LinkedIn For Small Business

Posted by liz on February 7, 2011

There is much scepticism about how social media can have a positive impact on business lives, particularly amongst small and medium sized businesses.

This post discusses ways of using business network LinkedIn to help grow and promote your business and hopefully pick up a few sales off the back of it. Remember that it takes time to establish credibility and trust in any networking situation and due to its faceless nature this can take longer to build online than in person so patience is key.

So here are 5 tips for getting the most out of LinkedIn:

Display your expertise –Use it to tell clients or prospects about all the experience you have within your sector. Think of it as an online CV and use it to assure people that they are in safe hands when working with you.

Research –LinkedIn is great for researching companies who you may be working with or employees you may be thinking of employing. It’s possible that there may be differences between a CV you receive and the candidate's LinkedIn profile.

Use it to get a backlink – Every LinkedIn profile can contain up to 3 links to other websites. Make sure 1 of them links to your website and it will help to improve your offsite SEO.
Use it to stay connected – Business cards are great but how many do you lose or misplace? After you attend a networking meeting, go home, look up any new connections up and connect. This way you will be permanently connected and no longer reliant on keeping a business card safe.

Share your knowledge – Every industry has related groups on LinkedIn where members can ask questions to each other and answer questions from other members. Sign up to groups related to your business and set aside 30 minutes a week to login and answer questions posted by other members. This will help establish yourself as an authoritative figure in your sector, increasing the chances of a contact referring business to you.

If you’re proud of it then promote it! – Include a link to your LinkedIn profile in your email signature or even your business card. This will help build your network of connections and also show to people that you are an open and honest character.