Introduction
Not only LinkedIn but before employing other social media tools, ask yourself, ‘Is this tool worthwhile for your business?’ Don’t just hop on the bandwagon, because everyone else is doing! Based on this first check out that whether LinkedIn is a right tool for you or not? First read how this social tool is supportive of other businesses.
B2B Marketers employ it promotes their new services and product launches. Consultants utilize LinkedIn for connecting with eventual customers and making them aware of their services and experiences. Job Hunters expand their LinkedIn circles to highlight in front of prospective employers. Sales people can conveniently research about prospects on LinkedIn before they actually connect to them to explore their needs and interests. Entrepreneurs have LinkedIn profile to inform consumers about their company and to attract more sales. Small businesses want to highlight them to the customers while large businesses use LinkedIn to showcase their position as well as promote their services and products.
So now that you have known that LinkedIn is a powerful tool useful for every type of business so read on to learn how it can power your business and offer you vigorously with leads like never before
LinkedIn Profile for Lead Generation – The Attractions and the Distractions!
The complexity of social media lies with small and medium-sized business ventures that are not able to set, manage, and run full-fledged marketing campaigns on their own. After all if you are busy handling your business then how will you get time to run a social media campaign. But, the great news is that if you don’t get distracted by LinkedIn negative energies then you can utilize it effectively to bring fame and leads to your business. Suite 203, social media marketing agency in Montreal, lists out 5 major social marketing sins and tricks to get back branding on right track.
This holds true even for other social media platforms like YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. The key is simple; the attractions are things vital for your business while the distractions are fun elements that may drive you away from your business’s goals. The finest way is to get sticky notes attached to your computer screen that will remind you of things that can help your business grow.
Starting with LinkedIn: How to Go about It
Each social media tool has its own personal attributes. While Facebook is more of a ‘friendly pub’, LinkedIn is a more sort of trade show where you can keep things formalized and organized. You may not update about your last vacation, but yes, you surely need to highlight the white paper you wrote. With an assumption that you already possess a LinkedIn profile, now you may proceed by creating a personalized LinkedIn URL. At the top menu bar of your LinkedIn profile page, you may see a tab as ‘Profile’. Drag to the ‘Edit Profile’ link and there you will see a statement as ‘Public Profile’, with an ‘Edit’ link adjacent to it. From there, you can follow prompts to generate a personalized LinkedIn URL.
Tips on selecting a personalized URL Link
- Avoid utilizing the name of your company in LinkedIn URL. It is because there is no confirmation that you will stay forever with that company.
- Avoid using obscure acronyms such as ‘YS126’ to differ your URL from that of others. Just because you are employing such an acronym for your Gmail account, does not imply that it will suit your LinkedIn business.
- Make sure to utilize things or attributes that relate to your main business. For instance, AlfredoAccounting is good.
LinkedIn Profile: Understanding Its Depth
With a personalized URL for your LinkedIn profile, there are couples of other things that you need to do next.
Perfecting Your Profile – It might seem more like a no-brainer task, but the reality is that most individuals create their LinkedIn profile but forgets to update it. There are chances that the client may visit your profile in between and may get a negative impact even if you don’t do it intentionally. Before it is too long, just go back and re-visit and complete your profile now, to create a really powerful impact on the client.
Linking your Twitter Account with LinkedIn Profile – The great news is that when you allow your LinkedIn account to administer your Twitter account then your every status update on LinkedIn follows with a tweet for the same. It can be an excellent way to streamline your social media usability to connect with clients.
Expand Your Network – You can join alumni groups and industry groups to expand your network. Just go to the upper right-hand side of menu bar and click on ‘People’. Drag down to ‘Groups’ then type a relevant subject like sales, marketing, real estate, and more. While searching, LinkedIn can offer you with suggestions not just for ‘Groups’, but also for other categories of ‘Companies’, ‘Connections’, Features’, and ‘Skills’.
Don’t hesitate about reaching out to people or organizations on LinkedIn as this is what it is outlined for. Also, make sure you don’t attempt to capture the group in one go as this will make your nature SPAMMY. Pretending you are at a party and meeting others one by one will make your appearance more sincere and genuine.
