Life of an Internet Entrepreneur

I recently reviewed the book How to Find a Job on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and Other Social Networks by Brad Schepp, who had interviewed myself and several others.

Here is an excerpt from the book, offering my tips for using LinkedIN to grow your business, and a few tips that weren’t in the book:

I found clients in the following ways through LinkedIN:

By type of company

When I had a service to offer a particular type of person, industry, or geographical location, I used the advanced search to target the decision makers.

By niche

I joined groups in the targeted area and discussed topics that were “buzz worthy” in that group.

By targeted company

If I had a lead for a particular company, or was blocked by a secretary, I could follow the chain of command by looking at all employees from a particular company and get to the right person right away.

Introduction

I built up an army of contacts, all of whom are very kind and will send an introduction to any of the 7.5 million people I end up getting connected to by 2 degrees away.

Answers

I would answer questions in my niche and display expertise, and often get a follow up message which can be converted into business.

2nd contact

I would often add a contact to linkedIN after my initial discussion with them - within 24 hours to keep my name fresh in their head. Then I would follow up with more information a day or week later.  In a way, the second stepping stone was linkedIN.

Profile optimization

I would add keywords into my profile to get ranked well in google and get the right searchers looking at my profile and getting in touch with me.

Display icons

I place the LinkedIN icon on my blog and other places to make it easy to connect.  Someone reading my content is much more likely to already trust me, and linkedin is an easy way for them to “officially” get in touch.

Show expertise

I bring my blog into linkedin as an application so that any visitor to my LinkedIN profile can instantly see some of my work, and that I’m active on the site.  If users don’t see that, they won’t risk spending time getting in touch with you.

Explain

I explain what I can offer (value-wise) to someone reading my profile, so they are thinking about how they can be helped, instead of just “oh, that’s an interesting person” and then leaving.

I’m sure you have some tips on LinkedIN that have worked for you, please feel free to add your thoughts below!