LinkedIn and Social Media for Business

LinkedIn is an underrated social networking platform for business. 

I often read articles and comments on it saying that it is a only for job hunters, and implying that it is has no value other than for job hunters. Social media for business is misunderstood by many people I meet. Social media is thought of as being less than serious and not effective in generating leads.

More Leads from LinkedIn

But, in my experience that is not necessarily the case. Furthermore, I read a recent article by Rebecca Corliss on HubSpot where she shared how much more effective LinkedIn is for lead generation than Facebook or Twitter. She says LinkedIn is 277% more effective than the more well known social media platforms.

The social media platforms which are getting most of the attention, but which are less effective for me, are Facebook and Twitter. These are both great platforms and do work well for a lot of businesses who sell to consumers. However, if your business relies mainly or entirely on business to business sales for revenue then social networking on these sites is likely to deliver lower results than LinkedIn.

Personal Brand and Business Development

LinkedIn serves two purposes for me, namely portraying my personal brand and new business development. I work in a business to business environment and providing funny status updates that I might put onto Twitter or Facebook is not always appreciated by my existing customers and any new prospects. This would have a negative impact on my personal brand in my industry sector.

People are on LinkedIn for business and not for frivolity. That does not mean you have to be stern and serious. Far from it. But, you do need to be professional and provide information and updates relevant to your connections through this social networking platform for business.

Furthermore, your LinkedIn profile says a lot about you. If you don't have a photograph on your profile, it looks sloppy. If you put a photograph of yourself showing you on holiday in a pair of swimming shorts, that may not be appropriate if you sell to people who wear suits and ties for business.

Public Profile

In addition to a well written summary of your skills, achievements and experience on your LinkedIn profile, there are other elements which highlight how much attention you are paying to your personal brand, one of which is the link on your profile called 'Public Profile'.

When you first join LinkedIn, you are given Public Profile URL which is made up of numbers and letters. It looks a bit of a mess, but you can customise it to something more readable. This takes  no time at all to do through the editing tool and makes it look more professional and shows you have paid attention to your LinkedIn profile and enhanced your personal brand.

It's important also to ask your connections for recommendations on LinkedIn. There is a tool to help you contact people you know on the site to ask for personal recommendation. Recommendations help people to see who was willing to spend some time writing about you.

Social Networking for business is more formal than personal social networking. You need to remember that your potential need to get to know you, to like and trust you before they will consider doing business with you. If you have a professional profile and update your status with useful, high quality information which is relevant to your audience, people will contact you.