Where can you find warm leads on LinkedIn?

Where can you find warm leads on LinkedIn?

By Sue Ellson BBus MIML MPC CDAA ASA WV SPN

There are some interesting places to find warm leads on LinkedIn. Not just a lead, but a warm lead - someone that may actually be interested in your offerings, either products or services.

I have always believed that the best source of future customers and clients is referrals from existing customers and clients and that is why I maintain an active presence on social media and I continue to update my website - so that these people know that I am 'still alive' and I don't need to personally hound them directly.

It is also really important to make it CRYSTAL CLEAR what it is that you do so that when people look at your LinkedIn Profile, Page, School, Posts, Articles or Newsletters that they can remember your offerings and take action immediately if they are interested in going the next step. Inserting random posts about your social life can easily confuse the message.

Remembering the simple things like including your website (where you work if you are an employee) and your email address and/or phone number in the Contact Info section can make a big difference. I have chosen to include this information in my 'About' Section as well so that a visitor to my LinkedIn Profile doesn't even need to click a link.

I would like to remind you that I believe LinkedIn is like a goose that lays golden eggs. Please ensure that any outreach you make to any of these warm leads is respectful, appropriate and aligned with their needs. You do not want to 'kill' that goose or hurt the goose for the rest of us.

You must abide by the LinkedIn User Agreement https://www.dhirubhai.net/legal/user-agreement and whilst you can develop some systems, you cannot automate the process with either technology or another person signing in to your account, especially if they are in another country - the LinkedIn algorithms will detect this behaviour and may delete your account without warning.

You can only represent yourself on LinkedIn, not someone else. If you are a Company or School Page Administrator, any messages you send will still be coming from you and if you work for someone, you need to ensure that there is a record kept with the business of your outreach activities.

Before we begin, please remember that all of these warm leads will not be that impressed if you have a poor quality LinkedIn Profile.

My favourite way to secure leads is to attract them and let them find me

So you may like to read this article first - https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/how-generate-leads-sales-results-linkedin-sue-ellson

1. Your Connections

2. Your Followers

3. People who have Viewed Your Profile

4. People who have Liked, Commented or Shared Your Posts

5. People who have Liked, Commented or Shared Your Articles

6. People who Follow a relevant Company or School Page

7. People who have engaged with a Company or School Page

8. LinkedIn Events

9. LinkedIn Polls

10. #Hashtags and @Tags

11. LinkedIn Search

12. LinkedIn Newsfeed

1. Your Connections

You can download a list of your Connections by Getting a Copy of Your Data at https://www.dhirubhai.net/psettings/member-data - this list in CSV format will include their first name, last name, current job title, current employer and the date you connected - it could be fun reconnecting with people you have connected with previously as they already 'know' you to some extent.

2. Your Followers

You can see your list of Followers at https://www.dhirubhai.net/feed/followers and this link may be even more important now if you have turned on Creator Mode as this changes the 'Connect' button on your LinkedIn Profile to a 'Follow' button and if people don't know how to choose 'More' and then 'Connect,' you may miss seeing these people.

3. People who have Viewed Your Profile

Whilst not everyone who visits your LinkedIn Profile https://www.dhirubhai.net/me/profile-views/urn:li:wvmp:summary will be 'non-anonymous' on the Free LinkedIn Account, the last five visitors can be seen if you keep your LinkedIn Profile visible at https://www.dhirubhai.net/psettings/profile-visibility and https://www.dhirubhai.net/public-profile/settings .

If you have a LinkedIn Premium https://premium.linkedin.com account, you will be able to see the visitors to your LinkedIn Profile from the last 90 days.

4. People who have Liked, Commented or Shared Your Posts

When was the last time you didn't just respond to a Comment on your Post but you actually reached out to the person and said, "Hello X, how are you? Thanks for your like/comment/share on my recent post about Y. I have recently been doing Z. What has been happening in your world?"

You can see my recent Posts at https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/sueellson/recent-activity/shares and you can see yours by swapping 'sueellson' with your LinkedIn URL.

5. People who have Liked, Commented or Shared Your Articles

I understand that a lot of people don't write Articles on LinkedIn, because they don't even know they exist or they receive more views of their Posts in the Newsfeed. I like Articles because they can appear in Google Search Results well beyond the publication date (lifetime digital asset).

You can see my recent Articles at https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/sueellson/recent-activity/posts and you can see yours by swapping 'sueellson' with your LinkedIn URL. [Yes, I know it says Posts in the URL here but it does work]

6. People who Follow a relevant Company or School Page

Hopefully you follow a variety of Companies and the Schools you have attended (and listed the Schools in your Education Section). By following a Company or a School Page, you are more likely to appear in the Search Results of people who work there or follow the same Page.

If you are an Administrator of a Company or School Page, you can Invite your LinkedIn Connections to Follow the Company or School Page at https://www.dhirubhai.net/company/2750884/admin/?invite=true by swapping 2750884 with your Page Number that you can see when you are in Admin mode.

