IF you have fortunately registered on LinkedIn, this gives you the privilege of being an important member on the largest networking business site in the world; reserved exclusively for determined professionals.One of the reasons, I use this social media site more often than others is because it has helped me connect with local and foreign professionals unlike the other more popular ones. The simple steps that have helped me not only achieve success but awarded 5% most viewed profile for 2012 is what I want to share here. Unfortunately, LinkedIn is yet to announce the 2013 results as at the time of writing this piece but I hope to be among the top 1%.
With more than 240 million professionals using LinkedIn as an immensely popular business meeting place, you definitely need to seek out strategic ways of building strong relationships with more right people, in order to make the most of this excellent platform.
Obviously, the very first thing you would want to do is choosing the people that you believe you should be engaging with. In other words, this would be your prospective clients, your possible future employers, professionals within your own industry or trade, strategic local and International partners for business, and much more. Once you have made up your mind on those who you specifically consider worth attracting, your next task is to make a steadfast plan that ensures you will not be wasting your precious time and efforts while you are engaged on LinkedIn.
Below are some Proven LinkedIn strategies I have applied over the years;
1. Be Visual
Everyone is nudged by LinkedIn to be as visual as possible in the approach to appear their best on this platform; regardless of whether it’s working on your own profile or producing a company page. You will never go wrong if you choose to follow this excellent free advice. To supplement the text and build up your LinkedIn credibility, upload videos, images, and presentations as well.
2. Regular Updates
Even if your profile stands out simply great and you also have a company page that’s awesome, you’ll still fail to engage adequately with the right people using LinkedIn, if all else you do is wait for others to find you first. What you should do is post interesting updates that help in attracting your target audience. To be heard among them, simply posting links to recent newspaper articles or some other supposedly more authoritative source won’t be of much use. Here, you will need to interact by expressing your views and positive opinions on various topics of common interest.
3. Stepping Your Best Foot Forward
On LinkedIn, one rarely gets a lot of time for making a good first impression or, for that matter, anywhere else. When people look your profile up, either while searching or even accidently, they usually want to see what you look like and also what your stated professional headline reads. So, make the best of this onetime, or it may even be a lifetime, opportunity.
In a matter of just 2-3 seconds people will have made their minds up about whether they are going to continue reading further or not. You have the option to post a single image, in addition to 120 characters that inform your reader about you.
It’s your job, by making use of an image and a professional headline to convince your audience that as a professional: you mean business. You will need to guide those who view your profile in deciding that they actually want to establish a connection with you or your business, contact you, or read some more about your activities and interests.
If you spend a little extra time to create the right message and do a little exercise in squeezing a lot more information within 120 permissible characters, the rewards fetched by your efforts will justifiably amaze you.
4. Use Relevant Keywords
Before sitting down to write a summary that describes your career, work and company, consider using keywords that are both relevant as well as construed to create a positive impression. Insert these in the title fields for your job, project headings, expertise and skills list, as well as in the text that is produced by you.
Above all, be specific and to the point. Let’s say, if someone, who could also be your potential customer, is looking up LinkedIn for a specific specialist related to “Tax Expert”, you would undoubtedly be difficult to locate, particularly if your profile plainly describes you as a qualified accountant. Do you see the fine differentiation which, looked upon from an entirely business point of view, would clearly make the difference between your company being hired for the job or not.
I believe these 4 simple LinkedIn strategies will be of tremendous help just as they have helped me, especially for those who are wise enough to understand its place on today’s over crowded social media space.
Now let me talk about 3 things you probably did not know about LinkedIn
As an (aspiring) online marketer, at one time or the other you are bound to come face to face with facts. At first glance, this may appear daunting or perhaps even as sheer waste of your precious time. Yet, it certainly has a pertinent significance. One of those daunting factors we are talking about is called LinkedIn. It is an absolutely essential component of your well-rounded presence on social media and is for good reason considered one of the prime priorities for every marketing professional, regardless of what your own specific business niche or trade is. I love Linkedin (please add me by visiting http://ng.linkedin.com/in/cfagbata/)
so much to the point that sometime in 2013, I upgraded to a premium business account which I figure would help me achieve my goal of being among the top 1% of Linkedin users worldwide.
However, if all what you plan on doing is slapping together a passable resume and simply throw in a scanty fraternity of bondsmen as your potential contacts, there is every probability that you are least likely to gainfully harness enormity of the power that LinkedIn in actual reality holds for you and your business.
Therefore, to get what’s most beneficial from this spectacular social experience, let’s take a look at some of its seldom talked about, yet highly useful features.
1. You needn’t be personally acquainted with each contact added by you
Though this may apparently seem to counter every bit of advice you may have so far listened to, which advocates you to strictly abide by those known to you outside your social media contacts either at a professional or personal level; it simultaneously denotes that limiting yourself in such a manner would likewise result in missing out on the sheer quantum of individuals, groups and companies that you could otherwise contact on LinkedIn. Thus, totally missing out on the magic the site has the potential to work out for you. On the other hand, in itself, this hardly constitutes sending out tons of messages that are unsolicited to persons who may be total strangers, as far as you are concerned. You need instead to look for people that share common interests with you. A wonderful manner of achieving this would be connecting mainly with ones who share the same group on LinkedIn.
2. Make best use of your LinkedIn group
Regardless of whether your prime focus is professional networking, competitor research, or lead generation; your LinkedIn groups, along with all discussions held within specific groups that you are a member of, can be priceless for your business. The art here however is not simply joining a single group but finding a whole lot of potential groups that you can join. Though a need for you to participate in each individual group is never there, notifications that you get may occasionally prompt chiming in or just provide you with food for thought. Don’t forget, if you find there’s no precise group you would want to join; simply create one that suits you best and invite others to join.
3. LinkedIn lead generation works wonders
That is actually true. LinkedIn does a lot more than just help you look for a job or connect with your former colleagues or classmates. By taking complete control of tools offered on LinkedIn, you can practically generate endless leads through your presence on the site. As a distinct part of your working strategy, you should consider involvement of a positive use of the groups that you have joined; without forgetting the ones you created. Moreover, you must also learn to mine the highly targetable LinkedIn advertising, in addition to integrating your profile on LinkedIn with all your other efforts on social media, in generating leads for your product or services.
I wish you and your family a prosperous and fulfilling 2014. Please not forget to add me on Linkedin http://ng.linkedin.com/in/cfagbata/) and I look forward to your feedback.
... Making SENSE of digital revolution!
Ayilara Sherif
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