The Blogging Painters

Lead Poisoning Moved To 5μg/dL

Dean Lovvorn — Wed, 16 May 2012 18:43:27 +0000

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today, agreed with the Advisory Committee for Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention (ACCLPP) to move the line for the lead poisoning of children from 10μg/dL to 5μg/dL. μg/dL stands for micro-grams per deciliter, which is a measurement used for blood levels.

The CDC also agreed that the term “level of concern” should also be eliminated. For sometime now, the CDC has realized that any level of lead in the bloodstream should be a level of concern, whether it is 1μg/dL or 5μg/dL.

Impact On Painters

While there is no direct impact on painting contractors, there could be an indirect impact. Lead dust is measured as micro-grams per foot square (μg/ft2). The EPA’s action level is 40μg/ft2 for floors, 250μg/ft2 for interior window sills and 400μg/ft2 for window troughs.

It is a well known fact that the vast majority of non-lead certified painting contractors do not have the knowledge or experience to clean flooring to a 40μg/ft2 level. At 40μg/ft2, a child has a 50/50 chance of now becoming lead poisoned with the new 5μg/dL rating.

Even Lead Safe Certified Firms, need to begin verifying that they meet the EPA’s guidelines. Esca-Tech, Inc. (the manufacturers of D-Lead) has a product that can help painting contractors be more assured that they are meeting these guidelines. While not as accurate as hiring a lead professional to do clearance testing, it can be an additional safety tool to ease both your and your clients’ mind.

Ben Moore Ceiling Paint

I recently had the chance to work with Benjamin Moore’s fairly new ceiling paint 508. Touted as an ultra flat paint specifically formulated for ceilings that hides common ceiling imperfections, it uses the Gennex waterborne colorant system making it a VOC compliant product in all areas. It has longer open times for more work-ability, leading to less laps with minimal spattering. Cure time to touch is one hour, with a one to two hour recoat time. I had the perfect ceiling to try this out in my own bathroom, in our family vacation home.

A premimum ultra flat ceiling paint

A Neglected Bathroom

It had been neglected for many years, and had seen some leaks leading to failures in the popcorn texture, and water stains. I removed the old popcorn texture, and skim coated the damaged areas after applying a coat of wall paper sizing to glue down the frayed gypsum wall board paper. After sanding smooth there were still plenty of flaws that I could see. As you can imagine the last thing a painting contractor wants to do on their time off is work on their own home, especially a vacation home.

Flat Finish

Time to try something new

So I needed a paint that would hide as many imperfections as possible. I found this paint did a very good job at that, even with angular light coming in from the window.

This is the finished product after the second coat.

The results

It was easy to apply, and dried to a dead flat film. I applied two coats with a 1/2 nap, and I was really impressed with the flatness. At a retail price of $37.99 this is a high end ceiling paint, and it performs like one.

Since using this paint in my own home, I have spec-ed it in several other repaints and a new construction project JHC has coming up.

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Promar 200 ZERO VOC – The right paint for your home

Patrick Stilwell — Thu, 03 May 2012 12:27:26 +0000

“What paint should I use in my own home?”

Can you explain what the single most important aspect should be in a type of interior paint? Should it be ease of use? How well it covers? Clean ability? Odor? Versatility? Affordable? It is quite difficult to pinpoint exactly what a paint should be, and to be quite honest it needs to be all these things and more.

We have been in business for twenty-one years and over that time we have used just about every type of paint on the market. If you ask a painter what is most important he is going to tell you cost and coverage. If you ask a homeowner what is most important they will tell you something the first time, then something else the second time… So who is right? Well they both are! You need a paint that will cover the walls thoroughly and look great when you are finished. You need a paint that has low to no odor and is environmentally friendly. You need a paint that can take a beating and keep on going. You need a paint that can be made in any color of the spectrum and in all different levels of sheen. And, you need a paint that won’t break the bank! In our opinion Sherwin Williams has done just that with their introduction of the Promar 200 ZERO VOC line of paint.

Promar 200 ZERO VOC is interior wall paint is fantastic

When changing color we always tell our clients that we use two coats of paint for complete coverage. Sometimes when the color change is drastic it takes even more coats. We have found that this product covers so well that a second coat is not needed in some instances. *** Please let me assure you that we ALWAYS apply two coats when we say we will, but if the client is happy with one and asks us to not apply the second coat we remove that charge from the bill. *** This paint can do everything that we ask it to and it is priced reasonably. There is a difference between premium paint and cheap paint – we only use premium paint. BUT, there is also a difference between buying a “name” and the actual cost of a superior product. I am here to tell you that Promar 200 ZERO VOC is an outstanding product that performs to all standards and meets everyone’s demanding criteria.

