#100DaysOfLinkedIn Challenge

I have nearly 1400 contacts on LinkedIn, a lot of them I’ve never spoken too. So I thought I would go on a 100 days of LinkedIn challenge to see if I could add value to every one in my network who I haven’t spoken to recently. I’m calling it #100DaysOfLinkedIn. I’m already up to day 9.

Marketing Campaign

This is fundamentally a marketing campaign. I’m not too sure what success looks like for it yet but I’m already receiving positive feedback. It is more marketing than sales as I’m attempting to gauge who are good leads on my LinkedIn. I am trying to sell Michael Bolton’s Rapid Software Testing course in Sydney and Brisbane and I’ve sent a few people towards my communication for testers workshop. However getting sales is not the point of this campaign. Adding value is and brand awareness is.

Side note: maybe a way to measure engagement is to monitor the traffic to my blog and replies to the messages?

Keeping Track

LinkedIn allows you to export your connections. I exported my connections into a spreadsheet and labelled this spreadsheet with the date of the export. I’ve added a few extra columns such as “Last Contacted” and “Notes”. Some of the notes I’ve collected so far is if the personal is a fan or a lead.

Have a message template

I’m reaching out with people with an a message template. However I’ll tweak this on a case by case basis and add/remove different things based on some details from their profile. Here is my basic template:

Hi {Name},

How are you? What are some of the challenges facing you these days?

I’m doing a #100DaysOfLinkedIn challenged where I try to add value to everyone in my network over 100 days. I’m up to day 9 so far.

I enjoy teaching and I’ve got a bunch of projects on the go. From encouraging people to become more technical https://samanthaconnelly.com/becoming-more-technical/ to teaching kids Lego robotics https://samanthaconnelly.com/robotics-tutorials/the-mexican-wave-project/

I’ve been experimenting with different CV formats over the years, if you’d like a bit of inspiration you can check them out here: https://samanthaconnelly.com/evolution-of-my-cv/

Is there anything I can help you with?
Regards,

Sam

If they are a tester or developer in Sydney or Brisbane, I’ll include a section about Michael Bolton too.

Re posting Job ads

While I do this challenge I will re post job ads that I see that I believe will add value to testers in Australia that I know. I will also share profiles of people who have posted that they are looking and if I know they are active in the community.

Video Updates

While doing this campaign I’m experimenting with the video updates for LinkedIn. I want to see if it’s a useful tool for engagement. I’ve only done one video post so far and it’s already been positive, but I think I will do weekly updates with the progress.

Can I help you with anything?

I finish the message with a call to action, “how can I help you?”. With this campaign I’m focusing on adding value so it’s important for me to drive home this point. Overall I don’t think this approach is too “salesy” and I’m looking forward to seeing how it plays out. A few days in and I’m already seeing positive results.

What would you change in this campaign?