2) LinkedIn – Your Hub for B2B Social Media Marketing
This is the #1 business networking tool with over 50 million members. Over 70% of all major decision makers have a presence on LinkedIn. If you conduct business of any kind, you need to have a presence on LinkedIn.
Here are several tips to follow to maximize your LinkedIn business presence:
- Have a strategy! Think through what you want to achieve so you can maximize all the tools
- Complete your profile fully and include a photo
- Use the “Ask a Question” feature
- I nclude keywords about you or your business in your profile
- Update your status and keep content fresh
- Monitor your competition
- Link to your blog via RSS
- Control your image and professional brand
- Network and connect with clients, contacts, prospects
- Find other connections through your network’s connections
- Invite new business contacts you meet and personalize your invitation (instead of the default text)
- Ask for and give recommendations (personalize)
- Announce events, career opportunities, milestones to connections
- Use LinkedIn to position yourself as an expert
- Join and participate in groups- meet new connections, create business alliances
- Create your own group – great way to attract targeted prospects (include descriptive keywords in the group title)
- Use LinkedIn search – great tool for finding contacts at companies you are researching
