How to Use LinkedIn for Business Networking: Marketing Resources
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Why Use LinkedIn for Business?
LinkedIn has been around for ages and the service achieved maturity by now.
After Microsoft acquired the platform it has become the go to site for many business people.
LinkedIn has gained critical mass and positions itself as an alternative or addition for both Facebook and X-Twitter. It really is one!
How I Use LinkedIn for Networking
I’ve been on LinkedIn for several years but until recently I wasn’t serious about my LinkedIn presence.
I was increasingly wary of social media and networking due to fake news and political trolling.
Nevertheless I decided to use LinkedIn in a strategic way.
LinkedIn is my main social networking for business venue after Twitter right now. It has paid off.
I’ve already got many requests or in other words leads by way of LinkedIn.
I didn’t buy ads to get them. I optimized my organic reach by engaging on the site regularly throughout the week.
How do I engage on LinkedIn? I mostly do these things to enhance my organic visibility:
- reacting to other people’s content they share (daily)
- commenting on other people’s updates (daily)
- resharing other people’s most insightful shares (weekly)
- sharing my own content with a LinkedIn specific intro (monthly)
- endorsing other people for specific skills they excel at (occasionally)
- congratulating people I follow on important achievements (occasionally)
As you see there is nothing fancy or complex about that kind of engagement as long as it’s genuine and on-topic.
Do you want to embrace more advanced techniques? Check out the resources list below.
LinkedIn Marketing Resources Galore
Now I present you this LinkedIn marketing and SEO resources list.
As a follow up I will write a post on how I do optimize my LinkedIn profile.
Also take note that this list doesn’t not contain the typical LinkedIn SEO advice!
There SEO is solely meant as Google optimization.
In SEO 2 we deal with search holistically.
Thus LinkedIn is treated as just another search “engine”. It’s business people search.
How to Use LinkedIn & LinkedIn Profile Optimization
- How to Use LinkedIn Effectively
- The Beginner’s Guide to LinkedIn Marketing
- 10 Ways to Improve Your LinkedIn Profile in Under 5 Minutes
LinkedIn Marketing & SEO
- This Is How To Build The Best LinkedIn Marketing Strategy For Your Business
- 5 Ways to Weave LinkedIn Into Your Marketing Mix
- How To Boost the SEO of Your Organization’s LinkedIn Page
- 15 LinkedIn® Profile SEO Tips for Getting Found
- LinkedIn SEO: How to Get your Profile Ranking
Using Specific LinkedIn Features
- Why LinkedIn Groups Can Be Great for Businesses (and How to Create a Successful One)
- How to Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator for Better Prospecting
- How to Use LinkedIn Groups for Lead Generation
Take note that I didn’t add all LinkedIn resources I know but selected them very carefully of the course of several months.
There are not that many serious LinkedIn marketing resources out there.
Most LinkedIn SEO posts are just short and often outdated tidbits. It took me considerable research to pick these resources.
Social Media for Business Done Right
Last but not least consider reading my social media hopping post.
It explains that and how you shouldn’t waste your time with social media and networking.
Use is to propel your business to new heights instead.
You can’t abandon social media as a business person.
Yet you can’t work for social sites as a user generated content slave for free either.
Do you want to know more about me? Well, you can view my LinkedIn profile.
I update my profile it sporadically. Make also sure to read my blog to stay on top of my latest content.
In case you want to connect with me make sure to tell me why.
I don’t just collect “connections” for the sake of numbers.
Despite using LinkedIn for over a decade LinkedIn I haven’t reached the limit of 500 connections after which they display the follower number as “500+”.
Only once I set out to actually break it I did.
* Creative commons image by smi23le
very comprehensive list. Thanks for sharing. Would have been better if the list was ranked according to the significance.
That’s a great list, I’ve had a linkedin profile for a year or so now, but never really did anything with it, it was just there because you “should have one”, perhaps it needs a little tlc and the business will come pouring in. Well, you never know I may get the occasional lead anyway.
Wow, ok. That’s a heads up. Didn’t realize that LinkedIn had any traction in the Social world. Thanks!
Definitely a huge list of links, though many of them repetitive.
I’m looking forward to your follow-up on how you approach it yourself…
roshan: The list is ordered according to ease of implementation and depedning on what you should consider plus do first.
Steve: Yeah, the same here. LinkedIn was always teh dark horse hiding behind Facebook and Twitter but now it’s the third elephant in the room.
Scott: LinkedIn grew silently until it really gained momentum.
Ted: Yes, I included some posts that offer similar advice on purpose. I wanted to show that most experts with different backgrounds agree on the measures.
I have been using linked in now for nearly 3 years and only just strated realising its true potential to network and build recommendations
Nice list of links. Thanks. This would be very helpful to every online marketer like me out there.
[…] Las redes sociales profesionales son una gran herramienta tanto para SEO como para Marketing Social. Un ejemplo son esta selección de 20 recursos para utilizar Linkedin en tu estrategia on-line. […]
wow thanks for this list. your really awesome pls post some more…
I’ve been working hard on my LinedIn profile. It’s generated some calls, but no revenue yet.
Thank your for the tips hope to have more marketing strategy post from you!
Excellent list,
Thanks for telling some great point about Linkedin Marketing resources.
Keep it up.
I have just noticed that the websites links in LinkedIn are no longer direct, but rather redirected thought an internal redirect page, thus killing the “link love” that we may have been getting from LinkedIn. I checked on Google Webmaster Tools and the incoming link from LinkedIn is no longer there.
I have written a polite message to LinkedIn stating that I think this is a bad idea considering how much SEO community has promoted their service. I encourage all of you to do the same, and let them know that a large portion of their user base is not happy.
LinkedIn has been essential tool and has beaten up all the job portals.
I do have profile over LinkedIn and finds it useful as i do get daily inquries..
Thanks for the idea. I am new in SEO. Now I feel interest with Linkedin
Interesting stuff. I’m on LinkedIn but havn’t seen the real benefit yet I think. Also reading a book about it and this one goes into my favorites too.
Carl: yes carl I also noticed that LinkedIn now uses a redirect for your links.
So is there any way we can utilize LinkedIn profile for link building??