These days we can get our daily news through a multitude of resources from across the web. From traditional news sites to blogs and social networks, there is an abundance of information available on every topic.

LinkedIn Today is a newer resource available for the professional community from within LinkedIn that puts your daily news in the context of your professional social network. As LinkedIn describes it, LinkedIn Today allows you to discover what the world’s professionals are reading, sharing AND tweeting. Bottom line, it’s a professional social news source that you can utilize to grow your social influence.

The “sharing” of articles on LinkedIn Today is powered by both LinkedIn and Twitter. (If you haven’t connected your Twitter account to your LinkedIn account yet, I recommend doing so in order to easily expand your reach when you share articles). LinkedIn Today does pull in trending articles that are being shared by members on Twitter.

LinkedIn Today also gives you the option to save articles. Perhaps you want to read through them at a later time and then share? You can easily build a file of relevant articles for your collection.

The Top News From Your Industry Curated by the People

The power of LinkedIn Today is that the top articles are showcased based on how often they’ve been shared by members on LinkedIn and Twitter. There is no editor. These articles are curated by LinkedIn members, and they are coming from a multitude of high quality sources from across the web. The “sources” list started out small but continues to expand. You may even be able to find some of the blogs that you subscribe to!

With all of the sources available now for customizing your LinkedIn Today dashboard, you can really build a unique and personalized news flow and start positioning yourself as a resource to your LinkedIn and Twitter connections with what you discover and share!

How does LinkedIn determine which articles get visibility on LinkedIn Today?

What makes LinkedIn Today so powerful is that the news articles displayed are those that have been shared, liked, or commented on the most by LinkedIn members. Articles are sorted by industry and news source, based on the industry assigned to profiles of those who have shared them. Most importantly, LinkedIn will give a higher preference to more recent articles if they’re being shared quickly by a broad base of members.

3 STEPS FOR USING LINKEDIN TODAY TO BUILD INFLUENCE

There are many ways to build social relationships with your LinkedIn connections, and one of the best ways to grow your social influence is to consistently curate and share timely, relevant content with them in order to remain visible and valuable.

Remember, with all of the content now available online, people are overloaded with information but they are thirsting for knowledge. Position yourself as someone who is “in the know” within the context of your industry to become influential. Get them off of the world wide web by becoming a core resource for your clients, prospects, and connections to follow!

#1)CUSTOMIZE LinkedIn Today by Your Industry, Interests and Sources

The first action to take with LinkedIn Today is to customize and organize your news page to show you the most relevant articles based on your industry, interests and sources. LinkedIn Today allows you to follow categories of news that you and your connections care about most.

My recommendation is to follow your industry, related industries, and any and all sources that can help you grow your reputation as an influencer.

For example, the industry I specialize in is Financial Services and this is my target market. However, the content I specialize in is inbound marketing, blogging, business, and social media. Therefore, it makes sense for me to follow industries and sources related to both so that I can provide a blend of relevant content to my audience!

Furthermore, I love a good story from NPR and I also believe that the Harvard Business Review provides some excellent leadership content, so I follow these sources as well and share appropriate content with my network. The point is to mix it up and create a blend of valuable sources that can help you stay visible and valuable in your niche markets.

Follow relevant sources in order to see applicable articles on your dashboard

#2)SCAN Your LinkedIn Today Headlines Daily

I love the fact that LinkedIn provides you with the option to receive daily email updates from LinkedIn Today. Let’s face it, with a weekly news digest you can certainly keep tabs on what has happened in your industry, but that news will get old fast. If you want to be an influencer, you’ll need to stay on top of what’s trending, and identify the most interesting and relevant news and content to share with your connections in a timely fashion.

Update your email setting to receive daily email updates from LinkedIn Today. When you do this, you should receive a personalized morning email with the “7 Things You Need to Know in the News Today“!

In addition, I would recommend visiting LinkedIn Today a few times daily for news and updates that you may have missed. It’s really a one-stop shop for news that matters to your professional social network. My goal is to get in there at least a couple of times daily (usually morning and noon time), and share an article or two with my network.

Go to the "Settings" link under your name on your LinkedIn home page

#3)Consistently SHARE AND COMMENT on Relevant Articles from LinkedIn Today

Tim Tebow is the talk of the town lately. The former Heisman Trophy winner who puts his religious beliefs on public display (an understatement) is dumb-founding the pro football experts, pundits, and critics alike. There’s just something about Tim Tebow’s Gospel of Optimism.

