LinkedIn is a popular business social media platform that every budding business owner, entrepreneur, solopreneur or anyone else seeking to gain awareness of their business should consider joining.
With LinkedIn, you can hire new employees, network with other companies and address issues related to your industry from the comfort of your couch. It is currently the only place where more than 200 million people (professionals, entrepreneurs, and corporate organizations, etc.) engage in personal word-of-mouth marketing despite being in different parts of the world.
Be Recognized by Creating an Online Profile
To use LinkedIn, you have to sign up for a free account and set-up your company profile. This profile is an important avenue through which people can easily locate you. Your LinkedIn profile should contain all necessary details including your contact information. Remember, in personal word-of-mouth marketing, you have to provide genuine information or you will be mistaken for a spammer.
Connect with Other LinkedIn Users and Keep Growing
Setting up a LinkedIn account is not enough. You need to connect with other users: clients, colleagues, family, friends and other industry contacts. This will not only help your profile to be found, but also provide a referral system for you – people love working with contacts whom their friends and family know and trust.
Provide Advice and Ask Questions
LinkedIn is an excellent platform for you to ask and answer questions. Apart from addressing different issues, you can obtain useful advice from experts.
Hire Workers
If you want to recruit the best talent available in the job market, you can do so by posting positions on your profile. There are millions of professionals out there who are willing to work for you. What’s more, with LinkedIn you can view your potential employees’ profiles to find out more about them.
Advertise your Merchandise
LinkedIn runs text-based ads for smaller budgets. These ads are shown to other members on their individual profiles. You can take advantage of this and market yourself to a huge online audience.
Why is LinkedIn Important?
Apart from the obvious advantages of personal word-of-mouth marketing, there are many more benefits that you can gain by using LinkedIn. Here are just but a few of them:
Gather Information and Contacts
Knowledge is power. As an entrepreneur, you’ll often need to know what is happening around you before making important decisions. On LinkedIn you can get resources and contacts to see you through different projects and ventures. If you want to have the power of social media working for you, LinkedIn is the place to be.
Access Effective Solutions
As a businessman, you will constantly need to obtain effective and efficient solutions to all your projects and ventures. LinkedIn has many professionals who will be willing to provide you with the best advice. The good thing about this media is, even if your trusted contacts are not able to help you directly, they can introduce you to their friends, who may provide useful guidance and information to you.
Beat your Competitors Hands Down
One of the best ways to stay ahead of the pack is by actively participating on LinkedIn. Not only will you find important information, but your contacts could be the ultimate professional support team you have always yearned for. This is also a strategic place where you can get all the important and unbiased information about your industry as a whole.
Connect with People who are Willing to Help you Grow
It is always better when a trusted friend refers a new contact to you rather than when you hire someone off the street. On LinkedIn, it is possible to tell whether a certain individual (or company) is worth working with by checking their profiles or by asking your contacts.
Get all the Necessary Information on Time
Effective communication is an important tool as far as running a business is concerned. On LinkedIn, you can stay in touch with your friends and colleagues and know everything that is happening in their lives on time.
There is indeed a lot to gain by joining this ever-growing business social media.
Maria Elena Duron, CEO (chief engagement officer), buzz2bucks | a word-of-mouth marketing firm, is skilled at making networks “work” and harnessing powerful online and offline buzz. She facilitates online visibility services and word-of-mouth coaching and workshops – taking companies and professionals from buzz-worthy to bucks-worthy, http://buzz2bucks.com.
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Why Do Entrepreneurs Need LinkedIn?