2. What Is ?
• Social Media is word-of-mouth advertising
• Facebook = Backyard BBQ, Twitter = Party!, LinkedIn = The Office
• LI is the business standard today
• Over 75M members from over 200 countries using it exclusively for
business social networking (source: linkedin.com)
• It’s about making connections and building relationships through
professional credibility
• Engage the audience and build a network
3. ‘s Purpose
• LI can be a valuable tool for business development
• “With great power comes great responsibility”
• Be Spider-man: Harness the power of ‘the web’
• Demonstrate your expertise and thought-leadership
• Don’t try to be a super-hero, be relevant
• Don’t try to sell your services, add value
4. Profiling LI Users
LinkedIn
Male 54%
• Who is actively using LinkedIn? Female 46%
Average Age 43
• Roughly 50% of its users are in Average HHI $107,278
the United States (source: quantcast.com/linkedin)
College 77%
Graduate 39%
Entrepreneurs 31%
Executives 18%
source: linkedin.com
5. Where Do You Begin?
Complete Your Profile To 100%
• Watch the meter and it will tell you how updated
you are and what else you need
• Add experience, education, and expertise
Include Links To Your Company
Website, Blog, Podcasts, and Portfolio
• You can customize titles
• Be conscious of keywords you use - think SEO
value
6. And Then...
Add a Photo
• Humanize your presence with a professional photo
• Preferably a headshot so people can recognize you
• Phantom profiles send the wrong message and portray an inexperienced user
7. Build Your Connections
• LI is not a seasonal platform, stay committed
• You can send invitations to people based on recommendations from LI, your own
network, uploading your contacts from Outlook, G-Mail, and others
• To connect with the people you must play like the people
“Information flows swiftly through the internet, but that other ingredient of relationships, trust,
doesn’t.The people I know who succeeded overcame this difficulty by:
Focusing their attention on reconnecting with old contacts, where trust already existed, or Focusing
on local contacts, whom they could meet for breakfast or lunch, broken bread being a superior
medium for developing trust.” Posted on LinkedIn by Ford Harding
8. Customize Your Invitations
• Do not send the generic greeting
• It’s impersonal and comes off robotic
Update Your Status
• No more than a few times a day
• You can sync your Twitter account up to LI
• Let the information flow that way or use LI as your
primary status feed
• Share information that feeds your the brands you
represent: you and your company
9. Visit The Application Directory
• Under the ‘More’ tab
• There is a variety to include, but the most commonly
used are:
• Amazon Reading List - Allow your network to
see what you are thumbing through
• Slideshare - Upload your presentations to appear in
your profile (yes, this one will be there)
• Twitter - Displays a Twitter stream and allows you to
isolate your LinkedIn network’s stream as well; you can
post directly to Twitter from LI
• WordPress: Publish blog posts to appear in your
profile
10. Participate In The Answers Section
• Under the ‘More’ tab
• Search out questions being asked in your
industry, areas of expertise, and/or interest
• Contribute: uncover people by asking
questions and get involved in the conversations
• Share links to relevant articles, landing pages, “I have certainly developed inquiries by being on LinkedIn. I
do this by answering questions and contributing in group
blog posts, videos discussions. It is a very good way to show your expertise, and
that you are open to communication. I also try to connect
with anyone I am in conversations with on the phone. It
• Thank people for sharing their insight with a gives them an alternate means to get information, as well as
giving you an alternate means of contact.”
personal note and your thoughts
Business Development Rep at InTouch
11. Join Groups
• Look for parallels to your industry and
interests
• Search for groups by keywords and find
related groups to join
• Visit the discussions and get involved with
your contribution
• Add value to the discussions, don’t sell
“I have been making many contacts through the groups and questions. I was on LinkedIn for two years before I
did any networking. My network has grown from 12,000 to over 6,000,000 in a matter of two months. I learned
by watching other people. Not everyone on LinkedIn is open to this, however, I avoid the ones who are not.Why
join a network if you are not going to network?”
Posted by Gail Cavanaugh
12. Create a Group
• Have a purpose
• Put yourself in a position to be viewed as an expert
and engage an audience
• You are trying to get in front of people
Use The Recommendations Feature
• People can write recommendations about you and
vice-versa
• Write sincere, unsolicited recommendations about
people you’ve worked with in the past
• Your recommendations will show up in the stream
of updates within your network and their’s
13. Follow Companies
• Search out companies and click ‘Follow’
• Consider following your customers or prospective
customers
• Get updates from them, keep track of new hires, and
former employees
Screen Your Prospects
• B2B or B2C can benefit by getting to know them
before they arrive
• Find parallels that can be used as conversation tools
and build rapport
• Does not guarantee anything but it could thaw out the
conversation quicker
14. Going Forward With
• Consider LI a professional networking environment
• Use common sense, don’t be a salesman and spammer
• Be useful, offer value to your network
• You can find opportunities if you engage with your network
• Mine the data to uncover intelligence about people and companies
• Be smart with how you use the data
15. Going Forward With
• Use the common sense rule of offline
networking at an event
• Don’t suffocate people with your
business card and a sales pitch
“People no longer want to be sold to or talked at, especially in the social
media environment.You can find leads and prospects on LinkedIn and Twitter
IF you contribute to the community first and ask for business later. I see too
many business post a discussion on LinkedIn saying "buy widgets from me: best
widgets ever!" That is not the way it works anymore.You must honestly and
genuinely answer questions, contribute white papers or other news/events, and
generally establish your reputation and expertise. Only then, will people
approach you for your services.”
Ludo Van Vooren, Aerospace eBusiness Consultant
16. Bonus Round: For Businesses
• Must have collective and
individual buy-in
• Coordinate marketing strategy
with LI capability
• Harness group power,
participation, and event
management
• Plan your work, work your plan
‘LinkedIn As Marketing Strategy’ source: brandnexus.com