What is it about Tim Tebow that makes it so hard not to like him?

The likability factor comes from a set of qualities that Tim possesses, and he consistently brings these qualities to the table. As professionals and business people, what can we learn from him?

Here are 5 Business lessons we can learn from Tim Tebow:

#1 Be a Leader

It’s become pretty evident to me that Tim is a leader both on and off of the field. He leads by example and he leads with enthusiasm. He leads by constantly encouraging and supporting his teammates who ultimately rally around him. That makes everybody better. He’s got an uncanny ability to pull a team of “individuals” together to pursue a common goal. This is much easier said than done, especially when there are egos involved.

#2 Show Your Passion

It’s not Tim’s “religious faith” that is responsible for his success. If that were true, we wouldn’t have winners and losers. It’s the fact that he’s passionate about something! He believes in that something wholeheartedly, and he shows it. True passion is contagious. If you are enthusiastic about what you believe in, regardless of what you believe in, you’re going to attract disciples.

#3 Have Self Confidence

Tim Tebow is an awesome example of what it means to be self-confident in the face of skeptics. When everyone is doubting you, but you still believe in yourself and execute in the face of adversity, that is self-confidence at it’s finest. Truly self-confident people don’t get bothered by those who doubt them, and they don’t compare themselves to others. Believing in yourself is your best chance for success in life and in business.

#4 Dare to be Different

Although Tim Tebow’s quarterbacking skills are not that of the standard NFL quarterback, they are getting the job done. Tim has figured out a way to leverage his strengths in an environment where it was hard to imagine how he might be successful. In fact, he could have easily convinced himself that he didn’t have what it would take to be successful in the NFL.

I’m a 5’3″ point guard who played college hoops. Believe me, no one thought I could do the job being that short. I had to find a way to leverage my unique strengths in order to be successful. I also had to ignore my critics. Sure, I didn’t have the height working for me, but I did have a wicked 3 point shot, master ball-handling skills, and the speed and quickness to drive past just about anyone!

#5 Play Hard

Week in and week out, Tim Tebow keeps bringing it. He shows stamina and persistence on the field. He’s prepared, focused, enthusiastic and determined. One of my favorite basketball coaches used to say “when you get on the court, you better have your shoes laced up and be ready to play”. The very first time I took over an office of financial advisors as the new manager, I sent that message out to all of the advisors prior to meeting them in person. On the day I walked in to meet the group, every one of the advisors had tennis shoes on with their suits!

When you get in the game, you’ve got to be prepared, focused, and determined every single time if you want to be successful.

Whether you love Tim Tebow or hate him, he does possess some of the most essential qualities of great leaders. You can’t deny that he’s doing something right. You can’t bet on the fact that he’ll keep racking up the wins for the Denver Broncos, but he’s going to give 100% every time he sets foot on that field. You can take that to the bank.

It bothers me greatly when I see articles like this from MarketRiders that attempt to convince consumers that they are stupid for working with a professional financial advisor. These guys have created an innovative distribution channel for selling their financial services and I applaud them for such, but I can’t stand it when investment firms attempt to convince investors to use their products based on the premise that “you’re stupid if you do otherwise.”

Consumers are smart. We don’t give them enough credit.

I ask the following question: Which cost is greater – The cost of paying a financial advisor or the cost of a bad decision?

The best financial advisors realize that their job is to save the client from himself. You see, there is something called the behavior gap that explains the difference between the returns achieved by the S&P 500 over time and the returns not achieved by the average investor.

Why does the average investor consistently underperform the S&P?

Here is MarketRider’s reasoning for the difference in returns:

Possibly the cause is rooted in the astute advertisements run during the Masters, British Open, U.S. Open, and beyond that get your investment account open and your mind closed. Critical thinking skills can be whisked away by multi-million dollar marketing campaigns targeted to cast their spell. Once an investor buys the commercial rhetoric, a hypnotic trust can hijack critical thought. The hypnotizer can get the otherwise astute subject to perform the most ridiculous behavior, such as paying someone to take his money.

