Top Five Features of LinkedIN for B2B Marketers
Have you been on LinkedIN lately? If not, you may be surprised to learn that the professional networking platform is starting to look a lot more like Facebook, Twitter and some of the other major social marketing platforms. LinkedIN is evolving and its new format presents a number of opportunities for building your personal or business brand. Here are some of the biggest changes and thoughts on what they mean for you:
- Share Feature: When you log on to LinkedIN, you will immediately see that your homepage now features a sharing field much like Facebook’s status updates. This allows you to post a quick note about what you are working on, the latest news about your business, or thoughts about the market segment in which you operate. These updates will appear on the homepages of anyone you are connected to as well as in the status update emails that your connections receive, thus keeping you fresh in their mind. LinkedIN also gives you the option of syndicating your update to your Twitter feed or Facebook page, thereby reaching a broader audience of friends and followers and cross promoting your presence on multiple social networking sites. Similarly, if you are already Tweeting, you can set up a feed so that your Tweets are syndicated to your LinkedIN profile. This is a great way to get the most of your social marketing time!
- Groups: If you are not already a member of LinkedIN Groups, you are missing a major opportunity to network and connect with like-minded professionals. LinkedIN boasts thousands of groups covering just about every professional field and area of interest. You can join a group that already exists or create one to meet your needs. Groups are a great way to learn more about your area of expertise and stay connected within your profession. For example, we are members of the Advertising Specialty and Promotional Products Industry group, as well as others such as the Brand Activation group. Through our involvement in these, we receive industry news, participate in discussion boards, and see job postings.
- Answers: One of the most interesting new features of LinkedIN is the Answers section. Located under the “More” tab along the menu bar at the top of your LinkedIN homepage, Answers is a forum where anyone can ask a question about anything and have it presented to the entire LinkedIN membership. While the Answers function is an interesting way to gather information about topics of interest to you, we think its real value lies not in the questions, but in the answers themselves. By becoming actively involved in answering others’ questions, you can position yourself as an expert on a given topic and gain exposure to audiences that reach far beyond your personal connections. When you post a question or an answer, it appears in your profile, on the homepages of your connections, and on the Answers tab which can be viewed by anyone using LinkedIN.
- Events: LinkedIN now offers a great channel through which to promote events or your participation in them. The Events section of LinkedIN is located under the “More” tab and allows you to post events or search events by location, date or keyword. The Events feature is a great way to let your connections know about conferences you are attending, find out about what others in your industry are doing, and learn about opportunities of which you otherwise would not be aware. If you are interesting in promoting your own event, you can create it on LinkedIN, track who is attending, and even integrate your event posting with LinkedIN’s new Direct Ads function so that it is advertised to targeted segements of LinkedIN’s audience.
- Applications: When you are ready to get the most out of LinkedIN, venture over to the Applications page (also located under the “More” tab). Here you will find a laundry list of fantastic plug-ins that will expand the potential of your LinkedIN presence dramatically. For example, you can use TripIt to let your network know where and when you will be traveling and take advantage of opportunities to connect – in person – with members of your otherwise virtual network. Google Presentation allows you to post PowerPoint presentations to your profile – a great way to share the results of your research, summarize a new product offering, or even present your resume in a new format. Huddle Workspaces allow you to create private, online work environments in which you can share and edit documents, exchange ideas, track tasks, and run virtual meetings with a select group of your contacts. I could go on and on about these and other applications, but you’ve really got to check them out for yourselves!
The five features listed above are really the tip of the iceberg. LinkedIN has so many new features and functions that make it easily customizable to your business objectives. With over 65 million members in 200 countries, the potential reach of LinkedIN is incredible. Add the LinkedIN for Blackberry, iPhone, or Palm application to your PDA or Smart Phone, and you can manage your network 24/7 from any location!