6 Lessons to Make the Most of LinkedIn – Inc.

by | Oct 25, 2013

LinkedIn is a popular social network that is targeted primarily to business professionals. It’s ideal for B2B networking in particular, but everyone can benefit from properly leveraging their LinkedIn presence.

You may already be using LinkedIn. But are you using it effectively?

Effective use of LinkedIn must be part of your overall social media strategy – which in turn, must be part of your overall online marketing strategy. LinkedIn is the perfect platform to increase your visibility and reach, as well as impacting how your business is perceived. If your organization is actively developing online content (an essential component for online marketing), you can share your company’s content from your profile.

A recent article from Inc., a resource for information about starting and growing businesses, explains six ways to use LinkedIn more effectively.

6 LinkedIn Lessons

1. Use Groups
Organize your connections into groups, and share content based on each group’s interests.

2. Specialize
Focus your profile on what you actually do (and want to do). Too many people try to be too much on LinkedIn. Scale it back and narrow your focus to showcase your expertise.

3. Create Credibility
Build credibility by receiving recommendations from others. Inc. suggests building 15 to 20 recommendations if you can.

4. Connect with Purpose
Don’t just connect with people for the sake of building your network. Be strategic and connect with those who are relevant to your business and its goals.

5. Segmentation is Your Friend
You are able to “tag” your connections by topic. Tagging can help you with Lesson 1, which is targeting the content you post to specific groups of connections. It allows you to communicate with your connections on a more specialized level.

6. Build Value and Rapport First
Whoever you connect with, make sure that you are providing them with value. Building a relationship with others over LinkedIn takes time, but if you are consistently providing value, people will begin to trust and respect you.

Following these lessons will help business owners make new connections and generate new business opportunities.

LinkedIn, when effectively used, is a powerful online marketing tool for businesses that sell to other businesses. Internet marketing becomes greater than the sum of its parts when different components, such as LinkedIn, are seamlessly integrated.

Related
8 Reasons Why You Must Be Active on Social Media
20 LinkedIn Do’s and Don’ts [Infographic]
Can Social Media Really Help Me Grow My Business?

Ben Molfetta
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