LinkedIn has over 100 million members: with an average age over 40 and 49% of them are business decision makers. Isn’t that a market you would like to tap for your business?
Your approach to LinkedIn should be similar to your approach to any kind of networking event. Your appearance is important: look personable and approachable. It should be clear who you are and what you do and how to get in touch next time. You should avoid trying to sell on first contact, it is always better to be willing to share, help and advise.
To leverage the benefits of LinkedIn you will need a strategy. Identify the people you need to develop a relationship with and see how many degrees of separation there are between you; on LinkedIn this is unlikely to be more than three. Find out who will be best placed to introduce you to the people you want to contact. At all times your attitude should be that of being willing to share knowledge and information without expecting an immediate return.
Your LinkedIn profile is important and should be interesting. Aim for 100% completeness, LinkedIn helps with this, and make sure your profile is set to be public – no point in hiding your light behind a bush. Make extensive use of keywords (and synonyms), ensure your employment history is relevant to what you are aiming to achieve, include your education and experience, websites, associations, group involvement, awards and even your interests; you may share an interest with those you wish to contact.
Test your updated profile by running keyword searches. Join at least thirty LinkedIn Groups, but you only need to be active in five of them. Start a few discussions, participate in others, maybe even create a Group. Make sure you regularly use the “Status Update” function and that your updates are visible. Link your Blog and your Twitter feed to LinkedIn.
Watch the network updates for activity surrounding the people you want to connect to or are connected to. If they change jobs or are promoted this gives you an opportunity to engage with them. Use Google Alerts to supplement the information you are getting from LinkedIn and also to obtain information from experts on a particular subject that you can share with your LinkedIn groups.
Be active on LinkedIn, answer questions, interact with other Group members and get recommendations from colleagues and former colleagues. Over time you will gradually build trust and respect and become the sort of person other people want to do business with.
Bruce Johnston owns South Wales Social Media.
South Wales Social Media specialise in working with small and medium sized businesses to increase their sales profitably by improving their engagement with customers and prospects. We provide a range of solutions to help your business and our services are designed to free up as much as your time as possible. This enables you to concentrate on your business. We can manage your promotional activity or plan and run PR or Social Media campaigns. For further information visit our website or give us a call on 01600 715508.
