LinkedIn is the largest social media site dedicated for business. It boasts over 65 70 80 100 120 million members (as of this writing) with the highest per capita household income, bordering on $110,000. Over half of its members are in the United States and all of the top Fortune 500 companies are represented.
I’ve written several posts about LinkedIn which you can search for or select from categories read. I also decided to dedicate a page, and perhaps now children pages, to further exploring this platform for expanding your business. I am high on LinkedIn for job search and tutor and coach small business owners and managers as well as job seekers how to use LinkedIn to market either their businesses or themselves.
LinkedIn is not just for looking for a job. It can provide many, many ways to expand and increase your business through networking. I do a presentations on LinkedIn in my Meetup group, for the Buffalo Grove Park District and have scheduled an Indian Trails Public Library session as well, the Career Resource Center in Lake Forest, Cook Park Library in Libertyville and soon at the Wheeling Park District.
December 2, 2010 – I added a “questions” page for convenience for attendees of any of my presentations and will be adding a “resources” page when time permits. Anyone can use the LinkedIn Questions post to add comments as well. I will respond to if appropriate or trash if not. I will publish the questions and answers on the LinkedIn Questions page.
LinkedIn is evolving and added, or is Beta testing, some enhanced features and search options. Learn more on the since published additional pages.
What’s Your Plan? The First Step
December 4, 2010 – Recognize that your LinkedIn profile really only lets you optimize for one or two specialties at best. This is unlike a traditional Web site where you can have different pages for different products or services. You must therefore select the target market you are focusing at and carefully select the keywords that describe yourself to that target market. Whether to promote your business or if you are looking for a job, that search must be targeted.
For instance, right now I am positioning myself as a WordPress tutor. I enjoy teaching people the ins and outs of using WordPress for Web sites. So I emphasize those words throughout my profile. I am literally targeting people who want to learn more about LinkedIn. So if someone searches for “WordPress Tutor” my profile comes up first, right now as of 846 1,547 (July 27. 2011) results.
It is some what complicated to set up an effective marketing plan and I hate to just skim over it so I hope to return later with more details. There are many aspects to consider including competitive research, branding, target marketing, keywords, etc. Let us for sake of time assume your plan is in place, then you can proceed with the implementation! Completing your LinkedIn profile….
Library Presentation Introduction
December 15, 2010 – Here is a video of my opening remarks at the Indian Trails Public Library presentation last week. It provides an insight into my contrarian approach.
