Take Advantage of LinkedIn Marketing

The last few weeks I’ve been blogging about green topics and figured it was about time to get back to the main crux of this blog, Social Media Marketing. Today, we are going to take a look at LinkedIn marketing and how to use LinkedIn effectively.

LinkedIn is a place for businesses and professionals. It mostly used by people to connect with human resource managers, recruiters and companies who may be hiring for open positions. LinkedIn marketing is also a good way to get connected with other business owners and to find entrepreneur types who may be interested in starting a home based business rather than rejoining the corporate grind.

The only drawback to LinkedIn marketing is that you are limited in your ability to contact people on the site. With their free account, you can only email up to 3 people per month through the site. Therefore, you will need to either upgrade your account or look for other ways to contact your prospects. Do note that you can write off the fee for an upgrade as a business expense on your taxes. Talk to a qualified accountant about how this works.

But don’t let that stop you from taking advantage of all that LinkedIn has to offer. Here are some tips on how to use LinkedIn to your advantage.

LinkedIn Marketing Tips

Fill Out Your LinkedIn Profile

One of the tenets of attraction marketing is to position yourself as an expert in your field. This is the angle from which you should approach your LinkedIn profile. You should list job experience and other relevant information that helps paints a picture of you as the person to go to for information about your business opportunity. Depending on the industry your business is in, this may require some creativity on your part.

Build a LinkedIn Marketing Profile for Your Business

LinkedIn also provides an option to build a profile for your business. You will be able to submit a description, categorize it by industry, and even add a link to your business’ webpage. When people do a company search, your business will display in the results depending on the criteria they use. Be aware, though, that you must have an email address that is associated with the company.

Additionally, if you are in network marketing, be sure that the name of your company is in compliance with their rules. Some network marketing companies do not allow the parent name to be used in any marketing materials or websites you create.

Add Your Blog and Twitter Account to Your LinkedIn Profile

Adding your blog and Twitter account to your LinkedIn marketing profile is easy and provides additional exposure to your other web properties. To add your blog to LinkedIn, sign in and then click on Profile. Click on “Add Application” and a list of items you can add to your LinkedIn profile will display.

If you have a WordPress blog, then select the WordPress option. For all other blogs, select the BlogLink option. On the next page, make sure the “Display on my profile” and “Display on LinkedIn homepage” is checked and then click Add Application. You will then be asked for your blog address and the application will automatically display the posts from your blog.

To add your Twitter account, go back to your profile. Make sure you are on the Edit My Profile tab. Click on the Add Twitter account option and fill out the information. Your latest tweets will then be displayed on your LinkedIn profile.

Customize Your Links

You probably already know that you can add links to your website and blog to your LinkedIn account. What you may not know is that you can customize the titles of those links to actually reflect the name of your site. On your profile, click Add Website. From the dropdown box select Other and in the box that appears enter the name of your website.

Add Recommendations from Clients or Business Partners

In marketing, social proof is very important. People take what others have to say about a person, company or product into consideration when making purchasing decisions. Connect with customers and other business associates on LinkedIn and ask for recommendation through the Ask for a Recommendation link (found on the Edit Profile page). These will display on your profile once they have been completed.

Add Presentations Using Slideshare or Google Presentations

Additional LinkedIn marketing you can do is to upload a business presentation to your profile using a Slideshare account or Google Presentation. Since there is no video widget available on LinkedIn at this time, a presentation is the next best thing. You can make your own presentation or check with the network marketing parent company for presentations you can distribute.

Create Your Profile in Multiple Languages

If you are targeting a non-English speaking demographic, such as the Spanish community, you can create a LinkedIn profile in another language. This will make your profile more accessible to people who may have difficulty with your primary language. You will also extend your exposure on the network.

Now that you have your profile attractively put together, next week I’m going to detail some ways you can reach out to others on LinkedIn.

Download my free social media checklist (sign up in sidebar) for a daily to do list of all the things you need to do to increase your following. For personalized help, contact me for a free consultation on the best way to market your business online including LinkedIn marketing and other internet business tools.

(photo credit: Mario Sundar)

For more social media marketing and LinkedIn marketing tips, read other articles I’ve written about using social media outlets to build your business.