Ever wondered how to get the best out of LinkedIn? We’re happy to shine the spotlight on Tribes member Michiel and his company YouLynq.me, the experts in growing your network to grow your business. We sat down with Michiel to learn more about what they do!
Tell us about YouLynq.me!
Youlynq.me started in 2019, just myself and my brother Maarten in the kitchen of my apartment! Before that, I was working in a Management Consulting company responsible for business and recruitment, and there I discovered LinkedIn and all the possibilities. Before I knew it, I was training employees in Brussels and in Amsterdam to use LinkedIn to do business and recruitment, and then I decided to do this for other companies as well. So that’s how we started!
At the moment, we are a team of 25 working both from the office and from home. We work with 160 clients in B2B, from mid-size companies in IT, finance, marketing, real estate and crypto to bigger companies like Siemens, BMW, American Express and MyParcel. It’s a really widespread client group and B2B is the common thing amongst them.
And what exactly does YouLynq.me do?
Simply explained, we help them with LinkedIn. We really believe that LinkedIn is a relationship platform, so it’s important to build long-term relationships and also to show that you are an expert in your field.
We help clients with expanding their network to grow their business; this includes finding the right prospects, how to target them, and how to chat with them and set up meetings. We really believe in a personal approach which means making a connection first – asking how they are doing, what are their challenges, etc. Instead of just sending in a marketing template, you first need to invest in the person. The short term results are of course that you have a lot of meetings in your agenda, but the long term effect is that you then have all these people in your network.
In parallel, we also create a content strategy for the client to help position them as an expert in their field. With posting and knowledge sharing, everybody will know how to find you, and this leads to more inbound opportunities as well.
I always say we are the LinkedIn Marketing Department of our clients, and we create B2B influencers.
Recruitment is of course a large part of LinkedIn – can you tell us about the HR Solutions you offer?
It’s the same concept but with a slightly different approach. We are basically the sourcing department for a company – we make lists of candidates and create a strategy of how to target them. Again, we believe a personal approach is really important – the job market is crazy and candidates are hard to find, so we need to make more of an effort in building relationships with new candidates. Just putting a job online is not going to work at this moment, you need to make the good candidates curious, and I think we’re pretty good at getting the attention of candidates.
With our CRM we can also make talent pools and keep people top of mind. That’s the biggest problem every recruiter has, of what to do with a pool of talent in 6 months, or 12 months, maybe end up asking the same person the same questions multiple times. The CRM really helps to handle the recruitment process well.
How long have you been with Tribes, and what made you choose us?
We joined Tribes South Axis ITO around 6 months ago. We were looking for an office in a nice area, and Tribes is in a great location. We looked at a few offices, and one of the main reasons that we chose Tribes was the location Chief, Casper! He and his team are amazing hosts, and we liked the look and the feel of the place, and the atmosphere is good. Definitely the interior too – some offices that we looked at looked just like schools or hospitals, and this was really different. So that’s why we chose Tribes.
Has being in a shared work environment helped to grow your network?
Yes, definitely! Three members on our office floor are now clients of ours. It actually opened my eyes, because we are in online business development, I thought that there is only online business development. But then I came here and thought, oh, face-to-face opens doors as well! So now I also believe in an integrated approach with all elements in place – platforms, face to face, and online. My advice to clients has also changed. I now tell them that although LinkedIn is important, they should also invest in their website, in their Instagram, and also go to face to face events, because for some clients you cannot open them just online, you need to see them in person. Tribes actually opened our eyes to have yet again another vision!
What is the main mistake that people make on LinkedIn?
The profile pictures! So many people have a bad picture. It’s essential to have a professional and sympathetic profile picture, rather than one that we think makes us look cool. We actually have some data for that – recently we did a photoshoot for new profile pictures, and everyone who changed it had between 10-20% higher acceptance rate on invites, just from a new picture. I changed my own picture to one looking professional and happy, and I have a 20% higher acceptance rate. So the profile picture is the biggest and most undervalued mistake!
