LinkedIn: The World’s Largest Business Search Engine

What to do with LinkedIn? Sometimes it seems like it’s just a big spam platform, but in reality, it is the world’s largest business search engine, with over 178 million users in the US alone. The challenge we face as business people is how to leverage LinkedIn to get value for the time we spend on the platform.

Here are the three things you can do today and for the next three months to create sales:

1. Turn your profile into a prospect-focused post.

• Use a keyword tool to find what people are searching for
• Photo
• Headline
• About
• Experiences
• Have your recommendations seeded with your keywords also.

Below is a typical Industrial Exec profile. There are no keywords. It is used by this person, but not optimized. This needs keywords, a banner and a professional picture.

Here is a profile with a good amount of optimization. This company provides technology for document management and they are targeting that as a keyword throughout Mr. Said’s profile.

2. Become a content-creating machine: video, photos, updates.

What to post? When you get writer’s block or the “I don’t know what anyone else will care about,” follow this simple sequence of posts. A best practice is to put these into your calendar to complete the afternoon before posting. In all posts, add hashtags with your keywords, like #digitalmarketing and mention someone who you think will comment and engage with your post with an @emanuelrose for example.

• Monday: Video about a successful client interaction (1 minute, on your phone, doesn’t have to be ‘perfect’ just deliver value and demonstrate your expertise: talk directly to your audience).
• Tuesday: Text status update with image from your phone.
• Wednesday: Photo with a short narrative, ending with a question to encourage engagement.
• Thursday: Blog post with a link to your website.
• Friday: Topical industry article and your commentary to show your expertise. Preferably taking the opposite point of view.

3. Use Sales Navigator or Search to find and connect with your targeted prospects. Read their posts. See how to add value based on their posts.

Be a valuable member of your network! Read posts that your prospects make and interact with them.

Like it, then comment on the post with the idea of continuing the conversation and share posts that are coherent with your ethics and that your network will appreciate or benefit from.

• Example #1: I once had a prospect that posted on LinkedIn that they were hiring. I emailed them my hiring strategy that I used to get new candidates. It included a detailed explanation of what the job description should be and how to get candidates in a short time period.
• Example #2: A prospect I knew was planning a trip to Belize and wanted to know about fly fishing there.. I spent 45 min with him telling him where I went to fish and connected him with Guides and lodging.

Emanuel RoseIf you spend 15 minutes a day using LinkedIn with these strategies, you will get better results from it and will be a valuable resource to your community and your company.

Emanuel Rose is the founder of StrategiceMarketing.com and has over 20 years of business experience in sales and marketing, including how to use LinkedIn and Lead Generation. He has extensive experience designing, managing and optimizing marketing campaigns to generate sales growth and is driven to achieve results by focusing on the customer first. Along with being obsessed with your marketing results, Rose is a an avid fly fisherman.