Need proof that you should be mixing your article marketing efforts with LinkedIn marketing? Below is an actual  invite to connect that LinkedIn marketing expert Kristina Jaramillo received yesterday. The person read Kristina’s article that was published in Website Magazine more than 6 months ago!

Because Kristina created a discussion on her LinkedIn group and other groups that she belongs to based on her article content and then linking it to the article,  people are still discussing her information. And,  she is getting new prospects and clients from it almost every day.

As I look on my Facebook news feed I see:

• A business and life coach mentioned: Today’s challenge is to see if I can replace the heating element on the dryer……..I’ll let you know if I succeed or fail…lol….send prayers….lol

• Quotes by Tony Robbins from someone who is not Tony Robbins

• A realtor asked: What are your top 5 favorite things about summer? She them mentioned that her favorites are 1) Farmer’s market, 2) Baseball 3) Weekend cookouts 4) A sliced summer tomato with a dollop of Hellman’s mayo 5)Sunlight till 9 pm!

•  A famous internet marketer who was on the show “Secret Millionaire” mentioned: Wishing you a great morning. I’m off to the gym for a workout. What are you doing on this blessed morning?

As I look on my LinkedIn news feed I see…

As business owners, organizational executives and business development and sales professionals, we are on social networking sites like LinkedIn to build and nourish relationships and to get more clients and sales. Am I right?

Then how come, when it comes to LinkedIn and blogging, most of us forget about marketing and focus solely on
educating?

Here’s what you are doing:

I’ve been hearing a lot now:

“Eric, I invested in your instant article templates and I’ve been writing a lot of articles and submitting it to sites like Ezinearticles.com. But, I have not seen any rise in website traffic. And, no one is grabbing my free special report. Is it the content I am providing?”

Now, if you are just creating articles just to get the link and not worrying about quality, then yes your content is the reason why you are not getting more website traffic, prospects and profits. If you are rehashing regurgitated content – then yes, your content is the problem.

But if you are creating valuable content that your prospects can use – and if you are following the secrets I reveal in my article marketing persuasion system at http://www.articlemarketingpersuasion.com – then chances are your content is not the reason why you are not experiencing article marketing success.

Here’s Why Your Article Marketing Efforts Are Not Working…

1. You are relying on content farms like Ezinearticles.com

As of this writing there is 377,510 so called expert authors sharing their content on thousands of topics.Finding your article is like trying to find a needle in the haystack, especially now after the Google smack down. You see, Google knows people are just creating content just for the SEO benefit without any thought for their readers. They are trying to get rid of the junk.

Do you want to be associated just with sites that contain junk and that anyone including kids can get published as long as you follow the editorial guidelines? Or, do you want to be associated with top site, blogs and publications?

For example my articles and my clients articles are on About.com, MarketingProfs, Home Business Magazine, Fast Company, Focus.com, Website Magazine, CEO Refresher, Entrepreneur.com, WomenEntrepreneur.com. Do you see the difference?

If you want to get published on top websites, I can help you. Go to http://www.articlemarketingexperts.com/special

2. You are not proactively putting your content in front of your prospects’ faces. Notice by the list of sites I mentioned, I am putting articles where prospects go to every day for information that I or my clients can provide. I’m not waiting for prospects to find my blog or my articles in these content farms. I am reaching out to the editors, website owners, bloggers and ezine publishers who my audience deems as credible and asking them to publish my articles. This way I am seen as an authority on article marketing and I know even if Google totally changes its algorithms and my articles are no where to be found on the search engines, that I will still be found by my prospects.

