How to get the most out of LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is not just another social network. With its 750 million plus users, it covers one of the most important fields in the world’s economy: business. Whether you want to find a new opportunity in a different company, or your business is searching for executives or new leads, LinkedIn is the social network you need. But how can you best use the network to maximize its potential? Here are some of the most interesting ideas to keep in mind.

Prospectin: The One LinkedIn Tool you need to save Time

As we mentioned in the introduction, LinkedIn is a vast network. Therefore, it is easy to waste time, when looking for a particular type of individual, or a group of persons you need to reach. That is why you need to find solutions, in order to ease your work. That’s exactly what this LinkedIn tool does, by automating your search, through a Chrome extension.

As you create various marketing scenarios, based on the type of connection you are looking for, Prospectin will search and find them for you, using your LinkedIn account. It will then send them personalized connection requests. Once someone has accepted your invite, it will continue the dialogue, automatically, through a follow-up message.

Using LinkedIn is the best way to create new leads, but without such a program, it can take you forever to create your database. There is only so much time you can dedicate in a day, to each task. Letting this program handle your prospection search, will let you focus on the rest, and in no time, you will have built a long list of qualified prospect leads. For more on this LinkedIn tool, you can view this informative video.

Understanding LinkedIn, so you can use it successfully

The first thing you need to understand, to maximize your results on LinkedIn, is the real power it brings you. Most people underuse LinkedIn, because they don’t fully benefit from its various features. Keep in mind that this network counts more than 750 million users, with over 250 million of them, using it regularly, on a monthly basis. Even if you wanted to, you probably wouldn’t be able to go through to the list in a lifetime. That’s why you need tools like the one we presented at the beginning, to really be able to reach as many prospects as possible, in a short amount of time. That is how you will beat the competition.

Today, there are other social networks that offer visibility, like Facebook and its 1.8 billion users per day. But there are no other business networks that can compare to LinkedIn. The goal of this group is to enable professionals to connect and share content, related to their work. This can then be used in a variety of ways, either to look for a job, for an employee or to develop more business. Most of all, it is one of the best marketing tools, for any company.

The Three Main Development Categories available through LinkedIn

The suggested solutions found in this article are to enable LinkedIn users to develop themselves and their business in the three different possible ways. These categories are:

  • Optimization of a person or company’s visibility
  • Expansion of one’s professional network
  • Maximization of LinkedIn use for business and marketing purposes

First Steps – Creation and Optimization of Profile

How you customize your account, when you create it, will determine in part the results you will get on LinkedIn. The key is to look as professional as possible. With so many members inside the network, if the impression you give is not perfect from the moment they come in contact with your profile, you can be sure that they will be moving on to someone else and/or to another company like yours.

Create a simple URL of your profile

LinkedIn enables its users to create a URL link to their profile that is clear and simple. However, the one you are automatically been given, isn’t so. What you need to do is go into your profile, click on the picture icon and select “view profile.” Then, go to “edit public profile” where you will be able to modify the URL, in a way that makes sense for the people you want to reach. Just keep it short and easy to read.

Add a background picture to the profile

One of the things that will make you stand out on LinkedIn is your capacity to stay up-to-date. Not long ago, it started offering the possibility to add a background profile picture to its users: Do it! That will let everyone know that you are the kind of person that makes the most of everything. However, do keep in mind that LinkedIn is a business network, which needs to be treated differently than your Facebook or Instagram account. Trade the family pictures for one of the company, or a product you offer. You will find the background image option, by clicking on the profile image and then on the pencil, which will appear. When you are on the “modify page” section, choose the pencil again and download the image of your choice.

Give samples of your professional achievements

This is one of the most important features on LinkedIn: The capacity to direct users to some of your previous works. There is no better way for professionals to understand your potential, then by looking at things you have already achieved and created. This can be made available to them in a large variety of media. Just place the link to videos, images, documents and presentation documents inside the “Resume, Experience and Education” section. That is definitely one of the most efficient ways to boost your visibility on this social network.

Send people to your account through a LinkedIn badge

If you want to optimize your LinkedIn account, you should cease every opportunity you have to send people to it. Therefore, you can use all your internet presence to redirect users there. To do so, LinkedIn offers customized badge models which you can then place anywhere on the web, that you would like to. This can include a blog and a website.

