Doing the business
The main networking strength of LinkedIn is via people joining and contributing to the group discussions and forums on a regular basis. It's all about finding ways to broadcast your experience, knowledge and professionalism and getting closely involved with your various business communities (groups) and building and developing relationships.
LinkedIn offers a number of free apps (in the personal profile page under add sections) that you need to explore to see if any will benefit your business. Two that many find useful are:
Huddle Workspaces: providing private, secure online workspaces which offer project, collaboration and sharing tools for working with your connections.
Google Presentation: where you can upload a PowerPoint presentation or use Google’s online application to embed a presentation on your profile.
Another useful tool is LinkedIn Signal, (top menu, under ‘News’) this allows you to search and track relevant keywords and status updates from LinkedIn members using Twitter. This service offers a wide selection of search criteria to make it a very useful tool. It also offers the chance to see what's trending within your search parameters.
You may also want to explore the Answers section (under the ‘More’ heading in the top menu). Providing authorative answers and advice within your business areas to the professional questions posted here can be another way of developing worthwhile and profitable relationships as well as raising your profile in the community.
Another useful feature is LinkedIn Today (top menu under ‘News’). This is provided as a newssheet - pulling stories from the industries that you specify. The stories are weighted for prominence by the number of LinkedIn members who share them, including a list of these people. This makes it a great tool for researching and finding people interested in the same business topics as you.
Searching for People on LinkedIn provides an Advanced Search function which allows you to set a whole host of search criteria to find the people you may want to get to know. You can even email them directly using the internal LinkedIn email system. This feature comes at a cost though – with a range of options under the upgrade facility.
You may find that your business sector is not well served by groups and you may wish to start your own. This is easy enough to do, just look under Groups in the top menu. But remember, you will need to devote time to promoting and managing it. It may be worthwhile seeking out recommendations for your personal page, as these can provide you with added credibility.
LinkedIn also offers a highly focused ad service similar to Google Adwords but its value will be very dependent on a wide range of factors.
Finally, there are loads more great features within LinkedIn, all of which can be used to achieve specific aims:
• If it’s traffic to your website you are after, there are LinkedIn ads.
• You can update your company pages on a regular basis with new promotions, announcements and events and make sure you broadcast details to your groups.
• You can recommend and refer members you have previously worked with and in turn you can receive recommendations, all of which helps to build the reputation and network for both you and your business.
• LinkedIn also provides a Jobs Board on every company page – allowing you to post jobs directly on the website, which can provide useful savings on recruitment costs.
LinkedIn is a great facility and could well be a great support for your business. If you would like further advice on how to gain maximum benefits for your specific needs, please contact Brandboost.
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