Is allowing someone to manage our wealth and paying them to keep us on the right track ridiculous behavior? Or is it ridiculous behavior not to work with an advisor to help guide and support us toward our financial objectives? What about my personal trainer who helps me stay in top physical condition? What about my business advisor who helps me make good decisions about my company?

A Story of Ridiculous (and costly) Behavior

One of my wealthiest and most successful clients in past years once had an opportunity to lock in a significant gain on a concentrated position. It kept me up at night thinking about this inherent risk he was taking on as he had recently taken an early retirement package from a large corporation (back when these packages were still offered).

He refused to sell AND he refused to protect his position. Why? Because he did not want to pay the associated fees, which by the way were very reasonable, and probably would not have even made a car payment for me at the time. Several months later, this concentrated stock he owned plummeted and lost 90% of it’s value. The entire way down he refused to sell because he thought “well, it will come back…I know this company and they’ve been good to me”. It never came back.

What might have cost the client several hundred dollars to protect a six figure position ended up costing him the six figure position…a good chunk of his retirement assets.

What was the culprit here? HUMAN EMOTION. THE BEHAVIOR GAP.

Want to learn more about how to become a better investor? (and it’s got nothing to do with fees) Go and spend some time on my friend Carl Richard’s site “The Behavior Gap” and stop reading the garbage that would have you believe you’re ignorant for investing in help.

The professional financial advisor that you do invest in for help should be someone you trust, should communicate with you frequently, should provide education and insight, and should charge fees that are fair and reasonable based upon the services they provide for you. If you pay an advisor 1% of your assets and it saves you more than 1% due to the prevention of ridiculous behavior, you’re better off!

Even as an experienced and credentialed financial advisor, I still can’t successfully manage my own money. I make too many emotional mistakes. We all do. None of us are immune from the emotions that are tied to our personal goals and dreams for our families and our lives.

The job of a financial advisor is to save you from yourself. His or her job is to help remove that emotion from your decision-making process. The best financial advisors are much more than money managers, they are life counselors and coaches.

So I ask you? Which cost is greater? Investment advisor fees or your bad investment decisions?

p.s. Ironically, the MarketRiders Blog does not allow for comments…

I love going to the BlogWorld and New Media Conferences. It’s a great opportunity to listen to and network with many of the top thought leaders in online marketing, blogging, and social media. Each time I attend I come back with some valuable nuggets of wisdom and ideas to implement in my own businesses.

There are so many sessions that it’s impossible to attend them all, and occasionally I found myself in a few dead beat sessions because I had been pulled in by the titles! That just goes to show you how important Titles are in blog posts for capturing attention!  Also, I had to miss out on Saturday’s sessions and it looked like there were going to be some good ones!

Most of the sessions I attended were awesome, and I walked away with some great insights. Below are a few takeaways that resonated with me.

Key takeaways from my notes at BlogWorld LA 2011:

Liz Strauss (@lizstrauss)

Definition of Strategy? A realistic system for leveraging opportunity

“Own your offer and make it as narrow as you can. Be the best dog washer, don’t wash everything for everyone.”

“Don’t make your offer bigger than the trust you build.”

“Campaigns make sales, but community makes relationships”

Peter Shankman (@petershankman)

“If you’re not generating revenue with the tools you’re using, you are doing it wrong.”

“Have a backup plan for when you succeed!”

“You don’t control the direction of your company, your customers do.”

“Learn how to write. Good writing will save you.”

“If you want something you’ve never had before, do something you’ve never done before.” (i.e. Get out of your comfort zone, or stop complaining!)

“Have something you’re known for. Differentiate yourself from the crowd.”

“No setting can protect your from stupid!” (loved this one)

“Have fun! If you’re doing it right, you won’t know the difference between work and fun. You won’t be on your deathbed saying I wish I’d worked more.”

Mike Stelzner (@mike_stelzner)

PEOPLE never change; they want access to insights and information, great people, and recognition

“Help people with their small problems for free.”

“Give away your best secrets. No one can do it the way you do it. Eventually some of them will buy.”

“Content is the enabler and the skill.”

Expertise = great content, ideas, stories, and the people you attract

Pat Flynn (@PatFlynn)

“Be everywhere.”

Expand to new mediums (Podcasting, Video)

First impressions on your blog are critical. (I’m big on this…great design, simplicity, and usability are so important)

The new “Content Trifecta” is blogging, YouTube, and iTunes (podcasting). Go beyond the blog.