How we tested the Promar 200

Last year we setup a blind test in our shop and had the most novice to our most seasoned painters try out several coating products. We took several sheets of drywall and had paint trays labeled with paint “A” “B”, etc… The roller frames were all the same and the roller covers were identical. The only difference was the paint itself. After thirty minutes of painting and an hour of deliberation the clear winner was Promar 200 ZERO VOC. After the paint dried you could not tell the difference between the seasoned painters test spots and the novices. You could only tell a difference between the paints. Every single painter chose the Promar 200 ZERO VOC samples as the best looking and the ones with the best coverage. It beat out other manufacturers paints and it beat out higher costing materials from Sherwin Williams. It even beat out the old paint we used on just about every interior that our guys swore by.

Using it in our own home!

This is fresh sheetrock with one coat of white primer and ONE coat of Promar 200 ZERO VOC. Can't wait to get the second coat on to see how rich it will look against that fireplace!

That test was performed over six months ago. Since then we have been using this product on every house we paint – from typical homes to the most luxurious. The results are the same every single time! Our crews love using it, our clients are blown away by the results, and the designers we work with love the versatility. If you don’t want to take my word for it ask my wife; we are currently painting the entire interior of our home with this product and she is in love!

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What’s in your toolbox?

Chris — Tue, 01 May 2012 17:00:00 +0000

Where we store our "stuff"!

Painters have “stuff”

As we are heading full force into the exterior season I am sure there are guys (like my husband Rob) who are digging thru toolboxes and finding tools in all sorts of buckets and places they don’t belong! Some guys have a pretty good system of organizing their tools, like Scott showed us here. Having multiple vehicles, job sites and painters makes it harder to keep everyone equipped. I hate it when small hand tools get purchased because, “I couldn’t find my nail punch, it was only a couple of dollars”, especially when I know there are 6 on top of the washing machine! Arghh!

More “stuff”

When Rob and I were at the PDCA Expo earlier this year we saw several new tools and gadgets, we have yet to try any of them. Some look promising, some not so much! I thought I’d share some of the items to see what our readers think, I may even give some away to a random commenter

You can also share and comment on our Google + gallery by clicking here!

So tell us, what is in your toolbox, leave a comment!

The Paint Contractor

5 Reasons to Join 5 Groups

Chris — Tue, 01 May 2012 12:41:13 +0000

Are you spinning your wheels?

Many of us are so busy working “in our business” that we put working “on our business” low on the priority list. Add to the list Social Media, Training Employees, Hiring , Paperwork and keeping up on the endless changes in RRP Rules, and it is a wonder how we get any painting done!

Knowing where to put your time, efforts and energy is key.

You can hire a professional to do your Social Media, hire a bookkeeper to keep your paperwork and billing current and use internet resources such as Blogging Painters to keep up on things. Decide which tasks you are best suited for and direct your energy towards doing them well.

Focusing on local networking.

While sitting at your desk searching the internet can yield good information, you must become part of the local economy. Belonging to and being active in groups like BNI, Linkedin, your local Homebuilders Association or Chamber of Commerce allows you to meet and get to know the other business owners and build a referral network.

Here is a recent article I wrote in The Paint Contractor with more on joining groups.

I hope you will find Blogging Painters a useful “group to join”. Let us know what you would like to gain from your time spent online!

The Paint Contractor

Taking Your Work Home With You

Dean Lovvorn — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 23:54:28 +0000

I’m in the middle of a Elevated Blood Lead Investigation. This is where I try and find the source or sources that caused the lead poisoning of a child. One suspect is a painter who transferred lead dust from his clothes to the family car and then that dust was transferred to his wife’s clothing and ultimately to the lead poisoned child, whom she is the nanny for.

During my research, I came across these case studies, which may be of interest to some.

