LinkedIn was one of the very first social networks I joined. Even in the beginning I felt LinkedIn was
modeled after real business networks. Business professionals, small business
owners and even CEO’s of large corporation’s find LinkedIn to be the go to resource
for business today. Yet having said all that, most LinkedIn users never even
try to take advantage of its many features. I have heard people say “it’s a lot
to learn” or they feel overwhelmed by LinkedIn’s features. I call these
features the “Eight Great LinkedIn Secrets”, not because someone would have to
kill you if you learned about them – I say it because they are hidden in plain
sight. Business professionals jump right over these features as if they weren’t
there. Well, in today’s blog, I will spell out the features you need to
understand and use. These must “know” features will get you in touch with the
connections you seek and make your LinkedIn experience worthwhile every time
you use it.
As I alluded to in my intro, LinkedIn is the premiere business-to-business
social network. There are almost 350 million subscribers in the LinkedIn
network. It was designed by business people for business people. LinkedIn has
always had essential business networking features like direct inviting and
messaging for building your business network. It has always provided for a
comprehensive business profile, written testimonials and other features that
build a professional’s credibility. And today it stands head and shoulders over
other social networks when it comes to doing business online. Now let’s explore
some of the must-have features.
1. Advanced
Search – In
order to build your network, you need to learn how to search for the right connections.
Many LinkedIn users use the standard search mode by keying in company names or
industry keywords in the search box at the top of the page. This function works
so well that many have never explored the “Advanced” functions. This has made
the Advanced Search function sort of the “secret weapon of advanced LinkedIn
users. These “Advanced Search” options
allow you to create a focused search.
The advanced search option link is located at the center top of
the search for people box, right next to the magnifying glass icon. This field
lets you narrow your search for people, jobs, companies and more by clicking on
the drop down selector on the right side of the search box. The “Advanced”
option takes you to a whole new level of filtered search. When you click on “Advanced”
link, it allows you to filter your search so that you can get the exact match you’re
looking for. You can filter your searches by keyword, first name, last name,
title, company, school, location, Relationship, industry, past company, profile
language, and nonprofit interest. If you have the premium version you can also
filter by Groups, years of Experience, Function, Seniority Level, Interested
In, Company Size, Fortune, and when joined. Whoa, now that a lot of filtering
capabilities. It's like you have your own personal prospect database containing
347 million people. And best of all, you can search and sort through them in a
multitude of ways. These search filters can be combined to find the exact match
you’re looking for. And your search results can be saved for future use. Here are a couple links to articles that
provide more details for using advanced Search; How to Search For and Find Coworkers on
LinkedIn and LinkedIn Is Getting Smarter With Enhanced
Search Features & Improved Query Results. If you’re not using the advanced search
features you’re really missing out on the real prospecting potential of
LinkedIn.
2. Connections – Another function of
LinkedIn that many ignore is your ability to organize your connections. They
can be listed by categories you create. In LinkedIn these are called Tags. To
create a Tag you click on the tag link right under the connections located next
to their picture. Sometime you won’t see the tag link until you move your cursor
over it. (That could be why it’s often seen as a secret item.) You can Tag your
connections under multiple categories. I have created categories like “Chamber Members,
BNI Members, Vendors, College Friends, Customers and Prospects”. Your flexibility
is only limited by your willingness to set up your Tags and then add them to
your connections. Once your tags are set up you can sort and search through
your tag categories with ease. More importantly, you can communicate with them
by messaging tagged connections you have selected. Tagging members give the
LinkedIn user lots of efficient communications capabilities. Don’t miss out on
the functions. Spend the time to create your tag categories and organizes your
connections. It will make communicating with them en masse a blessing.
