LinkedIn
is a great social network for small and large businesses to reach out to relevant prospective customers.
LinkedIn Answers
in particular allows you to find people publicly stating that they have a specific problem or need that your product or service would solve. It’s pretty awesome.
What’s even more awesome is that you can get high-quality traffic to your blog from LinkedIn Answers , and get some really qualified leads as well. Here’s what you can do:
1. Create a New Blog Post in Response to a Question
Instead of simply answering the question in full right on LinkedIn Answers, create a remarkable blog post answering that user’s question. Then reply to that question within LinkedIn Answers with a summary of your answer, and let the user know that you’ve created a detailed and helpful post to answer their question. Something like: “Your question inspired me to write a blog post on the subject, and I’ve provided even deeper analysis over there: (insert link). Let me know if you find it helpful, or if you have any more questions!” Also enter this link in a “Web Resources” field, as you can’t create linkable text within the Answer text field. Going above and beyond will show potential customers that you really do care about helping them.
If you’re a HubSpot customer, you can easily find relevant LinkedIn questions to answer via the Social Media tool" target="_blank">Promote > Social Media tool . Click on the LinkedIn filter to see a feed of all the Questions that include the keywords you’ve entered when customizing your social media terms terms. Click on the question title you’d like to answer to read the full question on LinkedIn.
2. Answer a Question Linking to Relevant Existing Posts
When linking to your own blog within LinkedIn Answers, be careful not to be spammy. Create a new law for yourself: “I am only allowed to link to my blog if I include insightful information in my answer.” Once you’ve answered the question with helpful and insightful information, you can then link to your blog post. Preface your links with a comment like: “I’ve written about this subject before on my blog, so here are a couple links if you’d like to read more.” Enter these links in the “Web Resources” fields, as you can’t create linkable text within the Answer text field.
3. Create a Standard Signature for your Answers
At the end of each of your answers, include a signature, including your name, your blog URL, and even something like your Twitter URL. This way, for occasions when providing a link within your answer aren’t appropriate, you’re still giving people an opportunity to find your blog and read more.
4. Create a Blog Post Asking a Question that Includes Pictures
Write a blog post asking your readers a question, and link to that post within a new LinkedIn question, posed by you to the LinkedIn community. A good excuse for hosting your full question on your blog rather than LinkedIn Answers is the use of images; you cannot include images within LinkedIn Answers. So within your question posed to the LinkedIn audience, say something like “I’ve included pictures of what I’m referring to in this blog post. I’d really appreciate your feedback!”
*Note: Keep in mind that the link within your question won’t be hyperlinked, as LinkedIn doesn’t allow this. A user will need to copy/paste your link into their URL bar, so traffic will look like Direct Traffic unless you create a tracking URL or use a URL shortener with tracking functionality like bit.ly.
How have you been able to get traffic to your blog from LinkedIn Answers? Add your #5 in the comments below!
Diana Urban
is a User Experience Manager at HubSpot. You can follow her on Twitter
@dianaurban
.
Inbound Marketing Blog Feed
jpdesigntheory 9:22 AM on November 17, 2010
You know, there was a time not too long ago that I used to troll through the #IN questions to provide answers. I admit I stopped doing it, but apparently I wasn't doing it right to lead people back to my site for more relevant information. Great ideas here, thank you Diana!
Jean Maund 9:28 AM on November 17, 2010
Interesting idea. I have in the past generated business for myself and clients by using this technique but with yahoo answers. Hadn't thought of using it with Linked In.Thanks for the reminder!
Chris @WebMindset 9:30 AM on November 17, 2010
I have not tried this. You guys are loaded with good info. Time to dig into LinkedIn.
Charlie Scala 9:57 AM on November 17, 2010
Is it better to use LinkedIn Answers to promote your blog, or to start relevant discussions LinkedIn groups with a link to your recent blog posts?
Thanks,
Charlie
SEO Freak Show 10:22 AM on November 17, 2010
This is a fantastic strategy to utilize LI Q's. In addition, I have found that you can take this to the next level by answering your LI inbox in the same manner. Many times people will send follow ups to answered Q's; go ahead and write your response in the form of a post. Not only are you responding to the sender, you are also producing (hopefully) great quality unique content for your site.
Barb Chamberlain 10:52 AM on November 17, 2010
Great suggestions. The only thing I would add is that on your idea #1, as you said so well with idea #2, you should add some value with your answer inside LinkedIn, not just say "I put all the good stuff over here on my blog."
Maybe it's a teaser along the lines of "I came up with 5 suggestions--here are the first 2 and the rest are on my blog" or something like that so you're still participating within the LI community.
@BarbChamberlain
Dave Hale 10:57 AM on November 17, 2010
As a self-confessed social media and LinkedIn junkie, I love this info you provided. What always erks me is when people post questions that do not even mean anything. What's up with that?
Asya 1:30 PM on November 17, 2010
This is very helpful. My mom and I are building our small business and this should give us that extra step!
Neobux Fan 2:46 PM on November 17, 2010
Very good Tips. They are sure to work.
PlainWrappedSuccess Blog 2:50 PM on November 17, 2010
Thanks for letting us know this. LinkedIn could be as good as YahooAnswers.
Parent Tips World 3:27 PM on November 17, 2010
With various categories from Administration to Using LinkedIn, there is opportunity for every site owner to use this strategy. Thanks for your info.
Jason Mikula 5:35 PM on November 17, 2010
Diana,
I use LinkedIn occasionally both personally and for clients. I spend the most time on the groups feature - but your suggestion is a great one.
Oftentimes I find myself struggling to come up with blog ideas - you offer a great 1-2 approach to developing ideas for posts, promoting them, and (hopefully) generating a lead!
Thanks for the post!
Kyle Alm 1:17 PM on November 18, 2010
I didn't even know LinkedIn had an Answers section, this is a great way to farm for leads.
Lewis Howes 3:01 PM on November 18, 2010
Great read... I also wrote a post on 10 ways to drive traffic to your blog using LinkedIn here:
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2010/02/18/top-10-ways-to-drive-traffic-to-your-blog-using-linkedin/
Shriharsha Bhat 11:58 PM on November 18, 2010
We have our own LinkedIn page, however, the people refuse to take part in any interactions :( We have tried to make it more interactive, but to no avail. Are the discussions more interactive when there are a large number of members or, is the quality of content (discussion topic) more important?
Farnoosh 6:48 AM on November 20, 2010
I'd like to try this - I want to see if I can actually answer people's questions and be helpful - I enjoyed the very brief interactions on Yahoo! Answers so this may be fun too. Thanks for the insights!
Karie Price | Real World BA 6:52 PM on November 20, 2010
I had been trying to come up with the right strategy for leveraging Linked In to be helpful and draw traffic to my site at the same time. This is great! Thanks for the tips and helping me get over the stumbling block of how to make this effective.
Lisa 11:57 PM on November 22, 2010
Diana:
i had no idea about this! I am glad you posted about LinkedIn answers as I'm off to check it out now. Well Done!
Gabriele Maidecchi 9:03 AM on November 25, 2010
Really nice tips, especially for who - like me - is on the look for more ways to be "active" on LinkedIn, apart the traditional ways we all know - status updates, groups, etc.
Thanks for sharing them.