Do you have a hard time reaching out to people or starting conversations on LinkedIn?
Are you looking for natural ways – that don’t feel pushy or contrived – to engage with potential prospects, industry peers and influential experts on social media?
Creating engagement and conversations with your potential prospects is, in fact, one of the best ways to use social media for business.
You can do this in an easy and comfortable way by taking advantage of the opportunities social selling trigger events provide.
Social selling trigger events (also known as lead generation trigger events) provide opportunities for natural dialogues to develop with existing and potential LinkedIn connections, allowing you to build rapport, increase engagement and nurture your relationships with them.
What are trigger events?
Trigger events are events that occur or actions others take that give you a natural reason to engage in conversations about such events or actions with potential prospects.
Different social networks have network-specific triggers. The trigger events I share with you here are specific to LinkedIn.
15 LinkedIn Social Selling Trigger Events That Start Conversations
LinkedIn makes it easy to take advantage of the trigger events I share with you in this article. It notifies you both within the platform as well as via email about them. With this heads-up system, you can be sure not to miss any opportunity to advance your social selling on LinkedIn.
Here are 15 LinkedIn social selling trigger events to watch for and ways to make the most of them:
1. They viewed your profile
If they are a potential prospect, they may be looking at your profile to see if the services you offer meet their needs – a VERY important reason to have a great LinkedIn profile.
This event is frequently the first opportunity you have to engage with people you are not already connected to. It is also a great time to reengage an existing connection.
Start by doing a little research to qualify the opportunity or person, and then, if it makes sense, reach out to them with a warm greeting (but not a sales pitch).
You don’t need to say “I saw you viewed my profile.” This is unnecessary and can make the other person feel less inclined to respond.
While you are researching their profile, look for a good reason to connect with your prospect, e.g., something you have in common, and include it in your personalized connection request message.
2. You find a prospect you want to connect with
You don’t need to wait around for a prospect to view your profile. Be proactive with your prospecting. When you come across someone you’d like to connect with, send them a personalized connection request.
Prospecting is incredibly easy with LinkedIn’s advanced search function. There’s a potential goldmine on LinkedIn, waiting for you to exploit its ability to locate and connect you with your ideal clients.
Again, the secret to success when connecting with a potential prospect is to write a personalized message based on the information you gleaned from their profile. Learn what is important to them personally and/or professionally, and look for some commonality between you and your prospect.
3. Your invitation to connect is accepted
If your profile looks professional and complete and you’ve sent a personalized connection request, most people will accept your request.
Once they have, this is your opportunity to start a dialogue and establish some rapport with your new connection.
The best way to do this is by sending them a warm and personalized thank-you message.
The goal of this message is to establish rapport and start a dialogue, requesting nothing in return.
In the message, in addition to thanking your new lead for connecting, find something to compliment them on or ask a simple question to start a dialogue – if relevant or appropriate.
4. Job change
When one of your LinkedIn connections has a job change, they could be a potential new prospect for you. Pay attention to any relevant job changes and, when appropriate, reach out to your connection with a personalized congratulations message.
Do NOT use LinkedIn’s default message. Instead, write something thoughtful and personal.
You also want to take note when a previous satisfied client takes on a new role or moves to a new company. Be sure to reach out as they may be interested in utilizing your services again in the near future.
5. Promotion
Similarly to the way you respond to a job change, when appropriate, celebrate a connection’s new promotion with a thoughtful acknowledgment or congratulations message.
If a satisfied customer assumes a different position in their company or moves to a new organization, reach out to see if they’d like to bring your product or service along. If your offering made them look good in their previous role, they’ll be eager to use your services again in their new position.
6. Mentioned you
If a connection mentions you in one of their posts, this is an open door for you to engage and thank them.
They may have mentioned you because either your post was relevant to them or your comment on one of their posts got their attention.
Mentioning (@NAME) a connection in a post or comment encourages engagement within the LinkedIn community.
When you respond to someone who has mentioned you (with an @NAME), this person will also receive a notification, letting them know you replied. This can open the door for a more in-depth conversation using LinkedIn’s message function.