Case 1: In September 2008, a male aged 12 months with a BLL of 18 µg/dL was reported to MCLPPP; the boyfriend of the child’s mother worked for a painting and paint-removal contractor. The mother’s boyfriend was transported to and from work in her vehicle with the child in the car. No lead paint or lead dust was detected in the family home in a 1980s public housing complex. The mother’s vehicle had a lead dust level of 2,100 µg/ft2 on the passenger seat, and the child’s toddler safety seat had a lead dust level of 120 µg/ft2. The car was cleaned commercially and the mother reported vacuuming and wet cleaning the interior. The mother replaced the vehicle when follow-up testing in November indicated lead dust on the passenger seat (1,000 µg/ft2) The child safety seat was replaced and upon retesting in May 2009, the child’s BLL decreased to 7 µg/dL.

Case 2: In April 2008, a female aged 28 months with a BLL of 12 µg/dL was reported to MCLPPP; upon retesting in May, her BLL had increased to 22 µg/dL. Her father was employed in paint removal (by sanding and grinding) in an 1860s building. The paint tested positive for lead when the father tested it with a home lead test kit. The father’s BLL was 71 µg/dL. The family did not own a vehicle and resided in a 1920s building that had been renovated in 1984. No lead paint was found inside the home; lead dust levels of 1,200 µg/ft2 were detected in the entryway to the exterior laundry room where work clothes and shoes were typically removed. The child’s safety seat, kept in the same hallway, had a lead dust level of 100 µg/ft2. The family discarded the seat; when the child was retested in June, her BLL had decreased to <5 µg/dL.

Case 3: In January 2008, a female aged 13 months with a BLL of 15 µg/dL was reported to the Maine Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program (MCLPPP); her father’s previous occupation involved sanding and grinding paint from pre-1950s residential buildings. According to the father, the employer only required workers to wear dust masks and therefore did not adhere to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s lead-removal safety standards. No lead paint or lead dust was identified in the child’s home (a 1990s mobile home). Lead dust wipes of the family’s only vehicle, which was used to drive to job sites, identified lead dust on the driver’s seat (550 µg/ft2) and on the infant child safety seat (43 µg/ft2) that had been kept continuously (from birth to age 13 months) in the vehicle. A sibling aged 3 years who used a booster seat that was kept inside the home when not in use, had a BLL of <5 µg/dL. Both child safety seats were replaced and the vehicle was vacuumed and wet cleaned; upon retesting 7 months later, the affected child (at age 20 months) had a BLL of <5 µg/dL.

Case 4: In April 2008, a male aged 18 months with a BLL of 22 µg/dL was reported to MCLPPP; his father had worked for 10 months for a particular contractor. The boy’s father routinely picked his child up from a state-licensed child care facility in his work clothes during his employment. No lead paint or lead dust was identified in the 1978 public housing complex in which the family had resided since March 2008. Lead dust wipes of the family vehicle detected lead levels of 240 µg/ft2 on the truck floor and 95 µg/ft2 on the child’s safety seat. The child safety seat was replaced. The vehicle was vacuumed and wet cleaned. Follow-up BLLs were 13 µg/dL in December 2008 and 11 µg/dL in March 2009.

Long story short, we may want to take better precautions, not only for our own family’s sake, but for others safety too.

It is no secret that social media has revolutionized how we all do business – from communicating with vendors to marketing our products and services to customers. But there is a side of social media that can be destructive to your business if you aren’t careful. Many businesses leap into social media without really thinking about their actions. They talk only about themselves in a “look at me” fashion. It’s as if they stumbled into a networking event and started handing out business cards (and we’ve all been at events with THAT guy!).

The truth is people expect more from you. When they login to Facebook after a long day at work, they don’t want to be marketed to; they want to connect with you. They want your business to be a “friend” – a resource where they can find fun and solutions. What they don’t want is you “shouting” out sales and promotion. That is a sure bet that they will disconnect with you.

Social media is not about shoving your message down other peoples’ throats. You wouldn’t do that offline, so why do it online?

Some ways you can use social media to connect with others include:

Share your blog posts in a useful fashion and invite people to give you feedback.
Ask an engaging question like: What is a question you have about painting your home?
Invite people to subscribe to your e-newsletter … and publish it regularly with useful information.
Post “How-To” videos so homeowners can properly tackle painting projects on their own (they’re going to anyway; why not give them some guidance). One idea: How to properly apply painter’s tape to avoid bleeds.
Share ideas, tools and products from other blogs and online sources

Those are just five ideas … there are dozens out there to start interacting with your audience and building those meaningful connections. To be successful online is to be focused on others. Be helpful and have one-on-one conversations. Social media makes these possible.

