Hey Small Business Owners: You’re Using LinkedIn, Right?
LinkedIn is the Rodney Dangerfield of social media: in spite of 200 million highly influential users, it gets no respect. Even though it is consistently ranked among the social giants Facebook and Twitter, it doesn’t manage to get as much hype in the mainstream media. But as a tool for marketing your business, it provides a huge edge over its more popular peers. Because unlike Facebook and Twitter, which often trade in cat photos, inane one-liners and political rants from nutty uncles, LinkedIn is all business.
How businesses are leveraging LinkedIn
You run a business. Your time and energy is scarce. So why should you worry about LinkedIn? Here are some ways your peers (there are 1.3 million small-business owners on the network) are employing it to their benefit:
- Sharing wins: Promoting your successes is just good marketing. It will make you look good to potential customers. And with 2 million C-level executives utilizing the site, you may find yourself with a few influential new friends.
- Getting referrals: LinkedIn removes a lot of the friction and awkwardness of giving and getting endorsements for the work you are doing. Best part? When someone gives you props on LinkedIn, everyone in your network will notice in their activity feed.
- Finding new talent: Growing? LinkedIn is an excellent place—scratch that, it’s the BEST place—to locate new A players to add to your roster. It’s the single largest directory of working professionals in the world.
- Promoting events: LinkedIn’s event feature is a game changer! It has never been so easy to spread the news and drum up excitement about upcoming events, sales and gatherings. You can also use their service directory to find professional event planners to assist you.
- Boosting website traffic: Here’s a little-known secret about LinkedIn: it’s very influential with Google, so if you have a presence on LinkedIn, you’re likely to notice a bump in search engine visibility, too. More eyeballs, more prospects.
- Getting answers: You can uncover great information on both marketing and running a successful business from other pros in LinkedIn Answers and Groups. You will find over 2000 groups focused on small-business-related topics.
- Finding investors, vendors and partners: It’s a networker’s paradise. Whether you need some capital, a new accounting firm, or even a business partner, you’re not going to get a better resource than LinkedIn.
We’re just scratching the surface here, folks. The rewards don’t end there. Go to LinkedIn, set up a page for your business and see for yourself. I know your time is scarce, but trust me, it’s worth it.
