Leveraging LinkedIn

by Hector "The Connector" Cisneros

If your company is a B2B entity that is trying to use social media without all that much success, leveraging LinkedIn could be the solution.  If you are an executive who wants to climb the corporate ladder but you really don't know where to start you could also benefit from LinkedIn In this article we will explore the following three areas:

1.      What it takes to use LinkedIn in order to maximize your exposure.

2.      The built-in tools that maximize your connections.

3.      How to put together a cohesive strategy to get the biggest bang for your efforts.

Social is Not Selling

Social media is not selling, t least not in the conventional sense. Social networking is more about connecting, sharing  and following. The closest thing to selling in social networking is word of mouth. The marketing part comes into play when a friend family member, co-worker or customer sings your praises. These testimonials are priceless and here is where you can strike gold with LinkedIn.

Make sure you provide testimonials and referrals for those who do the same for you. LinkedIn has a built-in mechanism that allows you to effectively provide testimonials and recommendations for others. It also automatically asks the recipient to reciprocate. Be generous but honest with your responses, compliments and testimonials. Being courteous and active will get you a long way.

Recommendations are listed under the “Profile” navigation link. In fact, this is where you should start. Make sure your profile is as complete as possible. Leave out sensitive information like your social security number, children’s names, home address etc.… but be thorough enough so that anyone reading your profile will feel they are getting a good look at whom they are dealing with.

Help is Just a Click Away

If you’re just starting out, know that LinkedIn has a very good built-in help directory. The “Help Center” is located under the “More” navigation link. The “Help Center” provides just about everything you would ever need if you got stuck. On top of that, LinkedIn provides many wizards to help you walk through setting up your personal or business profile.  If you're still stuck, you can always go to YouTube and do a search on LinkedIn and you will find hundreds of free training videos to learn from. Just make sure they are current.

It’s Not What You Know

Your contacts are the people you have connected with within LinkedIn. Connect provides a way to invite people to connect with you. You can invite people by importing a contact list from Gmail or a CVS file you have created in Microsoft Excel. You can also invite people to follow you if you see them listed in a people search via the search bar.  You can also organize your connections by categories you create.  These are called Tags. Tags allow you to create categories like friends, college buddies, BNI members etc…  Profiles allow you to organize connections from saved searches of people you may or may not be connected to. This is a great tool for salespeople. However it’s only useful if you have the pro version of LinkedIn. More on this later.

The Inbox

The Inbox lists messages you have received and have sent. It also allows you to send invitations to people you may know. This list is based on the 2nd and 3^rd tier connection possibilities of people to whom you are already connected. Just remember that when you click on the “Connect” button, you need to know the person you're attempting to connect with. Inviting people you don’t know is considered spam mail in LinkedIn. You do have more flexibility with the Pro version, but even there you have to use common sense. If you join “Groups” you are considered connected with the members of the group. It’s considered OK to invite these people. They can always choose to ignore you anyway. One last thing on the Inbox and connecting. You don’t have to connect with everyone. Read a person’s profile and make a decision based on whether it seems right for you.

News Feeds

When I refer to news feeds I am actually referring to two items in LinkedIn. One is under the “Home” navigation link on LinkedIn and the other is under the “News” navigation link. Your “Home” page lists post from all the people you follow and are connected to. When they or you type something in the “Share an update…” box it goes out to everyone you're connected to. A similar box is available for any group you are a member of.

The other part of the “News” feed is under the “News” navigation link.  This provides access to LinkedIn’s online news feeds that it considers tailored for you. Here you can customize your news feed so that it provides news items in which you are interested. This is a great resource if you use other social networks like Twitter, Facebook or Google Plus. These quality articles can also be used as content that you can post to your other social networks.

Search and Connect

LinkedIn has over 200 million subscribers of which 500,000+ are executives. If you are in sales,  you will love the capabilities of the Search tool.  You can search by a person’s name, company, industry, location, title, Groups, relationships, Seniority Level, Interest, function, language, company size and ranking on the Fortune 1000. Here is where having the Pro (meaning paid version) of LinkedIn pays off. The Pro version allows you to contact anyone (between 10 and 50 per month depending on which level you have purchased). It allows you to create premium filters, save profiles you have created and much more.

Regardless of what level you use (free or pro) the search feature is very powerful. It can save you a lot of time and money when you’re trying to connect with a business owner or decision maker. If you don’t have the Pro version you will have to use an intermediary to connect with someone. LinkedIn always shows if you are connected to someone by someone else you know. Once you determine that a connection exists, ask your friend, co-worker or associate to make the introduction for you. One they introduce you get connected and send an invitation invite to meet with you or offer to help them in some way.  Don’t always go for the throat and try sell to them. Remember that social media is about building trust and credibility through word of mouth, not direct selling.

