by Beginning Internet Marketing Team
22. September 2009 08:44
Are you getting the most out of Linked-In?
Many people in business have a Linked-In profile nowadays but many are not getting the most out of the service!
Some people see Linked-In as just another website where they can promote themselves or their companies. Well this is certainly the case but it also comes with features that are not only passive but proactive in lead generation.
The real value of Linked-In is your connections and the 2nd and 3rd removed connections. i.e. You connect to your business contacts that connect to others who connect to yet more people. This is called your “Network of Trusted Professionals” whom you are able to connect with either directly or through introductions.
As an example, if you have 50 direct connections this could translate to around 500,000 trusted professionals that you can leverage through introductions. (These figures are for illustration only)
Getting in contact
Lets say that you are looking to partner with a company on a particular project or are interested in connecting with a particular business sector. Linked-In provides you with a search function which allows you to find people based on criteria you provide.
From the results you have 2 options;
1. Be introduced to these people through an existing connection of yours or
2. Send an In-MailTM
Introductions are free to all users and can be quite effective especially if you are trusted and well-known by the individual who’s introducing you.
In-MailTM don’t require any intervention by your connections and can be sent to any Linked-In member that allows In-MailTM messages. However, this service is charged for but comes with a guarantee of response. E.g. If you don’t get a response from the member within 7 days of sending your message, Linked-In credits your account with an In-MailTM message. The chaps at Linked-In say that In-MailsTM are charged for because they help reduce SPAM and therefore In-MailsTM are normally considered by recipients of them as more of an opportunity than just junk.
Building your profile
Linked-In is a significant website, that is to say that it is trusted by major search engines. If you are a member of Linked-In and you search for yourself in Google, your Linked-In profile is very likely to be found. Likewise the information you have loaded into your profile will be associated with your profile page and if your profile links to your own website you could be adding value to your website as a result.
Your profiles completeness is recorded in the bottom left hand corner of your Linked-In home page, try to get this as high as possible by completing as many sections as you can.
Get Recommended
Recommendations are great tools in assisting your sales process and Linked-In provides you with the ability to ask for recommendations and approve those recommendations before they are published on your profile.
Once you have some recommendations on your account you can direct prospects to your profile and show them that these recommendations have come from real customers and business partners and show more credibility in your company.
Answer Questions
Linked-In provides a facility for any member to ask questions. Other members can then answer these questions and be scored by the answers they give. If you provide the best answer, the person that raised the question will normally flag you as the expert and this will be displayed on your profile.
Answering questions adds value in two ways;
1) Questions and answers are picked up in search engines such as Google and will be displayed to Internet users that are asking the same questions.
2) If you get flagged as giving the “Best Answer” you will be considered an expert in that field and again this can be used to add further credibility to your profile.
General points for social networking
Generally networking websites are great for distributing your message and getting in-front of a wider audience. Some are more effective than others and we feel that Linked-In is one to interact with at least once a day.
Others such as Facebook, Twitter, StubmleUpon and Digg (to name just a few) are also useful but are less business focused but can be used to increase the traffic to your website and in some cases improve your websites visibility in search engines.
