Is LinkedIn Helping or Hurting Your Business?

It’s the most effective online platform for building serious business growth.

LinkedIn started as a fantastic platform for jobseekers but it’s so much more than that now.

When LinkedIn first arrived on the scene it was almost exclusively aimed at individuals who wanted to promote their professional abilities and build networks in pursuit of a new job.

Employers and recruiters naturally saw the opportunity this presented and it soon morphed into a platform for finding talent more efficiently than through traditional advertising.

That’s still a major aspect of how it works but it’s most powerful application nowadays is as a channel for establishing a business presence, generating leads and growing sales.

Best of all, as a business owner you can do this on LinkedIn without burning through cash on paid advertising. In fact that’s one aspect of the platform that I actively discourage my clients from using.?

A word of warning - Don’t use LinkedIn for cold calling and hard selling ??.

It doesn’t work very well, and more importantly it quickly gives you and your business a negative reputation. That can cost you connections, warm leads and future sales.

A much better strategy is to build an authoritative presence through consistent, high value content of immediate relevance to your target clientele. This approach is much more effective and sustainable over the long term.

The reason is simple. People buy from other people they trust, particularly if your offering is a service rather than a tangible product. And before they learn to trust you they need to get to know you and over time come to actually like you.

All strong relationships take time to develop and deepen. Those are the ones that will deliver word of mouth referrals and revenue to your business over and over again, so get busy but be patient.

Don’t Be This Person! ??

There are some common mistakes that business owners make in an effort to promote their businesses on LinkedIn. Avoid these.

• Cold contact direct messages with a blatant sales pitch
• Mass invitations to connect with no effort to personalise or give context
• Posting irrelevant content just for the sake of posting something
• Posting content and then not responding to comments
• Posting but never sharing or commenting on content your network posts
• Posting multiple times every day
• Responding to comments with generic stock phrases

Do Be This Person! ??

• Only post high value, relevant content
• If you share someone else’s post, add a useful comment
• Respond thoughtfully to comments on your posts
• Personalise every Inmail and invitation to connect
• Post consistently 2 to 3 times per week; quality is way better than quantity
• Invest in building relationships and engagement before attempting to sell

Get the picture?

And remember that LinkedIn provides you with masses of free research data. You can literally “listen” to what your audience is talking about right now.

Take notice of what topics are regularly being posted by leaders in your industry and pay attention to the posts that seem to strike a chord with the network.

Follow the thought leaders and yes,even your competitors, to see how they’re positioned and using the platform. You don’t have to copy what others are doing but it certainly helps to know what they’re up to.

P.S. Here are 5 ways we can help you accelerate your Lead Generation results:

1. Grab our free 4-Week LinkedIn Profile Optimisation Course

It’s the road map to positioning your profile in the top 5% of the 800+ million LinkedIn members – Click Here

2. Join our FREE LinkedIn Group and connect with entrepreneurs who are scaling too

It’s our Facebook community where smart entrepreneurs learn to get more leads and smart ways to scale using LinkedIn — Click Here

3. Take our FREE LinkedIn Productivity Assessment

Score your current presence and activity on LinkedIn against industry best practice benchmarks. Receive customised results instantly and as a BONUS you’ll get a FREE PDF download of Amazon's Best-selling book F“Influencer” Click Here

4. Join our LinkedIn Inner Circle Solo Program Click Here for more details

5. Learn more about the four most effective conversion strategies for LinkedIn success

When we analysed the most successful conversion campaigns amongst these, we found there are four very specific strategies that deliver the most consistent results year after year. We call them ‘The Magic Four’. Take the Questionnaire now to assess your suitability Click Here

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You might be surprised to know what exactly we do, it’s a little different to what you may expect. Watch this short video that outline the 3 outcomes you will achieve working with us – CLICK Here