On the 13th June 2016, it was announced that Microsoft was buying the professional social network, LinkedIn, for $26.2 billion. By doing so, it gave Microsoft immediate access to more than 433 million members. It turns out that Microsoft weren’t the only ones trying to buy it. Other bidders included Facebook and Google who both saw the power of LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is the Internets central hub for professionals and businesses to connect and market their brand, expertise, and skills to the world.
With powerful networking tools and company profiles, it is a great resource to help build your business, both through your personal profile and company page.
LinkedIn is a platform where people make connections with those in similar industries. It is also where people network, partner up, and look for ways to boost their business.
If you own a business that focuses on helping others in business, this is the perfect social spot for you and you can generate a lot of great, highly targeted traffic using it… if you use it in the right way.
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Getting Started With LinkedIn
The first thing you should do if you haven’t already is sign up for a profile on LinkedIn. If you want to get noticed on LinkedIn and get some good traffic out of it, then you need to spend time creating a professional looking profile.
The good news is that LinkedIn makes it easy by walking you through everything you need to do to set up a great profile. They’ll tell you how complete it is and how it can be improved.
You’ll need to include your work history, including your current work and business history. You’ll list your skills. You’ll describe yourself and your profession.
Always put a profile picture up. You can also link to your website and your other social media accounts.
As mentioned, LinkedIn guide you through the whole process but it is important not get lazy with this— fill it out completely and make sure it’s really appealing to people in your niche.
Making Connections On LinkedIn
LinkedIn is unique because you can pretty much get traffic immediately. LinkedIn can help you make connections with people you already know, right away.
The purpose of LinkedIn is to make connections. It’s all about networking, meeting up with current connections, and making new connections.
They’ll help you find people you went to school with, people you’ve worked with in the past, and people who you might know. They’ll help you make connections with your connections’ connections.
Once you’re connected with new people, it’s likely that they’ll check you out… just as you’ll check them out.
Your connections will also build over time. You’ll be surprised as to how many connection requests you’ll get organically. People will see who you’re connected with and, if your profile is impressive enough, they’ll want to connect with you as well.
Be Interactive On LinkedIn
There are some excellent interactive features that are part of LinkedIn. For example, you can vote on different skills that you feel represent the skills of your connections. In turn, they can vote on skills they feel represent you. Those skills show up on your profile— as endorsements. This can be really impressive to people who visit your page wanting to learn more about you— it’s social proof and will encourage people to purchase from you or use your services.
You can also leave reviews of others right on their profiles and they can leave reviews for you. Again, this acts as social proof for others wanting to learn more about you, buy from you, or hire you. It’s a fantastic way for people to feel confident that you’re a connection they want to make and someone they want to spend time on.
You can also update your status on LinkedIn, like you can with other social sites. It really pays off to made updates and comment on the updates of others. It keeps you interacting on the site.
The more interactive you are on LinkedIn, the more connections you’ll make, the more social proof you’ll have, and the more you’ll get out of using LinkedIn as sort of a fantastic virtual business card and lead generator.
Interacting In LinkedIn Groups
It can also really pay off for you to interact in groups on LinkedIn. In fact, LinkedIn groups just might be the “best kept secret” of effectively using the site to get more traffic and grow your business.
There are tons of great, highly active groups on LinkedIn. These groups are available on a variety of topics. Go ahead and search for the ‘groups’ area on LinkedIn so you can get a sense of what’s available.
If you’re in the business-to-business niches especially, you’re bound to find several fantastic options. It goes beyond B2B as well. Simply type in different keywords and look through all the categories to see what’s there.
Join and interact on the groups that are related to your business. Joining groups is a great way to get your name and business out there.
You can join and ask and answer questions. You’re an authority on your topic, so helping to answer the questions of others and being a constantly present figure of authority in your niche is good for business.
You can also create your own group. Try creating a group on a topic that’s proven to be really popular on LinkedIn, but put your own spin on it.
By creating your own group, you’ll instantly become a leader who others look up to. Once again, that does great things for your visibility and brand.
Using Your LinkedIn Presence to Grow Your Traffic
When you really look at it, this isn’t that complicated of a strategy at all.
Simply create a great profile and start making connections. Interact with people, give updates, endorse people, review people, and ask for and receive the same in return. Every day, do a little bit on LinkedIn to grow your presence.
Join and start LinkedIn groups. Be helpful and present. Be the sort of person people in your niche will really look up to and want to follow.
Make sure your profile is up to date and that it points to your website… where you should have an opt-in form. After all, if you’re going to use LinkedIn to generate traffic, then it’s a good idea to make sure people who click over to visit your website out of curiosity have the chance to easily join your list.
When you make status updates, keep people up to date about the projects you’re involved in. Basically, make updates and be present. Get people excited about what you’re doing and offering. Make it known that you’re an authority who can really help them.
You don’t want to be constantly funneling people off of LinkedIn and onto your site because you don’t want to spam this social site or any other.
But it’s absolutely fine to link to your website. It’s also a great place to showcase your successes and the things you do differently from other companies.
Show people that you have something amazing to offer and they’ll naturally want to check you out. It doesn’t hurt to incentivize them and drive them to an opt-in form so they’ll join your list— making them your traffic, for good.
Network Like Clockwork…With a Little Help
Like all social media platforms, LinkedIn is easy to use, but it does take time and commitment.
We work with a number of local businesses, who like you, can see the amazing opportunities of being involved on social media but just don’t have the time to devote to maintaining a professional social media online presence.
If that sounds like you and your business, please contact us today to discover how we can help your business online.