If you want to be the “go-to” resource, you have to go the extra mile.

A Few Additional Tweet Tips from BlogWorld LA 2011:

“1 of 2 women reads a blog & 80% of those who do, buy products based on a blogger recommendation” - @lisastone

Inspire people first, then inform -@Problogger

When everything is changing, being able to change is everything. Stagnation is death. -@AmberCadabra

“Bad writing is killing America and it will kill your business!” - @petershankman

Use relevant personal stories to tie your personal brand to your business marketing says @LisaBarone

If I’m at a point of need and you have a solution at the point of need, I’m more likely to convert.” -@techguerilla

Don’t leverage influencers, instead create advocates - @techguerilla

There were many more “nuggets” that came out of BlogWorld, but these were the ones I wanted to share today. I’d love to hear about other great insights from anyone who may have attended!

To view AND listen to the FREE presentation, complete the form below!

YES I’d love to view Mastering LinkedIn for Marketing Success and continue to receive marketing insights from Stephanie!

Listening to so many fantastic smart people at BlogWorld opened my eyes to a few really important ideas. I noticed that most of these successful bloggers had some common character traits about them, and these are also some of the same traits that I recognize in myself (fortunately)!

Blogging in and of itself is just a modern-day platform for building your community, delivering, and syndicating your message. However, blogging is the perfect platform for natural born leaders and teachers who are passionate about inspiring and motivating others. What I found at BlogWorld was that there are plenty of bloggers out there, but the successful bloggers are true thought leaders with 7 common character traits.

The 7 Character Traits of Top Bloggers

1)Entrepreneurial

Successful bloggers are building something. They’re building their own little (or in some cases very large) empire of loyal advocates; people who will follow them to the ends of the earth. They’ve created a business out of their knowledge, and have learned how to package that knowledge in such a way that they can monetize their intellectual capital through ads and sponsorships, products and services, speaking engagements, and/or book deals. Top bloggers are entrepreneurs in disguise!

2)Personable

Each and every successful blogger who spoke at BlogWorld was incredibly personable and approachable. Whether they were introverted or extroverted, they were all about people and truly interested in getting to know their followers and fans. You won’t find a top blogger who thinks he or she is above another. They are down to earth, personable people.

3)Passionate

Passion is a big key in staying motivated to do the work. Blogging is a big commitment because in order to be successful, you really have to stay at it and be as consistent as possible. You have to keep the knowledge, insights, information, and stories coming so that your followers stay engaged. Successful bloggers have figured out how to align their passion with their craft, and by doing so, they are truly inspiring others. The passion shines through!

4)Niche Focused

Successful bloggers are not trying to reach the masses, in most cases. They have some sort of niche that they’re focused on. It may be a big niche or it may be a small niche, but it’s still a niche. I am a big believer of building your leadership presence within a targeted market and expanding from there (hence my focus on financial services). Take Gary V for example, his niche is wine and he built his current business as a highly respected new media consultant by starting with what he knew best. He still spends a tremendous amount of time talking wine!  Most of the top bloggers out there are focused on a niche that either centers on their areas of expertise, or a specific demographic.

5)Committed

Seeing the commitment level of top bloggers to their craft really motivated me to get better at this. The most successful bloggers are sharing their knowledge on a daily basis, and sometimes multiple times a day through their blog and on their social media profiles. Blogging in some form or fashion has become a part of their daily schedule, and I truly believe it takes this level of commitment to really be successful. You can’t expect to get results and build community around your thought leadership by blogging every once in awhile. Clearly, it needs to become a part of your daily life!

6)Authoritative

Top bloggers know how to build authority. In other words, they have conviction and truly believe in what they’re talking about as they lead their followers to do the same. Let’s face it, people want to be told what to do. They want direction, advice, and guidance. Successful bloggers don’t make suggestions, they give direction! It’s so important to have an opinion as a leader and establish your authority within your niche. Your community is looking to you for guidance. At the same time, top bloggers are willing to be vulnerable by admitting mistakes and talking about lessons learned. They have the ability to be completely human which also helps them relate well to their audience.

