As a B2B marketer, you should know that having a LinkedIn profile is vital to your online marketing success.
You may have a profile page already set up with your picture, skills, and work experience... but you're asking, "Now what?"
If you're trying to figure out how to make LinkedIn work for you as far as generating leads and seeing an actual ROI, here are three basic tips on how to successfully market yourself on the #1 network for business professionals.
Go on a connect spree. Search the names of everyone you personally know in the B2B industry, plus ones that you don't know. When it comes to connecting with brand new people, what I personally do is select the friend option when it asks, How do you know this person? I'll then leave a little note that says, "Hey _________ (fill in the blank), I'm in the B2B industry and I'd love to join your network. - Lauren Francis" Sometimes I'll re-word it, depending on who I'm trying to connect with, but it's always something short and sweet. The key is to give off a personal warm welcome rather than submitting that generic message that LinkedIn automatically provides in the note box. More than likely, your fellow professionals will have no problem accepting your connection requests. After they have accepting, it's good to send a quick direct message thanking them for the connection, which is one of the best ways to begin the ever-important relationship building process.
Keep your news feed active. LinkedIn has a news feed, similar to Twitter's, where you can send company updates and post various forms of content. Have a new blog post, video, infographic, or white paper to share? Your updates will show up on your profile page, as well as on the LinkedIn homepage with updates from your connections. Try to share content on a routine basis. Sporadic and inconsistent updates may give off the impression that you're not committed to building your LinkedIn presence, which hurts your branding perception. Also, spend a little time liking, commenting, and sharing content from those in your network. It's the give-and-take rule of social media. Stay focused on pushing out your own content, but also lend a friendly voice or word of encouragement to someone else's.
Join lots of groups in your niche. LinkedIn groups can be where the magic happens. They're usually filled with thousands, if not tens of thousands, of other B2B professionals who come together to share expert knowledge, ask questions, give advice, and conduct industry surveys. The most popular B2B groups are filled to the brim with daily discussions for you as a marketer to chime in on. This is how you can really create the branding effects you desire on LinkedIn. By consistently posting well-written articles and asking thought-provoking questions, you can rise as an authoritative voice and go-to expert, thus helping to make your company's brand among the top echelon in the B2B world.
With that perceived value, you can take your LinkedIn marketing efforts and turn it into a sales funnel back to your core website. Your branding and networking should generate leads and turn into more site traffic. And from there, only effective web copy can do the job of turning that prospect into a buyer. Make sure that your LinkedIn strategy is solid enough to see that process all the way through.
Lauren Francis is the owner of She Copywrites, a freelance service that caters to B2B companies seeking copy in web content, white papers, newsletters, emails, press releases, and other forms of marketing collateral.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lauren_C_Francis
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