Episode 928: Using LinkedIn to Grow Your Chapter

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Official BNI Podcast

Episode 928: Using LinkedIn to Grow Your Chapter
Host: Dr. Ivan Misner
Guest: Tom Etherington
Date: September 17, 2025

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Overview

This episode centers on practical strategies for using LinkedIn to grow your BNI chapter. Dr. Ivan Misner hosts Tom Etherington—an online branding expert, content marketer, LinkedIn coach, and long-serving BNI ambassador from Sydney, Australia. Tom shares actionable methods for uncovering valuable visitor opportunities and referral partners hidden within your LinkedIn network, with a focus on maximizing impact during one-to-ones and power team meetings.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. LinkedIn as a Gold Mine for BNI Chapters

• [02:29] Tom emphasizes the untapped potential of LinkedIn, stating many members overlook opportunities within their existing networks, especially connections from years past.
  • Many members experience “visitor-invite fatigue” and miss out on inviting valuable contacts already connected with them on LinkedIn.
  • “There’s a lot of opportunity to invite people that they’ve probably forgotten about, maybe they’ve connected to five, ten years ago and they’re just sitting in their LinkedIn network.”
    — Tom Etherington [02:57]

2. Strategic Search Tactics on LinkedIn

• [04:10] Tom details how to leverage LinkedIn’s search and filter functions to identify useful connections:

  • Use the search bar to seek out desired professions (e.g., videographer).
  • Filter by first connections to identify those you know personally—and may have forgotten.
  • “It’s not an outreachy spammy message then, it’s really just a reconnection message to build that relationship again and potentially ask them along to visit the chapter.”
    — Tom Etherington [04:40]

• [04:50] He describes how to search “connections of” other members—a tactic for unlocking hidden networks through mutual contacts.

  • This helps facilitate warm introductions; even if a connection is weak, there's still familiarity.

3. Applying LinkedIn in Practice (Case Studies & Anecdotes)

• [06:42] Tom shares client examples, such as discovering ten ideal prospects already within a client’s network.

• He highlights that one-to-ones and power team meetings are ideal scenarios for collaborative LinkedIn searches.

  • “If you can sit around, everyone gets their laptops out and sits down… cast a net a bit wider and see who’s out there, who we’re already connected to.”
    — Tom Etherington [07:29]

• [07:45] Tom explains how these tactics led his chapter to host 80 visitors at a BNI day by strategically targeting empty seats.

4. Power Teams & One-to-One Sessions

• [07:29 – 08:43] Tom advocates for real-time LinkedIn network exploration during meetings:
  • Go through each other’s connections, spark ideas, and target the right professionals.
  • “Even if it’s not that person, it will get them thinking about other people that they know… and maybe it will spark some ideas there.”
    — Tom Etherington [07:49]

5. Turning Cold LinkedIn Pitches into Warm Invitations

• [09:01] Tom addresses inbound spam or pitches on LinkedIn and suggests reframing responses into BNI invitations.

  • Instead of dismissing a cold pitch, invite the sender to a networking breakfast—offering real value and possibly converting them into visitors.
  • “I always look at their profile and if… I send them a reply back and I say, ‘hey, that sounds like a great opportunity for people. I meet 50 business owners every Friday morning… Love to hear about your solution and you’ll get a chance to meet… Shall I send you a link to book?’”
    — Tom Etherington [09:12]

• [09:48] Ivan reinforces the effectiveness: “I’m here to tell you that that technique works, I’ve seen it work. And you tell them, bring 50 or more business cards with you. I look forward to meeting you.”

• [10:06] If recipients aren’t interested, they’ll likely stop spamming, creating a win-win scenario.

6. Using These Methods for Referral Partners and Clients

• [10:29] The same approach applies to discovering new clients and referral partners.
  • Tom stresses focusing on opening conversations and building relationships—“not looking to spam people.”
  • “Generally look for people that they can do business with and referral partners. Absolutely. It’s a fantastic way to find those and then like I say, start those conversations.”
    — Tom Etherington [10:44]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Tom Etherington [02:57]:
  “There’s a lot of opportunity to invite people that they’ve probably forgotten about… maybe connected to five, ten years ago and they’re just sitting in their LinkedIn network.”