7)Always Learning

Never stop learning. Spend your life being a student even as you teach others! This is what successful bloggers are doing. They are eager to learn more, be more, and do more. They want to be the best at what they do and they realize that to stay on the cutting edge, they must continue to educate themselves and most importantly, learn from their peers. In fact, top bloggers are wizards at synthesizing knowledge and breaking it down into digestible deliverables for their community. They are great teachers as well as students.

These are the top character traits of successful bloggers that I’ve identified. What are additional traits that you have identified? Please share them here in the comments section!

photo credit: opensourceway

Differentiation has always been one of the biggest challenges that professionals have faced in attempting to win new clients. In the age of social media, this challenge is going to become even more difficult as you work to build relationships online. In order to set yourself apart from the competition, you are going to have to embrace the New P’s of Differentiation.

The Old “Classic” P’s: Product, Price, and Performance

1)PRICE

It’s common knowledge, at least I hope it is, that you can no longer differentiate your services based upon price. Those who use it as a means to set themselves apart usually end up regretting the consequences (that client whom you gave a break to just won’t stop asking for more of your time…at low or no cost).  Typically, it doesn’t pay to offer discounts and specials as a professional. If you position your services around pricing, it’s a losing battle.

2)PRODUCT

You can re-package products and services in fancy ways, but at the end of the day, it is the value that your services bring to the client that matter most.  I see thousands of professionals attempting to differentiate through their product and service offerings, but clients know what they want, and they many resources to pull from in order to make decisions. Clients have come to expect a solid product and exceptional service.

3)PERFORMANCE

Performance is another all-time classic differentiator.  If you’re a financial advisor, it’s investment performance I’m speaking of. If you’re a lawyer, perhaps it’s getting a strong verdict for your client. If you’re a CPA, it might be saving someone significant taxes.  Again, these are things that clients expect already when choosing to do business with you.  If you have a strong relationship, your performance won’t make or break you, unless it’s consistently poor.

Assuming you have pricing that is on par with your competitors, high quality products, and can achieve consistent results for your clients, what’s left?

The NEW 3 P’s

The Classic 3 P’s all have one thing in common; they really don’t “connect” you with people. They have nothing to do with developing, growing, and strengthening relationships. The NEW 3 P’s have everything to do with relationships, and even though they are quite obvious, we don’t consciously utilize them to differentiate ourselves as much as we should.  In the age of social media, the lines are blurring between business and personal. To win hearts and minds and build a “trusted” network of friends, followers, fans, and advocates, you should begin thinking about how to differentiate yourself from the competition using the NEW 3 P’s.

1)PEOPLE

It’s all about the client/customer now. Clients are in charge and they have more power than ever before due to the new media social networks, blogs, and forums that now exist as platforms for them to voice their thoughts and opinions. The “People P” centers on the relationship, and how you can best take care of and serve clients, prospects, and advocates above and beyond anything you’ve ever done before. With millions of people connecting, sharing, conversing, commenting, recommending and reviewing online, your clients and connections have the power to expand your influence in a positive OR negative way, like never before.

If a client really likes you and believes in you, the signals they share about you on social platforms have the potential to reach hundreds if not thousands. If you upset a client, or don’t take care of them with good service, that signal can also be sent and have a ripple effect. If you want to stand out in the age of social media, you must communicate frequently, engage, empower, promote, and provide outstanding service to the most important people in your trusted network. How can you best serve them? How can you be a resource to them? What can you do to make their lives better? How can you become valuable and irreplaceable? How can you go above and beyond the average professional in your industry?

2)PERSONAL

We all have a personal side but do we truly show it in business settings? Again, social networking is blurring the lines between business and personal. If you want for people to come to know, like, and trust you before they ever meet you, you must find a way to show your personal side. Social networking and blogging can provide you with a tremendous platform for showcasing both the personal AND business side of YOU! If you use these platforms to solely distribute dry and mundane information about your business or industry, you will not be providing any way for existing and potential clients to really connect with you.

I have a lawyer friend who recently landed an important case. She has experience, strong credentials, a professional online presence, and she’s active in social media. When she asked her new clients why they chose her, they said “because we saw that you were a skier and we love skiing! We go every year”. What if the client never knew this detail? Don’t be afraid to show your personal side. It can make the difference in winning new business.

Oprah Winfrey has been incredibly successful, whether you are a fan or not, at connecting with people without ever meeting them. Her magic in persuading people to know, like, and trust her has everything to do with her ability to show who she is inside and out. You could even say that she makes herself vulnerable, to a certain extent. There are other people in the public eye who do this well. Learn from them.