Perhaps Mark Buckston said it best in a recent Construction Marketing Ideas blog post:

“Social media can enhance your existing relationships, induce referrals from friends and acquaintances, allow you to showcase your human side, and in some cases, provide intelligence and insights into potential clients and decision-makers.”

Social media is about truly connecting with people – one person at a time. It starts with building your likeability, reliability and overall trust with them, and once that meaningful connection occurs, your business can grow.

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Can Hiring a Marketing Consultant Help my Business?

Barbara Walsh — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 12:07:11 +0000

Yes it can!

Are you short on time but full of marketing ideas for your painting business? Maybe outsourcing your marketing plan to a consultant is just the boost your company needs to grow its presence online and within the community. We can quickly implement the necessary strategies that will boost awareness of your company on the Internet and locally, create engagement with current and potential customers, and set your company apart as a leader within your industry.

Four Top Reasons to Hire a Marketing Consultant

1. Knowledge – Professional marketers know things you don’t. No matter your business skills or years in business, you need to invest in a professional marketer who you can trust and consult with to help you improve your current marketing plan or develop a new one.

2. Time – A marketing consultant will save you time to do what you do best: work in your business. The small business owners I have spoken with simply do not have the hours needed to implement today’s marketing strategies.

3. Flexibility – Marketing consultants are flexible and immediately available to take on assignments. A marketing consultant can set up and maintain your marketing strategy or provide instruction for your office staff to do so.

4. Savings – If your business does not need a full time in-house marketer, a consultant will save you money. Many consultants charge based on the task. Therefore, you pay a flat fee no matter how long it may take them to accomplish the task. Also, unlike employees, your company will not be paying benefits.

Marketing today is fast paced with new online platforms and technologies appearing every day. You need to invest in a professional who can spend her day keeping up with the latest. The learning curve is steep and a good marketer will spend many hours reviewing and researching strategies to fit your industry. Today’s marketers must possess excellent computer skills; building websites and opening social media accounts requires people who know their way around various programs and the Internet. Communication skills are important as well in order to be the “voice” of your company on social media and connecting with current and potential customers.

The job of a marketing consultant is to analyze your business and develop a plan that will increase your visibility online and in the community, grow your lead base, and stay connected with your current customer base. Gone are the days when a company’s marketing consisted of a few print ads in local newspapers, the phone book, or an occasional direct mail campaign (outbound marketing). Marketing today has gone “social” (inbound marketing). Inbound marketing consists of social media, blogging, website creation, and search engine optimization.

There is a growing trend among companies to spend more of their marketing and advertising budget on inbound channels. The main reason is because marketing today is about relationships. People want to learn about your company on the Internet and keep connected on the social media platforms they are using. Another reason is social media platforms and blogging are free. You only need to hire someone to do it. Website creation costs vary greatly, so shop around. Once you have your website up and running, the only additional costs are having someone maintain it and update content. Use your website as an online brochure to direct customers to. People want to know about you before their first meeting, and having a website with social media links will give them a glimpse of your company’s skills and credibility.

Four Top Qualities to Look for When Hiring a Marketing Consultant

1. Knowledge and experience – A good marketing consultant will have knowledge of today’s latest marketing channels. Experience and the ability to show work done for other client’s is a plus, though don’t discount a young start-up…remember you were one too!

2. Excellent communication skills and an outgoing personality – A good marketer should be able to communicate both with you, your employees, vendors, and customers. If you are looking for someone to blog for your website, make sure this person can show you some of their written works. Most marketers are enthusiastic and energetic; make sure your personality type will mesh with theirs. This is a relationship that will require frequent discussions, so the ability to communicate what you want and listen to their recommendations is an important component to your success.

3. Interest in your industry – A good marketing professional can market most any business successfully, but a great marketer will become almost as passionate about your business as you are. That’s when you know you’ve found the right person to work on your account.

4. A team of professionals– Your marketing professional should have a network of people readily available to help implement any task. From graphics artists, to print shops, to photographers, and the local press– these are the additional people it may take to effectively implement your plan.

From my experience working with a painting contractor, I can see the painting profession is a demanding business. A typical day can include numerous customer telephone inquiries, driving from location to location providing estimates, gathering paint and other supplies from vendors, and spending hours doing the work they were hired to do. Marketing is simply another hat, the owner, who is already over scheduled must wear.

