching you. Well, Ken owned at one time an Airlines and a major ball club. I am never so busy for my friends.

I hope these personal stories help you see how close you can get to people on the Internet and how easy it is to build a community, and even culture within organizations, such as LinkedIn groups, Forums, Facebook groups, etc.

Like any sales funnel, it takes time to fill it, so it doesn’t happen over-night be patient and understand the culturing part of building relationships. Another great industry leader Kelly Bangert, who has made millions of dollars, taught me this…little by little you DRIP on them, as he puts it. His message was very clear, great leaders take time. He told me personally, for over a year that his sponsor shared valuable information with him.

Kelly never violates relationships and told me that we would always be friends! He is right I will do anything for Kelly, and he will always be my friend. I had another person tell me years ago, I only liked him because he was in my Amway business. This was not true, but made me realize the value of true friendships. Actually I was hurt by it, because I really liked this guy.

Sending a birthday or job advancement acknowledgements may seem like a non rewarding effort, so let me share what happen to me…I started sending out 50 a day for about 30 days straight. I do not work week-ends because that is family time, so figure around 250 a week. After about 1000 connections in that time frame my previews went from around a 100 guess unto 600 in the next 90 days. My PREVIEWS starting climbing like a rocket ship. And my daily connections went from zero to about 10 a day. WOW I was in Network Marketing Heaven!

At times, I say to myself, why are you sharing your goldmine with the world? Good thing God brought me to humility and made me a servant. Another thought I have is… I am just too old not to share the bad experiences along with the good experiences so I hope I don’t lose any friends in this, telling the real truth philosophy. Back to the numbers!

A small percentage will connect back with you, however the ones that do are so appreciative and grateful. What a great filter to fine great friends, I love it! Best friends ever!

When they respond with thank you, start the engaging process by connecting with them using my Copy – Paste – Send system. The rest is history! Voila, another great friend to help you and you help them along life’s path.

I love my LinkedIn friends.

To be continued…

There are several ways you can follow along with my teachings, one is to join my list at https://30minute-millionaire.com where I post my blog articles weekly.  Secondly you can join me every Monday morning on Google hangouts live where I teach on social media marketing at https://google.com/+garymassari/ and thirdly you can catch the replays on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/user/garymassarimarketing

Lastly you can reach me at [email protected] and ask any questions you like.