What about LinkedIn?

 

What about LinkedIn?

LinkedIn has been around since 2003 and was initially little more than a place to

keep an online version of your résumé and make business connections a bit

like handing out business cards in cyberspace. It has since evolved into a more

social tool, with integration with Twitter updates, applications that enable you to

increase functionality such as pulling in a blog, and the ability to create events

and groups. Many of the core functions you would expect in a generic social

network like Facebook, but tailored for business. It’s worth a look even if you

just set up a profile then ignore it since it’s another place for people to find you.

But you may be surprised by its marketing potential, particularly for business-to-

business (B2B) marketing.

Why LinkedIn works for business

LinkedIn works for business in several ways.

Building business connections

Whether it’s getting back in touch with old colleagues or meeting new contacts,

LinkedIn is like a big business networking party where everyone is handing out

business cards, and saying “You must meet my colleague X” or “I’m looking for

a graphic designer, can you recommend someone?” Use it to tell people what

you do, but also for introductions and recruitment.

“LinkedIn is like a big business networking party where

everyone is handing out business cards”

Unlike Twitter or Facebook, you can only send contact request invitations to

people you know, have some business connection with, whose email address you

know, or who you have been introduced to via a mutual contact.

LinkedIn shows you your number of contacts but unlike Facebook also

calculates a number of potential contacts in your wider network of friends of

friends. This is very powerful, as it is a database of professionals who are likely

to be within your broad areas of interest, who you are not directly connected to,

but to whom you could get an introduction via people you do know. This is like

real-life business networking, except that you can see which people your

business contacts know in front of you on your screen and decide who you think

might be useful for you to know, without any conversation taking place over

cocktails and canapés (OK, that might be a downside!).

Positioning yourself as an expert

One of the things people do on LinkedIn is ask questions of their extended

business community. If you have an area of expertise you can share, you can use

it to position yourself as an expert.

How to promoting your business

Like Facebook, you can join groups in your area of interest and post relevant

messages to them. You can also create ads, though I find this less effective—and

far more expensive. You can create groups to engage your community of interest

and build up a following. Although you should avoid anything too spammy,

marketing messages are much less frowned upon on LinkedIn. It’s a business

networkpromoting your business on it is fine. Just keep it relevant to the

people you’re talking to.

Bear in mind at all times that your audience on LinkedIn may be subtly different

from your audience on Facebook or Twitter. With all social networks, keep your

status updates and postings relevant to your community of interest and the

network you’re communicating on.

Get up to speed with LinkedIn

In this section, we will look at the steps you need to take to get up to speed with

LinkedIn.

1. Create your profile.

2. Install applications.

3. Set up a LinkedIn Group.

4. Create an event.

5. Offer your expertise on LinkedIn Answers.

Create a profile

Think of your LinkedIn profile as selling copy. On Facebook you might talk

about your hobbies or family in your personal profile. For LinkedIn, imagine

you are updating your résumé or writing down your elevator pitch. Focus on

your career history, education, achievements, and what you can offer your

contacts through your business. Add links to your websites so that people can

find more information and use plenty of keywords relevant to your industry to

boost your search results.

Build your network by importing your email contacts and searching for your

business contacts. Look at your contacts’ connections too for anyone you know.

LinkedIn will also suggest people to connect to, based on your network, and is

remarkably good at finding people for you I’m still often surprised at how

often LinkedIn correctly guesses “people you may know.” It has a better hit rate. 

than Facebook, in my experience. But this is partly due to the restrictions built

into the system. You are discouraged from connecting with just anyone.

“LinkedIn will also suggest people to connect to”

One part of your profile is “Recommendations”—short testimonials written by

contacts with whom you have done business. These are equivalent to references

you may include with your résumé, and don’t be afraid to ask for them. There’s

even a form to make it easy for you. Go to the Profile Menu, choose

Recommendations, and then click the Request Recommendations tab. Or go

direct to:

 www.linkedin.com/recRequests?cor=&trk=recppl_recsforme.

 

There’s a standard message, which you can customize, and you can choose

which position you want a recommendation for. This can also be a useful way to

add testimonials to your website since you can and should ask if you can

quote from their recommendation on your website too.

Install applications

LinkedIn now also has a range of apps to enhance your profile and increase your

functionality. Although nothing like on the scale of Facebook (about a dozen so

far, including Events and Tweets), they are more business-focused. Find these in

the Application Directory via the More... drop-down menu. You will also see

apps you have already installed in this menu.

Import your Twitter feed and blog (there is more information on this in the quick

win section), and experiment with other apps that seem relevant to your

business.

• Polls is a market research tool that allows you to collect data from your

connections for free, or target selected groups of people on LinkedIn based

on industry, demographic, job title, etc., for a pay-per-response fee.

• Reading List by Amazon allows you to share what you’re reading with

other LinkedIn members by linking to books on Amazon.com.

• SlideShare or Google Presentation—if you regularly run courses, give

seminars, or speak at conferences to people in your industry, consider

uploading a sample presentation using one of these.

• Company Buzz tracks what’s being said about your company on Twitter,

blogs, and elsewhere.

• Box.net Files allows file sharing with colleagues and specific contacts on

LinkedIn.

• My Travel, powered by TripIt, alerts your network to where you’ll be

travelling. Useful for letting your contacts know when you’ll be in the same

city as them or if you travel frequently to meet clients, to conferences, or to

run seminars.

• Huddle Workspaces allows for private collaboration on projects with

colleagues. Documents and spreadsheets can be co-edited with changes

tracked.

• SAP Community Bio is for those certified in SAP business software and

displays their credentials on their profiles.

• WordPress and Blog Link—if you have a blog, pull your latest postings on

to your profile with WordPress (for WordPress blogs), or Blog Link. 

powered by TypePad but works with any blog and will pull in posts from

multiple blogs.

• Events displays events that you and your contacts plan to attend. You can

also use it to create your own events, which we shall look at later in this

chapter.

• Tweets is one of the most useful apps, as it syncs with your Twitter

account(s) and is a useful way to aggregate your updates and lessen the

workload. Here’s how:

Linking in with Twitter

Since 2009 LinkedIn has enabled you to link your Twitter account to your

LinkedIn status update. Install the Tweets app and configure the settings. You

can choose Tweets from the More... drop-down menu, but that will only allow

you to adjust settings for the Twitter account that is linked to your updates.