“How to Use LinkedIn To Dramatically Improve Your Business” Christopher Viscomi Co-Founder of Aliste Marketing

As part of my series of interviews about “How to Use LinkedIn To Dramatically Improve Your Business”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Christopher Viscomi puts more than a decade of experience in business management and process development to good use as he works to streamline both in-house and client operations.

Christopher attended Roger Williams University, graduating with a BA in Business Management and a minor in Finance and is Business Process Management Certified from Villanova University. Featured in CMS Wire, Chris works with clients to develop their lead nurturing programs for optimal conversion.

Following time as a regional manager and business process improvement specialist, he built on his skills by attaining his Lean Six Sigma Certification, training that further developed his ability to zero in on smart cost-cutting measures, increase revenue, and improve overall efficiency. His efforts to pinpoint inefficient behaviors and reshape them into successful strategies saves clients both time and money without sacrificing the quality that’s at the very heart of the Aliste Marketing professional people-first approach to business.

In his spare time, he enjoys collecting baseball cards, a hobby he pursues across multiple online platforms as a way to share his passion for history and love of America’s favorite pastime.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

This is a tough question for me. I never planned on being where I am today. When I was 33, I was in a very successful role. I was the Regional Manager of several Auto Body shops. I had an eye opening health event that caused me to think about what was important to me and prioritize. I got a job as an appraiser and it was fine, but not something that I was truly passionate about.
My sister, Alicia had been asking me for years to join the business (Aliste Marketing). She landed a big client and was able to bring me on. Timing was perfect and I have never looked back.

This was a shift of mindset for me and this transition has been so fulfilling. I am the happiest that I have ever been. I love our business, our clients, and what I do.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this career?

That’s a tough question as I do not have a specific story that pops out in my head. I believe the most interesting part of my career is the journey thus far and the people I have met. From a VP of NASA, to an individual who helped design and fly the first Apache Helicopter, it has always amazed me to learn each individual’s path and what made them who they are. Once I hear these stories it is incredible to discover new ways to promote the individual. People buy from people that they like and someone they can relate to. Surprisingly, it is not uncommon for these individuals to often dismiss their accomplishments. Actually…. now that I read that last comment maybe I need to reflect on my own story.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Just one? Let me narrow down the list.

Ok how about this one. Toward the beginning of my career, my partner was around 7 months pregnant and was doing her best to get me up to speed with each one of our clients prior to the new arrival. She had assured me that prior to the new arrival she had planned to spend the next two months completing all the major deliverables for each one of our client so I could just handling any project that popped up on the fly. Well two weeks later the little one decided waiting that long to arrive was to much trouble and came over a month early. As happy as I was for the arrival (my niece), it left me looking like a deer in headlights for each one of my clients and boy could they tell. It was more often than not that they would ask me questions that I did not have the slightest clue how to answer. My only way to figure out what they needed was to create a detailed word document that would contain any questions I did not know the answer to. Let me just say it was a long document. When my partner had a free moment, which really doesn’t exist when you have a newborn, she would do her best to answer the questions and guide me on the next steps. To this day we still laugh about it because it was like trying to train a monkey to use a new tool. Although the experience was stressful and forced me to learn, I look back and am grateful that it happened as it sped up my learning curve by months.

Which social media platform have you found to be most effective to use to increase business revenues? Can you share a story from your experience?

LinkedIN is the most effective platforms for us. It allows you to hone in on individuals that you are looking for based on background. LinkedIN allows you to reach out and have a conversation that is one on one and more meaningful. Facebook/Twitter are more social/personal while LinkedIN is more professional.

We created a LinkedIN Group because we constantly had individuals asking questions about marketing. Many of them did not have budget to hire us. We created an open forum where people can weigh in and put their questions out there.

Another really great think about LinkedIN is you can leverage mutual connections which can be a conversation starter.

Let’s talk about LinkedIn specifically, now. Can you share 5 ways to leverage LinkedIn to dramatically improve your business? Please share a story or example for each.

1 — Profile — profile should reflect who you are and your personality. Should inform people of what it is that you do, but not selling. The second you start selling, it turns people off.

2 — Picture — Picture should be welcoming and inviting, but professional. No wedding photos, no weekend photos, save those for Instagram.

3 -GROUP — If your business can support it or it makes sense, create a LinkedIN group to position yourself as an industry expert and nurture potential leads. Within the group, there should be no sales, amd post relevant content that individuals can use towards their business. The more knowledgeable you come across, the more credible you become, the more people that may want to speak with you about business relationships.

4 — Post relevant content on your LinkedIN feed — it can be articles that you find that you share, it does not to be your own content

5- Be active — post regularly, join other groups, comment on people’s posts, visiting your LinkedIN page once a day

Because of the position that you are in, you are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

The world lacks common courtesy. I would start a movement that every person had to give someone a compliment each day to a random person. I decided a few years back that I would give a compliment to someone every day.

One day, I was telling a woman that I liked her shirt. I remember her looking at me strangley. I explained that my goal was to give out more compliments to people. She appreciated it, but it is interesting how people are always questioning motives or have their guard up.

Some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them :-)

Judge Judy — I love her because she’s 100% honest no matter who you are. People that take advantage of the system and it drives me nuts.

She is authentic and a straight shooter.

Always agree with her decisions — she has great instincts.

Thank you so much for these great insights. This was very enlightening!