• Tom Etherington [04:40]:
  “It’s not an outreachy spammy message… it’s really just a reconnection message to build that relationship again and potentially ask them along to visit the chapter.”

• Tom Etherington [07:49]:
  “Even if it’s not that person, it will get them thinking about other people that they know in that you know, that they currently interact with and maybe it will spark some ideas there.”

• Tom Etherington [09:12]:
  “I always look at their profile and… send them a reply back…‘I meet 50 business owners every Friday morning for a networking breakfast at the Shangri La in Sydney. Love to hear about your solution… Shall I send you a link to book?’”

• Dr. Ivan Misner [09:48]:
  “I’m here to tell you that that technique works, I’ve seen it work. And you tell them, bring 50 or more business cards with you. I look forward to meeting you.”

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Important Timestamps

| Time | Segment / Topic | |---------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 02:29 | Unlocking LinkedIn’s "hidden networks" to invite forgotten contacts | | 04:10 | Step-by-step methods for LinkedIn searching/filtering | | 06:42 | Real-life examples and outcomes from using these techniques | | 07:29 | Collaborative approach in power teams and during one-to-ones | | 08:43 | Case study: 80 visitors event through targeted invites | | 09:01 | Turning inbound cold pitches into visitor invitations | | 10:29 | Leveraging LinkedIn for clients and referral partners | | 10:57 | Final advice: “Get active on it… especially in your one-to-ones.” |

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Call to Action / Additional Resources

• [11:45] For more advice and access to Tom Etherington’s LinkedIn strategies for BNI members, visit: connectcontent.com.au/bni
  • Includes resources from podcasts 665, 706, and 928, and video walk-throughs.

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Final Thought

Tom Etherington [10:57]:
“Get active on it, really give it a go, especially in your one-to-ones… There are those hidden networks that they can tap into as well.”

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This episode is a rich resource for BNI members eager to systematically grow their chapters through intelligent LinkedIn usage—transforming cold outreach, forgotten connections, and team meetings into powerful opportunities for referrals and chapter growth.

Transcript

[A]

Episode number 928. Using LinkedIn to grow your chapter.

[B]

You're listening to the official BI podcast with BI founder and chief visionary officer, Dr. Ivan Meisner. Stay tuned for networking and referral marketing tips from the man who's been called the father of modern networking, along with suggestions and insights into getting the most from your membership in the world's largest networking organization, bni.

[A]

Hello everybody and welcome back to the official BNI Podcast. I'm Priscilla Rice and I'm coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, California. And I'm joined on the phone today by the founder and the Chief Visionary Officer of B and I, Dr. Ivan Meisner. Hello, Ivan, how are you and where are you?

[B]

I am in Montreal, Canada this week speaking to BNI members and I'm always excited to visit Canada. That was the very first country that we opened up in after the United States, so it's always great to go back. They gave me a certificate once that said I'm an honorary citizen, but I don't think it would actually hold up. It was a nice gift.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

So this week we have somebody who's been on BNI podcast a couple of times. They were a guest on episode 665, optimize your BNI Connect profile and 706 use your LinkedIn profile to increase your VCP. And that is Tom Etherington. Tom is an online branding personal expert, a content marketer, a LinkedIn coach and profile writer. He's also a B and I ambassador and a 10 year chapter member in Sydney, Australia. Since 2015, Tom has been helping people use LinkedIn to build credibility and trust, working with business owners and professionals across various industries to achieve measurable improvements in their online presence. He has presented on leveraging LinkedIn and BNI many times and he's appeared on the two podcasts that I just mentioned. And of course I'm very active in LinkedIn and always love your advice. Tom. Welcome back to the BNI podcast.

[C]

Thanks very much for having me back, Ivan. It's great to be on the podcast again.

[B]

It's good to have you here and I'm looking forward to seeing you at the Sydney International Convention in November.

[C]

Yeah, absolutely. Only a couple of months away. So happy to have it in Sydney. Of course. Don't have to travel too far.

[B]

Yeah. And if you haven't signed up, if you're listening to this, sign up for it. The conventions are amazing. It's like going to a United nations event where all the countries love each other. It's an incredible experience. So let's just jump right in. Tom, you say LinkedIn is a gold mine for BNI visitors and to think beyond the room to tap into hidden networks. Talk about that, because I never really thought of LinkedIn as a way to tap into BNI.

