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Using LinkedIn to Develop Professional Contacts and Generate Business Leads

May 22, 2012 by Leave a Comment

All the news about Facebook lately got us thinking about the social media landscape in general. By all accounts, Facebook has been a tremendous success. Over 800 million users worldwide share photos and life’s best moments…businesses use the tool to share new content and otherwise foster relationships with loyal customers.

But with the entire buzz surrounding Facebook, LinkedIn lurks in the shadows.

A network strictly for professionals, LinkedIn has grown tremendously in recent years both for individuals and businesses. Its interface is real simple to use and has stayed pretty consistent over the years – something that many users are eternally grateful for!!

LinkedIn is also a no-frills type of site – users are there to do one thing, make professional connections and interact with other professionals in their given industry.

In other words, it’s kind of dull in a lot of ways.

Facebook on the other hand has many different types of users there for a wide variety of reasons. Its interface is constantly changing and their privacy policies are controversial to say the least. Since Facebook is seen as the “cool” thing right now, something cooler may indeed come along one day and make Facebook as irrelevant as MySpace.

As this article by Geoffrey James on Inc.com points out, LinkedIn isn’t subject to the same coolness factor as Facebook, which is precisely why he believes the professional social network will certainly outlive its more ‘cool’ competitor.

Besides the ability to post your resume or solicit job seekers, LinkedIn also connects you with other like-minded professionals through its industry groups and discussion boards. You can also build a separate profile for your company and require all staff members build their own separate accounts.

While Facebook is more suitable for an ecommerce, retail or restaurant (B2C) enterprise, LinkedIn is ideal for B2B firms searching for new leads and contacts. One study from Hubspot examining over 5000 businesses found that LinkedIn delivered over 277% more hard leads than Facebook or Twitter, the micro blogging service.

One reason this may be the case is clutter – by virtue of its limited scope, LinkedIn has much less of it, which means it’s easier for users to find and digest information.

And according to Erin Everhart in her piece on Mashable.com, LinkedIn can also assist in SEO and link building efforts by providing a more direct way to reach other bloggers and companies about link exchanges. If you have a 2nd degree connection with them on LinkedIn, you can email the prospect directly.

The first step to using LinkedIn is of course to develop a complete profile – include a resume and be sure you have at least 3 recommendations so your profile is considered complete.

Take advantage of the many apps the network offers like SlideShare and another one that automatically pulls in new posts from your blog.

Once you have a complete profile, it’s time to start developing your network connections. One really nice thing LinkedIn does is help you find valuable people and informs them of the “…mutual connections you have with them.” Of course, we haven’t even begun to explore the business marketing opportunities but many of the same rules apply.

This e-book from LinkedIn provides some great guidance into building your profile, making professional connections and marketing your business on LinkedIn. We’re hoping to really dive into it so be on the lookout for a review here at SEO-e.

In the meantime, feel free to connect with SEO Advantage through LinkedIn by visiting LinkedIn.seoadvantage.com.

Let us know how you’re using the network to build professional contact and generate leads.

Are you participating in industry discussion groups?

Have you landed a job or client through the network or successfully used it to find new talent?

Leave us a comment or join the conversation on LinkedIn. We’re always interested in learning other peoples’ experiences with tools we find very useful.

Other Posts You May Be Interested In

Why Are Major Marketers Moving Toward Google+?

3 Ways Social Media, SEO and Content Marketing Work Together

Harnessing LinkedIn to Market your Business Online

5 Best Practices for Using the LinkedIn Network

Filed Under: Forum Watch, Online Marketing, Social Media, Tip of the Day Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

One of the Most Effective Advertising Tactics – For Free!

December 2, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Word of mouth advertising is the backbone of any fledgling enterprise. In fact, recommendations from other customers are the most trusted source of advertising according to research from Nielsen Associates.  It very well may be the most powerful way to grow your business – all without any financial outlay whatsoever according to premier web marketer Lisa Banks.

Many companies already know the power of this tactic – perhaps you’ve gotten some new clients through introductions by previous clients or you have a friend who has a friend.

Besides these kinds of introductions though, you can get much more exposure if satisfied customers like these and others discuss their experience publicly. And considering the fact that online reviews help strengthen relationships with existing customers, you’ve got two great reasons to take advantage of online review sites.