You can also see who the Followers are at https://www.dhirubhai.net/company/2750884/admin/analytics/followers (which is also available from the Analytics Tab then choose Followers) by swapping 2750884 with your Page Number.

7. People who have engaged with a Company or School Page

These people may not be directly connected with the CEO or the Principal, but they are clearly interested in what happens with that particular enterprise. If the Company or School Page is uploading native Videos, there is a separate Videos tab. If they have published Articles, these will be included on the Posts, then Articles Tab. Look around here for all sorts of surprises.

8. LinkedIn Events

These are one of my most favourite ways to remain engaged with my tribe. When you host an event either as an individual or as a Page, the Event will be listed on your Profile and everyone who registers to attend will also be showcasing it on their LinkedIn Profile (great free PR). You can invite 1,000 Connections per week to attend your event, so please add it online at least one month before it is held.

Depending on how you set your event up, you will have a list of all attendees and potentially their email addresses (but remember, some only want correspondence related to the actual event, not to end up on your email newsletter list). https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/linkedin-events-facts-strategy-sue-ellson

People who register my be 2nd or 3rd Connections and you can potentially reach out and connect with these people too.

9. LinkedIn Polls

Personally, I am not a huge fan of Polls, but I will say, they seem to attract quite a lot of views even if they don't get many votes per number of views. Once the Poll has ended, you will be able to see who voted and then engage with those people. Remember to click on the three dots of the Poll and keep a copy of the link so that you can visit it in the future.

Here is my first and only Poll https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/sueellson_linkedin-linkedinprofile-sueellson-activity-6888986705014206464-qjXL .

Please make sure that you are requesting legitimate information, not sales leads as people will run a mile.

10. #Hashtags and @Tags

When people add a Hashtag to their content, they are signalling that the content is related to a particular subject, name or theme. If there is someone you know who is often @Tagged (mentioned) in content, you may like to observe some of their interaction online and look for leads in those places as well. Certain industries have their own hashtags and it is worth following them as well.

To start following a hashtag, you can search for it in the Search Box at the top of your LinkedIn screen, then find a post with the hashtag in it, click on the hashtag and then choose Follow.

Don't forget that if you have been @Tagged in someone else's post, the people who engage with that post are also warm leads.

11. LinkedIn Search

As soon as you have typed anything you like into the LinkedIn Search box at the top of your screen and press Enter, you can then choose a whole range of Filters - People, Events, Posts, Jobs, Companies, Groups, Courses, Companies, Schools, Services and then these can be broken down further with additional filters.

You may find that if you do too many searches, you will run out of 'credits' - and your search capacity will be limited so you may need to space out your search queries (and use the other techniques listed instead).

Alternatively, if you really want to go next level, you can purchase LinkedIn Sales Navigator - but before you buy it, please do all the training FIRST and consider using these ideas first as practice so you can really maximise your use of Sales Navigator. https://business.linkedin.com/sales-solutions/sales-navigator

12. LinkedIn Newsfeed

Over time, the LinkedIn Newsfeed gets to understand you and your preferences and it tries to give you more of the content that would be the most relevant to you and your purpose (if you download a copy of your data, check out the Inferences file LinkedIn has created about you - it is very interesting reading).

If you scroll through your Newsfeed and you see a comment or a post that is aligned with your products or services, you may like to engage with the post authentically and then reach out to that person directly (not publicly). I have had some delightful exchanges with people I have 'met' through the Newsfeed.

Finally

Again, please remember to follow the LinkedIn User Agreement https://www.dhirubhai.net/legal/user-agreement - particularly Section 8 - the Do's and Don'ts.

Please offer something useful to someone before selling them something.

You can share information or provide a few tips or even invite them to attend a free event but please do not expect them to hand over cash on the first exchange. Every good salesperson knows that they need to follow up (but not five minutes later or a moment after the first meeting). So keep a record of your outreach and develop a sequence that you can systemise if you need to gather multiple leads.

The LinkedIn algorithm is designed to detect annoying behaviour, so please do not overdo your attempts to reach out to people.

My preference for converting warm leads into sales is to showcase my expertise online and then be easily found when they need that service. In most cases, they only contact me directly when they are ready to purchase. As a business of one, it works very well for me!

Other Articles of interest (Right click to open in a new tab) or see the full list?here

• Should you pay for social media ads?
• Who can I connect with on LinkedIn?
• ?Networking - Free and Paid Online and Offline - What really works?
• How to generate Leads, Sales and Results with LinkedIn
• It’s not what you know, it’s not who you know, it’s who refers you!
• LinkedIn Events Facts and Strategy
• The Business Case for LinkedIn
• Authentic Networking on LinkedIn

Enjoy the rest of your day!

Keyword Hashtags

#linkedinsales #linkedinleads #salesnavigator #linkedin #sueellson

First Published:?2 February 2022

Last Update:?27 February 2022

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Sue Ellson?BBus, MIML, MPC, CDAA, ASA, WV, SPN, is an Independent LinkedIn Specialist, Business and Careers Consultant, Trainer and Author.

More information?at?https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/sueellson ?and?https://sueellson.com

Questions directly via email sueellson [at] sueellson.com