[C]

Yeah, to visitors. I mean, obviously we know the visitors in our immediate networks are on LinkedIn and we connect with them and maybe interact with them as we go. But what I wanted to talk about today was the more hidden networks, which is the bit that you mentioned at the end there. So I think that some people get a bit visitor invited out at some point during their BNI journey and they're, you know, when the slide comes up at the end of our meeting and people, you know, the empty categories in the chapter, people often sort of glaze over a bit and think, I don't know anyone. But in their current networks, there's a lot of opportunity to invite people that they've probably forgotten about, maybe they've connected to five, 10 years ago and they're just sitting in their LinkedIn network and they haven't really explored those opportunities. So that's what I wanted to cover today. It's really some, some gold to come up with an invite, strategic invite campaign to get those sort of along to BNI and work with your fellow members to do that. And the way to do that is on LinkedIn, there's a. When you can do use a search function, it's not the best search function in the world, the free version of LinkedIn, but if you go to the search bar at the top, and I think there's a graphic included in this, I have recorded a video as well to explain a bit more.

[B]

Yeah, we'll put the graphic in the podcast.

[C]

Yeah, fantastic. So you can put a, a search. Say we're, for example, in our chapter, we're currently looking for a videographer. So if you put that in the search bar at the top and then click people, and the first thing to do is check your, your own network. So if you click on first, so that's the people you're connected with, it will come up with all the first connections that are videographers. And like I say, there may be one or two in there that you think, oh, I didn't know they were, you know, had started their own business or you maybe connected them years ago or, or I'd completely forgotten I was connected to them and there's an opportunity to reconnect, you know, so quite a simple message. It's not an outreachy spammy message, then it's a really just a reconnection message to build that relationship again and potentially ask them along to visit the chapter. And the other thing about that is so you can do your first connections, which is one way to start, but there's actually a setting on there. Again, we'll look at the graphic, but if you go across to all filters and then scroll down, there's connections of and this is where I'm saying there's hidden gold because you can search the connections of anyone you're already connected to on LinkedIn and see who they're connected to. So for example, if I went to Ivor Meisner, scroll down to connections of and that videographer, we've already got that in the search engine, it would see how many videographers you're connected to. So say if I'm in your chapter or you're in my chapter, I can come up with a couple of names and say, hey, do you know Martin? I see you're connected to him on LinkedIn. Can you introduce me perhaps? First of all, he's a great connection for my business. So it's not just for BNI this, it's for business opportunities. But also I think he could be looking at his profile, he could be a great addition to the chapter. So maybe we could invite him along. And obviously you already have that connection and Maybe you're just LinkedIn Connected, in which case you don't know him that well, but there's already a connection of a very small sort of warm opportunity for an invite there as well. So on the example that I've put in the, you know, we're looking for a. Tommy is our mortgage broker in our chapter and he's potentially looking for a bookkeeper. And so as you can see on that graphic there, if you have a look on the podcast, he's connected to three bookkeepers. So I could potentially have a chat with those and maybe invite them along to bni. So it's very simple way of tapping into hidden networks rather than just the surface level ones.

[B]

This is kind of an obvious question, but I'm presuming you've done this and had success in actually doing this to bring in people.

[C]

Yeah, absolutely. It came up sort of by accident, really. It came up working with a client who was. He's got a large sort of signage and printing business and he was looking, he said to me, I'm looking for marketing managers of medium to large sized companies. And we had a look in his first connections and he already had 10 in there. That was perfect. Ideal clients that he never really interacted with. He just connected with them at some point. So that's the first one, as in his first connections in terms of the other ones. I've literally sat there and done that in a one to one situation. And it's even better in a power team situation. If you can sit around, everyone gets their laptops out and sits down.

[B]

Let's talk about power teams because we only have a few minutes left. You want to talk about using one to ones and power teams in a chapter, so let's talk about that.

