Use LinkedIn to Grow Your Business

Article by Judy Lee

They have become household names. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Despite their popularity, many struggle to use these popular social networking platforms to their business’ advantage.

If this sounds like you, you’re not alone.  Many growing businesses need some help in this regard.  This month, we hope to shed some light on where and how to focus your attention in this new world of social media by providing some useful steps on how to get started.

Which site should I focus on?

Focus on LinkedIn. It is a professional network with a business focus rather than a personal one. No updates about weekend activities, cute kids, or pet peeves. Consultants and coaches alike are already using LinkedIn to engage with colleagues, clients and prospects alike. Your presence and strategic use of LinkedIn can reach over 80 million members including the movers and shakers like leaders, decision makers, and even executives from Fortune 500 companies.

With the right approach and actions, LinkedIn can garner fruitful returns such as targeted leads, business opportunities and give you a heightened reputation as a consultant.  Here are some ways that you can boost your presence and engagement on LinkedIn.

Step One:  Sign up!

How do you sign up?  Register on LinkedIn for free.

Once you’re there, you’ll want to create your profile so that people know who you are and what you do. They’ll know you will be there to connect with them and answer any questions they may have.

Step 2:  Optimize Your Profile

□    A professional picture goes a long way. This is the first thing that people will notice, and it serves as your first impression. It doesn’t have to involve an expensive photo shoot. You could even ask a good friend who enjoys photography to take your picture.
□    A title that clearly and concisely reflects who you are and what you do is crucial for others to place you in an arena of work.
□    A summary and experience of yourself is written much like a resume. Ensure that it is complete but keep it relevant and concise with keywords for online search.
□    Give yourself online credibility with hyperlinks to your other online activities like your website, blog, e-newsletter and even your Twitter account.
□    In this day and age, word of mouth is still very strong. Build your credibility with recommendations from colleagues. If someone recommends you, it’s good etiquette to write a recommendation for them.

Some great examples of optimized profiles come from a few of our very own MHS trainers:

1)  David Cory, Emotional Intelligence Training Company

- Title is descriptive and contains keywords
-  Incorporates Twitter application
-  Requested recommendations
-  Includes links to his website
-  Personalized LinkedIn URL

2)   Marcia Hughes, Collaborative Growth

-  LinkedIn has a WordPress application to showcase and drive traffic to your blog. WordPress is an online journal, set up your blog.
-  Participates in events

Step 3:  Optimize Your Network

□    Search for groups that will add value to your business and join one or two to start off with. No more and no less for now. The reason is that while you will eventually have a collection of groups to call your own, the few groups that you initially join will provide you with a good testing ground.  By focusing on a few to start, you can more easily make the time to be a strong participating member and engage with other members via discussion posts.
□    Be aware of group “size” since a larger group would have greater breadth and depth of members with greater influence for you to engage with.
□    Look for connections that have similar interests within the groups that you have joined. For example, connect with Diana Durek and Daniela Kwiatkowski to engage with some of LinkedIn’s strongest players in the EI arena.
□    Engage in discussion posts for eg. Post questions and/or contribute to the discussions to show your interest along with your expertise in emotional intelligence as applied in coaching and consulting.

Step 4:   Optimize Your LinkedIn Routine

□    Make it a regular part of your routine to be engaged in the LinkedIn communities, it takes a bit of trial and error to get your footing in a new environment.
□    Employ less of a sales approach and more of a ‘I’m here to help’ approach by becoming that online leader with your knowledge and presence.
□    Include LinkedIn on your website, business card, and email signature.
□    Include a LinkedIn App on your phone to stay in touch with your new connections wherever you are. 

Step 5:   Join Us!

□   We would be remiss if we didn’t mention the importance of joining MHS’s newly updated Emotional Intelligence Connection LinkedIn site!

Our goal for this site is to drive conversations amongst professionals like you around the subject of EI, coaching, consulting, leadership development and more…  It’s also a fantastic way for you to make new connections and hopefully generate new business opportunities. Become a member of The Emotional Intelligence Connection now!

July’s Quick Poll Results

 

Million Dollar ROI!

 

New USAF study says EQ-i will save them millions

It takes some pretty specialized training to become a Pararescue Jumper. For the United States Air Force (USAF), training potential grads is a lengthy and expensive process. In 2009, each pararescue trainee spent 21 months in training focused on airborne skills, combat diving, underwater egress, and in paramedic and apprenticeship programs. When you factor in all the flight time and specialized equipment, the price tag checked in at $250K per grad. So it’s no wonder the USAF began looking into ways to increase training efficiency. Aware of a successful emotional intelligence-based employment screening and training program used with their recruiters, the USAF decided to partner once again with MHS to determine if they could achieve more cost savings. 

