Marketing KnowHow for LinkedIn
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This document provides tips for using LinkedIn effectively for business purposes. It discusses designing an impactful profile, focusing on achievements rather than job details. It also emphasizes that LinkedIn works through connections, and recommends connecting with as many contacts as possible while also cultivating deeper relationships. The document outlines strategies for open networking versus trusted partner networking and suggests a middle approach. It provides tips for using search, groups, status updates, testimonials and more to find potential clients and enhance one's professional profile on LinkedIn.
Marketing KnowHow for LinkedIn
- 2. 1 2 LinkedIn is for making customer and business partners connection. Design your profile to have the impact you want on those connections. Treat it like your introduction at a networking meeting and talk about how you helped people and the differences you have made. Job titles, main achievements and company names can help give you credibility but donât include all the details you would on a job application, itâs not overly valuable. Donât feel obliged to fill in every category. Use whatever space is provided to give the impression you want to give. LinkedIn works on connections. The most powerful use of LinkedIn is to find new customers and business partners through the search function or directly via your contactsâ connections. The more direct connections you have, the more opportunities you have to connect. Keep it simple Get yourself connected Marketing KnowHowLinkedIn: Best Practice Guide for Business LinkedIn is a great way to increase your professional profile and leverage business relationships either for yourself or your business unit. Here we present some useful tips to using your LinkedIn account for business benefit. LinkedIn: Best Practice Guide for Business
- 3. 3 There are two very different strategies to connecting on LinkedIn: Open Networking and Trusted Partner Networking. Choose your connection strategy carefully Marketing KnowHowLinkedIn: Best Practice Guide for Business The first strategy is to be an Open Networker or LION (LinkedIn Open Networker). LIONâs focus on growing the size of their network by initiating and accepting connection requests from as many people as possible. LIONâs typically have many thousands of connections. This means that when they search for useful relationships (potential clients or business partners), for example looking for contacts in specific companies, or geographies or with specific interests or job titles they are much more likely to find them. The downside of this strategy is that with thousands of connections you donât know each one very well, if at all. Youâre essentially using LinkedIn as a telephone directory rather than as a way of making deeper connections. Thatâs neither good nor bad it just means that if you find someone you want to connect with through one of these shallow connections, youâre unlikely to get a strong referral to them. The other strategy is to have fewer but deeper connections - a Trusted Partner strategy. Here you only connect to people you already know and trust. Most likely from face-to- face interaction, but possibly from online interaction too. With this strategy you have less chance of finding someone via a search because you have less connections. But if you do find someone, it will be through someone who knows and trusts you and they will be able to give a strong referral to you and put you in touch with the person youâre interested in connecting with. The downside to the Trusted Partner strategy is that itâs a bit like going to a face to face networking event and only speaking to the people you already know. You deepen your relationship with them but you donât build any new relationships. You could take the middle way. If someone wants to connect with you, and their profile looks interesting then you could connect with them, even if you donât know them. This way, your network expands significantly. When people connect with you, you could send them a message to start a conversation rather than just accept the connection but never speak to them. That way you find out more about each other and it may lead to interesting and valuable discussions. Be mindful of contact cross over though. Being connected with people in competitive organisations as well as your customers and staff could be giving valuable information on a golden plate to a vigilant competitor.
- 4. 4 5 Testimonials are very helpful to have on your profile. Theyâre a clear indication of the quality of your work and the relationships you form. If you want to get testimonials, use LinkedIn to give them to people youâve worked with and who have done a great job for you. LinkedIn will show them the testimonial to approve, then ask them if they want to reciprocate. They probably will. Give testimonials to get them Marketing KnowHowLinkedIn: Best Practice Guide for Business One of the most effective ways to gain business value from LinkedIn is to find potential customers and business partners. LinkedIn allows the ultimate in specificity. You can search for exactly who you want to be referred to by company, by geography, by name, by job title, etc. And you can search across your entire network at once. Or you can look at the contact list of an individual to see if thereâs anyone youâd like to be connected to. Once youâve identified people youâd like to be introduced or referred to, rather than try to connect them directly, give your mutual connection a call and ask them if they can connect you. Thatâs much more polite than going directly, and itâs much more likely to be successful. Use search to find potential clients and business partners
- 5. 6 7 When people find you in searches on LinkedIn, or when you contribute to group discussions or in the LinkedIn Answers Q&A section, the initial thing they see is a little box with your name, photo, and your headline. What most people have in their headline is their job title. Director at Civica or Executive at Civica Cx Housing. By default, unless you change it manually, LinkedIn takes the headline from your last job title. Unfortunately, this doesnât give people a clue as to whetheryou might be able to help them, or might be interesting to connect to. You should treat your headline like your introduction when networking. Focus on what you can do to help people. You can edit your Headline via the Edit My Profile option. LinkedIn groups are essentially discussion forums for specific interest groups. They allow you to find out the latest news, and to join in debates on topics of interest. You should be joining groups both of interest to you professionally, and the groups where your potential customers hang out. The more you contribute and help people, the more your profile and reputation will build. Have a helpful headline Join LinkedIn groups to connect and interact Marketing KnowHowLinkedIn: Best Practice Guide for Business
- 6. 8 9 Keep an eye on status updates from others. It can be a good opportunity to get back in touch especially if theyâve changed jobs or theyâre announcing a development in their organisation. Watch othersâ status updates to initiate contact Marketing KnowHowLinkedIn: Best Practice Guide for Business LinkedIn status updates are a nice way of helping to stay top of mind with contacts. Updating your status is a non-intrusive way of getting a gentle reminder out. Use status updates to subtly remind your contacts of what you do
- 7. Marketing KnowHowLinkedIn: Best Practice Guide for Business 11 LInkedIn might be a social media but it doesnât mean youâre off duty. Swap your holiday snap for something professional to give a better impression. Choose your picture wisely Donât wait for others to initiate a requestto be linked up to your other contacts. Review your contact list regularly looking for ways to add value to them. One good way is to offer to link them up with potential clients or partners for them. Itâs not easy to do this using LinkedIn functionality so you might find it easier just to email both and suggest they make the connection themselves. Proactively link others together who you think may benefit 10
- 8. Marketing KnowHowLinkedIn: Best Practice Guide for Business Our tips are not the only ways to use LinkedIn. But theyâre a good way to use LinkedIn to deliver business results Give us your feedback. Remember