Unlike other massive social networks like Facebook or Twitter, LinkedIn is dedicated to professionals. Over 40 million users in a variety of industries have profiles on the network, giving you potential access to several new business leads.
Build Your Profile
Before you start reaching out to other professionals, you’ll want to make sure your own profile is up to snuff. Take some time to completely fill out your profile, with detailed experience listings and an inviting avatar photo. The people you connect with on LinkedIn will want to look at your profile before doing business with you, so a professional presentation will reinforce the idea to them that you’d be a good potential business connection.
Grow Your Network
An easy way to build up your connections is importing your address book and finding people you know. Your friends, coworkers, and business associations are more likely to accept your invitation to connect and could lead to other, less obvious connections.
Once you’ve established a base of connections, you can use advanced search to find other potential leads. This tool allows you to narrow down your search to find professionals that are more likely to turn into a lead. If your company mainly deals with a specific level of employee, you can search by job title. If you’re trying to find a contact at a specific company, search the company name to find relevant people at that business.
Find Your Groups
LinkedIn groups are a great way to find potential business leads. A quick search can result in several groups for just about any industry you can think of.
Group insights can show you important details about a group, including how many members it has, the average level of seniority, and a breakdown on locations. If you are a member of a professional association offline, which can even include something like your alumni group, there’s a good chance that you can find that group on LinkedIn.
Contribute to the Conversation
A big benefit of LinkedIn is the ability to share content with your network. Writing a regular blog post about your industry and sharing it on LinkedIn can add to your influence. Building your audience and providing useful information can help set you up as a thought leader, which can help put you in a position to draw in potential business connections.
Once you find a few groups that appeal to the audience you are trying to reach, don’t be afraid to contribute to the group as well. Jump into conversations that you feel you can contribute to and share relevant content with your group. You never know just who in that group may check out your profile and reach out to connect or even ask about your services.
Free Up Time For Your Business
Your time is best spent on ways to grow your business, but you still need to dedicate a lot of time to proper HR management. Group Management Services can partner with you to make your business simpler, safer, and stronger while freeing you up to focus on building your business. Contact us today to talk to our experts about how GMS can benefit you.