3. Groups – if you’re new to
LinkedIn or social networking, for that matter, Groups are a God send to your
business. Social networking works best when you are connected to lots of
people. For your message to have massive impact, it must reach thousands of
people. But when you’re new to social networking this seems impossible. That is
until you realize that by joining groups, you can reach literally thousands of
people. It’s a great way to instantly connect with thousands, if not hundreds
of thousands of new connections. You can enter into conversations to expand
your reach, influence and connections. Once you join a group, you can easily engage
other group members by asking questions of the group, share your favorite
articles with them and posting your own authoritative articles for review and
discussion. Best of all, you can direct message anyone in your groups. In
LinkedIn this is called sending them and “In Mail”. Normally you can only send
messages to connections on your 1st level. That is, those you have
invited to connect with you and they have accepted your connection. Those
outside of your contacts can only be in mailed by you, after you ask one of
your connections who is also connected to the person, to contact them. Your
contact would then make an introduction via their in the mail. However, if the
person is a member of your group, you can invite them to connect directly with
and In the Mail. You can join up to 50 groups, and their usefulness cannot be underestimated.
Just make sure you follow the rules of the group and be respectful of the purpose
and relative focus of the group. Otherwise, you may find yourself being kicked
out of the group. These groups can be very active and quite large.
4. Companies – Most business
professionals will have their profiles about 90% complete on LinkedIn, but very
few will have a company profile setup. This just seems crazy to me. When I ask
why they haven’t set up their business profile, many business owners say I
didn’t know I could create one. I know this is finally changing but any
business that doesn’t have a LinkedIn company profile is really missing out.
LinkedIn business profiles are designed to be search engine friendly. Most importantly,
you can portray your company in the most positive light possible, regardless of
your size. The first feature is the showcasing
of your content, both curated and authoritative. This shows up as in your
“Recent Updates”, right below your profile. You can then sponsor these posts,
(paid promotions) to test your messages to see what works best. This is another
great way to engage in A/B testing before you fully commit your financial
resources to any particular marketing message. Here's the thing that really
gets me excited. You can select exactly who you’re trying to get in front of
because you can enter psycho/demographic filters to target your ideal
prospective audience. You can select the location/s (down to the city level),
all companies (or by name or category which include industries, company size
and by Job Title, (you can select All, by Title and Job function or Seniority).
You can even select Schools they have attended, Fields of study, Degrees,
Skills, Groups there in, Gender, Age and much more. These are just some of the
filters. Again, anytime you can create a web presence that is search friendly,
highly targeted and that also allows for highly focused, cost effective A/B
testing and promos (both pay per click and sponsored post), you can go wrong.
5. Education
– Youniversity – Under the Interest – Education link you will find Youniversity.
LinkedIn is used by both businesses and Job Seekers. One of the best ways to
get a great job is to get educated at a great University. Check out University
rankings - Find the best University – Check out fields of study – create a
decision board - Check out Alumni, Employers and more. This is also a great way
to network with your old school mates and Alumni. Many employers target
specific universities and here is a great place for companies to start their
recruiting programs. This is a separate employer section than the “Jobs”
section of LinkedIn. Here a company can create a home on LinkedIn to highlight
their jobs, featured employees and build their employment brand, regardless of
their size. They can also run ads targeting students on LinkedIn who exactly
match their ideal candidates. And remember, LinkedIn cover every corner of the
Globe so your chances of finding the right candidate, who’s still in school,
goes way up. Better to compete for the now than when they are on the hunt for
their idea job. Here are a couple of great links to help you learn more; Youniversity-hub and social-data-better-decisions-for-students.
6. Business
Services
– Under business services, we have a lot of mostly ignored features (that is mostly
ignored by small business and professional). Many medium and large Corporations
have been taking advantage of LinkedIn job posting services for years. You can
“Post a Job” – create a “Talent Solutions” – “Advertise” your product or
service – and create a dedicated “Sales Solutions” using LinkedIn Sales
Navigator. The Sales Navigator program allows sales professionals to increase
their social selling with tools designed to help them recognize opportunities
and then make connections through warm introductions. LinkedIn Sales Navigator helps sales
professionals be more successful at social selling by leveraging 347M+
professional profiles. Here is a link to a LinkedIn white paper giving you more details
and a series of articles you may find
useful.
