Yes, you’re on LinkedIn. You know you should have a “completed” profile and that you should be using the “People You May Know” feature to connect to, well, people you may know. But now that you’ve got your feet wet, how do you make LinkedIn an even more powerful relationship-building and sales-generating tool? First of all, learn to be a starter, not just a joiner. Joining a variety of different LinkedIn groups will help you expand your network. But starting an industry-specific group is one of the most effective ways to get your network excited and engaged about a specific |
topic, all while driving traffic to your site and increasing sales. Another good idea is to take part in LinkedIn’s Questions and Answers. This feature is a powerful way to establish yourself as an expert and expand your network. With Answers, you can respond to any question posted by other LinkedIn users. If you answer questions well, your responses may receive high ratings from others, which could result in LinkedIn recognising you as an expert and displaying your name and link to your profile on the Answers home page for all LinkedIn members to see. You can also start a company page. This is a centralised location where millions of LinkedIn members can go to stay in the loop about news, products, services, business opportunities and job openings. |
The page provides a chance to highlight what you do, engage with followers, drive word-of-mouth and more. Using Targeted Status Updates is also effective. Once you have a company page, you can use the Targeted Status Updates feature to direct updates to specific audiences. This helps make sure that certain people see specific content. The Targeted Status Updates feature includes analytics for each post that show the number of impressions the specific update received, the amount of clicks received, and more. When it comes to Twitter, unless you’ve been under a large rock, you know that it’s an online social networking and microblogging service that enables users to send and read text-based messages (that can include links) of up to 140 characters. |
To help maximise the business-bolstering effect Twitter can produce, it’s important to tweet with personality. People do business with people they like. So, consider what makes you and your company unique and likeable and convey that through your tweets. Being helpful, um, helps! People do business with people who are helpful. So why not tweet on topics that can lend your customers and target clientele a helping hand? Anything from general business advice to subjects relevant to the markets you serve could work; it’s just important that the content is meaningful to your audience. Twitter is great for market research and is a useful tool for better understanding your customers and what people think about your business. You |
Facing up to Facebook |
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