How to Use LinkedIn: Beginners Guide on How to Use LinkedIn
There are many ways to use LinkedIn, both as a business tool for an offline or online business and for social interaction. Here is how this site can help you.
Create Useful Connections
There are three distinct types of contacts you can make using LinkedIn.
Professional Contacts: with people involved in your type of business or online niche. Many individuals or businesses will connect with those in the same area of interest with a view to keeping an eye on their activities and/or come to some form of marketing agreement. Keep in mind that you can both request a contact and reject such a request, just as you competitor can.
Client Contacts: with your clients and customers. The purpose here is to keep in touch on a professional basis. Facebook and other social media are more informal, and you will find that many clients who would never visit your Facebook fan/business page, or even your Google+ business page, will accept a LinkedIn Contact offer.
Personal Contacts: you can also make contact with your friends and family who have an account. This contact should be run on a professional basis however: leave the personal and social stuff to Facebook and other personal social networking applications.
The connections you make should be useful to you. If you receive a request from another person or company in your field of interest, then before accepting that, consider how you can benefit from it. Friendly competitors know how to use LinkedIn to keep tabs on each other in a friendly but competitive way. It is more beneficial to be in this than out.
Make sure that you update your contacts at least monthly. The ‘People You May Already Know’ tool offered by LinkedIn is a good way to assess potential contacts. Quite frankly, if you would not feel comfortable walking up to someone and shaking their hand or with making a phone call to them, then don’t connect with them.
Increase the Likelihood of a Sale
If your website or blog is a commercial one, and you have products to sell (as most have), then you can use this business social site to increase the likelihood of sales to your visitors. When you meet anybody who might become a customer or client, you should invite them to connect with you on LinkedIn.
They may already be registered with the network, but if not then provide them with all the details they need. Follow that up with an invitation to connect. As most internet marketers claim, it takes 6–8 contacts or product views before a potential customer will actually buy. You will, take up at least two of these exposures by inviting them and them accepting. Once you contact them on LinkedIn you are half-way to a sale!
Project Your Brand and Advertise
Never use LinkedIn for blatant advertising, but to project you and/or your business in a positive way. You can create a business page (a recent introduction to LinkedIn) and use that in much the same way as you would a Facebook business page. This enables you to promote your products and services, and to make special offers to those visitors that recommend your LinkedIn Company Page.
LinkedIn advertising is similar to Google Adwords. It is a form of PPC, where you can bid to have your adverts published prominently on LinkedIn. You can also promote your business using email marketing, and group announcements and discussions. Your ‘business’ can be a hobby blog, an affiliate marketing website, an online or offline franchise or even Wal-Mart or Microsoft!
Create a LinkedIn Group
A Group is a bunch of people with similar interests. It might be a group of colleagues that are all interested SEO, content writing, CPA or PPC advertising, WordPress blogging, or are expert in JavaScript or Cisco systems. They are good for forming a discussion group or a band of like-minded people to help solve each other’s problems.
There are many groups available that you can join. Click on ‘Interests’ on your top navbar, then on groups, thus:
This shows you any groups to which you already belong, but more importantly, you can click on the yellow link to create your own group.
One of the benefits of creating your own group is that you get a free broadcast email service you can use to contact each member of the group with one mailing. You can only do this once a week, but that should be enough. By building and maintaining your own group you have access to many others who are interested in your niche — a bit like building an internet marketing mailing list.
Using LinkedIn to Find a Job
The other side of this coin is that you can also use LinkedIn to find employment. If you are looking for a job then design your Profile accordingly. Be as positive as you can about your qualifications, experience and accomplishments. Most employment agencies and career advisors will point to LinkedIn as being an important tool in the job-hunting race.
You can publish your qualifications, experience, awards, successes and everything else that makes an average candidate a great one. Not only is your availability made public to thousands of prospective employers, but many HR and personal managers search through online profiles when they are seeking new personnel.
Print out your Profile and show it to a friend. Ask if they would employ this person. Take any comments they make and use them to improve it. This is a very powerful tool for those seeking a new job, and many people have found their ideal position because they took the time to create a LinkedIn Profile that was sure to impress anybody who read it.
You must make sure that it is accurate and 100% honest, because if you are caught cheating with your profile or employment application form you can be fired without notice irrespective of you employment record. Be honest! LinkedIn makes it easy to achieve that, because there will likely be people viewing your Profile that know you. In fact, it is almost certain to be the case!
