Generating Staffing Firm Prospects Through Social Media
We all know how tough it is when it comes to staffing firm prospects and reaching out via social media; however, we don’t always use the tools at our discretion. Today, let’s talk about using social media to drive and enhance your prospecting efforts. Conceptually, we all know to look at LinkedIn and yet we only use a small portion of LinkedIn capabilities.
Profile Details
This section may be a little more obvious, but it is always worth bringing up. When reviewing a staffing firm prospects profile, be sure to look at not just their current role, but their previous roles, the colleges and universities they attended, the organizations that they are members of, and their testimonials. All of this information can be utilized in your prospecting efforts to bond with your prospects. We always bring this up because you never know what you’re going to find in their profile.
The best pitch I heard from someone, using these details, revolved around the fact that they saw who I was linked to and pulled out two common names that they knew and that I knew in order to attract my attention in a first email. By the way, it worked.
The Seven Degrees of Separation (Kevin Bacon Game)
So often sales people look at the profile of a given contact and stopped there. They are missing some of the best parts of the tool. On the right-hand side of LinkedIn, you can see the “People Also Viewed” section which gives you additional leads of similar targets as well as additional people within your target company.
On the profile, many people miss the “See All Connections” button. It is located with the contact information, right below the photo on the right-hand side of LinkedIn’s profile. Clicking “See all connections” shows you who they are connected to and will show you who you also know of their connections. If this does not lead to a request for an introduction from your mutual contact to them, then I would be surprised. LinkedIn has proved how small the world really is when we see how many people we want to get to know are linked to people we already know.
Connect. Message. InMail.
Some people argue that you should connect with someone before you InMail them. Some people argue you should send InMail before you connect with them. Some people believe that there should not be a reason of why you want to connect message with the connect request. I can’t argue with any of these points other than to say thinking about it too long means you haven’t reached out to them. Connect with them. Do it with a message. Do it without a message. Send them an InMail before you connect. LinkedIn’s separate inbox allows for ease of the user in receiving and reviewing mail. Take advantage of the tool and while we have only discussed LinkedIn here, keep in mind that Twitter’s ability to send direct messages and connect with people is equally powerful and operates in very much the same way when reaching out to staffing firm prospects. Happy hunting and let’s connect!
About S.J.Hemley Marketing
S.J.Hemley Marketing is a marketing and sales consulting firm focused on driving tangible results for professional services firms. Brand matters, but not without ROI. With over 20 years of sales and marketing experience within staffing and recruiting, we have helped to drive successful branding, sales training, lead generation activities as well as defining marketing strategy for top organizations.