Tweet

What to do on Linkedin

Guest post by: Helen Dowling

Article Overview: So, you’ve joined Linkedin on the promise that it’s a great business tool and you’ll definitely get clients from it, right? Now what? You know that clients coming from this medium won’t happen on their own, but what should you do next?

What to do on Linkedin

So, you've joined Linkedin on the promise that it's a great business tool and you'll definitely get clients from it, right? Now what? You know that clients coming from this medium won't happen on their own, but what should you do next? This is such a common question - what should I be doing on Linkedin and more importantly how do I get business out of it? - that I thought it was important that I gave you some tips.

You see social networking is just like networking at an actual business event. If you attend a business event once and never again and didn't talk to anyone when you went to that event, how can you expect to get business from it? And yet, this is what many business owners do on Linkedin.

Like at an actual business event where you would have a one-to-one chat with people, start a discussion, ask a question, recommend someone or simply throw a comment out there and see what comes back, you can do all of these things on-line too.

Each week in an ideal world, you should be looking to spend roughly half an hour on Linkedin and do at least the following activities:

• Spend some time going through the connections Linkedin recommends for you. Linkedin finds potential connections based on the people you're already connected with - it says if you're connected to x person, maybe you know some of the people x is connected with and recommends them to you. Go through these recommendations and connect with people you know.

• Post a discussion in the groups you're a member of - if you post a link back to your site in the discussions, you can automatically share this discussion in all of the other groups you're connected with. Any replies to these discussions will come into your inbox meaning that you can start to build a relationship with people.

• Answer a question. Many, many people post questions in Linkedin. Search for your subject and then see what questions you can answer. Try to answer at least one a week which demonstrates your expertise and helps build relationships with people.

• Give a recommendation. If you recommend at least one person a week, they'll be extremely grateful and guess what they're likely to do in return? This is a great way to build up your own recommendations and improve your relationship with people on Linkedin.

If you then have time following these activities and want to improve what you do on Linkedin even further, you could:

• Start communicating and building relationships with your connections. Touch base with people you haven't liaised with for a while and see how they're getting on or build up further connections with the people you are in regular contact with.

• Build new connections with those people in the same discussion groups as you - connect with them and build new relationships.

• Post an event on Linkedin and tell your connections about it.

• Post a status update on Linkedin and tell everyone what you're doing.

As you can see, that's just a few ways that you can get involved more with Linkedin. Like an actual event, the more you go to it and build relationships with people, the more likely the networking event is to work for you. If you start getting involved in Linkedin and build your connections and your relationships, you'll also find that it gets you business too.

Related Articles
  Legal Marketing: More LinkedIn questions and answers
  Legal Marketing: LinkedIn's professional growth
  Part IV: Can LinkedIn Increase Your Sales?
  The Truth About LinkedIn That You Might Not Want to Hear
  Leverage Social Media - LinkedIn Strategies
  LinkedIN: The Most Unique Social Media Platform
  LinkedIn or LinkedOut! It's time to get in!
  Grow Your Network With Everyone You Meet
  Social Media Marketing: How to Build Your List Using Linkedin
  LinkedIn Marketing – How to Use LinkedIn to Promote Your Business
  LinkedIn is a Tool for Success that is Often Overlooked
  How to Get Linkedin Recommendations
  What Is LinkedIn – Can It Help Me Promote My Website?
  Adapting to Technology and the Internet
  How to Get More Leads With LinkedIn By Using My Simple Learn, Lurk and Link Strategy
  LinkedIn Marketing Debate - Should You Think of Your LinkedIn Profile as a Resume
  Legal Marketing: Best practices for connecting on LinkedIn
  Is Your Online Business LinkedIn?
  LinkedIn for business – the advanced class
  Quick Prospecting Tools

Article Tags: exceptional thinking, helen dowling, linkedin, marketing, small business, social networking



Related Forum Posts
Re: 15 Ways You Can Look Amazing on LinkedIn - Nice thread. Still I didn't use Linkedin properly. Sure I will take your points.
Re: 15 Ways You Can Look Amazing on LinkedIn - Hi Evan, Thanks for the tips, I am a Linkedin member but have not found the time yet to complete all those tasks but you have given me a bit of a kick to get them done, thanks again for the list, regards, Mal.
Re: Social Networking Site Endorsements - Hi Shri, If you don't like the person who sends you request to be friend, then you shouldn't add him as a partner. Try to be away from bad neighborhood. It is general for all social networking sites (DIgg, Stumble Upon etc.), not for only Linkedin. There will be a lot of requests for becoming partner, but you should watch that person's past activity carefully and stay away from sucpicious guys, especially spammers.
Re: Make Friends...Literally BUILD them! - [quote="burnsrunner":1zobscwk]I agree! Networking is definitely the key word here. What does everyone feel about the different Networking platforms out there? Twitter Facebook LinkedIn what are some others?[/quote:1zobscwk] I am on Twitter and Linkedin, have not joined Facebook yet as my time is fairly limited and one needs a lot of time to devote to all these various networking platforms. Unless you do this full time (the networking I mean). MichelleJ
Re: Social Networking Site Endorsements - [quote="orxan":2qtwn5i5]Hi Shri, If you don't like the person who sends you request to be friend, then you shouldn't add him as a partner. Try to be away from bad neighborhood. It is general for all social networking sites (DIgg, Stumble Upon etc.), not for only Linkedin. There will be a lot of requests for becoming partner, but you should watch that person's past activity carefully and stay away from sucpicious guys, especially spammers.[/quote:2qtwn5i5] Being a friend on a social site is one thing and that's not what I was talking about. Giving a personal or professional endorsement (which is done on Linked In) is a different situation. When you give an endorsement, you are recommending that person and that's much more serious to me than just being a friend. Shri


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

How To Improve Your CTA (Call To Action)

Getting The Media Attention You Deserve

Are You Too Good for Your Job?

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.