Sales Navigator Major features include:
- Designed
for Sales User Interface
- TeamLink
- Lead
Recommendations
- Advanced Search
with Lead Builder
- Real-time
Sales Updates
On average, social
selling professional and teams enjoy these benefits:
- 45%
more opportunities created
- 51%
more likely to achieve quota
- 80%
more productive
- 3X
more likely to go to club
7. Premium – Premium is not really a
secret except for the fact that most professionals don’t understand that it's
more cost effective to learn how to use this tool to find the right prospect
than it is to scour other resources to get leads and make connections. Premium
is the tool most
professionals should all be using. If you’re in team sales,
the Sales Navigator could be the tool for you. This upgrade over the free
version gives you all of the above features plus the ability to store search
results – directly contact people with up to 15 In-Mails per month included
with your plan, plus the advanced search features mentioned earlier, See who’s
viewed your profile in the last 90 days and created unlimited profile searches
- up to the 3rd degree. (In-Mail is a direct email service that
allows you to connect outside of your 1st level connections
regardless of how far they are removed from your connections). If you’re a
professional looking for a job, you can get your application listing displayed
at the top of the heap by subscribing to the Premium. Job seekers also get additional
capabilities in talent and sales solutions as well. Here are some links to
articles you may find useful; Linkedin/why-linkedin-premium-is-worth-the-money
and forbes.com -
22-linkedin-secrets-linkedin-wont-tell-you.
8. Pulse - One last item worth
mentioning is Pulse. This feature allows
publishers of articles (this includes bloggers), to have their articles
featured on Pulse, LinkedIn's news and insight center. This LinkedIn feature allows
the subscriber to follow specific writers of influence who are either chosen by
you or show up in top post as chosen by Linkedin
readers by being read and shared. If you’re a writer or a blogger who produces
quality articles this could be your ticket to the big leagues. I could devote a
lot of space to this feature, but instead I recommend you check it out thoroughly
and get your blog or website set up so that LinkedIn subscribers can read and
share your articles. This could be the big break your looking for. Here are a
few articles to wet your appetite; "Is LinkedIn Poised To Be The Next Media
Giant?" and "5 Actionable Tips To Use LinkedIn Publishing To Get More Blog Traffic".
In this article I cover eight very important functions of
LinkedIn that are underutilized either because many subscribers haven’t heard
of them or haven’t taken the time to learn them. Each of the seven functions are
powerful features in and of themselves. However, these secret weapons can take
any LinkedIn subscriber’s network utilization to the next level. Any business
professional who adds these functions to their LinkedIn repertoire will immediately take their social networking and
prospecting to new heights.
That's my opinion. I look forward to reading yours.
If you'd like a free copy of our eBook, "Internet Marketing Tips for the 21st Century," please fill in the form below and we'll email it to you. Your information is always kept private and is never sold.
Hector
Cisneros is COO and director of Social Media Marketing at Working the Web to Win, an
award-winning Internet marketing company based in Jacksonville,
Florida. He is also co-host of the weekly Internet radio show,
"Working the Web
To Win" on BlogTalkRadio.com, which airs every Tuesday at 4 p.m.
Eastern. Hector is a syndicated writer and published author of “60 Seconds to Success.”
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They don't call him "Hector the Connector" for nothing. I always learn some new way to work the social nets more effectively every time I read one of his blogs.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to study this one. Thanks, Hector!
ReplyDeleteTraditional IT-SM behaviours must be effectively re-designed towards better performance by utilizing L-iN advantages for all & at once..!
ReplyDeleteThank You so much for your informative post. I also want to add something about LinkedIn for Business Marketing, Recently posted on Blogging Egg about The Complete Guide Using Linkedin for Business Marketing
ReplyDeleteThanks for your Great post on Linkedin Secrets. It's really effective for business marketing. And I personally Love using Linkedin for Business purpose! You can also check this post for better linkedIn Marketing. https://bloggingegg.com/using-linkedin-for-business-marketing/
ReplyDelete