To see where you should be submitting your articles, grab my article submission site database which gives you contact information, traffic rankings and editorial guidelines for the websites, blogs, ezines and forums you should be submitting articles to. Get it now at: http://www.articlesubmissionsitedatabase.com/special

3.    You are not engaging enough in social media.

I used to think…If I’m getting all these results just by writing articles, why do I need to get involved with this social media junk like LinkedIn®, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Every time LinkedIn marketing expert Kristina Jaramillo asked me if she could work on my LinkedIn® Profile, I told her…

“What for? It’s a waste of time”

Then one day she surprised me with two (2) three-inch binders filled with…

• Tips, tools and strategies for creating an effective LinkedIn® profile
• Opportunities that internet marketers (including myself) are missing because of our ignorance. Out of the 80+ million people on LinkedIn®, only a FEW successful companies and internet marketers are using LinkedIn® to its fullest profit-making potential.
• Mistakes that most small business owners AND internet marketers are making on LinkedIn®
• How to create and nourish unlimited relationships with what Nielson Online calls… “The world’s largest audience of affluent, influential professionals.” And, you can do this easily by using LinkedIn® and the content you are already creating.
• How to combine my own personal Article Marketing Strategy with LinkedIn®. I learned that one of the most important things to do on LinkedIn® is to submit quality articles to their groups, give away valuable advice and create conversations. Well, since I create content all the time, it makes sense to add LinkedIn® to my strategy base, for increased exposure.
• How to get your content instantly in front of 50,000+ prospects
• How to build a community of targeted prospects. You can network with executives from Fortune 500 companies to work-at-home solopreneurs. Executives from all Fortune 500 companies are LinkedIn® members. Plus, you will find experienced professionals from large and small companies from every type of business and industry imaginable. You will find CEOs from Fortune 500 companies to work-at-home solopreneurs.
• Templates and systems to help you connect with more prospects, automate your LinkedIn® efforts and take the online conversation offline.

After seeing Kristina’s research, I put her to work for me as my underground LinkedIn® expert. She was my secret weapon that helped me…

• Increase my website traffic by 33.8% and boost my Alexa traffic ranking to near 150,000 out of 10+ million websites it tracks.
• Create JV relationships with key influential experts in various organizations – including one of the top VA Training Academies where we joined forces to create an article marketing certification program for virtual assistants
• Build a network of referral sources – so I have people chasing me down to buy my services and products
• Expand my network of prospects – LinkedIn® is a SOCIAL NETWORK, not somewhere to go and spam the entire universe with business offers and whatever juice you’re selling. People on LinkedIn® are there to meet business oriented people and CULTIVATE RELATIONSHIPS.
• Meet some of the most entrepreneurial people in THE WORLD who are connected to the network. The average income of LinkedIn® users is $110,000 per year. Compare that to the average USA income of $31,410 per year. Just that fact alone means that LinkedIn® subscribers are more qualified to own and operate their own business.
• Develop a community of followers and supporters filled with ideal targeted prospects who look to me for information when it comes to article writing, article marketing and article submission.
• Attract new prospects and coaching clients who would have not heard of me otherwise. This helped me boost my income to a record-breaking year despite the recession we’re still in!

In order to get these results, you need to mix your blogging, article marketing and LinkedIn marketing efforts. If you’d like help creating an article marketing and LinkedIn strategy – then:

1. Grab Kristina’s free special report revealing the top 14 mistakes most business professionals make on LinkedIn and the opportunities they are missing at: http://www.getlinkedinhelp.com

2. Email me at Eric@articlemarketingexperts.com and let me know that you want to take advantage of my free social article marketing strategy session.

I used to think LinkedIn and Facebook marketing was a waste of my time. Just look up my name, Eric Gruber on Google and you will see that my articles are published on top websites, including About.com, that brings me traffic every day. Why do I need social media? But, then I learned…

• You can create and nourish unlimited relationships with what Nielson Online calls… “The world’s largest audience of affluent, influential professionals.” And, you can do this easily by using LinkedIn® and the content you are already developing.

• One of the most important things to do on LinkedIn® is to submit quality articles to their groups, give away valuable advice and create conversations. Well, since I create content all the time, it makes sense to add LinkedIn® to my strategy base, for increased exposure. In fact, you can get your content instantly in front of 50,000+ prospects.

