Getting New Business from Online Social Networks
Jill Konrath, Contributing Editor of RainToday.com has an excellent free e-book you can download called "Can LinkedIn Increase Your Sales?" Just visit her website and click to download this 14-page ebook now.
The answer is "yes" -- LinkedIn works great in business development -- so long as you use it. As I discussed in my article on the front page of Law Technology News, "Social Networking: Crowded But Silent," thousands of lawyers have created profiles on LinkedIn but haven't gotten any business from it. The reason is that they don't know how to do it.
Jill offers three great tips:
Focus on connecting. Anytime you receive a business card from its owner, you then "know" this person. While not everyone is a valuable link, search for that person on LinkedIn right away. Because you have their email, you can send them an invitation to connect.
- Increase your visibility. Don't simply add people to your network. Ask or answer questions on LinkedIn. Make sure your public profile is complete. But most of all, recommend people in your network and ask them to recommend you! Anytime you do any of the above, LinkedIn posts updates online or in weekly updates to everyone in your network.
- Make LinkedIn your homepage. Whenever I open my browser, I can immediately review my "LinkedIn Home Page" which shows what others in my network are doing and who they're connecting with.
I have used LinkedIn to help a colleague find a new job, to connect with 250+ people, to ask questions about what to pay a marketing director, and to give and get introductions to people I want to know.
If you want to get new business from LinkedIn, be sure to attend the Webinar "Getting New Business from Online Social Networks" that Kevin O'Keefe and I will present Thursday, May 15, 2008 from 12 - 2 PM EST.
