You really need to watch the Better Roads Podcasts first, but this is AMAZING and I feel that I must share. Anyone looking to build a business needs to invest in her time…it was enlightening.

Hey everyone, I sat down just the other day while attending the AASHTO Subcommittee on Maintenance (SCOM) Annual Meeting the other day and interviewed Viveka von Rosen for the Better Roads Radio Podcast. Viveka is one of the world’s leading experts on LinkedIn and she delivered an amazing 45-minute session over at www.betterroadsradio.com for session 8.

You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher radio if you are interested.

I know a lot of our engineering folks love to read so I thought I would go ahead and publish our conversation for everyone to share and enjoy!

Here are some of the take aways from this session listed below:

• Who to connect with on LinkedIn and who not to connect with
• What is the right size list of contacts to grow your network?
• What additional training is available other than Viveka’s Book
• Do you keep your contacts private or public?
• What is the value of 15,000,000 contacts?
• How many groups should I join?
• How do I set up my own group?
• Using Viveka’s checklists from her book to maintain and grow your LinkedIn Network
• SWAM can catch up with you if you are not strategic with your group posts
• Learn about the power of publisher in LinkedIn, and how you or your firm can dominate your industry on LinkedIn
• How to set up your Profile for the first time
• What is Pulse on LinkedIn?
• What is the one biggest take away for Blair in his opinion?
• www.linkedintobusiness.com
• www.b2blinkedintraining.com for free eBook and video
• www.betterroadsradio.com/love

Whether you are looking to learn more about pavement management, in-place asphalt recycling, pavement preservation, The Three Legged Stool™ System of pavement management, sideways marketing or to simply engage more on LinkedIn to grow your consulting business, this episode going to provide you with a great launch pad for all things explosive LinkedIn growth.

Transcript of the session 8 interview with Viveka begins:

(INTRO REEL) The Better Roads Radio Podcast is brought to you by a partnership between Auburn University and the International Pavement Management Association. Better Roads Radio is the only podcast on this planet dedicated to saving your crumbling roads. Here is your host, author of the Amazon number one best seller The Book on Better Roads Blair Barnhardt, listen in with Blair and his special guests as they help you do more with less money and less carbon foot print, let’s get started.

Blair: Hey everyone, this is Blair Barnhardt and you are listening to Better Roads Radio, the only podcast on this planet dedicated to saving America’s crumbling roads and world’s for that matter. And today, I am so excited to bring Viveka von Rosen to the stage live from the AASHTO conference in the Marriott at beautiful downtown Charleston, West Virginia. Viveka go ahead if you would, and could you please introduce yourself to the world.

Viveka: sure why you did a good job. My name is Viveka von Rosen, I’m the founder of LinkedIn to Business, and the author of LinkedIn Marketing an Hour a Day, and I just love this little town of Charleston, West Virginia. I was there a couple of years back and its charming…

Blair: …We’ve got a bunch of DOT folks here Viveka, and I know… I just know they are all on LinkedIn. They don’t spend any time on YouTube or Facebook or even tweeting for that matter, but with over 300 million people on LinkedIn and with your experience as an international speaker, you’ve got to know a couple of secrets along the way that could save our engineers, especially you folks listening in from Auburn University and all over the planet.

This is like an amazing platform for business, and Viveka I don’t feel like I’m even engaged in it (LinkedIn) the way we should be with the Association (The International Pavement Management Association – IPMA™), but how about before we get started with some of the best practices and tips, could you just clear up my confusion at this point? Because I tried to link in with everybody and…you know…basically if there wasn’t a reason for me not to link in, I try to link in with everybody, and then I got that message. Just the other day that…it’s like a hand slap where ‘Blair you can’t do this anymore unless you have that person’s e-mail!’ Is that a temporary thing Viveka?

Viveka: It is, you know…and like any road, LinkedIn is going to change, it’s going to warp with time, it’s gonna crack and it’s gonna ask you to do something and with new feasibility. Suddenly, when LinkedIn first started out with a little over 10 years ago, getting on 12 years ago actually, you know it was…for engineers, but more like in the software industry because a lot of software engineer folks, and Silicon Valley folks, and it was for job seekers and the idea back then was to of course connect, connect, connect, connect and then marketers took it on a couple of years later and it was connect, connect, connect to everybody.

Because back then it was a relatively small network and chances were anyone you connected to, if they weren’t necessarily going to give you a good review, they probably would have been good to have in your stable anyway, but now with over 300 million users, just connecting to anyone, there are a lot of spammers out there, and so LinkedIn is cracking down a little bit more on…you know cracking down a little bit more on people connecting to people they don’t know. Now, I personally think…I don’t connect to just anyone anymore, I used to…

Blair: Ok

Viveka: …but I don’t connect to anyone anymore, maybe because I’m out of connection, I…you stop at 30,000, you can only send out 3,000 and stop out at 30,000 as they are. So, I…you know I have to go through and actually pay my business money to go out and get rid of people who makes looks like they are being getting connections from me. So, my little advice is connect to people you know…

Blair: ok

See, I am learning, no response other than OK!

She is so insightful!

More to come (Part Deux or II, or 2),

Blair