April 6, 2010

When I first blogged about ten ways to use LinkedIn, the site had 8.5 million total users worldwide. I’m told that now there are over twelve million small-business people on LinkedIn, which is roughly 20 percent of its total user base.

Many of these small-business people are using the site in ways you’d commonly imagine: finding leads, growing their business globally, or finding the right vendors. My buddies at LinkedIn recently provided me a list of ten additional ways small businesses can use LinkedIn:

1. Acquire new customers through online recommendations and word of mouth. Satisfied customers are the best source of new customers. Increase your word of mouth referrals by asking your happy clients to write you a recommendation, which will be published on your LinkedIn profile and will be broadcast to their entire LinkedIn network.

2. Keep in touch with people who care most about your business. Sites like LinkedIn help keep your business alive in the minds of the people who care most about your business. LinkedIn is effective for two reasons: the business intent of LinkedIn users and fewer status updates, which mean you stay on top of mind. Tip: You can also increase the impact of your status updates by syncing your LinkedIn and Twitter accounts.

3. Find the right vendors to outsource services you’re not an expert on. Think of the number of times you’ve asked your colleagues if they knew of a great web designer or photographer. LinkedIn makes it easy for you to find and vet vendors through the network of your peers. Additionally, you can also trade services with your vendor connections on LinkedIn; sort of a mutual referral system.

4. Build your industry network—online and in person. Search LinkedIn’s Groups directory to find industry associations and networks to take part in. For example, if you’re in the event planning or wedding industry, there are over 530 groups. In addition, LinkedIn also surfaces popular events in your industry calling out local events that your connections are attending. Imagine being able to find only industry events that your prospective clients are attending.

5. Get answers to tough business questions with a little help from your real friends. Small business owners deal with challenging questions on a slew of topics each day. LinkedIn Answers and Groups let you find answers to those vexing questions quickly by tapping into the wisdom of your network (LinkedIn tells me there are over 200 different categories on Answers including one dedicated just to small business and over 2000 groups on small business related topics). Wondering whether your recent office purchase is tax deductible? Check out hundreds of questions on related topics here.

6. Win new business by answering questions in your area of expertise. Use the many forums on LinkedIn to share the knowledge you’ve gained in your area of expertise. This is a great opportunity to win new business or at least find prospective clients to pitch your business to. Prospective customers will find your answers when they use LinkedIn’s advanced Answers search. And don’t forget, what goes around comes around. Don’t forget, this is a great way to soft pitch your skills and expertise.

7. Raise funding. You can use LinkedIn to find mentors or potential investors for your startup because there are over three million startup professionals and over 12M small business professionals on LinkedIn and it’s always good to stay in touch with folks who’ve been there, done that and willing to mentor you. Once you’re connected, your participation on LinkedIn (answers, status updates or group conversations) may even cause them to consider investing in your small business.

8. Network with peers in your industry for repeat business referrals. LinkedIn Groups is a powerful medium to find peers in your respective industries to network with and to find complimentary businesses to share referrals with. For example, mortgage brokers can find real estate agents to partner with on relevant groups and as most small businesses know, these partners are your best source of referrals that can turn into repeat business. With over 2000 groups dedicated to small business topics, you’re sure to find a relevant group to network.

9. Convince potential customers of your expertise by sharing unique blog content. Small businesses smart enough to create unique content on their expertise (either with a blog or twitter account) should link to it from their LinkedIn profiles. Or take it one step further by promoting featured blog content to LinkedIn members on the site (for e.g. with small text ads). You can specify exactly who will see your ads—Executives or VPs—and include a link to your profile so they know who’s behind this content.

10. Keep your friends close and your competition closer. Over 150,000 companies have a company profile on LinkedIn, the “public profile” for companies. These pages surface key stats on companies; recent hires as well movers and shakers. Not only do company profiles give you unique insight into your competition, they also give you an opportunity to stumble upon potential hires by browsing through company pages.

I hope this helps you take LinkedIn beyond the usual uses and makes your small business even more successful.

