Hey Small Business Owners: You’re Using LinkedIn, Right?
LinkedIn is the Rodney Dangerfield of social media: despite having 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 small business, it has 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 crazy uncles, LinkedIn is all business.
How businesses are leveraging LinkedIn
There are 1.3 million small-business owners on the network. How are they using it? What sort of benefits do they see? Here are just a few:
- Sharing wins: Promoting your successes is just good marketing. It will make you look good to prospective customers. 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 do. Best part? When someone gives you props on LinkedIn, everyone inside your network will notice in their activity feed.
- Finding new talent: If your business keeps growing, you’ll definitely need to hire new employees. LinkedIn is a fantastic place—scratch that, it’s the BEST place—to find new players to add to your team.
- Promoting events: LinkedIn’s event feature is a game changer! It has never been easier to spread the word and drum up excitement about upcoming events, sales and get togethers. You can even use their service directory to find professional event planners to help you.
- Boosting website traffic: A little-known secret about LinkedIn is that it’s very influential with Google; if you have a presence on LinkedIn, you’re likely to see a jump in search engine visibility, too. More clicks = more customers!
- Getting answers: LinkedIn is a goldmine for advice on running a successful business. You can uncover great advice from a number of the savviest business minds in the world in LinkedIn Answers and Groups. You will discover over 2000 groups focused on small-business-related topics.
- Finding investors, vendors and partners: It’s a networker’s paradise. Whether you require some capital, a new accounting firm, or a business partner, you’re not going to find a better resource than LinkedIn. Anywhere.
This is just the tip of the iceberg, folks. Visit LinkedIn make up a page for your small business. Trust me; IT’S WORTH YOUR TIME.