At the recent ASQ Charlotte Section Annual Conference 2013, Quality Conference of the Carolinas, I was originally scheduled to facilitate a breakout session on “How to become Famous on LinkedIn”. At the last moment, we swapped around a few of the facilitators and Satish Kartha stepped up and facilitated the session.
In preparation, I created this mind map for an outline which I share below.
There were three books that I found to be quite useful in preparation, all of which I own.The first book by Neal Schaffer, I highly recommend. It is very concise and has more information about LinkedIn than you will probably use. The Dummies book, I recommend for two simple reasons. Most Dummies book include a prescriptive outline that is easily introduced to novices. The second reason is that they published frequently and if you purchase the latest edition of most Dummies book you will have the latest and greatest changes updates.
The third book Contagious is outstanding. I first listened to the book. Afterwards, I hustled down to the library to pick up the hardback so that I could include it in this presentation. Contagious is just not for LinkedIn users, it is a virtual blueprint for creating ideas, campaigns and messages. The author, Jonah Berger (mentored by the Heath Brothers) uses the acronym to STEPPS to explain his outline.
- Social currency. We share things that make us look good or help us compare favorably to others.
- Triggers. Ideas that are top of mind spread. Like parasites, viral ideas attach themselves to top of mind stories, occurrences or environments.
- Emotion. When we care, we share.
- Public. People tend to follow others, but only when they can see what those others are doing.
- Practical. Humans crave the opportunity to give advice and offer tips (one reason why advocate marketing works – your best customers love to help out), but especially if they offer practical value.
- Stories – People do not just share information, they tell stories.
I have listened to the book more than once and found the section on Triggers fascinating listening. For example, Why do you think Cheerios gets more word of mouth than Disney World?. The research behind the book is excellent.