What is it?
Founded less than a decade ago, LinkedIn is now the most prominent business networking site on the planet, with a new member joining every second.
The site now boasts more than 90 million members, who use it to create networks of contacts, find jobs and business opportunities, search for potential employees and build bridges with recruiters.
How can businesses use LinkedIn?
Aside from searching for potential employees, LinkedIn allows you to market your business, research potential clients and competitors, and link to your other media and social networking portals. Your profile page on LinkedIn, unlike Facebook for example, should be entirely focused on your business.
Here are some key uses:
Increase word of mouth referrals and recommendations
You can ask happy customers and clients to post recommendations on your profile page, visible to your entire network.
Find useful contacts
If your business needs a great designer, developer or copy writer, LinkedIn makes it easy to ask your entire network for reliable recommendations, saving you time sourcing people. The site is also widely used by people looking for job opportunities, and you can post a job on the site that can be shared with your connections.
Post news
If your company has just rolled out a new product, hit a financial milestone or gained a particularly interesting customer, you can post it in LinkedIn’s news pages – so your customers and competitors know about it.
Position yourself as an expert
Answering relevant questions in LinkedIn’s Q&A section can enable you to create the impression of knowledge and expertise – a great image for any company to convey.
Start a fan page
Just like Facebook, LinkedIn allows you to create a fan page for your business – an ideal forum for building publicity for your product or service.
Promote events
It’s easy to create an event on LinkedIn and invite people. If you have cultivated a network carefully, you should easily be able to contact your target invite list – whether that be investors, clients, potential customers or industry experts – to any event your business may hold.
Gain inside intelligence
Through LinkedIn’s networks, you can find out whether you know someone close to a potential client or competition – you never know if they can give you key information!
Get a feel
By browsing clients’ or competitors’ contacts, networks and groups, you can learn more about them – their passions and interests, the way they like to do business and the people they like to do it with.
Quick tips
Here are some tips and hints to help you use LinkedIn more effectively:
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Download your Outlook contacts book, allowing LinkedIn to see which of your friends are currently members.
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Keep it professional when it comes to uploading photographs and key information . LinkedIn isn’t Facebook – people want to see your business skills, not your social skills.
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Give people a reason to add you as a contact or join your group. Don’t assume that your company is so fabulous that people will rush to join as soon as you extend your invite!
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Feel free to disconnect with people, or companies, who suddenly appear shady.
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Don’t add everybody, keep it to people you actually know. Quality not quantity is the key – if enough of the people you contact tell LinkedIn they don’t know you, you could be barred from using the service.