Danielle MacInnis – Marketing Blog for Small Businesses

With LinkedIn just listing on the stock exchange and jumping over 100% in the first 24-48 hours,  and now around $85 US per share,  should as a small business be as jazzed about it as the Stock Exchange?

You should be on LinkedIn if:

1. You want to build a network especially for business to businesses. Remember the rules. Give to gain. Be generous and don’t spam! There are over 70 Million users, chances are you customers are there if you are a professional service based business.

2. If you want to build your personal brand and be the “go to person” for your area of expertise. Update your profile and give potential collaborators, prospects and employees some great information about you and what you do.Use the Q&A to share your knowledge and answer some questions.

3. Leverage a social media channel that can connect you with key influencers and collaborators. You can have a paid or free account to connect with others. I use LinkedIn to search for people who I am going to meet so I can see their profile.

4. If your competitors are there. LinkedIn is a great research tool and gives you insights into who is doing what in your market.

5. If you want to use their groups to share information and learn about others. The great thing about LinkedIn is you can search for groups that you serve. Be it small businesses, women entrepreneurs or  accountants. Once you find them you can enter the conversation. What a great way to prospect!

6. To recruit potential employees. I have recruited key staff from LinkedIn. You can list a job and get candidates replying to your account.

7. If you want to do some research. I used one of the women in business forums to do some research for a client for a new product for this segment. I got an awesome response.

Hubspot's stats on LinkedIn

8. If you plan to make real connections. Like all social media the “show up and throw up”(thanks Sue Barrett for that quote) sort of people are those that people steer clear of. Making real connections, just like in face to face relationships takes effort so only join if you are prepared to put in and use the tool.

9.Use the tool to share content. You can leverage the content created on these forums in your blog, twitter, article syndication and Facebook identities to share conversations that might be relevant to your customers.

10. Build a powerful online thought-leader reputation. This tool allows your to change opinions, lead conversations and build a reputation. Be careful, it can bite! You need to be true to yourself and be polite and authentic. Try to be someone you are not and you will be dumped like a hot potato.

Related articles

• Getting Started With LinkedIn (thenextweb.com)
• 16 Smarter Ways to Use LinkedIn to Build Your Business http://www.copyblogger.com/linkedin/#more-17843(Copyblogger)