From Facebook to Twitter to You Tube, there’s no limit to the number of social networking sites that can be leveraged to interact with customers and prospects, and build positive brand awareness. LinkedIn , however, stands apart from the crowd. The roots of popular sites like YouTube and Facebook are founded on the entertainment side of things. But since its creation, LinkedIn has been geared toward the professional business crowd. If you haven’t already incorporated LinkedIn into your online marketing mix, consider the latest statistics: LinkedIn has more than 60 million members A new member joins LinkedIn approximately every second Executives from all Fortune 500 companies are LinkedIn members Get started with a LinkedIn marketing strategy today with these five tips: 1. Build a Network, Then Start a Group Getting started with a LinkedIn marketing strategy involves two important steps, the second of which is dependent on the first: Create a personal account and build a network of contacts. Reach out to customers with whom your business has a solid relationship – those who truly know your company and its products or services. Ask them to write recommendations for your company, which will appear in your profile. And don’t forget to ensure all employees are part of the network as well. Once your personal account is setup, create a group for the brand. By creating a group for your brand, you’ll be able to maximize reach beyond your network. Within the brand group, you can start discussions, share news, post jobs and create subgroups. 2. Make the Most of Your Profile For the LinkedIn community, your profile will be this first item they see, so treat it as you would any landing page. To make the most of your profile: Hyperlink using keywords. Include relevant URLs in your profile, and use links with anchor text. For example, instead of “My Blog,” use a keyword to describe it such as “SEO and Online Marketing Blog.” (see image below) Use keywords in descriptions. That includes the summary, specialties, experience and all other description categories. Include an image in your profile. LinkedIn, after all, is a social networking channel. So add as many personal touches as possible to maximize engagement and put a face to the brand. Caption: Include blog or website links in your profile using anchor text. Include links in your LinkedIn profile using anchor text. 3. Leverage Third-Party Applications Today, there are a host of third-party applications available to help you make the most of your LinkedIn activity. For example: Box.net : Add links to files like resumes and marketing kits Slideshare : Share business presentations and demos with your network Company Buzz : Monitor messages sent out on Twitter about your brand or other subjects TripIt : See where members of your network will be travelling to and when you’ll be in the same city For an upcoming trip to Dallas, my contacts that will also be there are identified. 4. Update and Engage Frequently Think of LinkedIn marketing efforts as you would blog, Twitter or Facebook marketing efforts: The more activity and interaction, the better the results. To consistently engage with your network: Sync blog posts to your profile with tools like Blog Link or WordPress LinkedIn Application Frequently update your profile with the LinkedIn status feature, much like Facebook status updates Leverage the LinkedIn Question and Answer function – participate in others’ questions and ask your own 5. Promote Your Profile In order to expand your network, LinkedIn marketing efforts – like anything else – must be promoted in other channels. Include a link to your profile on your website and blog, in individual blog posts, in email signatures and even on business cards. Be sure to optimize your profile for important and relevant keywords. Allow enough of your profile to be public so search engines can rank that content accordingly. These tips, of course, are just the tips of the iceberg when it comes to LinkedIn marketing tactics. What specific tactics have you found successful for marketing on LinkedIn?
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Mar 10
SmartBrief on: Getting the most out of LinkedIn
General-interest networks such as Facebook and Twitter take up so much of our attention that more focused sites sometimes take a back seat. It’s a shame, really, because LinkedIn combines many of the best features of the more popular networks with a practical focus on career advancement. If you’ve been neglecting to sign up for LinkedIn or you want to catch up on the latest best practices, here’s a roundup of LinkedIn stories that made it into our e-mail newsletter, SmartBrief on Social Media . 5 tips for tapping the power of LinkedIn LinkedIn is a powerful marketing tool for businesses, writes Lewis Howes. But to get results, you need to work smart. Use groups, participate in the site’s Answers service and send plenty of personalized messages to build leads, Howes advises. “LinkedIn is the most powerful social-networking site to help you grow your business,” he writes. “It makes Twitter, Facebook and YouTube seem like social-networking sites for kids.” SocialMediaExaminer.com (2/22) Microsoft marries e-mail to networking with Outlook update Microsoft has announced its Office 2010 suite will include a feature allowing users to interact with their Facebook and MySpace feeds via Outlook. The current version of Outlook is getting an add-on that is compatible with LinkedIn, allowing users to keep track of contact information, view postings and add people to their networks. MediaPost Communications/Online Media Daily (2/17) , FastCompany.com (2/17) Developers seize LinkedIn’s API release LinkedIn opened up its API for developers to tweak this Monday, and programmers are already seizing the opportunity to integrate it into their offerings. TweetDeck will be adding a LinkedIn column, Posturous plans to offer an update feature that posts simultaneously to its site and to LinkedIn, and Box.net is planning to share its content with LinkedIn contacts. TechCrunch (11/23) Don’t spam LinkedIn groups with links Newbies to a LinkedIn group need to establish a reputation before they post links, or they will be considered spammers, Doron Gez writes. Some groups go as far as to ban links to avoid unwanted promotion. “Don’t come too strong,” Gez suggests. “Take things gradually. Don’t push your counterpart.” Social Media Today (11/19) LinkedIn syncs updates with tweets LinkedIn and Twitter have synchronized their 140-character status update boxes so that users on either site can post a message to both simultaneously. While Twitter users can be anonymous and read anyone’s tweets, LinkedIn accounts are based on real identities and visible only to those within the person’s networks. Reuters (11/10) 10 tips for asking good questions on LinkedIn The question forum on LinkedIn can be a useful tool, but word your query poorly and you’ll get flooded with pitches, Valeria Maltoni writes. To ensure useful answers, do your homework about the topic, make your question specific and provide enough context, she wrote. “If site users need to interpret your question, they will interpret to their advantage,” she wrote. Conversation Agent (10/23) LinkedIn eases managing potential contacts LinkedIn has introduced a new feature for premium subscribers that lets them create searches and save profiles in folders for future reference. You can also jot notes about each profile to help you remember your last contact with the person. The feature, free for 30 days, is much like a customer-management tool, John Jantsch writes, noting that it makes time spent on LinkedIn even more efficient. Duct Tape Marketing (10/1) Signing up for SBoSM is a fast, free, easy way to make sure you’re never caught off guard concerning social-media news. Our exclusive summaries will help you digest the latest updates in a flash. Check out today’s issue and see what else you’ve been missing. Image credit, Zeffss1 , via iStock
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SmartBrief on: Getting the most out of LinkedIn