[C]

Absolutely. So you can literally can sit there with someone in a one to one and open up the LinkedIn and do exactly what I said, look at connections, see who they're connected to and then start a discussion, literally go through them one by one and say, how do you know this person? Can we potentially invite them along to BNI and do an intro? And then it gets them thinking and even if it's not that person, it will get them thinking about other people that they know in that you know, that they currently interact with and maybe it will spark some ideas there. Same for power teams. If you're sitting around, for example, we've got a marketing power team with myself as a web developer, graphic designer. If we're sitting around and we're looking for that videographer, we may as well pull our networks and just cast a net a bit wider and see who's out there, who we're already connected to. We could potentially open up to connecting with new people, but initially it's a much easier conversation if it's people that the team are already connected to. So that's the way I'd sort of leverage it. We've done it, I've done it as education workshops as well. And we did it for our own BNI chapter when we, you know, we had 80 people along to a visitors day because we were very specifically targeting people in those seats that would make a big difference to our chapter. Those sort of, you know, empty seats, if you like.

[B]

So you have one more topic that I think is, I love this topic and that's turning cold pitches into warm invitations and visitors. Can you talk about that? Because I think it's brilliant and I've seen it done with individual cold calls, but not so much with LinkedIn. I love this concept. Explain that to us.

[C]

Yeah, so unfortunately, LinkedIn you do get everyone on here will resonate with this. Getting a few of those messages where people connect with you and then instantly hit you up with a pitch for their business, you know, often a 300 word pitch for their business. So I always look at their profile and if, and then I send them a reply back and I say, you know, hey, that sounds like a great opportunity for people, a great solution for people. I meet 50 business owners every Friday morning for a networking breakfast at the Shangri La in Sydney. Love to hear about your solution and you'll get a chance to meet maybe chuck in a couple of names from people in there that'd be good for them to meet and you can present to the room. Shall I send you a link to book? And I send people not just Sydney now, I send them across Australia. So I think if that's a good opportunity to fly in and meet a few people as well.

[B]

I'm here to tell you that that technique works, I've seen it work. And you tell them, bring, bring 50 or more business cards with you. I look forward to meeting you. And people come and if they don't come, it's the wrong, it's the wrong person anyway. They're, you know, transactionally networking, not relationally networking.

[C]

That's 100% true. And like I said, I have had success doing that. But also if they, if it doesn't work for them, you've given them an opportunity, you've been polite, you've invited them on to an event and if it's not for them, they're very unlike. Keep sending you those messages. I think you'll be off their list at that point. So a win, win all round I would say.

[B]

Well, just to wrap up, you use these methods to help people find clients and referral partners as well, correct?

[C]

Absolutely. It's the same principle. You know, we're looking for people and again, we're not looking to spam people, we're looking for people to open conversations with and you know, invite them along to BNI if it's appropriate. But generally look for people that they can do business with and referral partners. Absolutely. It's a fantastic way to find those and then like I say, start those conversations.

[B]

Fantastic. Any last thoughts, Tom, before we wrap up?

[C]

No, just to get active on it, really give it a go, especially in your one to ones. I think that's a really good opportunity to try there. But maybe doing, I've done education pieces, I did one in New York actually online a while ago, but online, but doing education pieces to get the people thinking in that way that there's not just opportunities in front of them, there are those hidden networks that they can tap into as well.

[B]

Fantastic. Well listen, for any B and I member that would like more information from Tom directly related to BNI as well as his other services, go to connectcontent.com au bni and the BNI section's got information very specific to BNI. Correct, Tom?

[C]

Absolutely. So it's got information relating to the podcast 665706 and now this one, nine two eight and there's video run throughs as well on there.

[B]

Tom, thanks for being on the BNI podcast and hope to have you back again.

[C]

Thanks so much Ivan. I look forward to seeing you in Sydney in a couple of months.

[B]

Absolutely. I'm looking forward to it. Priscilla, back to you.

[A]

Okay, great. That was wonderful. Thank you so much. This podcast is sponsored by MeisnerAudioPrograms.com these audio programs will provide you with the tools and the inspiration to powerfully enhance your B and I experience. So check out the great material that's available to [e-mail] and then use the promo code IVAN5O for 50% off of everything. All of the proceeds go to the B and I Foundation. Thanks so much for listening. This is Priscilla Rice and we look forward to having you join us again next week for another exciting episode of the official B and I podcast.