Linked In Business Building

“If you can’t make money on LinkedIn, you’re deaf, dumb and blind,” says James Filbird of JMF International Trade Group.
It’s 6 pm on the west coast of the United States, but it’s already 9 am tomorrow at James Filbird’s apartment in Shenzhen, China.
Filbird is the proprietor of JMF International Trade Group Ltd., a company he built to $5 million in revenue largely through his efforts on LinkedIn, the only major social media platform that is not blocked by the Chinese government.
His beginnings in China, however, were less than auspicious.

An American in China

When Filbird moved to China in early 2006, he spent nine months working on a manufacturing venture that eventually fell through. He had planned to stay at least a year, so when the deal went sour, he did some soul-searching.
“I had very little money in my pocket. Usually it’s the Chinese coming to America with little money for their dream, but I did it the other way around.”
He decided to stay in China as a business consultant and contract manufacturer, the “feet on the ground” for inventors looking to source products there, and gravitated to LinkedIn as a way to connect with potential business.

Early Adopter

A LinkedIn early adopter, Filbird had joined the site in 2004 as one of the first one million members. At that point he hadn’t used it much, seeing it as a resource for job-seekers. But in late 2006 when he began building his business in earnest, it seemed the only choice for serious professional prospecting.
“Neither Twitter nor Facebook were of any interest to me. And there were no professionals to speak of that I saw on MySpace.”
LinkedIn has also remained the only platform accessible without a VPN inside China. “[LinkedIn has] never been blocked by the Chinese government except for one day,” Filbird said. “Whereas Twitter, YouTube and Facebook have been blocked for the last four years.”

He built out his profile to 100%, joined the maximum allowable 50 groups and spent up to two hours daily on the site engaging in group discussions and looking for people to connect with.
Since then, he has used his strategy on the site to grow JMF International to between $3.5 million and $5 million in annual revenue. “There are a lot of really good people on LinkedIn,” Filbird said. “They’re professional, courteous, friendly, fun, a wealth of information and they’re super-smart. That’s why I’ve been able to get most of my business from LinkedIn.”

Building an International Business Using LinkedIn

Here are Filbird’s seven steps to cultivating successful business relationships using LinkedIn, whether you live in China, Chicago or Chesterfield.

#1: Brush Up Your Profile

Before engaging with others, spend some time using best practices to fill out your LinkedIn profile.

#2: Join 50 Groups

“If you’re not using groups, you’re not using the biggest resource on LinkedIn,” said Filbird. “That’s where the gold is—people looking for help.”
Filbird finds groups to join by searching for keywords in the Groups Search function, seeing what groups his connections are in and receiving group recommendations from his connections.
Although the explosion in the number of LinkedIn groups means there is also a lot of spam and self-promotion, he insists that separating the wheat from the chaff is time well spent. “It takes time and a good eye.”
To gauge the health of a group before joining, look at the Activity tab in Group Statistics, which is available on the Group Profile page even for private groups. Look at the ratio of comments to discussions. More comments than discussions indicates highly engaged members, whereas many discussions and few comments indicate a group with little real activity and lots of self-promotion.

Profile of healthy LinkedIn group activity.

#3: Scour the Group Digests

“From every single group, I received [daily] notifications. That’s the gold.” Filbird started every day by spending approximately two hours searching for discussions that looked interesting. “When I’d get up in the morning, I’d check my email and go through 50 different news feeds.” Filbird considered this part of his daily work of prospecting for business.

Set LinkedIn Group Digest frequency at Settings (Groups, Companies & Applications, Set the frequency of group digest emails).

As his business gained traction, Filbird cut down somewhat on this time investment, but still reads daily digests for 25 of the 50 groups he belongs to.

#4: Engage in Discussions

It’s not enough to simply join groups and look through the digests. When you find a discussion that looks interesting, chime in and become part of the conversation.
“Make [your comment] attractive to people and something that offers them a lot of value. If somebody likes what you say, they’ll go to your profile and they’ll connect with you.”
By initiating discussions that generate comments, you can also be recognized as a top influencer in the group’s sidebar.