Many people have been building relationships and increasing their visibility on LinkedIn for a long time. Many of you are still resistant, however. I was resistant for a while as well, but I have found that LinkedIn has become invaluable to our overall marketing efforts at Mandatek. Listed below are some helpful hints- none of them are earth-shattering, but if you haven’t quite jumped in yet, these will help you get you moving to get your name and company in front of others.

1. Don’t pass up the chance to connect with people you don’t know. Some people will argue with me on this, and in fact, LinkedIn tells you to “connect with those you know and know well”. While I haven’t spoken with LinkedIn’s founders, I am guessing that they wanted to make sure that their social network didn’t become the next MySpace or even Facebook, where people collect “friends” like spare change. However, I view LinkedIn as a virtual networking space. When I go to a physical networking event, I try not to spend time with the people I already know and know well; rather, I try to meet people because I am looking for new clients, new partners, or new referrals for other people. If I only stick with the people I know well, how am I going to accomplish the goal of finding new clients, new partners, or new referrals? I have heard people say, “Oh, those people who have a lot of connections on LinkedIn are just trying to sell something.” Well…yeah.
2. Along with the above, if someone you don’t know asks to connect with you, don’t automatically say “I don’t know this person” (and I would argue that you NEVER say “I don’t know this person”, also called “IDK”, because you will negatively impact the membership of the person who has asked you to connect). Instead, check out the person and see if he or she is someone from whom you could possibly gain something, or whom you could possibly help. You can get great information from people you don’t know, such as upcoming events, blog posts and articles, and the latest trends in your field or your clients’ fields. Also, whenever you update something on your profile, your connections get notified, so your name and whatever you’re doing will get in front of all of those people. If you don’t know someone, and you decide that you don’t ever want to connect with this person, then just archive the request and move on. Remember that you can also remove someone from your network, so if you agree to connect with someone who becomes annoying, you have an “out”.
3. Join groups, and become active in those groups. There are thousands of groups based on thousands of interests, so there truly is something for almost anyone. If you sell insurance for collector cars, for example, you can find 30 groups right now that were started by classic car enthusiasts. You want to find groups that are active and have at least 100 members, generally speaking, and then you should start discussions, take part in discussions, and get to know some of the people. The idea is to increase your visibility. Don’t do the hard sell thing- that doesn’t go over well in social media- but you can position yourself as an expert in your field and offer advice, add links to helpful articles, and even praise other people.
4. Take advantage of all of the applications available. You can connect a host of useful applications to your profile, including my favorites which are your blog, your Twitter account, and an event calendar. Don’t have a blog, a Twitter account, and don’t go to events? Now is the time to start. And by the way, there are many webinars listed on LinkedIn that will help you learn more about blogs, Twitter and events. Like I said, there is something for everyone.
5. Flesh out your profile. This includes uploading a picture, please, and giving details about what you do and who you are. A profile should be a living, breathing animal- you change, your experiences change, so should your profile. Profiles are easy to update and there is a wealth of information about LinkedIn profile-building available. Social media is all about building relationships and increasing your visibility. Giving your profile “life” will help you accomplish those goals.

Michele Rempel, Mandatek

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This entry was posted on Saturday, January 16th, 2010 at 9:52 am and is filed under Digital Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.