Social Media has become an integral part of our everyday lives.

As a business owner or marketing executive, it’s imperative for you to have a vibrant and interactive presence on social media simply because that’s where your customers are. It’s also imperative to know which social media network has the majority of prospective customers and then, always be present there. 

In this article, we will be focusing on the best B2B (Business-To-Business) social media network for professionals – LINKEDIN.

LinkedIn is an online business social network, a professional networking platform with a purpose to connect people, jobs and business opportunities and perfectly suited to aid companies with building their client base.

You get to share content and information about you and your business without needing to be in the same room or place.

First of all, here are 4 criteria for using LinkedIn in your business.

✓ If you want to increase awareness of your company to new potential customers,
✓ If you want to learn how to build relationships that result in more business, 
✓ If you want to leverage relationships to close sales and increase revenue, then this a how-to guide article
✓ If you want to convince prospects that your company, business, product or service is the best one to solve their problems, then you have come to the right place.

With the strategies that I will share with you today, you will learn how to use LinkedIn to attract new clients and customers, build referral relationships and position yourself as one of the best service-based or product- oriented
business or professional in your industry!

You probably already know that LinkedIn is important (or you won’t be reading this article) and have begun some kind of LinkedIn marketing, but you are not using it to its full potential and aren’t sure you know the best way to do so.

Some of the problems most businesses face in using LinkedIn are;
✓ How to create awareness, and get positioned as leaders in your industry
✓ Finding the right employees, potential customers, long-term clients, vendors, partners etc.
✓ How to connect and build relationships with the people who share similar interests or hold certain opportunities
✓ How to grow your contact list while providing ideas and strategies to business leaders, business owners and chief executives.

As business owners, it’s important for you to know the returns on your time and financial investments and that’s why this article is an important read and by the end this article, you would have learned how to do the following:
✓ develop a social presence on Linkedin,
✓ build a network of potential clients and partners,
✓ market your business and
✓ measure your results.

Moving on…

Here are 7 proven steps that have consistently given me well success on LinkedIn:
1. Create an impressive LinkedIn profile
2. Grow your connections and network
3. Develop and Give Value Daily
4. Set up your company page
5. Generate leads with content
6. Set a weekly LinkedIn activity routine.
7. Use my 5-LinkedIn Daily Reminders.

Let’s Get Started. It’s a pretty long article but loaded with valuable information. So get ready to learn.

SIMPLE STEP #1 – CREATE AN IMPRESSIVE LINKEDIN PROFILE
A complete and interesting profile leads people to content that is useful, promotes your company, and tells people why they should connect with you and read whatever content you might be sharing. It’s your online business card/resume.

It is where you show the world, all the great things you have done and can do in your professional life.

In addition, it makes it easy for friends, colleagues, potential customers to find you online because your public profile is searchable.

How do you create this impressive profile?
a. A Complete Profile and Professional Profile Summary.

Completed profiles are 40 times more likely to receive opportunities than incomplete profiles.

The profile summary is just like a cover letter addressed to potential business partner, but instead, addressed to a potential type of customer or client you want to serve.

b. Your Hero Shot.

I’m talking about your LinkedIn Profile Picture. This is not the time to get goofy. Your picture should be a clear representation of you. It should communicate trust, what you really look like and endear your clients to
you.

c. Create A Compelling Professional Headline
Saying who or what you are in your headline increases your authority or expertise in the minds of potential customers as well as opportunities.

Your Professional Headline is the area right underneath your name; the 120 characters that describe who you are and what you do. This is a great place for a tagline and a few keywords, so your profile becomes searchable on Google.

If you are not sure what keywords you can use, search a few profiles of people who have vibrant profiles in your industry that do what you do. Look at what keywords they are using and use them too.

You can use these keywords in various places on your profile.

Your picture, name and Professional Headline is usually what people see in most of your communications on LinkedIn, whether you are responding to a group update, sending a message, sending an invite to connect, or introducing someone to others.

So invest the time to make your Professional Headline good.

[dt_gap height=”10″ /]d. Recommendations.
Recommendations are sort of written testimonials from people who know you or have worked with you or have simply come across you or your business in one way or the other.
Why are they so important?
Recommendations are social-proof.
It’s powerful to tell people who you are, what you do and the solutions you provide. But, you know what’s even more powerful? Having other people talk about you and recommend you.
This is definitely something you want in your profile.
How do you get recommendations? Simple. Give recommendations.
Look for people who you can give true, honest recommendations for and chances are, they’ll return the favor.

SIMPLE STEP #2 – GROW YOUR CONNECTIONS AND NETWORK
Now that your profile is done, it’s time to grow your LinkedIn network.
There are several ways to do this:
A. Leveraging Your Already Existing Contacts
B. People you may know
C. Alumni
D. LinkedIn Search

Let’s take them one at a time.

a. Leverage your existing contacts.
LinkedIn allows you to connect with people you already know simply by using your email address.
LinkedIn is able to pull all your contacts that have existing LinkedIn profiles and you can send a request for them to connect with you.
It is good practice to send a personal message with your request just to make it – well, more personal.

b. People you may know
Based on your already existing profile and connections, LinkedIn will identify several people you may know and want to connect with.
This is another great way to build your connections.

Again, it’s always a good idea to send a personal message along with your connection request.

c. Alumni
Based on how well you’ve filled out your profile, LinkedIn will compile a list of registered users they have that are alumni of your school and allow you to connect with them.

You can also sort through these contacts by where they live, where they work and what they do.
Using these 3 strategies will get you well on your way to growing your connections and building your network.

d. LinkedIn Search
Last, but certainly not least, you can use LinkedIn Search to find people you want to connect with.
You can search for people, companies, jobs, schools, groups etc.

