Article from Holistic Therapist Magazine on How your business can benefit from LinkedIn.

1. 17HOLISTIC THERAPIST 2013holistictherapistmagazine.com16 HOLISTIC THERAPIST 2013 holistictherapistmagazine.com
BUSINESS | JP’S SOCIAL MEDIABUSINESS | JP’S SOCIAL MEDIA
So you’ve setup a profile on LinkedIn,
but when was the last time you logged
in? If you haven’t used LinkedIn for
some time then you’re missing out on
some valuable business benefits that
“the professionals’ network” can offer.
LinkedIn has been growing fast in the
UK. It now boasts a network of over eleven
million members, which include an extensive
number of holistic therapists. There are
many ways in which LinkedIn can help you
and your business. You can take advantage
by improving your profile and making more
frequent, and better use of LinkedIn.
The Golden Rule is to ‘get active’.
Everything you do on LinkedIn, from updating
your website address to joining a LinkedIn
Group is published across your network so
‘get active’ and get noticed.
The ten business benefits below will hopefully
inspire you to get active on LinkedIn:
1Keep in touch - LinkedIn is a great way
to stay in touch with your network. You
can keep tabs on your patients, clients, and
contacts by logging on to read your Home
Page or opening your LinkedIn Weekly
Update email. Staying in touch increases
the likelihood of direct or referral business.
2 Network - Use LinkedIn to find
suppliers and advisers from your
network just as you would do at a
network meeting. People who you give
business or leads to are likely to provide
business or referrals in return. The
Advanced Search on LinkedIn is a great
way to locate professionals… simply
type in key word(s) and your location.
3Find contact details - Do you need
contact details for a new prospect or
have you lost an existing client’s phone
number? No problem! You can check
LinkedIn profiles for contact information.
In cases where an email address or
phone number hasn’t been published,
you can still contact people over LinkedIn
by sending a message with a connection
request. If you’re on one of the Premium
Plans you can send what’s called an
InMail. This is a really powerful feature
that lets you send a message to any of
LinkedIn’s 225 million members.
4Obtain relevant news about healthcare
- LinkedIn has a magazine-style
section called LinkedIn Today that you
can customise to provide you with news
and information that interests you. It’s
a bit like a personalised newspaper,
providing you with a range of channels
– including Healthcare and Influencers –
that you can choose from. You can also
join LinkedIn Groups such as Holistic
Health and Wellness (20,000 members)
to gain valuable insights and to find out
the latest developments in your sector.
5Obtain leads - Using Advanced
Search you can locate prospective
leads in your area and then contact them
by requesting an introduction from a
shared connection or by InMail. When
contacting a prospective patient, ensure
that you stress commonalities – mention
mutual acquaintances, have you worked
for the same employer, do you share
any interests? If the introducer is one of
your patients, be sure to mention this
in your initial approach, so that you’re
effectively getting a recommendation.
6Obtain recommendations
and endorsements - LinkedIn
recommendations from patients and
colleagues provide credible proof of
your credentials and can enhance your
reputation. Endorsements are less
powerful as they require less effort.
However, they do help to highlight your
Skills and Expertise and providing these
endorsement to others will get you noticed.
Don’t be afraid to ask your satisfied
clients for LinkedIn recommendations.
7Demonstrate your skills and expertise
- An up-to-date and complete Skills
and Expertise section demonstrates
that you are a fully skilled practitioner.
Prospective patients can find you by
searching for yoga, acupuncture, massage,
psychotherapy and so on. You can
further increase awareness of you skills
and expertise by providing tips in Status
Updates and taking part in LinkedIn
Group discussions. You can network with
fellow professionals in industry Groups. To
connect with potential clients join Groups
in which your patients are members. You
can use LinkedIn Search to find such
Groups, or simply ask your exiting clients.
8Connect with delegates after
network meetings - Have you ever
got back to your clinic after a network
meeting with a pocket full of business
cards and wondered what to do with
them? You can develop the connections
you’ve made with people at events by
connecting with them over LinkedIn.
9Attract visitors to your website -
With more and more people using
internet search engines like Google to
find service providers such as holistic
therapists, it’s vital that your website
shows up well in search results. An
up-to-date, complete and optimised
LinkedIn profile is more likely to show
up in search results. You can also help
improve the position of your website by
using your Contact Information section
to publish your web links. Doing this will
also encourage LinkedIn users to visit your
website. You can add up to three links
so be sure to include sites like Facebook
and YouTube as well as your website.
10Great recruitment tool - LinkedIn
is traditionally associated with
the recruitment industry and for good
reason; it’s a great resource for finding
new staff. You can use LinkedIn Advanced
Search to find potential local candidates,
or if you have a budget you can place
targeted adverts in the Jobs section.
You can obtain more social media
advice, tips, examples and news
from my blog at intranetuture.
com/blog or call me on 01242
639023 for a quote to review and
optimise your LinkedIn profile.
Social-networking expert,
Jonathan Pollinger provides ten top
tips so that you and your business
can benefit from using LinkedIn
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