Many people don’t realize how powerful Linkedin really is. Linkedin is a great marketing tool for any company or individual. Recently Gary Kelly the CEO of Southwest Airlines, asked a question about how an airline can make people more productive. Well of course I jumped at the opportunity to throw in my suggestions! You can find valuable connections and career opportunities on Linkedin, you just have to know how to market yourself.
Here are some essential Linkedin steps you can take to market yourself or your business:
- Update and complete you linkedin profile
- Add/find existing contacts (friend, family, co-workers)
- Leverage your contacts to get introduced to THEIR contacts
- Join a group, there are tons of them
- Create a group, preferably one that either doesn’t exist
- Have meet-up events or get together with members of your group
- Answer questions that are posted in your network
- Post questions for others to answer
- Place a linkedin widget on your web page (if you have one)
- Change the linkedin URL to end in your name or web site address. So instead of looking like this:
- http://www.linkedin.com/pub/0/722/21ca, it will look like this http://www.linkedin.com/in/jmorganmarketing
- Allow your profile to be viewed in search engines (under the settings tab)
- Get recommended from your contacts
- Browse the jobs section (if your looking)
- Rinse, Lather, Repeat
Following these steps I was able to triple the size of my contact list; which now includes CEO’s, marketing executives, lawyers, etc.
Not only that, but I was also able to help create a community with over 400 people (in just a few weeks) called the Search Marketing Salon. Now I can start holding events and meetings to further expand the member base and increase brand awareness (we’re getting there).
If you don’t have a Linkedin profile then I highly recommend that you create one and start networking ASAP. While your networking, don’t forget to join my network.
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thanks, these are great tips, i was actually looking for something like this…ive been planning to actually use my linkedin profile for some good 😀
http://www.linkedin.com/in/armsultan
no worries, glad I could help out! linkedin is actually a great marketing tool and a great way to reach out to folks. just have to know how to use it.
thanks for the comment!
Great post with very practical tips, Jacob, thank you. I knew LinkedIN was going to be a key business tool when I met the guy who headed up Microsoft's east coast recruiting at an event a few years back, and he was a hugely enthusiastic proponent.
It's moved well beyond a recruiting tool, though, as you've noted, into a marketing tool for your own work. Regardless of your profession. I'm inspired to go out there and start answering questions…
you are very very welcome. linkedin is definitely a tool that can be used for more then recruiting. I was just recently presented with business opportunities through a few of the linkedin groups that I am a member of. If you're active, people will see you and that will allow you to build connections and relationships.
thanks for reading and commenting janet, hope to hear more from you.
Hello
It's the Baby Boomer Queen…
You are just everywhere…
I don't see how you keep up with it all…
Do you have assistants?
You amaze me.
Southern smiles and world peace,
Sharon
~The Baby Boomer Queen~
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Thank you very much for the information I really appreciate it!!
My name is Walton Jordan, and I'm a stand up comedian/actor and writer… I'm looking to get my name out to the public. I know and understand it takes marketing to do that, and I'm looking for the best way to market myself. Here a little something I wrote about the city of San Francisco. Just to show you that I do have the talant. Thank you.
AND OH'
I like finding a spot in every city I go to just to sit and watch people. It's basically the same every city you go to. People in a rush to get where they're going. Cars going too fast. People walking across the street when they shouldn't. Even the homeless people are in a rush to go nowhere.
People talking on cell phones. I can't tell you how many times I've seen a lady on a cell phone get out of their car and lock their keys in the car along with their kid in the baby seat. How rich kids pretend to be poor and how poor kids pretend to be rich. How gay people pretend to be straight and how some straight people pretend to be gay. How a man and a woman can forget about anyone else being around and take the time to stop and kiss and hold each other right on the street in the middle of the rush. Where dreamers come and learn to just survive, by getting a job they really don't want. They would rather be playing music, writing poetry, dancing, or just sitting around with other people who are dreamers like themselves. How some people love being at work, because they don't know how to act, if they're not working.
How every city has a place you can go and forget you're in the city. How every city is black or white without that much grey in the middle. I've been to a lot of cities. Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas, San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, Salt Lake City, Denver, Chi-town, Grand Rapids, Rock City, Memphis, Atlanta, and New York Fucking City! But one stands out more than any other cities I've been to, and that's San Francisco! A city that's always fighting with itself. It has every kind of social class, race, and lots of pretty women. The people in the city want to be poetically correct, but there's too much rebellion in the air for that to work fully. This city was built on being rebellious. It's a city that's known for its gay people, but every city has a lot of gay people.
