GO FOR IT!

GO FOR IT!

Introduction

When you set goals it is always important to set SMART goals and I wrote an article on the subject matter namely " S.M.A.R.T GOALS WILL GET YOU FIRED UP " some time back on LinkedIn.

When I started to get serious about using LinkedIn as my business social media vehicle I set myself a target to reach 10 000 connection or followers within a certain period. I was very satisfied when I reached this milestone within my own target date set and now have over 10 100 and counting ( request just keep on coming in daily).

Why did I decide that 10 000 would be an optimised connection target?

Well I did my homework on social media and specifically on LinkedIn and considering what I had in mind this appeared to be the most effective quantity. The “why” question must always be understood to achieve your goals.

What was my target market?

This was an easy one as I decided that I would use LinkedIn to work steadily towards my Vision to become part of a larger stakeholder group within the financial services industry who would transform our industry to a fully fledge profession as so many other of our peer professions has achieved effectively. This would allow us to become professionals and a profession and of which we could be proud of what we do and be respected accordingly by our clients and prospects. This allowed for a mission to gather as many as possible stakeholders to join into the process.

I therefore needed to connect to all stakeholders within the industry and inclusive of FSP’s, IFA’s, brokers, tied advisors, CFP’s , financial professional bodies and organisations and many more and across all disciplines inclusive of health care, short term, long term, banking etc. Over 9000 of my connection meet these requirements.

How did I go about it?

Well certainly not without a plan as without a plan you will not achieve your objectives in life. I set out to teach myself in the initial years by spending time on Google and LinkedIn tutorials and wherever I could learn from.

As I became proficient on LinkedIn I needed to go beyond what I could teach myself and I was fortunate to get involved with Dr Nikolaus Eberl who is a LinkedIn and social media marketing guru.

During the last couple of years I followed a systematic approach of using all LinkedIn tools to build my niche market connection and followers.

One of the key enablers in my opinion is to build a personal brand and presence on LinkedIn and I wrote an article on this subject matter namely"  PERSONAL BRANDING“.

I also wrote an article on  "HOW TO BE IN THE TOP 1% ON SOCIAL MEDIA"  with a focus on LinkedIn and this article really covers a lot of the detail on the  "how”.

Since I wrote this article I have always maintained the  top 1 % status and in all of the groups consistently at number 1 of top 1 % apart from the main group where there is plus 10 000 member I am always in the top 5 consistently. So the system appears to be working.

What is important?

Apart from what I have already covered under the how and my articles you can read, I believe giving LinkedIn the time and effort is crucial and becoming a “thought leader and authority” and “go to person” within your industry and network will drive followers and connections much easier than trying to do it as an unknown.

There is a quote which state :

“Start Unknown, Finish Unforgettable”.

Not certain who coined it but could be Nike as I do not find a person’s name linked to it.

I wrote to date 155 articles with many related towards the financial services industry and 23 of these directly related to RDR Awareness.

As the "presence" evolved on LinkedIn the process became very interactive and how you deal with such interaction is crucial and the bottom line is always be true to yourself and do not pretend and do not go outside of your expertise to often but if you do,  feel the water first. Do not get trolled in and stay positive always and take issues offline!

During this process we need to be very careful and my article on the "THE POWER OF SOCIAL MEDIA COULD BE OUR MOST POWERFUL ALLIANCE OR YOUR WORST ACHILLES HEEL"  is of critical nature as it takes times to build a presence and personal brand but it can literally be broken down with one click of a button.

Where to from here?

This may sound arrogant which is not the intend at all but I have not used LinkedIn or social media for business reasons or sales or any such nature as I really do not have a need for this as I work purely from word of mouth and centre of influences and cannot keep up as it is.

The incredible thing however is that it appears when you use the power of social media and create a personal brand and presence with thought leadership while you at it, you do get indirect prospects who make contact with you. It is clear to me that social media should not be aggressively used for direct sales and marketing but rather through a timeous process of awareness and relationship building and the rest would follow either way.

So where to from here?. Many people has ask me this question and many has assumed I am creating this network to start a financial group or similar. The interesting thing is that I most probably have one of the most connected group of financial professionals and stakeholders on the open LinkedIn platform but I am certainly not contemplating any group or future organisations.

I was at best hoping for a platform where I and my connections and followers can all make a difference to create awareness around the financial planning process, professionalism, our profession and financial consumer education and with the support of organisations like the Financial Planning Institution, FIA, MDRT, FISA , SAIT and many more.

Now that such a platform is in place it is up to all of us as financial services stakeholders to keep on driving awareness towards our profession to allow for a full transformation process. It is our duty to our profession and clients and with RDR and TCF even more so.

In Conclusion

It has been an amazing journey to get to this point and I hope many financial stakeholders will keep on connecting and you can do so directly by sending me an invite ( I am open to invites from any of the categories mentioned above) which I will accept with pleasure. No this is not a scheme to see how many connection I can get on social media.! Join me now to make a difference to an industry and let's lead by example.

We have a long way to go as an industry to refer to us as a fully fledge profession and professionals but there is no doubt that social media gives us a vehicle at nearly no cost to reach the masses and move from evolving our industry into transforming our industry much quicker into a profession and RDR and the rest of the regulatory tsunami will assist dramatically.

The bottom line however is that “ It Start With Us All” and we need to be the drivers of this process going forward with vigour. Just go for it!      

                                                       

David Humphrey

Managing Director - Impact Empowerment Ventures

5 年

Many thanks Kobus, this article is really helpful, to me and my team @impactinafrica?

Garth Carstens

CEO at Vantage Land Sea Sky Ltd

8 年

Wow, brilliant. All the points you have made are well noted. Thanks for the post Kobus.

Rickus Lawson thank you for taking the time to read this article on how to "Go For It" to build your LinkedIn platforms effectively to leverage your Vision and Mission!! Keep going for it!!

Rickus Lawson

Financial Entrepreneur and Business Advisor, Crypto mining

8 年

Brilliant article.

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Sipho Nzimande your feedback is refreshing and your support very much appreciated. Please keep at it!!

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