Getting Started: Social Media For Your Small Business (3 of 3)
LinkedIn is the last of the three major social media platforms that every business should be working to establish a presence in. Remember, the easier it is to find and connect with your business, the easier it is for community to be built around your product or service. And make no mistake, community equals loyalty, and loyalty equals referrals and repeat customers. If you’ll remember, as I figured in my first post, the only reason someone isn’t using social media for their small business isn’t because they’ve never heard of it…it’s because they don’t see the value in it. So I’ve set out to give five compelling reasons that you’re small business should be using at least one, if not all, of the three major social media platforms – twitter, facebook, and linkedin.
Here are my top five reasons for using LinkedIn for your small business:
1. LinkedIn is comprised of over 53 million users who are mostly there for business – which means this is a large but very focused group of people who could vastly expand your B2B contacts.
2. While you might want to check out a potential new employee’s facebook to get an idea of the type of person they are, you’re most likely NOT going to find a full resume with references. LinkedIn however has included detailed professional information, including education, experience, recommendations, interests, honors, and awards to it’s main features.
3. Just like on Facebook, you can use LinkedIn’s search feature to find people who are connected to those you already know. But here, you can also search for job titles and company types to target your search for new contacts or potential employees.
4. LinkedIn makes it possible to locate thought leaders in your industry and allows you to interact and maybe even join their ranks. One effective way of doing this is by starting and/or joining a group for your industry and answering questions from others in the group.
5. Once you’ve built up a large group, using LinkedIn’s powerful “group update” tool can send a target message from you to thousands without ever having to use an email client or crm.