Remember anytime you send a friend connection request, it’s always a good idea to send a personal message along with it.

Not sure what to say? You can use my connection request template in the 20-minutes/day LinkedIn Action Guide

SIMPLE STEP #3 – SET UP YOUR LINKEDIN COMPANY PAGE AND SHOWCASE PAGE

Showcase pages and Company Pages are LinkedIn profiles specific for businesses.
It gives you an opportunity to introduce people to company brand, showcase your products and services, attract clients, gather followers and engage with potential clients.
Now, there’s a difference between the two:
– LinkedIn Company Pages provide excellent opportunities to highlight products and services, tell your company’s story, engage with your audience, share career opportunities within your company and drive word of mouth at scale.
– You could also use this to conduct product and service research and share company updates, industry news, and job opportunities.

With Showcase Pages, you can build a presence and present a unique voice for every important part of your business.
This is particularly useful if you have multiple products and services that cater to different clients categories. You can create a distinct platform for each product or service you provide that has its own message to share with its own target audience.
It’s a unique way to directly engage the right people in the right context.

SIMPLE STEP #4 – DEVELOP AND GIVE VALUABLE CONTENT

No matter what business you’re in, the bottom line is that you’re providing a solution to someone’s needs. Your products and services are the answer to someone’s question.
What you need to do is to answer these questions in your potential clients’ minds. Provide information that speaks to the conversations your clients are having in their minds. Answer questions, encourage and engage in public discussions, create relevant content that educates.
Your content has to be exciting and educational enough to grab people’s attention.
Attention-grabbing and value-rich content can go viral and generate a lot of shares on social media websites.
Content could be in the form of blog posts, white papers, videos, books, PDFs, songs, and infographics.
So, develop a reputation as an expert that showcases experience through the value you give out.
In addition, participate in discussion groups and share updates that provide meaningful insights, provoke conversation and produce opportunities to engage with and influence contacts.
Use the power of adding value to others for you and your business even if you don’t have a famous or micro-famous personality.
Make sure to utilise LinkedIn’s publishing platform: LINKEDIN Pulse.

SIMPLE STEP #5 – GENERATE LEADS WITH CONTENT
The next step is to ensure that you are building a list of potential clients who are interested in your products and services. These potential clients are called “leads”.
The aim is to collect their contact information so that you can follow up with them and convert them to paying customers.
How will you do this?
By offering them something of value – a lead magnet.
This “valuable offer” could be information, discount, free consultation etc. It all depends on your business and what your potential clients want. Make sure what you are offering is irresistible enough that they are willing to get it in exchange for their contact information.
Then, ensure that you are optimising the content you are sharing. Always put in a link that leads them to a squeeze page.
(A squeeze page is a one-page website that allows you to give potential clients something of value in exchange for their contact information.)
Again, the aim of all this to build a list of potential clients interested in your products and services so that you can follow up with them until they become paying customers.

SIMPLE STEP #6. – SET UP A LINKEDIN ACTIVITY ROUTINE
You might be saying at this point, “How am I going to get all this stuff done?”
Everything I have outlined so far is doable.
The key is to set up and follow a CONSISTENT schedule.
Keep your goal in mind, and track what works and what doesn’t.
Some of the things you need to do include:
➢ A LinkedIn profile review and how to make it more searchable and presentable
➢ A company page review; decide how extensively you want to use this, and what you will feature there.
➢ Organise what you know about your target audience, customers and prospects. Brainstorm and research for answers, on the questions you have for and about them.
➢ Generate content that will allow you build a list of potential clients.

Here’s a list of things you absolutely must do:
1. Status Updates – create reminders, appointments and notifications for yourself on your calendar to post status updates. These updates could be quotes, articles, testimonials, press releases etc.
2. LinkedIn Groups – Post about your latest content. Find other good content and post it as well. This is the place to give value. Do NOT Spam.
3. Content Creation – Work out a schedule and stick to it. Search for various topics that appeal to your target audience. Analyse the content that gets the most traffic. If need be, check other social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to see the posts that get the most traction.

SIMPLE STEP #7 – USE MY 5 LINKEDIN DAILY REMINDERS
5 things you must always remember to be successful on LinkedIn:
✓ Always be of value to your target audience, and be clear on value. No playing small. 
✓ Remember, it is about relationships. Keep generating those relationships.
✓ Do the work before it’s needed. Build your network and establish relationships now that you can utilize in the future.
✓ Be yourself. And this will show through regardless of whatever industry you are in.
✓ Give yourself the credit you deserve for investing in yourself

A FINAL WORD ON LINKEDIN
If you are not using LinkedIn for business, you are missing out on the opportunity to boost your outreach – and bottom line.
Leveraging the power of LinkedIn begins with building a solid professional profile and presence.
• As a professional, how do you stand out from the crowd on LinkedIn?
• How do you differentiate yourself from the millions of professional users on the network?
• What will make your profile visitors want to learn more about you and your business to ultimately connect with you?
You must first establish a foundation in order to begin building your influence, generating introductions and referrals, and uncovering valuable business opportunities.

Having a completed profile is the most effective way to showcase all of who you are through your talents, background, experience, passions, interests, and areas of expertise.
In addition, a completed profile is going to make you appear to be a more competent user in the network.
Your LinkedIn profile must be the first stop for a new introduction. With a solid foundation, you will be well positioned for the next phase, where you can grow your influence and build your business.
Your profile must speak the language of your market and instantly establish you with Trust and Credibility while portraying you as unique from the thousands like you.
If you want to Harness the TRUE power of LinkedIn, and also learn more about how to use LinkedIn to grow your business, click here to get instant access to our LinkedIn Webinar.