Due to time constraints, many small businesses are abandoning this important component to grow and maintain their business. Waiting until business is slow to think about marketing is often too late. The value of marketing in good times will often be most noticed by the small business owners when they find their slow times are decreasing.

Over the past year I have seen a lot of painting businesses creating websites and delving into social media. Whether they have in-house staff or consultants to do the work, small businesses are beginning to understand that this new type of marketing is here to stay. For those on board, we can continue forging ahead. Those trailing behind will eventually begin but will always be a few steps behind those of us who already have our strategies in place.

Find a consultant that is committed to increasing your visibility on the Internet, within the community you serve, and with others in your industry. A consultant will help you build your bottom line and image while working within your budget. Visibility is today’s key to success! Does your company outsource marketing? Tell us your story in the comment section below.

Barbara Walsh, Marketing Consultant, Walsh One Marketing

www.walshonemarketing.com

walshonemarketing@gmail.com

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April 1, 2012

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Rolling Toward Success

Barbara Walsh — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 01:57:30 +0000

How Two Different Work Styles and Points of View = 1 Terrific Marketing Plan!

Photo Credit: Gary Hayes via Compfight

By: Tim Grubbs, Owner, Quality Assurance Painting, Inc.

Barbara Walsh, Marketing Consultant, Walsh One Marketing,

How does a busy, driven, type A painting contractor and an equally driven, type A marketing consultant work together to develop and implement a marketing plan that works? It takes patience, perseverance, and a mutual passion for growing a business. Like any relationship, including business, it can take time to successfully blend different personalities and work styles together. It’s not always easy, but we did it, and you can too! Let us explain, from our points of view, the pros and cons of the client/consultant business relationship and how we make it work.

Barbara says,

Cons: Let’s start here and move toward the positive!

From working in advertising and marketing most of my career, I can tell you that working with a contractor has been a different experience for me. Marketing and advertising can be somewhat exciting and glamorous fields filled with many client business meetings taking place at high end restaurants, over drinks, or at the very least over a Starbucks!

Discussions with my painting contractor are generally infrequent, rushed, and discussed over static-filled cell phone calls. My lengthy reports via email are answered in few words. The painting contractor I work with is completely comfortable discussing business over the static-filled cell phone calls, this is where I have needed to learn to adapt. Over the past year, I have learned patience and perseverance with my fellow colleague. Instead of thinking that everything I’m working on is urgent and demands a quick response, I have learned to wait until he is available to discuss the items at hand (patience). I communicate now in shorter emails or text messages and ask him to contact me when available. I try to keep a list of items I need to discuss by the phone so when I get a phone call I can quickly address my list. Sometimes I have many items from my list pending for several weeks, but I keep at it (perseverance). In the end, the projects get worked on and completed. After all, that’s the goal.

Pros:

I implement this company’s social media strategies, create and maintain their website, and advise on traditional marketing avenues. It has been exciting for me to take a young company with virtually no online presence to the place it is now, showing up high (Page 1) in Google searches under various key words. Additionally, each month we add components to our strategy to reach potential and existing customers and grow the company’s presence within the industry, on the Internet, and within the community. That’s where the passion to help someone grow their business lies.

The most rewarding aspect for me as a marketing consultant is that my busy painting contractor allows me the freedom to create and take control of the marketing projects. Yes, he wants to be informed and consulted, but he’s not interested in micro-managing — he’s too busy doing the daily work of his business. He just wants to know someone is doing the work we initially outlined.

I have come to realize that my skills and expertise can be most useful to this company by taking the initiative with their marketing plan and finding ways to save them time.

Tim says,

Cons:

My day is rushed and filled with customer telephone inquiries, driving from location to location to provide estimates, gathering supplies from vendors, meeting with GC’s, overseeing employees, and then spending the necessary hours it takes to complete the job I was hired to do. I agree that as a busy painting contractor I do not care to read lengthy emails or discuss marketing plans for hours. I like to quickly develop a plan and implement it. This is where my patience has been tested, but after working together for over a year, and having a few disagreements along the way, I think we both understand what is necessary in order to achieve the goals of our marketing plan.

Pros:

Having a marketing consultant saves me time. Posting relevant content to social media sites, building online relationships, blogging, updating and maintaining my website, gathering information for future campaigns, and monitoring my business name on the internet takes hours and requires some advanced computer skills. I simply do not have that kind of time during the day or in the evenings to work on this new type of marketing.

