Use LinkedIn For More Than Just Building Connections

LinkedIn made some major improve­ments in 2014. There were times a few years ago when I won­dered if LinkedIn was going to stay in the game. Many busi­ness­es moved their resources over to Face­book for a time, but I am begin­ning to see them slow­ly migrate back to LinkedIn, which I think is a great move. LinkedIn pulled through. It has once again become a very strong place for com­pa­nies to net­work and grow their businesses.

LinkedIn Isn’t Just for Quick Research

I recent­ly heard a group of experts at a paint­ing con­fer­ence dis­cuss social media tools and best prac­tices for paint­ing con­trac­tors. They spent a lot of time talk­ing about Face­book and Twit­ter, yet when it came to LinkedIn, they spent prob­a­bly no more than a minute or two. In my opin­ion, they bare­ly brushed over it as a place to look for a job or do a lit­tle research about a prospect before a sales call. (Two great ways to use LinkedIn, by the way.) Oh, but LinkedIn is so much more pow­er­ful than just being an online résumé or research tool. Yes, with recent changes made by this social media giant, you, as an indi­vid­ual, can real­ly build your per­son­al or busi­ness brand. PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: One piece of advice before I share a few of the best prac­tices: BE AUTHEN­TIC! Do not try to be some­one you are not on LinkedIn, or any social media plat­form for that mat­ter. Build­ing a brand online takes years unless you hap­pen to be one of the lucky few peo­ple who have some secret sauce that goes viral overnight. Don’t count on that! The more you can con­nect with your audi­ence in a real and gen­uine way, the more you and your com­pa­ny will become a trust­ed resource for your prod­uct or ser­vice. Peo­ple buy from peo­ple they like and trust. It is not always about the price tag. Here are a cou­ple of the things you can be doing to grow your busi­ness on LinkedIn: 

• Post qual­i­ty sta­tus updates: You don’t need to let your con­nec­tions know you are eat­ing pop­corn and watch­ing hock­ey. No, leave that for your friends on Face­book. Instead, you could take a pic­ture or video of a safe­ty meet­ing you are hav­ing with your team.

• Be sure to respond to com­ments you receive, and say thank you to compliments.
• Use the ​“new” blog­ging / arti­cle tool to post your best stuff: LinkedIn now has a place on your pro­file you can write arti­cles, like a blog. My sug­ges­tion would be to take only your best arti­cles, type them up with a nice fea­tured pho­to and post them. These arti­cles will be tied to your LinkedIn Pro­file. This is where you can build your author­i­ty and cred­i­bil­i­ty with your audi­ence. Any­one using LinkedIn for research will see your updates and arti­cles and hope­ful­ly know you are an expert in your specialty.

• Join and Get Involved in Groups: A great way to meet peo­ple on Linkedin is by being involved in Groups. Keep­ing in mind the sug­ges­tion I men­tioned above about being gen­uine and authen­tic, just be sure you prac­tice the ⁸⁰⁄₂₀ rule. Spend time lis­ten­ing (read­ing) what oth­ers have to say. Do not be the chat­ter box here. Engage with folks when only necessary!
• Spend Time Reach­ing Out To Oth­ers: If done in a gen­uine way, this can be a great way to build your brand and cred­i­bil­i­ty. I have seen many peo­ple on LinkedIn try lik­ing, com­ment­ing and mes­sag­ing in a spam-like man­ner. Use your best judg­ment when engag­ing and don’t be annoying.
• Get Your Team To Use LinkedIn
• Build Your Con­nec­tions: It is per­fect­ly ok to not have every con­nec­tion in your local mar­ket. Unless the per­son who is try­ing to con­nect looks like they will become a spam­mer, go ahead and connect.
• Update Your Pro­file: You do not need to go over­board here either, but hav­ing a qual­i­ty pro­file that shows what you do now and the things you have done in the past can be very help­ful when some­one wants to view your pro­file. Make sure your main descrip­tion of what you do is clear. It is up to you if you want to list all your past jobs, but I per­son­al­ly think it is best to keep things short and con­cise. I would wrap up your pro­file by get­ting a few endorse­ments (reviews).

Have a Plan and Work It

I hope you find the ideas above help­ful as you con­sid­er using the social plat­form of LinkedIn to grow your brand and your busi­ness. I think it is not only a great tool for B2B but also for B2C. Why do I think that? Because busi­ness peo­ple have homes and prop­er­ties too. You nev­er know when you might con­vince some­one to use your ser­vices on their per­son­al home! Let me know how you all have been using LinkedIn over the years and how you plan on using it mov­ing forward.