Small

MAGAZINE

business
GEN-Y
workforce
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SMALL BUSINESS GROWTH MAGAZINE - Issue #2

Issue 01 / Sept12

How to motivate your new

page 36

Growth

How to Create A successful linked-in group!

ining Tra ! ideo side V In

10 powerful
social media monitoring tools
page 41

3 SMART Steps to capturing new customers

Contents

Contents
Features
by Kevin McCann

Small Business Growth Mag - Issue #2

08 3 Smart Steps To Capturing New Customers 12 How To Transform Your Business By Creating Your Own Linked-In Group
An Interview With Ken Lubin - Founder, Executive Athletes Group by Ken Lubin

19 The CXO Killer

Misunderstood and Mismanaged Stakeholders by By J. Allan McCarthy

ARTICLES
06 Editors Note 16 Keys To Managing a Successful Generation-Y Team
by Jenny Rhoten

18 Breakthrough Marketing Begins By Asking The Right Questions

by Jodie Nielsen

24 How To Sell Technology Into The SMB Marketplace

Part 1: Checklist for Success by Will Gibney

on the cover | photograph of Casey lockwood by ryan denning photography - http://alpine-live.com

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Social Media

How To Transform Your Business By Creating Your Own Linked-In Group

An Interview With Ken Lubin Founder, Executive Athletes Group

t k ou chec o ap t T roup the g

Small Business Growth Magazine - Issue #2 | 12

Social Media

I believe that athletics, the quest for optimal health and high performance are highly synergistic in order to be the best that you can be in life, as well as in the business world. - Ken Lubin

e recently caught up with Ken Lubin, Founder of the Executive Athletes LinkedIn Group and asked him a few questions about the success he has achieved

{SBG Mag}: When and Why did you

start the group? Can you provide a little background?

{Ken}: I actually started it during the

recession. Selshly, Im a recruiter in the nancial services industry and wanted to call on people that had similar traits and interests that I did. I was looking for the following: athletes, type-A personalities, aggressive and disciplined. I was interested in starting a community and gured there has to be a way to bring people together that are passionate about the same things I was. It turns out, many of the people who have joined the group are more passionate about what they do in their personal life than at work. I think that has something to do with our success.
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with his Linked-In group that now has more than 8000 members.

{SBG Mag}: Ken, what is the mission

statement of your Executive Athletes Group on Linked-In?

{Ken}: Executive Athletes is dedicated to

the growth of human potential and human performance of the executive and athlete, while bringing the world together through business and athletics.

Social Media

{SBG Mag}: What are the Top 3 Benets

of starting your group and how has this impacted your business?

{SBG Mag}: What is something you

didnt expect to happen when you embarked on creating a Linked-In group?

{Ken}: 1. Personal Branding and

Awareness: I have met with Olympic athletes and coaches, World-Class skiers, and other amazing people that continue to exhibit the discipline to train an enormous amount - even with full-time jobs. Its all very inspiring. 2. Worldwide Network Expansion and Recognition As weird as it seems, I am now being recognized as a bit of a thought leader around the globe. For instance, my boss recently traveled to Singapore, and while he was there, he met a man from Australia that told him that he loves my Executive Athlete group. Im blown away that the message has traveled so far in such a short period of time. 3. Huge Increase In Sales Opportunities I now have 8000+ members of the group, which gives me unique access to some amazing candidates for my clients and, on the ip-side, has also provided me with many more client opportunities as a result. I also created two other groups. Executive Athletes is a personal passion for me, and the other two are professionally focused Boston Banking and Financial Services Professionals. This group has approximately 7000 members G l o b a l L e a s i n g a n d L e n d i n g P ro fesssionals. I have another 4000 members in this group. Niching-out my groups allows me to nd specialized people for my searches.

{Ken}: Creating amazing contacts and

talking to my heros in the Ski Racing world like Phil McNichol (Coach of US Ski Team) and Doug Lewis (World Cup alpine ski racer). Also, swapping business ideas and chatting about goals with these guys is unb e l i e v e a b l e ! A n d h o n e s t l y, g e t t i n g highlighted in this magazine (Small Business Growth) was an unexpected bonus! :-)

http://usskiteam.com

{SBG Mag}: How do you continue to

nd relevant and compelling content to provide to your groups to keep them engaged?

{Ken}: I put together Networking events for

the members and leverage tools like Hoosuite that enable me to push out daily content to all of my groups. Things like inspiring quotes, videos and relevant articles are valuable to the group.

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Social Media

For example, in the near future I will be holding a few Excellence Events. These are still under development, but will likely be 2 day events with Keynote Speakers on relevant topics to the group, and then for fun, the attendees will be able to meet with skiers like Tommy Moe, ex-head coach of US Olympic Ski Team, Doug Lewis, Phil McNichol, etc.

Bottomline, you have to dierentiate yourself no matter what group you create. You have to be thoughtful about it, you cant be moronic - otherwise people will have no interest in the group. Start by asking yourself what are you passionate about, and then build from there. Before you know it, people will start following it and contributing!

{SBG Mag}: What tips would you

recommend to a business owner looking to start his/her own group?

{Ken}: I read the book LinkedIn Working

by Lewis Howes (a retired Football player, and co-author of LinkedIn success book, LinkedIn Master Strategies book and LinkedWorking: Generating Success on the World's Largest Professional Networking Website.) He is a great sports industry networker - he has roughly 100,000+ members in his Sports Industry Networkers Group.

{SBG Mag}: Any closing tips to share? {Ken}: Again, I highly recommend Hootsuite as a great tool to use for quickly and easily posting to multiple social media accounts like Linked-In, FaceBook and Twitter.

I used to compete for the thrill of victor but now I have shifted to the satisfaction of the journey.The fulllment of the training, discipline and getting to the start line is just as rewarding. - Ken Lubin

Ken Lubin is the Managing Director of ZRG and Founder of the Executive Athletes and Boston Banking & Financial Services Professionals Groups on Linked-In. Currently Ken is a Managing Director/ Executive Recruiter with ZRG Partners www.zrgpartners.com and is responsible for leading the global Search initiative while executing on critical roles in sales, sales management, operations, and senior leadership professionals nationally as well as globally.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/klubin

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