Marketing Magic VR - How to Generate Leads and Referrals from NETWORKING during a Pandemic with Joe Apfelbaum
Fire up your VR headsets on Wednesday, December 16 at 12 pm MST (2 pm EST). We are flying Joe Apfelbaum in from New York City (VR style). He will be our guest speaker on the topic of using LinkedIn effectively to generate leads and referrals.
Why LinkedIn?
I first signed on to LinkedIn in 2004. I have lots of contacts and followers - here’s a link to my profile. However, to be honest, I’m not using LinkedIn to its full potential. I just collect contacts like stamps and coins. I keep hoping someone will send me a message - something worth responding to. Don’t get me wrong, I get messages, but only from people in distant, far-off countries asking me if I want more contacts or if they can be a guest blogger.
My Problem
Here’s my problem. The coronavirus pandemic has had a negative impact on many businesses, ours included. In the past, I relied on networking events as a speaker and as an attendee to drum up contacts and prospects. For our company, it worked. But now there are no networking events. Well, maybe not zero, but there doesn’t seem to be any that are of interest to me.
Why Not Zoom?
As a general rule, Zoom calls bore me to death. I was on a call last week on the topic of writing grants. The information was valuable, but the presenter was dry. He would ask a question and literally say “Bueller. Bueller. Bueller...” as we all waited for someone to respond. Finally, someone would. Someone called Julia - every time. And she was the only one. It was like she thought she was the only one in the class. Then she would blab on about her project and blah, blah, blah. I was scratching my eyes out.
Why Joe?
Joe isn’t like that. He is interesting and engaging. I promise you, you won’t fall asleep. There are limitations to presentations in VR on AltspaceVR, but Joe has agreed to overcome the challenges and keep us awake.
Joe is extraordinary. I have been on Zoom calls with Joe and he is a master. He is like no other at getting people to engage. He will have 60 people on a Zoom call and get responses from 75% of the attendees. He uses chat. He asks for comments. Sometimes all he does is ask people to type a $ sign. That’s it. Simple. Effective. Elegant. Engaging.
Back to LinkedIn
A few months ago, I started looking for an alternative to Zoom calls for networking. One of my good friends, Donna McTaggart, introduced me to AltspaceVR. She is helping me to host events using virtual reality. This is one option that I’m working on. You are invited to the session on December 16. Drop by and listen in.
It takes a bit of effort to get set up, but it is worth it. VR is cool. If you are ready for the plunge have a look at this page for the software and hardware requirements. Click here for details.
Learning to use LinkedIn effectively is another option. This is where Joe comes in.
We are still working on the details of his presentation, but the topic will be related to LinkedIn. The website for his company is Evyrgreen. Click here for his profile page on LinkedIn.
Challenge
I challenge you to join our session. Enter the engaging world of Virtual Reality. You don’t need a VR headset. You do need a computer (Windows PC preferred) and headphones (earmuffs). There are a few other requirements, but not much, see details.
I hope you can attend. Contact me if you have questions.