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Using LinkedIn to Generate Business
LinkedIn strategy for Personal Branding
Penny and Thomas Power interview top Experts from the BIP100 community to introduce them to you. Finding Experts that you can trust is a challenge for us all. By sharing their clients with you, they hope they can reduce your search for great people that can help you build your business.
This sounds like the perfect scenario for anyone in business. Building your brand to the point where customers come to you, rather that you having to chase them is the holy grail of marketing. But is it possible? And is LinkedIn the place to make it happen?
Jon has a lot of experience in marketing, and specifically in creating a powerful online presence for his clients. While he had been a member of LinkedIn for a long time, he was slow to warm up to it. He felt there was a lack of community, a lack of real connection on the platform, but he sees how that has changed, and is continuing to change.
Within the last three years it has become his number one place for business networking.
What are some of his tips and insights?
Authenticity
The first point Jon makes is that what LinkedIn users want are meaningful connections. Where people used to employ software to create 100s of connections daily, building up a following and then targeting them directly with marketing messages, the more effective way to use the platform is to create conversations, to add value, and to build relationships.
Matt Thompsett, Founder of Green Lemon Company, another BIP100 expert guest at the meeting, expressed it this way:
If you were at a networking event and when somebody came up to you and said something interesting, all you did was [put your thumb up] and walk off, people would think you're insane.
Massive growth
According to Jon, March 2020 saw a massive hike in engagement on LinkedIn. The numbers went up by 25% in that one month. This didn’t necessarily mean the majority of people were using the platform any more effectively than they had been doing, just that they were using it more. At the same time, LinkedIn was aware of wanting to create a certain type of environment, one that fosters interaction and connection.
For example, there are now limits on the number of connections you can make in a given time period. So, you need to be more targeted in your approach. Think about your ideal client and how to connect with them.
Relational, not Transactional
Jon stresses that the best way to build your personal brand on LinkedIn is by adding value. This mean engaging in meaningful discussions, not just posting content that everyone already knows about, or commenting ‘Nice post’ on someone else’s offering.
He explains that it should be about contributing to each other’s professional life experiences, and you do that by taking an interesting position, or providing new data, or a different hypothesis.
Making LinkedIn work for you
It is clear that Linkedin is evolving, and savvy businesses are taking advantage of that to build their brands and attract new clients. It doesn’t happen overnight, but by following some of Jon’s guidelines, and applying your strategy consistently, LinkedIn can be a profitable source of new business.
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