Having a marketing consultant saves me money because I am not taking on an in-house employee. I pay a flat rate based on the services I see as valuable to marketing my business.

Having a knowledgeable marketing consultant serves as a colleague to brain-storm ideas with, develop existing plans, and create new ones. This is where a mutual passion for growing my business is seen as we continue to develop long-range goals for promoting my company name.

Please share your comments in the comments section below. Let us know how your painting company implements social media marketing and traditional marketing into your day.

March, 2012

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3 Steps for Painting Contractors to Power up your Referral Network using LinkedIn

Linnea Blair — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 17:00:00 +0000

Why don’t more painting contractors use LinkedIn effectively?

I’ve often citied the statistics I’ve gathered over the years from coaching over a hundred painting contractors and tracking their numbers. Those statistics continue to hold up. 65% or more of your business comes from relationships, whether they be repeat customers, referrals from customers, referrals from strategic alliances (general contractors, other specialty contractors, designers, etc.) or referrals from other business contacts in your community.

What does this tell you? Building relationships is important! You want to take advantage of any opportunity that you have to build stronger relationships with the people who have hired you and the people who have (or could) refer you.

I absolutely believe in building relationships offline. You should have a strategic marketing plan and what I call a customer communications plan that involves the ways you are going to reach out to the people you have relationships with on a regular basis.

Today, I want to focus on how you can build and strengthen relationships using LinkedIn. Learning to use LinkedIn effectively may have fallen to the bottom of your list. Perhaps it’s unfamiliarity with the site, or that you just don’t see how it can benefit you. Here’s a quick 3 step overview on how to use LinkedIn effectively that I call Present, Connect, Share.

Present
The first step is to present yourself. Make sure you have a great “calling card”. Your profile should be fully optimized, with a professional photo, good summary about what you offer, a list of specialties and skills. You will also want to set up your company profile on LinkedIn, connected to your professional profile. There’s a lot more to say about this. There are many ways to showcase yourself and your company on LinkedIn. If you connect with me, you’ll stay in the loop when I offer classes and trainings, some of which are free.

Connect
The second step is to connect. First connect with the people you already know who are on LinkedIn. LinkedIn provides tools to help you upload your current contact list from various email systems to help you connect with your contacts who are already on LinkedIn.

Beyond that you’ll want to start connecting with people you meet going forward on an ongoing basis. Every time I attend a networking event and speak with someone enough to have a conversation and exchange business cards, I go home and invite them to connect on LinkedIn, using a custom invite that reminds them of where we met.

The third tier of connecting is to seek out people who could be good referral partners for you on LinkedIn. One of the best strategies for this are to use LinkedIn’s search feature and to ask for introductions to people who would be good referral partners from mutual connections – just like you would do offline. Another way is to join LinkedIn Groups that are likely to have members who are either good potential referral partners or potential customers. This gives you the opportunity to connect or at least show and share your expertise in group discussion threads.

One of my social media consulting clients that I worked with a year ago recently emailed me that he had reached 500 connections. When he started, he had less than 50. He accomplished this over time in a strategic and consistent way. Now he has a much larger audience with whom to share.

Share
The way to continue to build the relationships with the people who can either use your services or refer you is to share. Share your knowledge, share things from other sources that your audience may find of interest, or helpful to them in some way. Sharing articles and tips about home improvement, for example could be a good way for you to help and educate your audience. These types of sharing help keep you in front of people, and help to position you as a helpful and knowledgeable resource. You can also share by showcasing your work or promoting events or specials by linking to pages or blog posts on your own website. Remember to share more and promote less though!

Three ways to share:
Use your Status Update. This is the easiest way to share and often if you are reading an article online that you would like to share, you can share directly from the magazine or blog to LinkedIn.

Use Group Discussions. If you belong to LinkedIn groups, check in and share your thoughts and expertise on topics raised by others or raise your own topics for discussion. Group discussions are not the place to promote.

Use LinkedIn Answers. You may not have the time to use this feature much, but there is a Question and Answer section on LinkedIn where you can share your knowledge and expertise when someone has asked a question on a particular topic. This can help showcase you as an expert, but many business owners don’t have the time to dedicate to this feature. I would first focus on the first two ways to share.

If you follow the three steps outlined above, you will be well on your way to building more effective referral relationships both online and offline.

You can connect with me on LinkedIn I look forward to meeting or reconnecting with you there.

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