To get started, create an account or claim your listing on the following:

Once you’ve got your listings set up on these sites, let your customers know you would love for them to add a review of your business. You can notify them via email, status updates on social networks and when you’re talking to them on the phone.

Offer a special discount or giveaway for the first 20 reviewers to boost interest.

Positive reviews help weary prospects confirm that your business is legitimate and will work hard to satisfy their needs.

Of course, you need to be on the lookout for negative reviews as well.

While we all try to satisfy all of our customers, sometimes it’s just not meant to be. If you see a negative review, contact the customer right away and see what needs to be done to right the wrong. If it can’t be corrected, try and get some more positive reviews to counteract the negative one.

If you think a negative review is just outright false, you can contact the review site and contest the review…they may remove it but it’s really at their discretion.

Keep in mind though that an occasional negative review is a normal thing. Most prospects won’t be bothered by a poor review here and there… most realize it’s just a normal part of doing business.

So there you have it – word of mouth advertising and customer reviews are perhaps one of the best ways to market your business – for free!

Tell us about your experiences and how you’ve used customer reviews to grow your business.

Filed Under: Online Marketing, Tip of the Day Tagged With: , , , ,

8 Tips for Utilizing Testimonials for Good Reputation Management

April 23, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Potential online customers look for reassurance that your products or services will meet their needs – one way they do this is through testimonials. They want to know what others think of their experience before purchasing, signing up or booking.

So it’s no surprise that sites like Yelp.com have sprung up to meet this demand…and if you’re a B2B firm, you may be faced with providing another form of a testimonial – references.

Providing customer testimonials on your own site is a great way to keep prospects engaged within your site.

Continue reading for 8 tips on how you can best integrate testimonials into your website and/or blog…these tips were provided to a web site promoting cabin rentals in Georgia but are applicable to a wide range of industries.

1. Leave testimonial in original text

Testimonials have a lot more credibility if they’re left in the writer’s original text. Of course you will want to edit it if it has a lot of typos or any profanity but the testimonial will be much more believable if you leave it in its original text.

2. Include person’s full name and other relevant data

To make the testimonial as meaningful and credible as possible, include the person’s full name, company, job position or location and age. Doing so makes the testimonial transparent to the reader – meaning they will trust it more.

3. Post small snippets in main site to support message

To make testimonials more meaningful, take relevant snippets and include them within your main site’s copy or on the side. Let’s take the rental cabin company for example. If you have a paragraph professing how much fun your cabins are for kids, include a testimonial supporting that fact somewhere nearby.

4. Create a dedicated testimonials page

Have a separate page where you include all testimonials in full in addition to using bits and pieces in your site like tip #3. Include a link entitled “see what others are saying here” after each snippet peppered through your site so visitors can easily access the full testimonials page.

5. Bold important parts of testimonials, points you want to get across

Bold parts of sentences to draw the reader’s eye to main points you want them to come away with – especially on long versions or on your dedicated page. Since most of us scan text online, we will notice bold face text. This will help customers understand what you want them to even if they don’t read the full testimonial.

6. Include testimonials in your blog too

While you have to be creative in the context you use testimonials, including them in your blog presents a great opportunity. You could perhaps include a section – “Customer Stories” – where you could provide a brief intro that would be interesting to someone checking out your services. You can then link to the full testimonial page on your site.

7. Encourage testimonials at each interaction with customers

If a customer expresses something nice about you, ask if they would be willing to allow you to use their words as a testimonial on your site. If you have any reviews on Yelp.com or other review sites, migrate them over to your site as well.

8. Encourage the use of pictures and videos

Give your testimonials an even bigger boost by including a picture or video from the customer. You can include the photo or video next to their testimonial and send them a link once it’s live so they can share it with family and friends.

Testimonials can sure be a fun part of online reputation management, providing you with kind words that you’re doing the right thing and motivating you to keep striving for the best.

As a side, remember there are rules governing the use of testimonials – now you must clearly disclose any material connections (like providing compensation for the testimonial) along with being transparent when a testimonial depicts results that are not typical.

Filed Under: Copywriting/SEO Content Development, Online Marketing, Tip of the Day Tagged With: , , , , ,