Use LinkedIn

To Market When You’re Busy

Marketing requires a continuous effort and presence. In this article, the author shares a marketing alternative that appraisal practitioners should pursue when they are unable to network in person.

[su_pullquote align=”right”]Resources:

Using Social Media to Build Your Practice

Practicing Solo

The Impact of the Changing Marketplace on Referrals

Marketing Techniques to Gain Referrals

Social Media and Networking

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You were busy to begin with.  Now, there’s this unraveling of the new tax law and the impact it will have on our work.  Some of you may even run a traditional accounting or tax practice on top of your valuation duties.

You don’t have the time to meet up with a referral source this week.  Or next.  And you definitely need to cancel that industry conference you were planning on attending the following week.  And you probably won’t make that networking event the week after that.

Are you really going to skip your business development activities for weeks (or months) at a time?

So how do you continue marketing and staying top of mind with leads, prospects, clients, and referral sources when you’re already slammed with projects?  The answer is social media…specifically LinkedIn.  It can really help you maintain (and even expand) your sphere of influence while you’re grinding out the work.

1st, let’s make this easy.

I’m imagining that every QuickRead reader is on LinkedIn to some degree (yes, I checked!).  So there are no new accounts to set up and no new programs to learn.

2nd, are you connected to all of your leads, prospects, clients, and referral sources on LinkedIn?

If you are, great!  If you’re not, make this one of your top practice development priorities.

3rd, can you spare five minutes a day?

If you can, using LinkedIn for marketing when you’re busy is a great short-term solution.  If you can’t, you need a life 🙂

4th, here’s what to do with those five minutes.

Start with notification messages on LinkedIn that tell you when the people in your network are having a birthday or a work anniversary.  Then, congratulate them…and add a note that lets them know what has been going on since you last got together.

Or, in the morning, when you’re scanning industry news that would be of interest to your LinkedIn connections, share the article with them along with a comment that says why it’s important and offers your take on it.

Or, if you want to earn a merit badge, subscribe to Buffer.  The free version allows you to schedule up to 10 posts on up to six social media platforms, including LinkedIn.  If you want to post every business day, that’s two weeks worth of news that you can schedule in advance, like while you’re watching your favorite TV show.  Your connections will think you’re really on the ball for sharing interesting/valuable content on a daily basis.  (I use Buffer for this exact reason.)

In real life

Regularly using a social media platform like LinkedIn for experts, like us, serves three goals:

1. Staying visible.
2. Building credibility.
3. Giving our leads, prospects, clients, and referral sources more opportunities to know, like, and trust us.

The steps I outlined above are a short-term solution that will definitely help you with all three goals when you are too busy to engage in more concerted marketing efforts.

Your reaction

What do you think?  E-mail me at rod@rodburkert.com and let me know.

Rod Burkert, CPA, ABV, CVA runs things over at Burkert Valuation Advisors, LLC. He’s reinvented his practice several times after going solo in July 2000. Today, Mr. Burkert’s practice offers coaching, training, and consulting to colleagues and clients in the BVFLS world. And since March 2010, he’s been traveling full time throughout the United States and Canada in an RV with his wife and their two dogs.

Mr. Burkert can be contacted at (215) 360-6100 or by e-mail to Rod@rodburkert.com.