With over 600 million users in 200 countries, and a plan to ramp it up to 3 billion people – Linkedin is the place for B2B networking.
If you’re not active on Linkedin, you could be missing 80% of your leads.
Studies show that 80% of B2B leads come from Linkedin and 94% of B2B marketers use Linkedin to distribute content.
There’s over 9 billion impressions on Linkedin every week which is 468 billion per year. What’s even more interesting and fascinating in these statistics, is that only 3 million users share the content that produces these impressions on a weekly basis.
This stat literally opens the door for a massive opportunity for you to share “share- worthy” content – because the sheer gigantic ratio clearly indicates that potential your content has to go viral and get a ton of exposure.
Getting Started on Linkedin
Be active regularly on Linkedin and start conversations on the platform on a regular basis to derive maximum value.
However, before you start a new conversation with B2B marketing in mind on Linkedin make sure you follow some basic strategies so you do it effectively.
You should keep in mind that this is not Facebook and it is a professional site – so you need to keep your communications that way.
Here’s some quick tips…
Tidy Up Your Profile Pic
Choose a recent picture of you, and don’t Photoshop them – keep it clean and natural. Make sure the pic looks like you! your pic should take 60% of the fame and make sure you choose the right expression in the photo. Make sure your pic makes you approachable. The style should match your industry.
A good photo that is professional professional (smiling is important) can build credibility and trust.
The Linkedin background area is very powerful for any visual branding that you would like to do.
Your Headline
You have 120 characters to write your headline. Personalize it and tell people quickly what your mission is and what you do. (If you want some good headline examples – you can Google posts that show this.). Use the description area to start conversations!
Personalizing Your Profile Page
Make Your Profile Client Facing… ask yourself… “How is what I’m putting on my profile going to make money for my clients and get them more business?“.
Use a vanity URL for your Linkedin URL.
Add your domain name in website and you can add a quick USP in it.
Include your email and make it visible (but be careful with this as you may not want to do this)
Insert your birthday so you show up on everyone’s feed once a year and lets someone reach out to you to start a conversation.
Your Linkedin Summary
Write this in a narrative format that tells a story (you have 2000 characters). Great stories start a conversation. Do not insert bullet points in here.
Write… this is who I am, this is what I do, this is how I can help you.
This is not a place to be salesy. People love to be sold but they don’t like to buy!
Showcase your credibility and show people what you have done.
Extend your personality in your summary.
List out companies you’ve worked with and in what capacity / what was the venture.
Have a call-to-action, if you like, at the end of the profile summary.
Skills and Endorsement
Get the right ones and not some random ones!
Recommendations
Recommendations are good to have. You can pick which one is shown on your page.
Here’s a example message you can use when reaching out to your network asking for a recommendation…
Subject:
quick favor?
Message:
I’m in the midst of shoring up my Linkedin profile and though I’d reach out to you briefly to see if you’d be up for giving me a brief recommendation here on Linkedin based on your knowledge of who I am and the work I’ve done.
And, if you’re not comfortable doing so absolutely no worries!
Meantime hope this note finds you well, and (sincerely) if there’s anything I can do to help you out here on LinkedIn or otherwise, please let me know!
Posting Content
When you write content make sure it is of high quality so it gets shared and establishes your authority in the niche.
- List posts do well
- Tag companies in your posts
- Tag people in your company
- Add pictures
Make sure you comment on other’s posts and reply to people when they comment on your post.
TIP – When you post a new update on Linkedin there is a checkbox and area that lets you share your update with a private message to your connections as well as post it to groups.
Native Videos on Linkedin
Native videos work very well. If you’re confident just sit down in front of a camera and start talking!
You can start conversations with people through video. Have someone ask your questions in the video and answer them.
Create a video series if things start to click for you – so people look for the next video in the series and your videos can go viral.
Use videos for catchy product demos. Put the right hashtags in it.
Live video is coming soon to Linkedin – and could be a huge opportunity.
Making Connections on Linkedin
In your profile area, everyone Linkedin suggests to you to connect with – lets you connect to them, without having their email and with a single click.
Make sure to check new invitations coming in daily and connect and message people who send you invites immediately.
Tap into your College / School Alumni network and groups.
And, remember that there’s a maximum of 30,000 people you can connect with on Linkedin.
Activate Status – Live
When there is a green dot next to someone’s profile on Linkedin it tells you they are currently logged in on their mobile in Linkedin. So, this is a great time for you to connect with them as they will pay attention quickly.
QR Code Feature
Linkedin gives you QR code you can put anywhere on the web, and when people scan the QR code your Linkedin Profile opens up on their mobile!
The Find Nearby Feature
The “find nearby” feature on Linkedin allows you to start the app and see everyone else who is near you so you can connect with them (works very well for conferernces, trade shows etc when you want to connect with like minded people).
Looking At Each Other’s Profiles
If you go to someones profile, they can see that you looked at it. So, when others look at your page – you can start a conversation with them if you like, by sending them a quick message – “Hey, I saw you looked at my page… and then start a conversation with a personalized message.”
Here’s a neat trick…
If you go to someone’s page and look at it and then they look back at yours – they are 90% more likely to connect with you!
Linkedin Groups
Join groups where others like you hang out because you can message them immediately without knowing their emails. They don’t have to be connected to you for you to be able to message them.
Messaging on Linkedin – Hack
If you get massive amounts of messages in Linkedin simply go to the bottom of your inbox and record a voice message to reply quickly to people who message you.
Make sure your profile is to the point and cleaned up all OK before you start your outreach efforts on Linkedin!
This post is a summary of a Linkedin presentation given by Marc Murphy at Traffic and Conversion Summit with a few other notes and pointers.
Some profiles on Linkedin share their email addresses within the page. You can harvest these emails and then setup a cold email outreach campaign to target users directly using automated follow up messages to increase your response rates.