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This is a guest post written by Lewis Howes. Known as the “King of LinkedIn,” Lewis has written two books on the topic and created the #1 LinkedIn training course, LinkedInfluence. For more LinkedIn tips and advice, download his free LinkedIn videos at www.lewishowes.com.
LinkedIn is like a steadily growing, mutual fund. The more you put into it, the greater your return. It’s that easy.
I’ve been using LinkedIn for nearly four years and continue to see thousands of my leads and customers all coming from LinkedIn.
That’s right. Not Twitter or Facebook... but LinkedIn.
This makes sense though, doesn’t it?
I mean, as the world’s largest professional network with over 100 million business professionals, it’s the perfect platform to tap to grow your network and generate more leads.
Here are seven easy ways you, too can generate lots of new leads using LinkedIn...
1. Create an Account
This may sound silly, but if you don’t have an account, it will be pretty hard to generate leads from LinkedIn. Your first step is to set up a profile at www.linkedin.com.
2. Optimize Your Profile
No one wants to connect with someone who has a crummy profile. Take the time to finish it 100% and optimize your LinkedIn profile -- your headline, work experience, summary, and specialties. Your profile is like a PowerPoint deck, and you don’t want to show up with missing slides for your professional presentation to the world.
3. Customize Your Website Links
Sounds like a no-brainer, but I see so many profiles with their website links that say “my company” or “my website.” No one cares! No one cares about your site; they care about how you can help them achieve their goals or solve their problems. Instead, edit your website link to the “custom” version. Add a call-to-action that directs people to your website and tells them exactly what they are going to get when they click.
4. Add Your Blog
There are a number of advanced applications on LinkedIn. Use them. One that helps drive traffic back to your site (and directs leads to you) is the blog app. Simply add your blog feed link to the app after you install it for free, and you'll have your most recent blog posts showing on your LinkedIn profile for the world to see!
5. Add a Welcome Video
This makes complete sense. Would you rather have an average profile and try to compete with all of the other professionals who are in your niche, or stand ten feet above your competitors and attract more leads than them? I'm sure you'd prefer the latter.
If so, then add a sixty-second video that auto-plays on your profile every time someone lands on it. Tell people who you are, who you help, and how you help them in the first thirty seconds. Spend the final thirty seconds telling them to get in touch with you and to take action by connecting with you to see if they are a good fit for what you offer. You can learn how to add a video to your LinkedIn profile here.
6. Answer Questions
I hear countless stories from people getting leads by using the “Answers” section on LinkedIn. Here’s what you do. Browse for categories that are in your niche or industry. Answer questions to showcase your expertise, and when possible, provide links to content you've created that offers more detailed information on the topic. Once you’ve done this, send a private message to the person asking the question. If they’ve taken the time out of their day to ask the question, then it’s likely a major pain point for them in their business. If you provide value in your answer, then you can follow up and offer them more resources. You'll be setting yourself up for a new customer in record time.
7. Create a Group
This is for the big dogs, the ones looking for a collection of massive leads -- more leads than they can handle. I have created more than 10 groups. The largest has over 46,000 members, and the smallest around 1,000. Collectively, they are all around 80,000 members and growing at a daily rate. Each week I can message these members and send then back to my website, my newsletter opt-in page, a free webinar, or any other way I want to collect leads. Create a LinkedIn group not about your company but instead that fulfills a need in your industry, and you will be well on your way to more leads than you can handle.
There are dozens of other ways to generate leads using LinkedIn, but I wanted to give you just a few of the basics here to get you started. I hope you see by now that LinkedIn isn’t just another social networking site but rather a powerful engine for generating qualified leads to help you grow your business.
What other tactics do you use to generate leads from LinkedIn?
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