LinkedIn is commonly referred to as “Facebook” for business, yet most business people I talk to tell me they “don’t get it”. They see its benefits in terms of staying in touch with other business people, but they’re not sure quite how it can help generate business for them. Well, LinkedIn can help you get more business, and do a lot of other things besides:
1. Research into people you are looking to employ.
2. Find new customers and suppliers.
3. Find new markets for your products.
4. Find other suppliers in your market to share ideas and collaborate with.
5. Carry out market research.
So if you’re running a business, make sure you do the following with your LinkedIn profile:
- Make sure your profile is 100% complete. Provide as detailed information as possible about your current and previous jobs.
- Make sure your profile includes a photo. Without a headshot, you are invisible.
- Make sure you have plenty of testimonials from your clients, at least a dozen. You need potential customers to have confidence in you.
- Don’t just display your work experience, demonstrate it. Linkedin allows you to upload papers you have written, link to publications that are online, and even upload your design portfolio.
- If you have any relevant skills, LinkedIn provide a section to display these.
- Make it easy for clients to find out about you. Include a link to your website, and also to your Blog and Twitter profile if you have one.
- Set up a LinkedIn page for your business and get all your employees to join it.
- Join some groups: There’s a professional association for just about every profession and lots of online networking groups. Join these groups, meet up with members, connect with them on Linkedin and participate in discussions.
- Increase the connections you have on LinkedIn. If you have friends, clients, suppliers and any other business colleagues, connect with them. The more people you’re connected with, the more potential business opportunities you have.
It would take a whole book to explain all the things you can do with LinkedIn, but I will share one tip, which is how to find potential clients:
Say you’re an architect, and you’re looking for surveyors to partner with, you can do two things:
- You can do an advanced search for surveyors who are based near you. You can then filter the search down to surveyors who may be connected to people you know.
- You can look at the profiles of people you’re connected with and (depending on their privacy settings), you will be able to see who they know and whether they have any connections that you might be able to do business with.
All you need to do then is to get in touch with the people you know who are connected to the people you want to do business with. If they know you, like you and trust you, they will be happy to make the introduction.