There’s Strength in Numbers

To join a LinkedIn group, click on the “Groups” navigation link. Groups are a little like clubs that are virtual where everyone connect through posts and messages. They all have their own rules and most groups usually have a somewhat narrow focus.  Joining a group gives you access to the members of the group. You will be able to participate in the online conversations and topics that take place. Being active in a group is a great way to connect with like-minded people. It can also be a great way to connect with potential clients. As mentioned earlier, by joining a group you gain access to its members and are allowed to invite them to connect with you and join your network.

Don’t see a group with a focus you like? Create your own group where you are the moderator and you set up the focus and rules. Click on the “Create a group” link in the “Groups” section and answer the questions to create your own group. Once you set up your group you need to invite people you are connected with to join. You can also invite people from other groups you are a member of. LinkedIn will even help from time to time once it determines what your group’s focus is. It will invite people who show an interest in your focus by sending them an invitation to join.

Company Pages

Any business owner can and should create a business profile on LinkedIn.  Just like an individual profile, a business profile needs to be complete.  This is the place to list mission statements, unique selling propositions, product profiles, service listing, brochures, videos, and testimonials. It’s very important that you use the proper “keywords” in your profile. These profiles rank in the top search engines. Leaving out important information will get you left out of the search engines. To add a company, look for the link just below the Search Box when you click on the “Companies” navigation link. The “Companies” link also allows you to search for companies by name, keyword or industry. It also lets you to follow specific company posts to see what they are saying and doing.

Need a Job?

If you’re looking for a job or you’re looking for employees, this is the LinkedIn tool for you. By clicking on the “Jobs” navigation link you can choose to; “Find Jobs”, join “Job Seeker Premium”, “Post a Job”, “Manage Your Jobs,” or use the Talent Solutions“ feature. This is another LinkedIn tool that I could write a whole article on. Needless to say, if you’re looking for a job, you can find lots of jobs here. Generally these will be top career jobs not entry level positions. These jobs will be from around the world and cover every aspect of employment. If you’re looking for a good paying career position, you may want to look into using their paid Job Seeker Premium service. It allows you to contact executives and decision makers directly (up to 10 a month). This $40 a month investment could help you land that position you’ve always dreamed about.

If you’re on the other side of the equation and are looking for talented people, LinkedIn “Jobs Posting” and paid “Talent Solutions” functions can be very powerful tools. The free post allows you to list positions and get connected with job seekers. The “Talent Solution” is a separate, full featured, paid, recruitment system.

LinkedIn Ads

Like most other social media venues, LinkedIn is monetized. One of the ways they make money is by selling advertising space on their site. This includes the side panels of all pages, and at the top of the page via a text ad. LinkedIn can be a very cost effective advertising medium, primarily because you can target your audience. It is also a great place for A/B testing of ads. The Ad wizard will walk you through creating your ad or A/B test and it will provide what the minimal cost per click will run. You can also run ads based on either a pay per 1000 impressions or pay per click. Your ads can contain a picture, can point to something in LinkedIn, or to most websites, or even a blog. If you're selling a tangle product or service, this is one of the low cost leaders in pay per click, especially if you sell B2B.  The LinkedIn PPC system works well and is worth looking into.

Who You Gonna Call?

Have a question you need answered?  Want to know what skills you need for a specific job or line of work. Then the “Skills & Expertise” function is for you. This function is listed under the “More” navigation link and allows you to “Discover the skills you need to succeed”. The search box here provides you with indirect access to professionals who list themselves as experts in their chosen fields. It also allows you to add skills to your profile so that others can endorse you as having those skills. In this section you will also see featured professionals and be able to click on their profiles to learn more about them. You will also be listed in search when someone is looking to add a specific skill or expertise to their profile.

LinkedIn Articles

LinkedIn scours the web for breaking news along with the best and most informative articles that business people are interested in reading. As I mentioned earlier, you can choose the subjects that interest you, follow specific leaders and comment on the best business content the web has to offer. I love reading the articles from LinkedIn and I suggest you read them too.  It has provided me with tons of useful and informative content to share with my many followers. Since social networking is all about connecting, and sharing useful, educational, or entertaining content with others, these articles will help you do just that.
LinkedIn Pro
If you are considering the pro (paid) version of LinkedIn, in my opinion they are worth it if you use it. I have been a member of LinkedIn since late 1994. I have signed up for the pro version off and on several times over the years. If you’re in sales, spending the $39.95 a month to get the pro version should not be a hardship. If you need to contact more people per month or have greater needs they offer several levels to expand your ability to increase the number of contacts while narrowing the focus of your searches.
LinkedIn, like any social network, requires dedication to learning its feature, actively using it and proactively engaging others. It is useless if it’s not fed on a regular basis. Social networking requires consistency and dedication. For some business people, using LinkedIn is a business way of life. For others it’s a complicated maze that just seems like too much trouble. Take it from me, it’s worth any amount of trouble since it can provide a substantial payoff.  If you are looking for a way to break out of the herd and increase both exposure and results, you owe it to yourself to Leverage LinkedIn.

Hector Cisneros is COO of W Squared Media Group, a company that specializes in online marketing for the 21st century, including social media.