How to Leverage LinkedIn to Market Your Business with @LewisHowes [@InboundNow #10]

In this episode of Inbound Now, we are joined by Lewis Howes. Lewis is the author of two books LinkedWorking and LinkedIn Master Strategies , founder of SportsNetworker.com , and a professional speaker, who covers a number of social media topics but mostly focuses on how individuals and companies can better leverage LinkedIn.

This time around we chat about:

• Where to start with LinkedIn
• Some common mistakes to avoid 
• How to leverage Linkedin Groups
• How to build these activites into your daily workflow

Enter to win a signed copy of Lewis's Book!

For the full transcript and audio from the show head to:  Using LinkedIn for Business Best Practices with Lewis Howes

LinkedIn Doesn't Work

One of the biggest complaints Lewis sees is people exclaiming "LinkedIn Doesn't work!"

This is because these people set up their profile and let it sit for months and didn't do anything with it or reach out and connect with other like minded people on the network.

The same principles of real life networking also apply on LinkedIn. If you were to go to a networking event and not talk with anyone, do you think you would built any relationships or potential business leads? 

What are people still getting wrong?

Make sure your LinkedIn profile is filled out 100%. 

"If it’s not filled out 100%, if they’re aren’t recommendations of people vouching for you, showing some social proof or creditability about what you’ve done before, you don’t have a picture, if you just don’t have anything, if you have misspellings, things like that, then it’s just going to look pretty poor. So you want to make sure you have it filled out 100%."

LinkedIn is your Resume on Steroids

A two page document that you mail into a company doesn't cut it anymore.

You need something that houses all of your skills and makes it as easy as possible for the company looking to hire you to do their research.

Company Pages on Linkedin

The company pages are still in their infancy, but Lewis think they might "be as powerful, if not more powerful than the Facebook Page probably in the next 6 to 12 months" with some of the changes LinkedIn has on deck. This will be an interesting turn of events if this happens.

On your Company Page right now you can add reviews/recommendations to your products page, add in videos, and link back to your site.

The morale of the story, create a company page on LinkedIn and have it up to date and optimized.

To Join or Create?

The age old question still looms, "Should you create a group on LinkedIn or just join them?"

Lewis recommends joining every group possible in your niche. This is to get a feel of which groups would be worth investing some time in and which are just full of spammers. When you find groups that are bubbling with thoughtful conversation, jump in and start asking and answering questions.

If a group already exists in your niche, Lewis recommends creating a new group but geographically focus it in your own area. 

Linkedin Content Strategy for Groups

To grow a Linkedin Group (much like a Facebook Page) you must continually share out useful information and spark conversation with members.

Share free webinars, free whitepapers, great links, and other content that will resonant with your audience. Don't blatantly sell, or your group is destined to suck.

Bottom line: Provide value. 

A Daily Workflow on Linkedin

First define your goals. What are you doing on linkedin? Are you building an email list, or you trying to drive leads, traffic?

Some of Lewis's daily/weekly LinkedIn activites include:

• Reach out and connect with 5 influencial people
• Spend 45-60 minutes a week answer questions
• E-mail and ask a compelling question to three people I want to know better
• Develop one question per week and send in to at least 50 qualified people for response.
• Recommend one person per week.

Linkedin Answers

Leverage the Answers section of LinkedIn.

People are raising there hands and asking a ton of questions on LinkedIn. 

"When you think about it for a second, when other professionals or businesses are asking questions on LinkedIn, they have a specific pain point at that moment. How do I build a website? How do I do this, how do I do that? My IT’s down, and this and that, right? They have a specific pain point that needs to be solved right now. If you can offer them the best resource, the best answer, the best information and be extremely helpful to them, without trying to sell them but just being helpful, that’s the most targeted buyer or anyone who’s going to hire you at anytime is when they’re asking a pain question. "

Give the best answer overall and DON't sell in the answer.

Follow up with a brief reply privately with the person who asked the question and let them know you would be happy to help them with anything else pertaining to the issue.

This is a great way to grow your network and potentially gain a future referral or a client.

Video in Your Profile

LinkedIn SEO

Increase the odds that LinkedIn searchers will find your profile .

Add keywords in five main places in your LinkedIn profile:

1. The headline of your profile
2. Current work experience
3. Past work experience
4. In the summary
5. In the specialties area

Connect with Lewis Online

On LewisHowes.com or @LewisHowes on Twitter

Past Episodes :

• Gauging Online Influence with Jason Keath of Social Fresh
• How to Market Smarter, Faster, and Cheaper with David Siteman Garland
• How Small Companies are Evolving with New Technologies with Phil Simon
• How to Rock Your Facebook Fan Page with John Haydon
• Stop Marketing and Start Engaging with Scott Stratten
  
• Podcasting for Business & Email Marketing Best Practices with Christopher S. Penn
• Becoming a Trust Agent with Chris Brogan