When I meet with people who feel that they aren’t getting much use out of LinkedIn, I will generally discover that they either haven’t joined any groups or they joined a few groups but do not participate in any of them. In some ways, this would be like going to a big networking event, dropping business cards into the raffle bowls at every marketing table, and then leaving without talking to anyone.

Groups are important to your business development because they allow you to express your opinions, show off your knowledge of a particular subject, and most importantly, develop RELATIONSHIPS (that can lead to more connections and new business). They are also important because you have an opportunity to learn from others in your area of expertise or interest. You can ask questions, answer questions, read news articles and blogs, and find out about events, seminars and webinars. Many groups, such as the Linked Local Schaumburg group (in suburban Chicago), hold their own real-life networking events so that its members can strengthen the relationships built in cyberspace.

Thinking strategically about the groups you join is smart. If you like Jeeps, there is a Jeep group (or two) for you. Groups don’t have to be business-oriented. In fact, an accountant who is passionate about Jeeps can probably do more business and relationship-building with other Jeep enthusiasts than in a group of mostly accountants. If you’re the only Jeep-loving accountant, you’ll stand out more. Putting some thought into the groups you join can make all the difference in your business development activities.

At this point, LinkedIn allows you to join up to 50 groups. I always encourage people to join at least 20 and make sure that they contribute to several on a regular basis. If you aren’t taking advantage of the power of LinkedIn groups, start now. With over 550,000 of them, I am sure you’ll find at least a couple that meet your needs.

-Michele Rempel, Mandatek

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People are always saying to me, “I don’t get Twitter.  It seems so pointless and I don’t see how I’ll make any money from it.” 

I understand this line of thinking, and in a way I agree.  Most people don’t make money on Twitter.  I’ll probably get some arguments from this, since there are ALWAYS exceptions, but most of the people who are making money on Twitter are the same ones who are making money selling products or services in all those emails you delete.  You get my drift. 

But Twitter isn’t pointless, even if you aren’t probably going to make money directly from it.  The way to give Twitter value in business development is to interact with your followers, or even people who aren’t following you.  You can’t really expect to send out 10 tweets per day and think that someone is going to buy your service or product.  It happens, but it happens rarely.  It’s like going to a networking event.  You can hand out your business card all day long, but you’re probably not going to make a sale until you follow up with the people who took your business cards and start building relationships by offering to help them or finding out more about who they are, etc. 

The beauty of Twitter for business development is that you can tap a ton of people with your brand and personality.  And the way you show people your personality is to interact with them.  Retweet their clever quotes, ask others to follow them, get into the culture of Twitter.  It takes time, and you might want to consider hiring someone to do it for you.  But if you do it right, your brand will get attention.  And increasing your visibility is the name of the game.

-Michele Rempel, Mandatek

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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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As a partner and project manager for Mandatek, I meet with a lot of companies and individuals who are looking to have us build a new website or revise an existing website. Most of the time, the clients are more focused on the design of the site rather than the site’s content. Unfortunately, if the client wants the site to be found, which I always assume to be the case, then emphasizing design over content is the wrong way to go. Now, Mandatek has a fantastic design team, and we can make a website look very nice. And before anyone starts arguing with me, I will admit that design is an integral component of a successful website. However, without meaningful content, no one is going to find that beautiful site.

Search Engines are Brainless, Content-Eating Bots

People forget that Search Engine bots aren’t really alive. They aren’t even really “engines”. Very simply put, they are just a clever set of algorithms that gobble words and spit them back out into categories. They’re blind and dumb and hungry for content. If your website has very little content, then, well, they are just going to move on to the next website that has more content to eat.

Search Engines Don’t See Design

Search engines can’t “see” very well. They don’t really see images (except the tags and file names associated with them) or Flash or JavaScript, so beautiful or cool designs appeal only to humans, not search engines. Awesome designs don’t help your site get indexed or found. Just look at Craigslist for an example of this concept.

Search Engines Like Fresh Content

Although hungry, search engines are actually picky about the content they eat. They don’t like old or expired content; rather, they look for the fresh stuff. A website needs to be updated on a regular basis with new content. Adding a blog, RSS feeds, events, articles, and links to other websites (both in and out) are all ways to add fresh content. And, of course, linking to social media accounts in sites such as Twitter, Facebook and the like are also vitally important. I advise clients to have their website built with a CMS (Content Management System) such as WordPress so that they can make periodic content changes fairly quickly and easily.

Don’t Feed the Bots

Design is important. But your website must contain keyword-rich, relevant, fresh content, and lots of it. Otherwise those brainless, hungry search engines bots will just go somewhere else.

-Michele Rempel, Mandatek

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If you have been sitting on the fence wondering if it’s a good idea to launch a Twitter account (or actually use the one you set up 8 months ago), or if it’s a good idea to start a blog or spend time building your profile and network on LinkedIn, maybe you need a gentle push. People in business often talk about ROI, return on investment, but now it’s time to start talking about ROV, return on visibility. For little money, but quite a bit of time, at least initially, you can garner real results by becoming visible to prospects in the online community.

Tackling the social media mountain can be daunting at first. Remember that you can start with baby steps. Actually, I would recommend taking some time to observe the social media landscape before jumping in. Then, once you’re ready, here are some suggestions to follow:

• Build your networks. Invite people you know to connect with you, and join groups in sites such as LinkedIn. Once you get to know people in those groups, you can invite them to connect with you as well. One thing to remember, though- numbers are great, but people have hearts. Closing business usually means have a face-to-face or voice-to-voice discussion with real people. Social media is a way for you to find each other, but you will still most likely need to interact with the person outside of the social media site to make a transaction, unless you’re just selling a well-known product.
• Join discussions and start discussions on your own. You don’t have to write you own blog—you can comment and respond or answer questions in LinkedIn, other blog posts, or on Twitter. Make your comments relative, beneficial and observe rules of etiquette.
• Start using Twitter. Twitter can increase your visibility dramatically. Find a platform such as TweetDeck to manage your Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook accounts from one place so you can save your sanity. Use a site like twellow.com to find people and businesses to follow, and they’ll usually return the favor. Make your tweets relevant and helpful, and remember to use them to let others know what your business can offer.
• Use like-minded communities to research your competition and see what others in your field are up to. On LinkedIn, for example, you can join relevant professional groups to ask questions and find out what’s going on in your industry. With this tool, you can also construct a quick poll and get responses from hundreds of people in a few hours.

As you get more involved, you’ll learn as you go about the different types of social media, how other small businesses use them, and approaches you can use to start your own online community, blog or video. So join in and start seeing a return on your visibility! Remember, social media is here to stay. Sure, it will morph over time (remember that texting has only been around for a few short years), but it’s not going away.

-Michele Rempel, Mandatek

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