If you want to be notified the next time I write something, sign up for email alerts or subscribe to the RSS feed. Thanks for reading.
Recently we had the privilege of getting introduced to Natalie Bourre and discussing LinkedIn & social networking with her. She has only been on LinkedIn for a few months and clearly shows what being strategically focused & being active can achieve!  We were so impressed by her success that we wanted to interview her and share it with you on this blog.
What was your introduction to LinkedIn?
I signed up for LinkedIn in June 2008. It was at this time that I decided to start my medical marketing consulting and coaching business, Marketing 4 Health Inc., and started to build my website http://www.pharmaceutical-marketing-coach.com.  Some of my colleagues suggested that I join LinkedIn as a way to post my profile in order to network with other professionals within the industry. I must admit that I had no idea what to expect. In fact, I did not expect much at all. My experience with social media up to that point had been very limited and more of a personal nature.  Upon signing up for LinkedIn, I sent a few invitations to people that I knew in the pharmaceutical industry, and did not see the professional benefits of the site until I noticed somebody within my network had joined a pharma group on LinkedIn.  This caught my attention right away and that’s when I started using LinkedIn strategically to expand my network within the medical marketing arena.
What is your goal for using LinkedIn?
My goal for using LinkedIn is to find prospective clients for my medical marketing consulting and coaching services.   In order to improve the probability of finding potential clients, I am focused on developing a large targeted network of professionals who are involved or interested in the pharmaceutical / biotech / medical industry. On the flip side, it is also helpful to have a large network in case I ever require to sub-contract some business to skilled experts within the industry. And yes, I definitely plan on growing my business to the point of requiring an extra hand or two in the next couple of years!
Since you have built such an impressive LinkedIn network so rapidly, can you share some of your activities?
In the beginning, I invited all the people that I found on LinkedIn whom I used to work with, either directly or indirectly (service providers such as marketing agencies). It helps to look at the connections of the people that you used to work with to see if they might have a contact that you might have missed, as it is quite likely that you have a lot of work colleagues in common.
By the time this list was exhausted, I was starting to become familiar with LinkedIn. That is when I noticed a colleague joined a pharma group on LinkedIn. Always one to take as many opportunities to socialize as possible, in person and online, I joined as many pharmaceutical / biotech related groups as I could find. I immediately became an active participant in these forums; I started discussions, made comments, and contacted some people who I felt wrote very insightful comments. Once a contact has been made through the group discussions, if the other person is in agreement, I invite them to join my LinkedIn network. I regularly share resources and tips that I have found online with my LinkedIn groups by posting these as new discussions. Sometimes these resources come from my website, but oftentimes they are not linked to my business at all. I am just sharing something that might add value to my network.  As a member of 48 groups, it takes a long time to post the same information on all groups, but I do it because I feel sharing information that might be perceived as valuable by my network is an important part of online social networking.  If you want others to provide you with suggestions and insights to your discussion topics, you have to give them something as well, either through comments or sharing. Plus, this helps build a personal brand that others might start recognizing. For example, when I post a resource on the web, I usually get a couple of people who comment on the fact that this is something that I do on a regular basis.
I have also had success in generating invitations to join others’ networks by posting a request for others to send me invitations. I try not to do this too often because I feel it is not as personalized as other network expansion methods.  I do not get to know my new contacts as well as I would via the other methods that I just described. Nonetheless, it is an effective way of getting a quick boost in your network volume. As long as you are part of a network that is targeted to your industry, chances are that those who will respond to your post will be involved in the same industry as you, either directly or indirectly.
Finally, I post my LinkedIn public profile address on my other social network profiles and on various pages throughout my website.
About Nat Bourre
Nat Bourre is a pharmaceutical marketing consultant and coach and founder of the ‘Pharmaceutical Marketing Coach’
She can be found on the following social networks;
No Responses to “LinkedIn Social Networking Success Story! (part 1)”
Please Wait
Leave a Reply