LinkedIn is an often overlooked marketing tool that can serve a great purpose for any scrappy marketer – especially ones who’re selling consulting or business to business services and products.
What is LinkedIn?
Linked in is an 80 million strong business social networking site that makes business networking very easy. Many people have profiles but few really use it to their advantage.
How can I market my business on LinkedIn
Pimp out your profile
There is a good chance that people who're considering doing business with you will end up googling your name. And since LinkedIn carries a lot of credibility with Google, your profile will likely rank high. Having a complete profile that highlights your past experience, has a nice picture of you and some strong recommendations, will help people make the decision to do business with you.
Gather intelligence
You should never walk into any business meeting without first having researched the meeting attendees on LinkedIn. Find out what their current professional focus is, and what prior jobs they have worked in. Be prepared, look for things you might have in common and speak to their interests and focus. Use LinkedIn to make your business interactions as relevant as possible.
Establish thought leadership and generate leads
LinkedIn Answers is a popular feature where members ask questions concerning their business and industry and other members respond and answer. It’s a great way to introduce yourself to the community by asking a smart question and an even better way to show off your industry smarts by helping other people. Someone who has a question about search engine marketing, is likely to be in need of a search engine marketing company.
So, what to do now?
Here is a simple three step process to get you started.
1. Login to LinkedIn and sign up for an account if you haven't already.
2. Set-up your profile, find people you know and ask for some recommendations - preferrably from people who you respect.
3. Check out the Answers section, do a couple of searches and weigh in if you can contribute. You'll begin engaging in relevant discussions that might lead to all sorts of interesting opportunities.
If we haven't already, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn.
Hey Mario - LinkedIn is great. Thought you might like my blog post on how and why I use LinkedIn as a reference as well!
Great stuff, Ben. Thanks for sharing. I linked it up in the post as well. You are a much more sophisticated and experienced LinkedIn marketer than I am.
Have you had any experience/insight on how to use Facebook or Twitter?