We love stories and we love to learn about who people are and what drives them. If you build your digital identity through sharing your personal story, and let your business connections in on your personal life while allowing your personality to shine through, you will build trust and differentiate yourself from other professionals in your field. It can endear people to you in ways that you’ve never imagined.

3)PASSION

What do you care about? What are you passionate about? What has happened in your life that has had a profound impact on you as a human being? What magazines and books do you love to read? How do you spend your leisure time?

Online communities and connections are built around common interests and passions. With the transparency that social media offers, you have a tremendous opportunity to learn about what you might have in common with both clients and prospects while they can also learn what you are passionate about. Do you love dogs? Are you triathlete? Do you love photography? Are you an avid cyclist? Do you enjoy gardening? Do you love to travel the world? Are you fluent in a foreign language? Do you enjoy cooking? Do you volunteer or raise money for charity? (read a story about this financial advisor who combines his passion with charity) All of these are examples of hobbies, interests, and passions.

Sharing what you are passionate about and making these things known throughout the social communities you are involved with can help separate you from the pack. Don’t be afraid to be passionate. People with passion are like magnets!

To succeed in building relationships in a wired and connected world, you have to be willing to put the focus on the NEW P’s, and forget the old ones. The classic P’s are a given. Clients have come to expect that you’ve got a solid product, your price is fair, and the performance will be there. You’ve got to take a risk now, and be willing to be vulnerable in the age of social media if you want to differentiate yourself from the competition. You’ve got to focus on what clients and prospects care about, and find ways to connect with them on a personal level around common interests. If you only use social media as a platform to pump out ghost-written business content, you will not have success. Share your story, and show your personal side!

If you have a profile on LinkedIn and Twitter, you may already be aware that these two networks are integrating. In fact, LinkedIn has a specific application called “Tweets” that can help you keep tabs on the Twitter updates from your LinkedIn connections. As more professional LinkedIn users create Twitter profiles, I believe this application will become more and more powerful for building influence and visibility with your network connections.

The primary benefits of the LinkedIn “Tweets” application are:

* Follow your LinkedIn connections on Twitter
* Post status updates simultaneously to both Twitter and LinkedIn
* Monitor and interact with your Twitter streams from within LinkedIn
* Create a LinkedIn specific Twitter list

Before we look at some additional ways to leverage the “Tweets” application, make sure you have first added your Twitter account to your LinkedIn profile.

Add your Twitter account to your LinkedIn Profile

Click “edit profile”, and “add Twitter account”, next to the Twitter field. This will create a link directly to your Twitter account on your LinkedIn profile for all visitors to see if you choose to display it on your profile.

Adding Twitter to Your LinkedIn Profile

To share your tweets in your LinkedIn status, I would recommend that you choose the “Share only tweets that contain #in” option rather than allowing every tweet to flood into LinkedIn as a status update. Typically, one or two daily status updates in LinkedIn will be sufficient, so you don’t want to overdo it. Share tweets that can add value to your LinkedIn connections!

Install the LinkedIn “Tweets” Application

Go to “Applications” in LinkedIn and search for the “Tweets” application to install on your profile. Once installed, you will be able to visit your Twitter page on LinkedIn by going to the “More” menu tab and clicking on “Tweets”.

How to Utilize the “Tweets” Application to Build Social Influence

Below are 3 important features of the “Tweets” application that you can use to help you grow your Twitter connections, gain intelligence about what your LinkedIn connections are tweeting about, and promote your connections through their tweets.

1)Identify and follow all of your LinkedIn connections on Twitter within the “Tweets” application

Go to the “Connections” tab in order to see who you are NOT following on Twitter, and follow them. You may not find a substantial number of your connections on Twitter, but go ahead and follow those who are! Most likely they are going to follow you back.

2)Create a dynamic Twitter list of your LinkedIn connections

From within the “Tweets” application, LinkedIn makes it easy for you to create an official dynamic Twitter list of your LinkedIn connections. Go to the “Connections” tab and on the left-hand side you will see “Save as Twitter List”. It may take a few minutes for this list to populate, and by default it will be a private Twitter list. The newly created list will show up within the “Tweets” application where you will have the ability to view the stream in realtime.

