Do you Make this Mistake in Building Your Coaching Business Online?

You don’t make money on the phone (or in person) coaching.

Yeah – that’s collecting money.

You don’t actually make money unless you’re marketing your coaching business.

This was actually my second biggest mistake in building my coaching business -  not realizing:

• that my online activities – blogging, social networking, article publishing – were actually building my coaching business for me 24/7
• that I needed a daily/weekly plan for my activities to calculate and predict a response on my efforts – a Return on (time) Investment

We could probably argue about that all day long, but just think about this – Nobody knows who you are, or about your coaching message unless you’re publishing your coaching solution and making relationships. That’s where the real money is made.

If you don’t build brand awareness for you and your coaching business you probably won’t get hired – at least not often. Think about any client you’ve had until now. Did they know you on any level before they hired you? At the very least they knew you through a referral they trusted – but somehow your reputation preceded you. That’s what I am talking about.

You might be asking yourself – “What do I do to cultivate a business brand for my coaching business online?”

Here’s the short list with links to a few places that expand on the activity nicely:

• Post to your self-hosted blog daily
• Publish articles 3 – 5 times a week – daily if possible
• Build followers & friends on Twitter & Facebook
• Make connections on LinkedIn
• Selectively find other Social Networks to participate in depending on your nice
• Participate and read everything with in a specialty network where your ideal prospect

In fact, Chris Brogan put’s it this way:

If you’re looking to establish your online presence, and build relationships, it’s not the kind of project where you show up, build your profiles, friend a few people, and call it good. It’s a lot like tending the farm. Here are seven particular “chores” you could do every day that should prove beneficial to your online interests.

You can read his post “19 Presence Management Chores You COULD Do Every Day”

Here are a few more basics to make sure your social networking profiles are set up for the best “farming” experience in cultivating relationships:

Personal Branding Tips for LinkedIn

Get More Business Show with LinkedIn Expert – Viveka von Rosen

6 Tips for Using Your Twitter Profile to Get New Followers

10 Ways to Use Facebook for Business

I cannot emphasize this enough – You must have a daily / weekly plan of these business building activities with a particular focused action of what you want to happen to establish a following and an internet presence so that you will have clients coming to you for coaching and your products.

Don’t make the mistake of not taking your online presence seriously enough – and not serioiusly enought to craft a plan to deliver results.  And if you don’t know how – hire a coach to walk you through the process.

I’d love to talk about it with you.

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Get More Business Show – LinkedIn Expert, Viveka von Rosen

Honestly, I never really liked LinkedIn, to me it never felt very “social”. It felt stiff and unfriendly. I have a LinkedIn Profile – but until recently, never really cared. But all that is about to change!

Friday, March 20, 2009, my very special guest is LinkedIn Expert, Viveka von Rosen. I sought her out on Twitter because I didn’t want to ignore LinkedIn any longer. I decided I needed to understand LI better so I could advise my clients how to incorporate LI into their over all Social Media strategy.

I found the following post over at Viveka’s blog which intrigued and excited me to learn about LinkedIn. This post made LinkedIn sound a lot more social – right up my alley!

After you read this post, leave me a comment with your burning question about LinkedIn so Viveka and I can discuss Your question live on Get More Business Show this Friday, March 20th.

Enjoy this post by Viveka, @LinkedInExpert.

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Is it the size of your network or what you do with it?
by Viveka von Rosen

I am what you might call a promiscuous networker. In fact, I never say “no” to anyone (on LinkedIn that is.)

Folks like me are known in LinkedIn as LIONS (LinkedIn Open Networkers). LinkedIn’s take is that you should only invite people you know (although Scott Roberts, Senior Director of Business Development at LinkedIn sings a different tune – and we love him for it). Nonetheless, since I am in the field of social media strategy and marketing – working with both corporations and individuals – I find I need a giant network as a service to my clients. The larger the network, the bigger the portal into the LinkedIn world, and the more likely you are to find the diamond amongst the gravel. A large network is very useful for people in Sales and Recruiting, JobSeeking and Marketing of any kind – where it is a numbers game. It’s awfully hard to connect to someone who is not a first or second connection. Never mind those not in your network at all.

Scott Roberts, Senior Director of Business Development of LinkedIn was recently quoted in a Right Management Press release as saying “LinkedIn’s research has found that the quality of an individual’s profile and the number of connections dramatically impacts response rates to job opportunities.”

“C” level folks might want to remain “LaMBs”(“Look at My Buds” – coined by Laurie Macomber Of Blue Skies Marketing.) LaMBs know everyone in their network, and if you are lucky enough to connect to one, you will find their network much more useful than a LION network. LIONs love LaMBs. I can contact Laurie and I know she knows everyone in her network and could, should she choose to, give me a very warm written, perhaps even verbal recommendation. (LaMBs had better have someone in their company who is a LION if they are selling product or services.)

For those wanting top grow a LION network, let me throw out a few caveats. Firstly, LinkedIn only allows you 3000 invitations, so don’t go inviting everyone in your 8000 person database. (You can accept as many invitations as you want). When you do invite someone, make sure you let them know how they know you and why you want to connect.

Be aware of the IDK. (I Don’t Know). Get even one IDK now and LinkedIn will limit the functionality of your profile. When inviting someone to connect with you, ask them to archive your invitation if they do not want to accept it. Most people are not aware the penalties LinkedIn enforces as a result of an IDK.

For most people, the ideal network lies between the LION and the LaMB. If you want to strategically grow your network beyond people you know, but don’t want to be completely promiscuous, I suggest going to TopLinked.com’s top 50 list and inviting all of those folks. (You can now download that list as a CSV file) They will say yes, open your network to about 10 million, while keeping your first connections close at hand.

For more strageies on how to grow your LinkedIn Network, attend one of Integrated Alliances Network Building Webinars.

And of course, invite me (Viveka von Rosen) to Link In with you!

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