Many of us have heard of LinkedIn but do not understand its capacity to generate traffic and business to websites. In this article I will give an overview of the different features of LinkedIn and how you can use it to its full potential to generate free leads for your business.
What is LinkedIn - LinkedIn is social media network like any other social media networks such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. However, there is one key component that makes LinkedIn different from the others and its very important to understand it in order to use is correctly. LinkedIn is a social network of Professionals and Executives who are highly educated and make good money. The average salary of a professional on LinkedIn is more than $100,000.00. LinkedIn can be very beneficial for your business. One great thing about LinkedIn is that every week it sends an email update on the activities of your friends, a great way to know whose up to what.
Setting up your profile - How you set up your profile on LinkedIn is very important. When you create your basic profile enter your previous experiences, previous education and any other certifications you have received. Be sure to add your accomplishments & achievements and highlight them, as this will let others know what your strengths are.
Adding your friends - Adding your friends to LinkedIn can be done very easily. Take your time to add friends using your existing email database and send a message letting them know you have joined LinkedIn. Do not just add people that may be in your email list if you don't know them personally. Remember Quality not Quantity is the key. If LinkedIn receives too many "I do not know this person" your account may be restricted or terminated. Remember these are your Free Leads and you want to build good relationship with them. Be respectful and they will respect you as well.
Recommendations - This is a very important aspect of LinkedIn. Remember, LinkedIn is a professional social network. People from all walks of life visit your profile. People looking to hire you, people looking to do business with you and people looking to even work with you and they want to know what others say and think of you. When asking for recommendations make sure you ask from people who have actually worked with you or know you very well. Sending a blind broadcast can actually hurt your profile.
Setting up your summary - This is the first thing that people will see when they are considering to accept your friend request. Make sure you are not selling anything here or prospecting. Do not talk about your business here, instead talk about who you are and what you do and what experiences that you have had that may have made a difference in your life and benefit others. This summary is looked at very carefully by LinkedIn. This summary can easily create Free Leads for you if it is written well.
Communicating with members - You can exchange information in many ways. One way is to communicate by posting on your wall just like on Facebook and another is to send a direct message. Remember do not SPAM.
Joining and Creating Groups - LinkedIn has many groups. One of the ways to communicate or add new friends to your LinkedIn profile is through Groups. You can become a member of different groups that are sharing information on similar topics or similar businesses. A good number of groups to join are approximately 15-20 groups. If you follow the rules & guidelines of the groups as well as share and participate in the groups, it can generate tons of free leads for your business.
Discussions - You involvement in the discussions can lead to you becoming an expert very quickly. If you are able to add value to a post that will benefit others, you will be recognized as a leader. You can start your own value added discussions. Remember people will want to visit your discussions, posts or your profile if they find value in it. Along with discussions you can as well post articles and share with the groups. This will help you label as an expert and from these discussions you can generate free leads. You can also invite members to visit your websites.
That covers the overview of LinkedIn and how you can use LinkedIn to drive traffic to your website and free leads for your business. When used effectively LinkedIn can be a huge source of free leads and of course generate a large amount of business for you.
I hope this information was very helpful.
Ashwini Jindal is a full time Attraction Marketer and has been using principals and laws of Attraction marketing to generate massive FREE Leads for his business. To learn more about how you can generate free leads for your business visit Generate FREE Leads using principals and Laws of Attraction Marketing.
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