This is a great tool in and of itself. Rather than manually having to go through and create a Twitter list of your LinkedIn connections, it is done in the click of a button and always up to date. I can’t think of a better way to make Twitter more relevant to your existing professional network! If I had very little time to spend on Twitter, this is where I would focus my efforts.

Consistently monitoring this unique Twitter list can give you tremendous insight into what your LinkedIn connections are thinking and spreading online. People tend to update Twitter much more often than LinkedIn.

3)Look for engagement and promotional opportunities through LinkedIn “Tweets”

The “Tweets” application actually functions as a Twitter client. You can tweet, reply, re-tweet, or even share posts as messages with any of your LinkedIn connections. However, the real power comes from being able to update your LinkedIn status simultaneously, along with tweeting, replying or re-tweeting.

Remember, promoting and connecting others is a very effective strategy for building social influence! Don’t underestimate the power of consistent status updates, and the reach that those particular updates can have. When you find a tweet in your LinkedIn Twitter stream that is relevant, or could be interesting, entertaining, or helpful to your broad LinkedIn network, this is where you will want to engage and promote.

Ideally, you will want to “retweet” the important post(s) from your LinkedIn connections within the “Tweets” application and go a step further by checking the box to share the tweet as a status update. The “retweet” will then show up as a status update to your entire LinkedIn network, and it will hyperlink to the individual’s “Tweet” page within LinkedIn, giving others an opportunity to follow that user on Twitter. Not only have you promoted the content to your LinkedIn network, but you’ve provided your connection with extended visibility in both networks and will potentially help them gain some new LinkedIn connections and Twitter followers.

this is a “retweet” from the “Tweets” application that I also shared as a status update

By clicking on @ducttape from within the status update (see image above), the link travels directly to @ducttape Twitter stream in LinkedIn:

You could spend time reviewing your other Twitter lists from within the LinkedIn “Tweets” application and engaging with those individuals as well. If you find something relevant that your LinkedIn network connections can benefit from, again re-tweet it as a status update. Follow up with that individual to let them know that you also posted their tweet as a LinkedIn status update because you thought your network could benefit from seeing it.

Ultimately with any social network, you want to be viewed as a resource who can be relied upon to share and spread quality information. If you can marry this with promoting those professionals whom you are already connected with on LinkedIn, you can build social influence by helping your connections increase their visibility. This is a win-win.

For additional tips on leveraging Twitter and LinkedIn together, read “How to Prospect Using the Combined Power of LinkedIn and Twitter“. Consider downloading the Free LinkedIn Guide for Professionals from Hubspot as well. This is another very helpful resource for taking advantage of all that LinkedIn has to offer for growing your professional network.

Have you incorporated the “Tweets” application into your profile? What are some other ways to utilize this application to build influence on both networks?

Flickr: Michael Hilton

I’ve been noticing a potential trend in it’s beginning stages.  PAID CONTENT.  Several thought leaders are now offering paid private newsletters delivered via your email inbox for a modest monthly fee.

Chris Brogan has a newsletter on Blog Topics, a clean and simple weekly overview on developing quality topics for your blog – offered at $9.97/month.

Kevin Rose (Founder of Digg) has a newsletter called Foundation, that features interesting video interviews, product reviews, etc. – offered at $3.99/month.

Recently I wrote a post about Getting Outside of the Email Inbox, of which part of the article argues for getting more creative inside of the email inbox! What I like about these private newsletters most is that they are consistently delivered.  (currently I subscribe to Chris Brogan’s Blog Topics in order to test this out). With my paid subscriptions, I am actually reading them because I want to make sure that I get the value out of the investment!  With my free subscriptions? I rarely get to them.

It’s similar to paying a personal trainer or personal advisor. When you sign-up and commit dollars, you will make more of an effort to commit to the program.

I have often wondered why so many would give away so much for free, for no other reason than attempting to grow a massive audience.  It’s more difficult to grow a large audience now given the volume of information available online and the distractions to boot.  Free information has the potential to attract freeloaders.  I think I’d rather have the committed followers willing to pay. Free is synonymous with cheap in my opinion, but you should understand why I believe this.

