LinkedIn.com a great tool

Linked In (www.linkedin.com) is one of the most powerful web tools for professionals looking to network. I recently conducted a live online demonstration and discussion to the Sales and Marketing Professionals of North East Wisconsin (www.smpnew.org) on this social networking tool. We all had a chance to share our thoughts on the benefits to companies in the areas of sales development, business, and group membership features.

In a nutshell, LinkedIn.com makes invisible networks visible. In the real world it is hard to see who knows whom. In social circles, that is like driving to a destination without directions. Linked In provides a visible solution to see who knows whom. From the professional networking, word of mouth marketing, referral-based recommendations, share of knowledge bases, and affinity group communication, all can be a part of your LinkedIn experience.

In my world of marketing, Neilson Research does an annual review of the most effective marketing. Word of Mouth always comes out on top, meaning referral based experiences is where people gain comfort of making a purchase. It is with this basis that Linked In is so successful as it provides opportunities for people to share their network experiences and basically give their endorsement of people or a company.

Once you log on and get your information posted to the site, you have the ability to search for anyone. More often than not, you'll be able to find the person you are looking for with some great information along the way. You can also start to build your own connections that will help you down the road. I describe the benefits in a little more detail below.

Sales/Business Development Benefits
One of the biggest benefits of LinkedIn is in the area of business development or sales. In most cases you’ll find the contact you are looking for with their general information. Not only does this make a cold call a great deal warmer, it provides you with critical information as to the background and previous work history of an individual. Knowing the previous job history, previous associations, positions held and groups the person is associated with makes your conversation that much easier.

Then there are the all-important connections the individual has. Your ability to see their connections is based on the individual’s privacy settings. If the settings are set closed to outsiders, then you’ll have to work a little harder to find this info. Once you have established a relationship with the individual and are able to “link in” with him/her, you can typically see their connections. This is where it gets real juicy. You have an opportunity to see all the people this person is networked with and it quite simply provides you with a visible trail of their circle of influence, prospects, or additional connections that may be valuable info for your business development efforts. In addition, it provides relational connections to you and your contacts. This will allow you to leverage your relationships and their knowledge of a potential prospect. You can also to an advanced search by company. This will give you others that may be able to help you in your efforts. The more you build those relationships, the more referrals and connections in those areas of influence happen in the future.

General Business Benefits
Some of the other benefits of LinkedIn include job searches, background checks, asking a question, researching companies, competitive information and sharing of knowledge base.

As the classified advertising for job postings have moved mostly online, Linked In’s profile info is already established as a place to put your online work history. So naturally it provides a great place to either look for a job that matches your skill sets as well as search a potential candidate work history that is for hire.

If you happen to be seeking a service provider, Linked In provides an avenue to search based on their customers referrals. A good way to pre-qualify as well as start in a position of knowing what level of service others have received from the potential supplier. There is also a feature that allows you to ask questions of service providers so you can get advice on issues before making any moves.

Part of the search features allow you to gain information about the company through profiles, actual employee posted information or even competitive information. This information can be helpful in searching for job candidates or job searchers looking for info on the company and its employees. Once you uncover a specific company or person of interest, there are opportunities to share knowledge bases on a topic as well. As we all know, information can be “king” sometimes.

Affinity Group Benefits
Lastly, group membership on LinkedIn can also have it benefits. Chances are many of the affinity groups a business professional is a part of also have an online LinkedIn group that you can be a part of. This will provide an online forum for posting discussion boards, huddle workspace for shared documents, as well as a slide presentation space to share any presentations a group puts on. Each group is allotted 1 Gig of space to work with.

These group benefits include committee work documents that can be edited in real-time and posted instead of through a trail of hard to manage emails. It will also, send you e-mail updates as to who has recently been invited into the group. This will in turn extend your network as well and provide another leverage point with the connections of the group and be available for your own personal reason for joining the group. You instantly have another referral group as well.

Another nice feature is getting a weekly e-mail that updates you on all the weeks’ activities of the people in your entire network. This allows you to keep tabs on those you feel are important and take advantage of knowing what people are connecting to others. It alerts you to job changes, new connections, new group members, all in an easy to read update.

This is just scratching the surface of all the features available on LinkedIn. At a minimum have your companies sales group be made aware of the business development tools. It will surely help your business grow…. and who knows, maybe grow your personal relationships deeper as well.

Happy linking,

Mark