Once I started to combine article marketing with LinkedIn to create even stronger relationships with more prospects who are ready, willing and (most importantly) able to invest in my products, services and coaching – my website traffic soared 33.8% and I was able to take my business to new record-breaking levels.

So, how can you become more engaged with prospects on LinkedIn?

1. Avoid the mistakes Kristina Jaramillo (one of the top LinkedIn experts in the world) reveals in her free special report at: http://www.getlinkedinhelp.com. Here she outlines the top 14 mistakes most small business owners, executives and internet marketers are making on LinkedIn and the opportunities they are missing. Kristina says, “Out of the 80+ million people on LinkedIn®, only a FEW successful companies and internet marketers are using LinkedIn® to its fullest profit-making potential.” Grab her special report so you can become part of that small, select group who is using LinkedIn right.

2. Start blogging regularly – Your blog posts should automatically be posted on your blog. This gives prospects a reason to keep coming back to your profile. Plus, it gets me to go from your profile to your website or blog. And, if you add a call-to-action at the end of your blog post, you can get me even more engaged. Along, with having your blog posts show up on your profile – they should be added to your status messages. These messages show up on your connections homepage. You do want to continually give your prospects a friendly reminder about you – and the value you provide don’t you? Then, check out my instant article writing templates that you automatically get when you invest in our LinkedIn marketing templates at http://www.InstantLinkedInMarketingTemplates.com

3. Start posting new articles in pdf format and new videos to your profile. Use the Box.net application to upload articles in pdf format on a weekly basis. Use the Google Presentation and Slideshare application to add new videos to your profile on a weekly basis. Every time you add an article or change the video on your profile – an automatic status message of how you added content will be displayed on your connections homepage. Plus, once you add the content – it gives you an option to email your list. You can let your prospects know that you just added an article or video and that you’d like them to view it and give you feedback.

4. Create your own LinkedIn group – Check out our Article Marketing Experts LinkedIn Group at: http://tinyurl.com/2w2nvef. You’ll see that I have created my own community of followers and readers who want my content. By having my own group, I am in control of the information my readers see. And, I am in control of the conversation. I keep my followers engaged and interested in my products and services. Adam Hommey uses his group to show prospects that he is the expert while he simultaneously creates and nourishes relationships. You see after about 10 days, Kristina Jaramillo (Adam’s LinkedIn manager) invites prospects to get a free strategy session. Now, by the time they get a strategy session, prospects are familiar with Adam and his content so at the end they are ready to buy. Here is what Adam had to say after Kristina implemented this system:

“150 New Subscribers, Four New Coaching Clients, $6,259 In Immediate Profits, And Two Media Interviews! Leveraging the full power of LinkedIn® has been the “secret ingredient” that has, in just the past 5 months, taken me further toward achieving “authority” status as a website conversions expert than I moved in three years PRIOR. “ With our LinkedIn Marketing Templates, you’ll learn how to create and manage your own group. You’ll also get group description and summary templates that will pull people into your community. Grab it now at http://www.InstantLinkedInMarketingTemplates.com

5. Start discussions in groups that your targeted audience belongs to. You can join up to 50 different groups and if each of those groups had 1,000 members – that means you can get your content in front of 50,000 people! So, start sharing your articles and videos.

Here’s a couple tips for you when it comes to starting discussions: ·

Tip 1: Make the subject of the discussion a question. Then in the description explain why you are asking the question. Encourage others to participate in the conversation and share their ideas. Finish off by telling people to go to your article or video link for your tips. ·

Tip 2:  Start a debate. By creating articles on debate topics and discussing them in LinkedIn, I saw that it was generating a ton of comments and of course traffic to my site. My debate discussions were the most active conversations in many of the groups for weeks! An example of  a debate type article, can be found here: http://bit.ly/h116BJ

6. Start commenting and participate in other people’s conversations. Comment on other people’s status messages, especially if they are talking about one of their articles. In your comment, explain why you agree or disagree with their article. Then send prospects back to one of your articles on your blog for more information on the subject. This will get your information in front of that person’s connections as well as your own. The comment will be shown on the person’s profile page until they change statuses. And, it will be shown on the homepage of your connections as well as the profile status creator’s connections. Plus, you should be commenting on other people’s discussions within the different groups. Add your 2 cents and then send people to a blog article of yours for even more information.

