How To Use Linkedin

By Ken Arp

Linkedin has become the leader of all Social Media sites for business networking, this article will give you some important tips on how to use linkedin and get positive results.

There is a perception shared by some that Social Media is for personal use, but the reality is that networking for business people is a growing trend.  While there are ways to leverage popular Social Media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to achieve business goals, there are also sites specifically designed for business networking.  The leader is Linkedin with more than 60,000,000 users.  Linkedin can be used to accomplish many things; some of the primary goals are;

1.  Reconnect or stay in touch with past colleagues and friends with a business perspective.
2.  Create, develop and maintain business relationships.
3.  Create awareness of yourself, your skills and your competencies and expertise to others that don’t know you.
4.  Find or list jobs, people or business opportunities.
5.  Review a person’s business profile before entering into business with them.

Beyond individual contacts you can also join or start Groups that enable networking for business people.  It could be groups based on where you work or worked, went to school, common interests or groups in your geographic region.  It is important whether you start a group or are participating in a group that you add value and don’t just try to sell, sell, sell.  Remember, it’s more about building credibility and trust, people won’t pay attention if all you do is post advertisements.  As with most networking, the more you give the more you gain.  Answer questions and prove your expertise, get involved and people will pay more attention to what you have to offer.  Complete your profile so that once people are interested they can find out more about you.

Linkedin also offers the ability to buy advertising in much the same way as on search engines.  You can target the ad so it is only seen within a specific geographic area and you can pay on a per click through basis or a per thousand impression basis.  Since Linkedin is targeted to business people it’s members have a higher average income than most other avenues which may be a good fit for some types of businesses.

Total Internet Solutions is based in Oakville, Ontario and is part of WSI – the world leader in internet marketing with more than 1,500 offices globally. If you are in Southern Ontario and would like more information feel free to call us at (905) 257-8789 or contact us via the web.