Navigating Your Connections at Year End and Beyond! | RR237

Hi, everyone, and welcome to this week's episode

of relationships rule. I'm continuing my journey on my four

part solo series on relationship marketing and navigating your

year end connections and beyond. And this is episode three in

this series, we're going to talk about navigating your busy

networks and, and what I would call the holiday hustle. So

welcome. My last episode was a bit on the philosophical side.

And I have to admit it wasn't originally planned that way.

However, when I received the blog post from Seth Godin in my

inbox that day, it just inspired me to dig a little deeper and,

and talk about that. So I do hope that you enjoyed it, and

got some inspiration around the power of giving and receiving

generosity and gratitude, and gave it some food for thought.

My hope is that you begin to think about acting on your

promptings, sending unexpected cards to people in your network,

and paying close attention to details on things like your

LinkedIn profiles and websites that you can use as starting

points to build rapport easily with new connections and

prospects. Thinking how you may serve others, rather than

focusing on what's in it for me, will take you a long way, and

start to build that muscle until it feels so natural, you'll be

operating that way all the time. So now we're gonna take a look

at the importance of strategic networking during this busy

holiday season. With some practical strategies that can be

done easily show gratitude, and set you up with new prospects in

the new year. Let's start with LinkedIn networking tips. Number

one, take inventory of your existing connections, it's a

great time of year to do that. And here's a way that you can do

it. That might yield some new business for you. You can bring

up all your first level connections by going to your

mind networks page and listing your connections and hone in on

a particular type of prospect by using filters, perhaps using

Boolean search logic to create your optimal list. And if you

aren't familiar with Boolean search logic, then let me know

and I'll send you some information. It allows you to

cover more than one option for a name of a title for example, or

some other things that you might want to search by, then choose

one of your first degree connections. To do this, to do

this project with and look at their first degree connections.

Using your therefore your second degrees, and using filter

searches there as well have them do the same thing with your

first several connections. Review the names with each other

with the goal of making a few warm introductions for each

other. Maybe choose five or 10. To get started with. And that's

probably all you could ask somebody to do an introduction

for at one given time anyway, then let the magic begin, send a

threeway message introducing the person to your connection. And

you can ask me for a sample intro message if you like. This

strategy is a great proactive way to initiate and nurture new

connections for the new year. When you take inventory, you can

also identify those prospects, past clients and referral

partners that you may have ignored this past year, and

perhaps send them a mobile video message reconnecting and wishing

them well for the new year. Notice I said mobile video

message because in order to send a video message, you do have to

do it from your mobile device. And it just wanted to remind you

of that it will show up on people's desktops and laptops as

well when it's recorded. But to record it, you must do it on

your mobile device. When scrolling your newsfeed, Don't

be the person who just likes your connections posts. add

value to the conversation by taking the time to comment. So

you'll be noticed and seen for your expertise and leadership as

well. Number two, show gratitude to your LinkedIn network. You

can endorse your first degree connections for their skills,

although I only recommend this if you have experienced those

skills from that person recently and personally. So it is indeed

a sincere endorsement. You can share or repost someone's post

they will always appreciate that it gives them their their

comment there content, a new audience when it lands on your

profile or your newsfeed. So that's always appreciated. And

also you could give some recommendations to some Have

your most recent connections that you've worked with, for

example, or people that you know their character and so forth.

That's always a win win. When you recommend people without

being asked, it's amazing what happens, the law of reciprocity

always comes into play. And it might not be reciprocated by

that very same person. But it will happen, trust me, it's just

the law. Another fun thing you can do to recognize a person or

group is to give kudos. This is a feature that's not used very

often, but it can be very effective. And actually more so

when it isn't overused by you as well. To find how you can give

kudos to somebody, you would go to their profile, and just below

their headline and so on, you will see a more button and one

of the options there is to give kudos. It says that in LinkedIn

that you can use this feature three times a week, but I

actually think that's too much to be. To be honest, I think you

want to send it to your connections once in a while just

to make it stand out and make them stand out. Number three is

seeding new connections. I love New beginnings to you. While

it's time to direct your attention to the New Year and

being proactive to initiate and nurture new connections as the

year begins. LinkedIn can be leveraged for the new year by

doing strategic searches. As you decide what your goals are for

relationship marketing in the new year, you can begin to

search specifically for new connections that will help you

move towards those goals. Do you want to venture into new

geographic locations? Do you want to focus on working with a

specific industry, financial industry health and wellness

manufacturing specific types of entrepreneurs, coaches,

consultants, authors speakers, begin to create specific

targeted searches to find your target market or your ideal

market, and start to build a list on a spreadsheet perhaps,

of people to reach out and connect with. Remember to keep

your connection request note brief. Then when someone accepts

that's when the work begins to build the relationship. How many

new connections can you manage each week? How will you keep the

new connections moving forward. This is a great time of year to

plan your approach your target audiences and your tracking

methods for leverage leveraging LinkedIn to plant seeds for

fruitful relationships going forward. This is also a great

time of year to spruce up your LinkedIn profile for the new

year. So you will start the new year making a strong first

impression. This is the backbone of your presence on LinkedIn. So

remember, if you're busy putting up a lot of content on LinkedIn,

and you don't have your best foot forward with a fully

optimized magnetic profile, showing you in your best best

best light, then it may all be for naught. So now I want to

turn my thoughts to thoughtful gifting. Yes, this is the time

for gift giving. And gifts can be so many different things.

They can be unique time effective ideas that leave a

lasting impression on your clients and colleagues.

Sometimes it's good to shake it up and not do the same thing as

you have done year after year. It disrupts things doing

something new and it gets people talking. It makes them pay

attention. For example, I've already received two calendars

this year. Some print print calendars from two realtors that

have been sending them to me for years. Do you still use a print

calendar? I don't know. I just think it's time for a change

sometimes. There's a motto or credo from Send Out Cards, the

company that I'm partnered with that I love to share and that I

follow. Give to give send out to give. Create joy everywhere you

go. Be kind to those you come across today and all day. Every

day. Choose kindness, kind words kind of actions kind thoughts.

Every time you send a card or gift you are choosing kindness

and kindness matters. sending letters of appreciation,

recognition and joy. It matters. Every single card and gift you

send creates a ripple effect of kindness that reverberates over

and over again. As long as the kindness keeps going. That keeps

happening. Be the start of a kindness ripple in the lives of

your friends and family by sending them what I like to call

a hug. With the folded it.

There is a lot to think about an axon in this episode, and my

hope is that you begin to integrate something from each of

the ideas I've shared with you. Examine your existing

connections and shake the tree a little with those you haven't

spoken to for a long time, rekindle those relationships,

show gratitude to your connections, LinkedIn and out

and elsewhere. Even disrupt your usual urine process, send a

different message, send a Happy New Year card instead of a

Christmas card. Sometimes a small act like that will get

noticed and trigger a new and different response. Seed new

connections for next year, make this app activity part of your

daily and weekly operating procedure. Now I just like to

share a little quote with you that comes from an ancient

Chinese philosopher, Lao Tzu the founder of Taoism. He said

kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking

creates profoundness kindness in giving creates love. I like

that. So I will see you next week with the last episode in

this series in which we will take a look at sustaining those

relationship marketing habits, and how to look at how to be

consistent all year long. So thanks for listening, and if

something inspired you or if you have any questions about this

episode, please feel free to reach out. And in the meantime,

stay connected and be remembered