Your next steps…

Now, before you can start engaging with prospects, you need to build a proper LinkedIn foundation. You can do that quickly and easily with our new Instant LinkedIn Profile, Instant LinkedIn Marketing and Article Marketing Template Kit at http://www.InstantLinkedInMarketingTemplates.com

I used to resist social media. I used to say, why do I need that junk. My articles are on top websites like About.com, MarketingProfs, Home Business Magazine, SiteProNews, Microsoft Community Dynamics and thousands more.  But I learned that…

• You can create and nourish unlimited relationships with what Nielson Online calls… “The world’s largest audience of affluent, influential professionals.” And, you can do this easily by using LinkedIn and the content you are already creating.

• You can build a community of targeted prospects. You can network with executives from Fortune 500 companies to work-at-home solopreneurs. Executives from all Fortune 500 companies are LinkedIn® members. Plus, you will find experienced professionals from large and small companies from every type of business and industry imaginable.
• One of the most important things to do on LinkedIn is to submit quality articles to groups, give away valuable advice and create conversations.   Well, since I create content all the time, it makes sense to add LinkedIn to my strategy base, for increased exposure.

But can you create too many conversations and become too engaged?

I ask this question because a LinkedIn group member commented:

“I would say the 20 conversations you have started in the last few weeks is too much. Slow down Article Expert Eric…drip method, not the flood method.”

Now, I’m not discussing this to justify my actions. I’m not upset at all about this person’s comment. I know you can’t please everyone. I’m writing about this today, because he brings up a point that should be discussed. So, read my answer below and then tell me your thoughts by commenting below.

My Answer to…Can You Become Too Engaged in LinkedIn and Social Media

My answer is “NO” as long as…

1. You follow group rules – and as long as the group moderator does not mind the discussions you are starting. If a group moderator tells you to limit the  in the group – then you do not post every day or every other day. You follow their restrictions and guidelines. Before I post discussions, I do ask the group moderator and leader what their rules are regarding posting content.

2. You create conversations within the groups. If you are just posting links – then yes it can be too much. Just like I ask for your thoughts and comments here on my blog – I encourage those in the groups to share their own ideas, experiences and insights. I write articles that people can take sides so so we may have a healthy debate. And, when people post comments in the groups or on my blog – I respond, so we have a real conversation online. I have complete and total engagement.

3. You create value and not just pitching. Because of the topics I am writing on, I had several group moderators personally email me and thank me for the value I’m adding to the group. You see it’s all about value. What information can you provide that will prove  helpful to readers? What discussions can you start that people can converse on – which will add value to everyone in the group?

Here are some of the debate topics that we have been discussing:

“Social Media Etiquette Debate”

“How Much Email Contact Is Too Much?”

“Single Opt-In Vs Double Opt-In”

“How Much Tweeting and Status Updating Is Too Much?”

“Is EzineArticles.com Really the Best Website to Submit Your Articles to?”

Notice the value I provide. Yes, I add call-to-actions at the end of every article, but my main objective is to educate readers and create conversations that are beneficial to everyone.

Am I Wrong?

What are your thoughts? Please let me know if I am wrong in creating conversations multiple times a week. Let me know if I really should be dripping my information out – even though I have so much value to give. Your comments are appreciated – even those that do not support me. Yes, I am an internet marketing expert – but I am always open to new ideas, thoughts and insights. So, please share your comments below.

To your article marketing success,

Eric Gruber

P.S. If you want to get more prospects engaged – and if you want to create more conversations on your blog and in social media circles – then you need to start writing more articles that provide real value. To help you create this content fast, check out my Instant Article Writing Templates.