Find Business on LinkedIn in a few clicks!
I had a great week last week at the Party Summit in Brooklyn! Not only did I get to put a few faces to names, I got to watch Beth in action – which is always a learning experience for me. I wasn’t really sure how my 20 minute spot on using social media for groups could compete with the plethora of information Beth had given for Everything Birthdays and Group Sales.
Boy was I mistaken!
I watched in awe as people grabbed their pens and started scribbling notes as I spoke. Sometimes I forget that even though I’M immersed in social media 24/7, other people are busy handling bookings or cold calling 50 people a week in hopes of getting through to one or two people.
To me, LinkedIn is the new way to cold call corporate and nonprofit groups, but is WAY less intrusive. If you don’t have a LinkedIn page for your company you should consider getting one ASAP, and then tasking your Group Sales or Corporate Sales person with nurturing the account.
I was happy to give important takeaways to the group in Brooklyn, and I’m even more excited to share them with YOU!
Use these ten tips for getting started with your LinkedIn account:
1. Excellent customer testimony is one of the best ways to grab the attention of NEW customers. Once you have your account set up, look for some returning, loyal customers and ask for a recommendation. It will be published on your page and broadcast out to their entire network.
2. Sync your LinkedIn and Twitter accounts to keep your professional network abreast of what’s going on at your location.
3. Find and recommend your best vendors on LinkedIn – trust me – they have plenty of people they know that are looking for your service, and if you scratch their back first, you’ll be the first to gain new business from them.
4. Search LinkedIn Groups for industry associations or networks to take part in. This is a good place to see what’s working (and not) for other FECs.
5. Use LinkedIn Groups and Answers to find answers or ideas to your tough questions. Thousands of FECs are on this site, but more importantly, they are ready and willing to help you!
6. Raise Funding … for CHARITY! Using LinkedIn Groups you can find local charities and nonprofits looking for partners. Several of our clients have found success in using community fundraisers to boost business and sales.
7. Grab repeat business referrals from peers on LinkedIn Groups. Use Groups to network with peers in the FEC industry and to find complementary businesses to share referrals with. With over 2000 groups dedicated to small business topics, it should be easy to find groups that fit in perfectly with what you do.
8. Gain new business by simply answering questions and showing what you know! There are many forums on LinkedIn where you can share you expertise – which is essentially the perfect place to pitch your business to those who don’t know about you. Prospective clients will find your answers when they use the advanced search tab to answer their questions.
9. If you’ve got a blog, make sure you link it to your LinkedIn account. This will allow potential clients to read about your expertise without feeling pressured by the pitch.
10. And as I ALWAYS say on my social media webinars: Keep your friends close and your enemies closer! Over 150,000 companies have a pubic profile for their business, relaying key stats on the company; recent hires as well as movers and shakers. You can use this to your advantage by gaining insight on your competition, as well as finding potential new hires for your own team.
What do you use LinkedIn for? What are your success stories with the site? We’d love to hear about them in the comments section below!!
~ Brooke Ballard
