 Are you looking to expand your client base and attract more meeting planners to your organization in the new year? Well, social selling is a lot more effective than cold calling. So today we're gonna talk about how to extend LinkedIn invitations to potential clients. Hey, it's Leanne from leancolderwood.com and if you're a meeting partner and not yet on LinkedIn, this could be the time to do it. Finding clients aside, LinkedIn is a great platform for you to grow your personal brand and your professional brand. And it's where recruiters are looking for talent as well. So if you haven't optimized your LinkedIn profile, I've actually included some links below this post to some blog posts I did about creating a better LinkedIn profile. So feel free to check those out. But today here's what we're talking about and that's extending invitations to meeting planners on LinkedIn. Invitations that they are going to respond to and now become part of your network. When they become part of your network, they can now see your content, see your likes and your comments and your posts and you start to build a relationship with them and they start to get more visibility to you. So that's why we wanna extend invitations to other meeting planners or potential clients on LinkedIn. And I'm gonna talk to you about how to craft the perfect invitation today. So here we go. Tip number one, when sending an invitation to anyone you want to connect with on LinkedIn, make sure you send a personalized message. So LinkedIn has a template that you can use and I think it goes something like, I'd like to join your LinkedIn network. No, you're gonna scratch that, make sure it's personalized, include people's names. Tip number two, when crafting that personalized message, make sure you reference where you met the person if you've met that person already. So perhaps you ran into them at a networking event or a welcome reception somewhere, make sure you reference where you met that person. And if you need some networking tips, I actually did a video not too long ago on networking tips that you can find above here. So again, in that invitation on LinkedIn, make sure you reference where you met that individual. Tip number three, if you are working on a meeting or an event program together, make sure you reference what you are working on. That will definitely jog their memory if they have met you before and they may have only met you via email or via phone call with respect to that certain program. So make sure you reference the program and give some context around the invitation that way. Tip number four is to provide something of value. And that thing of value is not something that your organization provides like a floor plan or a catering menu. No, no, this is something that would provide them of value to their role as a meeting planner or maybe even something else that you noticed in their profile, perhaps a hobby or an interest that they have. So provide something tangible, something that they can maybe use, something that they can learn from. And now you're going to be recognized as someone who shares knowledge. And that goes a long way when creating relationships with new meeting partners. Tip number five, don't sell. Especially not in the invitation phase. It would be so tempting to reach out to a meeting planner and say, hey, my name is Sue and I work at a property in Houston that has a thousand guest rooms and 50,000 square feet of meeting space. No, this isn't the time to do that. First you want to create that relationship and cultivate a good working relationship with that client before you start launching into a sell. So make sure that you do that outside of the LinkedIn invitation. Tip number six, while you're extending the invitation or even before and especially afterwards, start liking and sharing the content that they are interested in. Perhaps your potential client is creating content but they also might be commenting and liking other people's content. And that's where you can get some visibility is to be active in those online discussions where your client is hanging out. And especially if it's their own content or their own comments, commenting in return will definitely give you greater visibility. So start to do that before, through and post invitation phase. And my final tip is to tag that potential client in content that would be relevant to them. Now you can do this in LinkedIn by simply using the ampersand sign, the at sign, followed by their name. And if they're a connection with you they then receive a notification that you've tagged them in a piece of content. But again, make sure that the content is very relevant for them. And don't do it too often so that they're getting dinged with these notifications continually. But if by being thoughtful and including them on some of the content that you think that they would find value they're going to see you as a valuable resource. So start doing that today with a number of your connections. I've created some templates that you can use when crafting your LinkedIn invitations. And you can find a link to those templates below this video. It's a simple Word document that you can download and then simply copy and paste the invitation text that makes the most sense for that particular client that you're trying to reach out to. So take a look at some of my templates, use them of course change them so that they're more personal and they reflect your writing style. But yeah, use those templates to get onto LinkedIn today and start extending some invitations. Now that you have some tools in hand to start connecting with people on LinkedIn start making a practice of connecting with a few people each week and practicing your invitation skills. Believe it or not, it does take some practice. And the more you start extending personalized invitations the more connections you're going to make in return. And if you need someone to practice on try linking in with me. You can find my profile again below this video. So find my profile on LinkedIn send me a personalized message. I would love to hear from you and see how you're doing with growing your LinkedIn network. If you enjoyed today's video please click on the like button and don't forget to share this with your colleagues who might need some LinkedIn advice as well. Plus I'd love to hear from you and any success stories you have on connecting with potential meeting planners on LinkedIn. Leave a comment below this video and share your success with other meeting partners in the network. I hope you enjoyed this week's video and I look forward to seeing you next time. Bye for now.