SEO

Yes, you can optimize your profile on LinkedIn, so that search engine can find you more easily. To do that, you need to use key words and phrases, which you will insert in different locations, on your profile, such as on your professional title, your CV, and other potential insertions.

Second Steps – Expansion of Professional Network

There are so many features which you can take advantage of, in order to grow your network on LinkedIn, that it’s easy to skip some. That’s why we will now remind you on how to use LinkedIn’s capacities to grow your network, in the best way.

Save your searches

As you’ve understood by now, one of the keys in the way you use LinkedIn comes from maximizing your time. Otherwise, you can spend hours, in the long-run, repeating the same actions again. That’s the case for your searches. Whether you are looking into business opportunities or a potential new work, you will spend lots of time on the search engine. And since there are so many people on LinkedIn, most of them will yield more profiles than you will be able to go through, in one session. Therefore, make sure you save your searches, so you can get back to them easily and start where you left off.

Reminders

If a job is what you are looking for, LinkedIn has created a special tool for you. Through the use of reminders, the network will send you daily, weekly or monthly job searches, so you don’t miss any that could be in your field of activity.

Look for Open Profiles

This is a good time to explain that a LinkedIn account is free, until you want to do more with it than just be seen. Then, you have to pay a monthly fee, in order to benefit from their various features. If you decide to go that route, the first thing you need to do to grow your network, is to look for open profiles.

These are the members that are willing to receive messages from people that they don’t already know (in real life). In fact, if someone doesn’t have an open profile, you won’t be able to message them. So, in order not to waste time, focus all your searches on open profiles.

What to do otherwise

If the person you want to contact does not have an open profile, then you have to find an alternate solution. The best way is to try to find someone this person is already linked to, that you know and ask them if they would be willing to introduce you to them.

Also: Look for people who look for you

Sometimes the most obvious way is the best way to develop your network. There is a tool in LinkedIn that lets you see who has searched for you. Sometimes, you will notice that they are the people you have been searching yourself. That’s probably because they used the same tool and were curious to know who you were, so they looked up your profile. But otherwise, you may discover people that are trying to get in touch with you, that would also be beneficial for you to meet.

Join groups

If you can’t reach someone in particular, the other way to do so, is by joining a group in which he/she is part of. Why? Because LinkedIn lets you send messages to other members of the groups you are part of. Therefore, joining as many groups as you can, in the field of your choice, might just be the best solution for you to reach your target.

Third Steps – Make the Most of LinkedIn Business and Marketing Opportunities

Besides those looking for a job or looking for employees/executives on LinkedIn, the most interesting feature for users, is the capacity to generate business leads through marketing. Again, don’t waste time trying to find people, one by one. Instead use the LinkedIn tool “Prospectin” to find all you need, rapidly.

Optimize your company page

If you are just setting-up your business page on LinkedIn, you will be up-to-date on the latest formats and layouts available. If you have done it a while ago, then you should look into optimizing your page to the new standards. Make sure to download an attractive high-quality logo and banner, so that your leads will see you at your best, as soon as they open your page.

Use targeted showcase pages

Originally, you could position your products and services directly on your company’s page. Not anymore. Now, you need to create showcase pages, for other members to discover them. This is great, because you can really customize the experience for your visitors. It’s also important, because LinkedIn members can choose not to follow your company, but still follow some of your showcase pages. This gives you more opportunity to grab the attention of those you are interested in.

Post your news

To reach as many people as possible on LinkedIn, you need to post the latest news regarding your company, directly on your firm’s page. That will attract people to you, as they search for particular subjects. You can also target a specific type of company, for every news you place on your page. LinkedIn offers a special option, that lets you define who you want to talk to, according to the size of the company, the sector, geographical location, etc.

Conclusion

If you follow all the steps, we present to you in this article, you should be able to maximize your visibility and presence on the LinkedIn social network. Keep in mind that entering the network is only the start of the work, as you will need to manage your account on a continuous basis. That’s if you want this marketing opportunity to really benefit your company.

Like any other actions you will do for your business, keeping your LinkedIn profile up-to-date, will be the element that will guarantee the quality of that visibility. What you do afterwards to add to it, will be your responsibility. But it should definitely include all of the suggestions we have explained, for you, in this article.

 

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