Why it was worth a look

Back in 1995, USAF recruiters were suffering from high rates of first-year turnover. In their efforts to increase recruiter retention, the USAF used MHS’s EQ-i assessment of emotional intelligence to study the differences between successful and unsuccessful recruiters. Using their findings from the study, the USAF developed a pre-employment screening system that led to a 92% reduction in first-year turnover and resulted in $2.7-million in training cost savings in the first year alone. A report to a congressional sub-committee stated that Air Force recruiters are twice as productive as recruiters in other branches of the armed forces. (Gourville, 2000; Handley, 1997).

Encouraged by the EQ-i’s ability to predict successful recruiters, the USAF and MHS teamed up to examine whether emotional intelligence testing could improve selection and development for two other high-cost-training jobs: Pararesuce Jumper (PJ) and Explosive Ordance Disposal (EOD).

Accurate EI testing = Better selection + cost reductions 

In 2009, the USAF assessed their Pararescue division using the EQ-i assessment.  The EQ-i is a standardized test that measures how an individual rates him- or herself across 15 emotional and social factors. Five factors were linked to successful completion of the PJ program: Flexibility, Optimism, Self-Regard, Happiness, and Reality Testing.

Figure 1:  Better Recruits in the USAF

Source:  MHS

In fact, trainees who scored higher in these areas were two to three times more likely to successfully complete the PJ program. This powerful information will be used by the Air Force to offer guidance to trainees regarding their potential for successful completion of the program.

By using the MHS EI-based model, the USAF predicts a 72–74% potential increase in training efficiency. The Air Force estimates the potential savings/cost avoidance of trainees with the requisite EQ-i skills entering the Pararescue training to be approximately $19 million per year. A preliminary study of EOD trainees is showing a different skill profile that could yield cost savings in the millions.  

If you would like information about how MHS can help you achieve bottom-line results through the EQ-i assessment, please call 1-800-456-3003 or email growyourbusiness@mhs.com.

EI and ROI: Ten Case Studies in Your Back Pocket

 

Like most consultants and HR professionals, you need to be bottom-line focused and show real results in order to get buy-in from key decision makers.  When it comes to selling the benefits of Emotional Intelligence and specifically, the EQ-i, we know that this imperative certainly applies. Perhaps this imperative is required even more when it comes to EI because CEOs and Directors need even more proof that the often-thought-of “soft” emotional intelligence skills can indeed deliver “hard-line” results. 

The following white paper helps to overcome the challenges you may face from skeptical decision makers. It highlights our ten best EQ-i case studies from MHS, showcasing the real bottom-line results achieved by some top name companies.

In this shareable pamphlet, you will see clear statistics that link the EQ-i to:

• Higher sales and profits
• Improved customer satisfaction
• Increased performance potential
• Decreased attrition rates
• Reductions in training costs

 Get buy-in on your emotional intelligence initiative:

 Download the “EI and ROI” case study white paper

Emotional Competence and Customer and Staff Loyalty

Dr. John L. Avella, President of EQ International Perspectives, generously contributed the following article in which he details his work on the relationship between Emotional Intelligence and customer and staff loyalty.

How a customer service provider deals with emotions (theirs and the customers’) in a customer interaction can influence the outcome of that experience. That outcome can be positive, negative or neutral. (Price, Arnould and Deibler, 1995), and positive outcomes encourage customers to return continuously and provide a lifetime income stream for the organization. Additionally, positive customer-staff interactions encourage customers to publicly praise the organization, and this word-of-mouth advertising is the most effective and cost efficient form of advertising (Reichheld, 2006). These positive experiences are the foundation of customer loyalty and can increase the value of each customer by 25-50% while saving millions in advertising costs.

The literature is rich with research about the role of emotions in the customer experience and the role of positive emotions in customer and staff loyalty. Some examples would be Rosenberg (1998), who points out that emotions reveal what is important for customers, as well as Yu and Dean (2001), who detail the importance of positive and negative emotions in predicting customer loyalty.

I have focused my own research on a training process that enhances emotional competence. For my research, I actually implemented this training process in four companies and at Columbia University.

This training process utilizes the following: an Emotional Intelligence assessment—the Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i®)—confidential assessment feedback, behavior change planning, workshops, one-on-one goal coaching, and organizational strategies for effective learning transfer. This process has produced statistically significant increases in the participant’s emotional competence and customer and staff loyalty. The training also benefits managers and non-customer-facing supervisory staff. When managers are involved in the loyalty training, there is a substantial reduction in staff turnover. This powerful competitive advantage helps these loyalty leaders grow at twice the rate of their competition.

In a study I conducted at Columbia university, the participants as a group had statistically significant changes in six emotional skills measured by the EQ-i. In one of the implementations, the group that experienced the training had a 20% decrease in turnover. Lastly, in implementations where customer loyalty was measured, there was an increase in loyalty from 22-33%. Participants immediately recognized the competitive edge of using an EI-based program.

For more information on Dr. Avella’s work, please contact him directly at john@eqinternationalperspectives.com or visit the EQ International Perspectives site.