Join the conversation ( 13 )

• Octavian Ghergheli 2 months ago

  

  I have a friend who made his curriculum vitae public on linkedin and a software company saw his profile (very well structured) and hired him right away. I think I'm also gonna use linkedin. Who knows... All the best! http://www.online-math-tutoring.com

• Sarah & Dulcie 3 months ago

  

  Another social media service that's useful to businesses that sell products is www.rocware.com
  
  Use it to connect potential buyers directly with your product catalog...the idea is to increase future sales by making sure they don't forget you & are always up to date on what you're doing & selling.

• DAVID HOFFMAN 1 year 10 months and 5 days ago

  

  These are great ideas - I'll add a small business Search Engine Optimization benefit.
  
  Many website owners are aware that inbound links from quality sites are an important factor that search engines take into consideration when determining how and where a site will rank in their indexes.
  
  LinkedIn allows you three website links within your Profile. Instead of leaving them as the default "My Company" or simply listing your company URL, you can incorporate keywords in three listing links that provide search engines with clues that could help improve your search engine ranking.
  
  For example, my company provides search engine optimization (SEO) services with many of our clients located locally in Westchester County, NY. One link on my LinkedIn profile reads "Westchester NY SEO company" - it's not the only reason our site ranks first on Google for that search phrase but it's a valuable link for SEO purposes. If your company has multiple employees, have all of them build these links on LinkedIn.
  

• FABIAN AHMADI 1 year 10 months and 6 days ago

  

  Sorry, I forgot to include the link to my article: http://www.advoltlegal.com/legal-marketing-blog/
  
  

• FABIAN AHMADI 1 year 10 months and 6 days ago

  

  Great article! I found it through JDsupra.com. I wanted to add that your linkedin presence can also be a great source of SEO link juice. Using your public profile, you can link to your own website and blog. Often, public profiles have Page Ranks of 2 or 3. Using that linking opportunity is absolutely necessary. I wrote an article about that on my legal marketing blog last week. Check it out and let me know what you think. Kindest Regards,
  Fabian

• Ingrid Niang 1 year 10 months and 6 days ago

  

  Great article! I am among the 20% small business owners base, I have had a LinkedIn account for a while, but never used to make much use of it, until quite recently. I am finding the site more and more useful, and some of the groups are very interesting.

• Kevin Cole 1 year 10 months and 7 days ago

  

  Thanks for the article. There is so much written about anything and everything out there on the web generally and social media specifically that it sure helps to have a known credible source as a reference point in prioritization...

• Troy Centazzo 1 year 10 months and 7 days ago

  

  Guy- Love the column (and the blog).
  
  Here's an article on a potential #11 for your list: start and build a LinkedIn Group and immediately become an industry "leader," even as a start-up.
  
  http://hubpages.com/hub/LinkedIn-Creating-a-Trade-Association-or-Professional-Networking-Group-in-30-Minutes
  
  I agree with Todd Taylor about fundraising: lots of regulators checking the Internet for "general solicitation" and "advertising" private deals. Good to build a network of contacts through your recommended LinkedIn tactics, then pitch them directly and privately.

• Todd Taylor 1 year 10 months and 7 days ago

  

  On point 7 Fund Raising, be careful however, as the securities laws generally prohibit using public forums to solicit investors. I see this all the time on LinkedIn. Making connections with people is great, but obvious requests for investments is not. Check out my article on this topic http://www.fredlaw.com/articles/corporate/corp_0910_tat.html

• RICHARD BONANNELLA 1 year 10 months and 10 days ago

  

  This is by far, one of the best articles on this site yet.

• Dara Bell 1 year 10 months and 10 days ago

  

  Great piece for networking and building thought leadership. I would agree with Wise Bread 15 minutes a day ought to improve things.

• Thursday Bram 1 year 10 months and 10 days ago

  

  I've found that I'm bringing in more business since I decided to spend 15 minutes each day on LinkedIn. Just a few answers, new connections and recommendations can make a surprising difference, especially if you're looking for the sort of projects that most companies try to send to connections they already know.

• Scott James 1 year 10 months and 11 days ago

  

  Another great piece, Guy. Thank you.
  
  To expand on point #2, you can also sync your primary blog to the LinkedIn account. I write one post at www.fairtradesports.com and it gets automagically spread to several other key sites, including my LinkedIn account. This month we were featured in the news stand issues of both Forbes and O Magazine. One quick blog post on our WordPress platform alerted friends and fans alike on LI, FB, Twitter, etc.
  
  Great personal productivity trick...