With Neil Godin (@neilgodin)

What? I just sent a LinkedIn message to friend and colleague Rob Arthurs (Rob was Manager of Business Opportunities/Business Development at the 2010 Olympic & Paralympic Winter Games Secretariat; he’s a professional business coach who coaches other coaches, as well as clients, and he was founding CEO of TruNorth Clothing, at the time one of Canada’s 100 fastest growing companies). I contacted Rob because he introduced me to the LION 500 Group at LinkedIn. And because I have never done anything with or about this group – and now it’s time to ‘Get On It!’

Why? If you’re linked in to LinkedIn, you know that it takes a lot of time to build a LinkedIn network. Joining a group like LION 500 (LION stands for ‘Linked In Open Networkers’), is supposed to accelerate the process, by giving you access to 30,000+ members – without going through the usual process of showing that you know each member that you want to connect with.

How? Sounds great. But how does it work? Frankly, I have no idea. And I can’t seem to find any (I Googled LION and LinkedIn LION, and LION tutorial). Nothing. Wikipedia: Nothing. So. Knowing that Rob is a networker among networkers, I sent him a request for tips on how to leverage membership in this group. And. Now I’m putting the same challenge out to you. Are you an open networker (on LinkedIn and/or elsewhere)? Do you have tips on how the group works – and specifically how to connect with all those members? And. How to publicize my/your blog, product or service – without spamming?

Tipzntrix:  In researching this topic, I noticed that LinkedIn also offers a paid membership level, titled ‘TopLinked.’ Membership is $9.95 per month, or $49.95 per year, and also provides access to thousands (they don’t say have many thousands) of LinkedIn members. And (again) I can find very few words on how this program actually works. Hmm. Over to you, Dangerous Marketers. Please give us your answers, tips, ideas and questions, as comments on this blog post. If you’re reading the newsletter version of this article, please visit the blog, and use the comment section to give us your feedback. Thank you !!

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Welcome to the 90-Day Marketing Dangerously Social Media Challenge

Where we are doing our best to answer one simple question: Can social media work for business?

For the 90 days of our social media challenge, Marketing Dangerously is running blog posts and newsletter articles three days a week that relate specifically to using social media to build business (every Monday, Wednesday and Friday). On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we continue to run our T’nT (Tuesday and Thursday) articles on how to promote your business generally.

Why are we focusing on social media for 90 days?

If you’re in business you’ve been told you “have” to be on Facebook…you’ve “got” to be on Twitter – or at least on LinkedIn – not to mention YouTube, Digg, Squidoo, Reddit, MeetUp, Naymes, Plaxo, MySpace. STOP.

And, if you’re like most of the business people we talk to, you don’t “want” to be on any of these sites. You don’t want to hear that someone’s heading out for coffee — or how (badly) they golfed on the weekend. But. Is tweeting nuisance messages “really” using social media effectively? What about using Twitter (and Facebook) for nothing but sending and receiving valuable business messages? What about joining customer groups on these sites – handing out helpful advice.  And providing links to your website or blog – and links to sources of other helpful advice – positioning yourself as an expert?

Would that work? Or would it just be a waste of time?

During this 90 day challenge we are posting three times a week to our Marketing Dangerously blog (and newsletter), challenging you each time with a new social media task — in our quest to answer that question. By the time we’ve completed the challenge we (and you) will know if using social media — of every kind — and in every way — can generate sales of our products and services. And, of course, we will share what we learn with blow by blow descriptions of what we tried; how it worked (or wallowed) and what you can do to implement these ideas in your own business. Our blog is at: http://www.neilgodin.com/marketingdangerouslyblog/

20% of all sales go to Kiva, our favorite non-profit!

Yes. Fully twenty percent of all product and service sales during the campaign are being contributed to Kiva, the world wide organization that arranges micro-loans to micro-entrepreneurs in the developing world. Entrepreneurship is our passion. Promoting entrepreneurship (vs. charity) in the developing world goes beyond passion. We are darn near fanatic about supporting and promoting this cause. And we hope you stay with us.

Neil Godin, Jonathan Christian, and The Marketing Dangerously Tribe
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