San Francisco is a lot more than that; its a city that wants to scream at the top of its lungs, but scared it might offend someone. The city is only 7 by 7 miles, so it's easy to get from one side of town to the other side. It has a fog that's as thick as chili, but without the depression like in Seattle. There's an unexplained magic in the air that makes the ground shake and demands your attention. Its how rich people live close to poor people and poor people live close to rich people. It's how the city swings back and forth to it's own pulse. It's how you can be at a place where the beer costs $12 each and two doors down you can get a beer for $1.50. It's how young and old desperately want to shake their fist in the air and yell, “ FUCK IT ALL!” And where big deals are made.
San Francisco is the kind of place where Lucifer would live, because there a peace amongst the maddest here in this city. San Francisco is the kind of place where God would come down to play chess, talk, and listen to good music at the same table as Lucifer, because there a melodic tone here where the people walk around in a trance and still able to function. San Francisco is the place where you can get high even if you don't get high. San Francisco is all that and more. Maybe I feel this way about this city, because I found a lady whose attention I've got to have. I'm not sure, maybe it's all of the above. Oh' San Francisco.
The End: Walton Jordan
My name is Walton Jordan, and I'm a stand up comedian/actor and writer… I'm looking to get my name out to the public. I know and understand it takes marketing to do that, and I'm looking for the best way to market myself. Here a little something I wrote about the city of San Francisco. Just to show you that I do have the talant. Thank you.
AND OH'
I like finding a spot in every city I go to just to sit and watch people. It's basically the same every city you go to. People in a rush to get where they're going. Cars going too fast. People walking across the street when they shouldn't. Even the homeless people are in a rush to go nowhere.
People talking on cell phones. I can't tell you how many times I've seen a lady on a cell phone get out of their car and lock their keys in the car along with their kid in the baby seat. How rich kids pretend to be poor and how poor kids pretend to be rich. How gay people pretend to be straight and how some straight people pretend to be gay. How a man and a woman can forget about anyone else being around and take the time to stop and kiss and hold each other right on the street in the middle of the rush. Where dreamers come and learn to just survive, by getting a job they really don't want. They would rather be playing music, writing poetry, dancing, or just sitting around with other people who are dreamers like themselves. How some people love being at work, because they don't know how to act, if they're not working.
How every city has a place you can go and forget you're in the city. How every city is black or white without that much grey in the middle. I've been to a lot of cities. Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas, San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, Salt Lake City, Denver, Chi-town, Grand Rapids, Rock City, Memphis, Atlanta, and New York Fucking City! But one stands out more than any other cities I've been to, and that's San Francisco! A city that's always fighting with itself. It has every kind of social class, race, and lots of pretty women. The people in the city want to be poetically correct, but there's too much rebellion in the air for that to work fully. This city was built on being rebellious. It's a city that's known for its gay people, but every city has a lot of gay people.
San Francisco is a lot more than that; its a city that wants to scream at the top of its lungs, but scared it might offend someone. The city is only 7 by 7 miles, so it's easy to get from one side of town to the other side. It has a fog that's as thick as chili, but without the depression like in Seattle. There's an unexplained magic in the air that makes the ground shake and demands your attention. Its how rich people live close to poor people and poor people live close to rich people. It's how the city swings back and forth to it's own pulse. It's how you can be at a place where the beer costs $12 each and two doors down you can get a beer for $1.50. It's how young and old desperately want to shake their fist in the air and yell, “ FUCK IT ALL!” And where big deals are made.
San Francisco is the kind of place where Lucifer would live, because there a peace amongst the maddest here in this city. San Francisco is the kind of place where God would come down to play chess, talk, and listen to good music at the same table as Lucifer, because there a melodic tone here where the people walk around in a trance and still able to function. San Francisco is the place where you can get high even if you don't get high. San Francisco is all that and more. Maybe I feel this way about this city, because I found a lady whose attention I've got to have. I'm not sure, maybe it's all of the above. Oh' San Francisco.
The End: Walton Jordan
Hi, a nice post. I think there is something missing out there. i got hired in a top brand company. and i followed this idea of spreading my linked in network. you should surely try it.
http://tinyurl.com/6xpb5us
You spelled you’re wrong (if you’re looking), dumbass