I surpassed 500 this week on LinkedIn. I didn’t even notice. Someone else emailed me and asked me what my LinkedIn strategy was. It was a question that made me think.

My strategy for LinkedIn was to network with the top performers in Telecom and some of the best marketing people in North America. For the most part, I have stuck to that strategy. I also use LI as a contact database. If I meet you, I look for you on LinkedIn and invite you to connect. That way I can keep track of folks. Top of mind kind of stuff.

I am willing to help anyone attain their goals, but I am stingy with the recommendations. Why? A recommendation has to be authentic. I have to have worked with you - really worked with you. How can I talk about your work ethic or your business attitude if I have not seen it? A few folks have asked me for a recommendation but this is the problem. I have not seen them work. And I’m not going to leave a quote about their attitude at a networking event. [Matt Baron has a little more about the anatomy of a recommendation here.]

So if you are on LinkedIn, work in Telecommunications, Web 2.0 or Marketing (PR, Sales, Advertising, New Media), drop me an invite.

No one likes to Cold Call. There are ways to have fun with it so the Rejection doesn’t cause depression. It is getting even more difficult with the Do Not Call lists (state, federal, and company) and voicemail. Door knocking is probably more effective especially with repeat visits in non-MTU buildings. (Those No Solicitation signs shouldn’t stop a passionate salesperson). Even door knocking is easier when coupled with appointment setting.

But you need leads, right?

Well, you can buy leads, especially if you have a specific geographic area or niche.

What’s a SIC? Standard Industrial Classification. See here and here. There is also a North American Industry Classification System that the Census uses. These are both ways to tackle a vertical.

Email marketing can work if it is Permission based (Opt-in) and valuable, but you have to develop a subscriber list, which takes time.

ValuPak, Classified Ads, Craigslist, PR, seminars, webinars, white papers, BNI, industry associations, Chambers of Commerce, strategic partners, write blog/letters/comments, event marketing, 50-butt rule (network), Adwords, Landing Page Optimization, speaking (at Rotary/Lions/etc.), banner ads, podcasts, video / commercials.

Yes, that’s quite a list. It takes some work, but that’s what it takes today.

What do you do with all the business cards that you collect at events? I have stacks and stacks of them. I am thinking about using either Cardscan or Fujistu.

Cardscan is a brand of business card and receipt scanner with OCR software. Cradscan also has an online component that send out email to confirm contact info.

Fujistu has a mobile SnapSCan. My thought there was to upload everything to Plaxo and export the contact list for use with Thunderbird and Outlook. (Outlook so my PPC-6700 smartphone will have all my numbers).

NeatReceipts offers a similar scanner. I just don’t know if there is an online component. Or if you would need to use Plaxo for that as well.

What are you doing? Plaxo, LinkedIn, CardScan or other? Are you importing all cards into a CRM app? Let me know by posting a comment or emailing me at peter at marketingideaguy dot com