Your LINKEDIN PROFILE – Employing it For Direct and Indirect Marketing
Okay, now that you have got a basic idea about LinkedIn, let’s explore to learn using LinkedIn for generating leads. LinkedIn can be used in 2 approaches for lead generation.
The First Approach – Providing Prospect Information about the Company Straightaway on LinkedIn
It is really terrific! Consider if you walk to a party and someone encounters you to sell his insurance cover. Surely, it would be an unpleasing experience! But, what if a person first converse with you for 20 minutes about your needs, interests and then offers you with his company’s insurance cover accordingly. You must be then more enthusiasts to know the cover and detail and probably buy it, right?
The situation is similar when you offer prospects with company’s information via LinkedIn. For the direct approach, you need to know the prospect’s interest and need first. Try delivering advice, general information, or industry specific’s before you finally convert it to a sales call.
The Second Approach – Obviously, the Indirect One! It Deals with Landing Individuals to the Website to Explore About the Company
Individuals with this approach can land to company’s website, download a white paper, discover more about the firm’s products and services, or get e-newsletter signed. The tricky part of this approach is that you wish to initiate by offering helpful information or free advice to your prospect client. The engagement rules for both the approaches are same, but the only difference is that once you strongly connect with your prospect on LinkedIn, you then drive them landing to your website’s page.
Top 6 Ways to Generate Leads with Your LinkedIn Profile
These are best 6 ways for generating leads with LinkedIn!
LinkedIn Applications – The LinkedIn’s Application area is an interesting place to visit. Herein, you can add a novel and interesting apps to enhance people experiences on your LinkedIn page. You can even add your blog posts to the LinkedIn page to make people read what business you are offering. You can also set up polls to discover the status of your prospects and clients.
LinkedIn Answers – It is an extremely useful but an under-utilized tool of LinkedIn. In this section, individuals can ask questions about the business to get a specific advice. And it is you who like an industry-insider will give the advice! We know a personality, who answered questions about sales research on a timely Over the year of time, he generates more than $85,000 revenue with new projects.
- LinkedIn People – It is a splendid option for individuals hunting for jobs, sales people, and B2B owners who wish to step into a large corporation. Just conduct a search in the upper right side box of the target company. Click on the company name, and on the right-hand side a box will appear showcasing your direct connection, or your first connection, and also second connections. With an assumption that you don’t have a first connection or direct connection, simply click on the second connection link. It will list down few individual’s names at your target company. At profile’s bottom, you can see a list of shared connections, from that point you just have to ask your referrals to present you via LinkedIn to individuals at your target firm. Finally, you’re in!
LinkedIn Groups – Mentioned earlier also, you should join multiple groups on LinkedIn. But the intelligence lies in, not only joining industry related groups, but also the ones who are outside the industry. By stretching out, you may not only expand your reach but also your business. For instance, if you are an accountant then don’t only try to join accounting groups, but also small business owners, restaurants, and more, as they might need your accounting services at one time or other.
LinkedIn Mobile – It’s true, there is a LinkedIn Mobile Application as well. You can download it to your smartphone for absolutely free. It is an excellent way to communicate, specifically when you are at a trade show or making one-on-one contacts. Even, it is also possible to exchange vital company’s information via LinkedIn by just switching on the Bluetooth. No misspelled words, no typing errors – just instant and precise transfer of information.
LinkedIn Direct Ads – LinkedIn hosts an advertising feature that is useful to drive novel prospects to the website’s landing page, your LinkedIn group, or other imperative destination. The ads work similar to the way Google paid search ads work. You only have to create a headline, add some copy, and generate a destination link. After this, you bid for how much you will pay to LinkedIn every time a visitor clicks on the ad. It will not only be a great investment, but an excellent way to generate more revenue at less cost.
Final Verdict
There are multiple new tools being incorporated to the LinkedIn toolbox now and then. One among them is LinkedIn Today that offers daily information and news about your industry and interests. Another great resource is Learn.LinkedIn.com. It is a powerful package of in-depth tutorials that you can employ to supercharge your LinkedIn profile usability.
So, while your race to use LinkedIn profile for Lead Generation is on, we can only wish you GOOD LUCK!
