Recently a few of our clients (male and female) have made some interesting comments during our LinkedIn training.
They have drawn comparisons between what works on LinkedIn (what I know) and what works on Tinder (which I don’t but hear alot about)
First let’s make it clear this article is not about helping you use LinkedIn as a dating website. That is weird, creepy and wrong. If you take nothing else from this fanciful title then take the fact that you should not use LinkedIn to try and romance strangers. There is literally an app for that.
However, these chats did get me thinking about how we could refresh the tired but true analogy “Marketing Is Like Dating”
Can we learn lessons from Tinder and other dating apps and apply the age-old rules of relationship-building on LinkedIn
I decided to do some research (no not like that) and this is what I found
How Tinder Can Help You Succeed On LinkedIn
Firstly it is clear that the age old analogy still holds true. Marketing is still like dating only the technology has changed.
The objective is still to form a good first impression and then tailor your approach to your objective. If you ask everyone in a networking event to buy your product right there and then you may succeed every now and again but you are going to have to get used to rejection.
The majority of people want to get to know someone and build trust before they do business with them online or offline.
Therefore the approach must be tailored to make the first step something with a lower level of effort and commitment. The objective of marketing on LinkedIn is for most to get the conversation offline, so you can have a deeper discussion and find out if there is a fit between what you offer and what they are looking for. It is also to find the key information like, are they already in a relationship (contract) that complicates things and when (if at all) that expires.
When we directly compare LinkedIn and Tinder the two share the following that we can learn from
✔️ Your profile must create the right impression
✔️ You must know your target audience & what they want
✔️ Personalise messages > Templates
✔️ The decision making timeline varies interaction to interaction
✔️ You have to have a plan to turn virtual into offline interaction
We can use this to inform our strategy on Linkedin.
It is a reminder to reject the mass connect and spam approach and instead focus on quality, personalisation and relationship building.
On LinkedIn we succeed when we decide…..
➡️ To be more selective with our interactions on LinkedIn.
➡️ To focus on quality instead of quantity
➡️ To personalise instead of spamming everyone the same template