By Casey Neill
“People are using the internet to get their first impression of you.”
Nathanial Bibby also told the Greater Dandenong Chamber of Commerce breakfast on Wednesday 12 October that the “digital disruption” already affecting most businesses would continue until 2050.
The guest speaker asked attendees at Springvale’s Greyhounds Entertainment for a show of hands from those who used LinkedIn, and found 95 per cent had a presence on the social media tool.
They’re among 7.5 million users in Australia and 450 million world-wide.
Mr Bibby said their LinkedIn page should be their personal website, they should put keywords in their headline, and recommendations helped a profile to stand out.
He urged LinkedIn users to join relevant groups to find new contacts and said there was “no harm” in accepting connection requests from people they didn’t know.
“Would you be selective about who can visit your website?” he said.
Mr Bibby suggested using the advanced search feature, and sending personalised connection requests and follow-up messages.
He said that on average, 50 per cent accepted the request and 10 to 20 per cent replied to the follow-up, and compared that to a 1 per cent average return on cold calls.
Mr Bibby urged people to avoid explaining what they did in the message.
“You can’t push information on people,” he said.
And he said they should talk about what they can do for the person they’re writing to, not vice-versa.