Being in the financial advisory business for so many years with a full-service brokerage firm, the one thing that we were taught was to believe in our value.  You see, we were never the low cost provider, therefore we could never compete on price.  During years of volatile stock market gyrations and disasters, the money I saved my paying clients by preventing them from making crucial emotional mistakes with their money far outweighed the fees that were charged.  They trusted me and believed in me.  Left to their own devices, they could have lost everything. Believe in your value.

In a world of information overload, people are starving for knowledge. If you’ve got that inside knowledge, and the ability to tell people what to do and how to do it, you should consider a paid content strategy. Certainly you should allow others access to bits and pieces of your “nuggets of wisdom” at no cost, or possibly offer a free test-drive, but people WILL pay for valuable knowledge, insights, advice, and guidance.

Bottom Line?  People want help, and they want to be told what to do. The more niche the advice, the higher the premium on your content. You can also offer a mix of free and paid articles and episodes to build momentum. Or, you can showcase the content to non-paid subscribers at a later date for free. They just don’t get early access. Charge accordingly, but always remind and reinforce your value to your followers.

It is very difficult to go from an “all you can eat” content site to a paid content site, and perhaps a better idea is to implement your “pay to play” strategy sooner rather than later. Don’t wait until you have 10,000 subscribers or followers. Set your value early in the game.

What platforms can help you set up a simple paid newsletter service?

• letter.ly
• tiny letter
• Mailchimp (has recently added a paid subscription feature that also integrates with Amazon Payments)

This is definitely something I will be considering in the near future.  Wish me luck!  What are your thoughts? Do you think that paid content subscriptions will work as a revenue generation strategy?

Email is not dead. It can still an effective tool for communication, but it is requiring that you get more creative with your approach inside of the inbox and also “get outside of the inbox” completely in order to grow your reach.

First things first; Get more creative INSIDE of the email inbox

Blogging is unique in that you can build a digital asset around who you are, what you care about, and how you help people.  It can help you show your human side.  You can develop a personal relationship with your audience as they come to know, like, and trust you.  Your clients and prospects are going to enjoy reading and sharing your blog posts if they know, like, and trust you.  Who gets excited about reading or passing on a generic, ghost-written email newsletter?  The truth is, people share “bits” and “pieces” of interesting content, not boring content that has no personality.

Sending single blog post email updates to your subscribers may give you a better opportunity for an “open” and a “click”. Why? You can customize the subject line of each and every email to match the title of your latest blog post.  Assuming you are creative with your titles and authentic with your content, you will get more opens than a generic email newsletter. Better yet, blog post delivery via email can be automated.

Let’s face it though, delivering blog posts via email versus a generic email newsletter is still not going to help you grow your reach.  Millions of your clients and prospects are connecting and sharing through the social networks.  Social media demands that you get outside of the inbox!

3 Reasons to Get Outside of the Inbox

#1 Reach a wider audience

You have a message and a value proposition to deliver to the right clients.  How do you find those potential clients and get that message out?  Simply put, if your content exists in more places, it is going to be seen by more people. Don’t limit yourself to an email list. You blog posts can be automatically syndicated and shared across the social web to your connections, and their connections, and beyond! Viral word of mouth opportunities have never been so easily accessible.

What about exclusive, private content? Perhaps you will provide content that you want only clients to see and have access to.  With a blog, you can password protect any of your blog posts, or even utilize a special plug-in to make entire sections of your blog password protected!

#2 Accomodate your audience

Do you know how your clients and prospects prefer to consume content?  Perhaps it is directly through the web, an RSS Reader, smart phone or device, email inbox, or Twitter? The point is, consumers are in control of how they want to receive and consume content.  If you’re only focused on one channel, you are missing a world of opportunity.  Give your prospects and clients ample opportunities to see and share your content in the ways that they want to consume it.

#3 Make your content easily digestible

There is something to be said for short and sweet.  People are busy, their attention spans are short, and their brains are constantly active and moving.  Deliver bite-sized nuggets of wisdom to your clients and prospects. Give them 1 or 2 great insights each time you post to your blog.  Answer a question or give a quick tip. Tie blog posts together to get your audience excited about what’s coming next.  Also, post to your blog consistently.  This will help you stay top of mind with clients and prospects.

If you are solely relying on an email newsletter that delivers generic articles to clients, you are missing a huge opportunity to grow your influence in your target markets.

Do you agree?  Have you thought about how blogging can get you outside of the inbox to broaden your reach? Share your thoughts!