The additional benefit of mentioning or being mentioned by a connection is that their connections will also see the conversation and may engage with you.
7. Updated their profile
If a connection has recently updated their profile, that is another trigger event that provides an engagement opportunity.
A profile update can tell you whether a connection has moved, changed their job focus or business, received a new recommendation or added a post or article.
Such updates can open the door to interacting with your prospect and starting a dialogue.
When appropriate, try asking questions as they are a fantastic way to get a conversation going.
8. Liked, commented on or shared your LinkedIn Publisher post
LinkedIn Publisher posts can help you build your network, credibility and authority as well as drive leads to your business.
It’s especially beneficial to you when others like, comment on or share your content. Replying to their engagement with your Publisher posts is a great way to start conversations with them.
The real value on LinkedIn is not the number of people in the network, but the influence that you possess within your network.
– Neil Patel
Be sure to appropriately reply to the comments left on your Publisher posts, and thank those who took the time to write them.
If a potential prospect who is not connected to you read and shared your post, this is a great time to send them a personalized connection request.
9. Liked, commented on or shared your LinkedIn status update
Status updates shared or engaged with by your 1st-level connections make you visible to your 2nd-level connections and beyond.
This allows potential prospects you are not already connected with to not only see your posts but also engage with them. And it gives you the perfect opportunity to connect and/or start a conversation with them.
What’s the takeaway?
The more often you post status updates that stimulate engagement from your connections, the more likely you are to be visible in more of your connections’ newsfeeds. This, in turn, makes them more likely to read and engage themselves with your posts, opening the doors for you to start conversations.
10. Endorsed you
Another trigger event that provides an engagement opportunity is receiving an endorsement from someone.
One of the best ways to get endorsements is to give them.
When you endorse someone, that person receives a notification, and sometimes they will reciprocate by endorsing you.
When someone endorses you, it’s a great opportunity for you to thank them for the endorsement and return the favor. Such a warm exchange deepens your connection with the person, gives more reasons for further engagement and promotes further relationship building.
11. You received a recommendation
Recommendations on LinkedIn are like gold.
These are written testimonials from previous clients, business partners or peers. They can have a huge positive impact on your credibility and authority on LinkedIn.
Receiving a recommendation gives you a great reason to reply to that person with a message, thanking them for their kindness and time.
You can also look at it as an opportunity to leverage the network of the recommender as they may be happy to introduce you to others within their network.
12. They were mentioned in the news
When someone is mentioned in the news, it serves as an effective trigger event, giving you an excellent engagement opportunity.
Reach out to that person, letting them know you saw them in the news. Tell them where you saw them mentioned, and include a link when possible.
In addition, include in your message a question, congratulations or comment – whatever is relevant and appropriate to the circumstance.
13. Their company was mentioned in the news
Much like when an individual is mentioned in the news, a company mention is another excellent trigger event to engage connections associated with the company.
14. They’ve published an article on LinkedIn
People like to be acknowledged for the content they create and share, so this presents a fantastic engagement opportunity.
When a potential prospect posts a LinkedIn Publisher article, you can engage with them by commenting on it or sharing it if it’s relevant to your network.
Be sure to add your own comment about the piece when sharing it.
15. They’ve posted a status update on LinkedIn
Lastly, watch your newsfeed as well as the activity pages of your prospects for opportunities to engage with their status updates.
By engaging with their updates, you will immediately get on their radars.
Visibility combined with activity will help keep you top of mind with your prospects and the larger LinkedIn network.
15 Social Selling Trigger Events on LinkedIn [Infographic]
Wrap up: social selling trigger events
As you nurture your LinkedIn relationships through regular engagement, make a habit of checking the LinkedIn notifications for various social selling trigger events.
When you act on them, you build your network and give yourself a great opportunity to expand your business.
MY CHALLENGE FOR YOU: Over the next week, choose two or three social selling trigger events to monitor. Use them to engage with people you want to build relationships with. Record your engagement successes. Feel free to share your results with me here in the comments, or message me on LinkedIn. I love hearing about successes!
Do you utilize social selling trigger events? Did I miss any in this article? Let me know in the comments below.
