LinkedIn

Facebook for Business

LinkedIn is a networking platform through which professionals can connect and collaborate.

Despite being the most obviously business orientated of all the social media platforms, LinkedIn is actually the least powerful in terms of its ability to nurture business relationships. Why? Because for the most part business isn’t conducted in a board room. It’s conducted down the pub over a beer or in the cafe over a latte. By pandering to the formal stereotypes of business, LinkedIn misses out on the true social dimension of business. In short, LinkedIn is social media at its least social.

Now I don’t want you thinking I’m getting negative about LinkedIn. In fact I bloody love it, because let’s be honest for a second – all this being social can get a bit much can’t it? Endless status updates and tweeting and blog commenting and pretending to care..... I mean genuinely caring about what the other person has to say – being that nice is exhausting!

And this is where, for me, LinkedIn is a bit special. While it’s a full web 2.0 experience and almost entirely user generated, you don’t feel like you constantly have to keep up appearances. You can simply set and forget. You spend a few hours populating it with content, get your numbers up past 100 so you feel all connected and important, add a few videos to stand out from the masses and then let it passively work its magic.

LinkedIn is a sleeper. I used to answer questions and be a bit of an all round try-hard but now I just let it be, and yet when I check my Google Analytics it is always up there as one of the top sources for referral traffic.

For who

• Business to Business professionals (so lawyers, accountants, marketing companies, HR, web developers, etc).

LinkedIn Personal Profiles

Your LinkedIn personal profile is the page dedicated to you, the professional.

Tip Top Tips for your personal profile

• Less is more - The less you write, the more it will be read. Think of your strongest points and leave it there.
• Stand out from the crowd - Very few people bother to use slideshows or video, despite the fact it’ll make your profile sooooo much more interesting. The Behance video application is very easy to use and it really brings the page to life - http://learn.linkedin.com/apps/behance/
  
• Let others do your selling for you – As in the offline world, there is nothing more powerful than a strong recommendation from an objective third party. Recommend those you are connected to that you feel deserve it and more often than not they will return the favour.
• Get your numbers up – how aggressive you want to be is your call but ultimately the more contacts you have the more exposure you will gain. If you want to limit it to those that you know well offline that is fine (and personally my preference) but be sure to import your email contacts as well as add your details to both your email signature and your business cards. If you want to take it a step further, why not become a LION ( LinkedIn Open Networker) and connect with other members of the pride.

LinkedIn Company Profiles

Admittedly the benefits from a sales and marketing perspective are currently very modest, but the CEO of LinkedIn, Jeff Weiner, has suggested that this will be changing in the near future, so it’s worth being one of the early adopters now and getting ahead of the game.
Tip Top Tips for your company profile

• First things first - ensure you and your team all have fully completed personal profiles.
• Calls to action –It’s no use just having people idly browse your company profile – you need them to take action! Ensure there are strong CTA’s throughout the services section.
• Video and images – the functionality is limited so make sure you use the small amount available. You can embed video in the services section (customer testimonials are generally best) and ensure each service has a nice unique image.

Look, let’s be honest, this isn’t about to make or break your business. The functionality is kinda lame but for that very reason there’s really no excuse not to spend the 20 minutes required getting it right.

LinkedIn Groups

Much like traditional forums, LinkedIn groups are areas where people with similar interests can come together and discuss/share ideas. These are mini communities saturated with industry experts, so there are lots of valuable lessons to be learned and connections to be made!

Tip Top Tips for groups

• Get help – if there is a particular topic you would like expert opinion on, then why not start a new topic? You’ll be amazed at just how keen other people are to show off their expertise and knowledge (and it’s a lot cheaper than paying for it!).
• Promote your blog – if you write a blog you can actually promote it as a new topic via your group as a nice source of additional and very targeted traffic!
• Network – if you chat with someone via a group and think they could be a useful contact then connect up your personal profiles.
• Post job vacancies – if you have a job vacancy then why not post it up on the job board within your groups. It’s likely to be the ideal target audience in terms of skill-set.
• Start a group of your own – not only is ownership of a vibrant group a nice accolade but you can also email group members directly, which as the group expands can become an enormously valuable marketing tool! However, if you do start a group of your own just don’t make the mistake of naming it after your company! It needs to be something neutral and descriptive.

LinkedIn Answers

LinkedIn Answers is a forum for asking questions on anything business related. The answers are provided by other members of LinkedIn that have expertise within the subject in question. There are two sides:

• Help – By answering questions you can make new connections and if you impress then you can be awarded with the “Best Answer” badge that’ll show on your profile.
• Be helped –Just ask a question and watch eager experts battle it out trying to get the best answer badge. Why wouldn’t you use this?!
  

LinkedIn Actions

• Set and forget - If you are a traditional B2B organisation then you definitely belong on LinkedIn, even if it is just a question of setting up a decent profile and letting others connect. It will take you about an hour to do a solid job.
• Additional source of leads - To take full advantage of LinkedIn as a lead generator you’ll need to be a bit more proactive, connecting with anyone whose business card you collect through offline networking and adding slideshows and video to your profile so that you really stand out.