I know a lot of people who are on LinkedIn and it intrigues me that when you ask how they use it to promote their business, a blank look is the common response. They can have a real focus on building their connections but other than getting an ever-increasing number, what else can you do? There is a general view that LinkedIn can be a great way to ‘tout yourself about’ when you are looking for a new job. Equally, if you are recruiting then LinkedIn can be a useful tool to sort the wheat from the chaff of all of the CVs you have to wade through – though often Facebook can be more revealing! But what if all you want to do is promote your business? Here are 2 ideas you may find helpful: 1. Integrate LinkedIn with your blog/news posts One thing you should do is keep your LinkedIn profile up to date. This can be a pain to do manually but wouldn’t it be great if you could post once (say on your website news page as we all do regularly – don’t we?!) and have this automatically published to your LinkedIn account (and the rest of your Social Media network too should you wish?) Well you can! Check out www.linksalpha.com; a neat utility with both free and subscription services The service is easy to set-up and use but if you want to find out more please get in touch with us 2. Real networking with LinkedIn I was talking with someone at a networking session this morning and he was telling me he was really keen to get an introduction to the chief exec of a local firm as he felt there was a good synergy between their two companies. He was asking around to see if anyone knew the chief exec – and not getting very far! This is where LinkedIn can really work. As a LinkedIn member, my colleague was not directly connected to his target contact – but he was connected to someone who is! This can be particularly effective if you work in a niche sector. All he needs to do is to ask hs connection for an introduction – bingo! The above scenario is based on a 2nd degree contact but the process can be effective even with only a 3rd degree contact – i.e. you have to go through 2 steps. I’m not sure you should try if your connection is more distant than this – but do feel free to give it a go! And most important…. When you make a contact make sure you keep it even if there is no business opportunity straight away. Keeping in touch with people is the most sustainable way of building your business – oh, and doing good job helps too! To talk about developing joined-up marketing for your business, give me a call
