Posts Tagged ‘LinkedIN’

Have you used Slideshare yet?

Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011

slideshare iconSlideshare.net is less well known than Facebook or Twitter but it’s a neat free tool for promoting your PowerPoint presentations and building your credibility.

Plus you get to link your posts back to your website. So if someone stumbles on your Slideshare presentation and likes it, they may go to your website and engage with you by calling or seeking more information on your products or services.

There’s also a widget for automatically promoting your Slideshare presentations through your LinkedIn account.

This is a great way of enhancing the content in your LinkedIn account quickly and easily.

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Posted in Communication, LinkedIn, Slideshare, Social media, strategy | No Comments »

Still looking for ways to utilize LinkedIn for business?

Thursday, October 13th, 2011

Research your prospectsLinkedIn icon

You can learn a great deal about a person on LinkedIn. For example, wouldn’t it be great if you had a meeting with someone and found out that she graduated from the same university as you two years prior? Instant bonding and rapport, right?

You can ask questions to get a feel for what prospective clients want, need or think about a product or service.

Of course this is no replacement for traditional quantitative research, but you can certainly garner a general “feel” for the receptivity of your offerings and ideas from among those in your network.

Research your competition

Suppose you are competing for a big project and you get wind of the names of your competitors. Use LinkedIn to research them and their potential weaknesses.

Make offers

Our final tip on using LinkedIn is to post messages about your sales, special offers, packages, deals, seminars, webinars, free reports, white papers and more.

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Posted in LinkedIn, marketing, Networking, Social media, strategy | No Comments »

Even more awesome ways to use LinkedIn for business.

Friday, October 7th, 2011

Join industry and alumni associationsLinkedIn icon

These groups offer a great opportunity to reconnect with old friends and find new connections.

People like to do business with those who have attended the same college or belong to the same industry association. There is comfort and trust among those who belong to the same organizations.

Join those groups and search for people you might know.  Then connect.

Promote your recent work accomplishments

Update your status with interesting (make sure it truly is interesting) reports about your business accomplishments, meetings with interesting people and awards. This is PR in the new age.

Use the search facility for prospecting

Use LinkedIn’s search feature to find people who might need what you sell. Search by company, industry and city. Or, better yet… search through your primary contacts’ networks to see who they know. Then ask them for an introduction via LinkedIn.

Use the LinkedIn email system

This is email sent through the LinkedIn system. Inmail has been reported to get good open and read rates.

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Posted in Inbound Internet Lead Generation, lead generation, LinkedIn, marketing, Networking, Social media, strategy, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Some more ways to make the most of LinkedIn.

Thursday, September 15th, 2011

Generate leads- If you’ve got something really worthwhile to offer – such as a great free report – you could use it to generate leads. Just by how to use linkedinstaying active in the LinkedIn community and offering great free information, you’ll build awareness of you and your business in your core market.

Give recommendations- By giving positive, honest, informational recommendations on LinkedIn for people with whom you have done business, they will be likely to give you a positive recommendation too.

Personal branding- Nowadays, prospects will go to LinkedIn to learn about you before they buy from you. If you have a dozen (or more) positive recommendations and your competitor has none… guess who will sign the contract?

Advertising- You can create an “ad” for your business and target only the LinkedIn members you want to reach in your preferred geographic region. It takes less than 5 minutes and you pay only for the times people click on your ad. It’s not free but it is fast, easy, targeted and you can start and stop it at any time. This is new to LinkedIn and they are still working out the kinks. But it’s worth a try.

Widgets- You can use LinkedIn widgets to integrate your other marketing efforts with your LinkedIn account. For instance, I use a widget that automatically sends a signal to my Twitter account every time I post an update – so all my entries on LinkedIn also get published as tweets. Sometimes highly influential Tweeters then “re-tweet” my tweets from LinkedIn. Neat!

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Posted in Inbound Internet Lead Generation, lead generation, LinkedIn, marketing, Networking, Social media, strategy, Twitter, Uncategorized | No Comments »

First post to help you make the most of LinkedIn.

Sunday, August 14th, 2011

For business, LinkedIn has quickly become everyone’s online resume.LinkedIn Logo

But it’s much more than that. If you use it, you’ll find it’s actually a very powerful new medium for evangelizing your business and your most precious brand – yourself!

So, the first step is to get over to www.LinkedIn.com and set up a profile if you don’t have one already. Next we’ll share a whole bundle of tips on how you can get the best results from using it.

An incomplete profile looks weak. It makes you look disengaged. You spend a ton of time working on your career. But if you don’t fill out your profile, it could give people the impression that you aren’t doing much at all.

Join groups.

It’s easy to join groups and it’s a great way to connect with lots of people in your field. Who knows? One of them could deliver that new lead
you’ve been waiting for to grow your business.

Once you’ve engaged with people in your groups, seek to connect with them directly. But don’t rush into this – no one likes the person on a mission to gather the highest number of useless LinkedIn connections. Seek out people you could truly help – not just people who can help you. You have to give to get.

Answer questions. If you can answer questions on LinkedIn, you’ll gain a reputation as an expert in your field. That’s good PR for you
and your business!

But one note of caution: Only answer questions if you have a REALLY good answer. Don’t rehash other people’s answers or say “I agree with the previous answer!” That’s not helping anyone and could actually downgrade people’s impression of you and your firm.

More on LinkedIn advertising, widgets and advertising in the next post.  Stay tuned!

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Posted in LinkedIn, Social media | No Comments »

4 ways CEO’s could use LinkedIN for results.

Monday, September 13th, 2010

We all know we’re supposed to be “on” LinkedIN.  But how can we make the most of it?

Here are some tips:

1- Use it to find top-notch employees. Remember, the best people aren’t necessarily looking for a new position.  And referrals are your best source for good people.  So, tap into your network.  Let them know you are looking for help.  Here’s how:

  • Send individual “in-mails” or post an update that announces the type of person you are looking for.
  • Post a job opening.  Go to the “Jobs” dropdown menu and follow the steps.
  • Review potential employees’ profiles online.
  • Check their references.  Do they have any?  Were they recommended by anyone on LinkedIN?
  • Run reference checks easily by searching for people who have worked at their previous companies.  Then contact them.

2- Help your team. If you have a great network, you can use it to help your team.  Suppose one of your salespeople is calling on a new prospect. She searches for the company on LinkedIn and sees that one of your connections knows the VP of purchasing. She can leverage the trust of that connection to build her relationship with the customer. Or ask you to help with an “introduction”.

3- Manage your time. You’ll get asked to connect with lots of people.  Many will be unknown to you.  Some may want to pitch a service to you while others may want you to speak at an event.  How do you know if that person or group is relevant to your needs and legitimate?  Before you connect you need to make sure they are a good fit for you and your network so they don’t waste your time.  LinkedIn makes it easy to check them out. You can easily search around to see who you know in common.  And you can ask your trusted connections if the person or group is for real.

4- Find smart answers from smart people fast. You can find an expert and have your questions answered easily on just about any topic under the sun.  Just go to the tab that says “More” and click on “Answers”.  Once there, search for answers to your question first.  Then, and only then… if you can’t find the answer you are looking for, go ahead and post a “Question”.  I recommend searching for the answer first because many questions have already been answered and you’ll be muddying the waters if you ask the same question that 30 other people have already asked.  It’s “LinkedIN etiquette” to search for an answer before you ask a question.

Obviously I’m a big fan of LinkedIN.  There’s a lot more you can do with it.  But these tips will get you started.

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Posted in Social media, Uncategorized | No Comments »