The Power of Personal Connections:Using LinkedIn to Market Your Business and Yourself

Presented by:Mary Bahr

6/08/10

How Small Businesses Use Social MediaFigure 19

Most users of social media – 58 percent – find the medium just “met expectations” for success. For the remainder, twice as many feel the medium fell short of expectations (26 percent) than exceeded expectations (12 percent) for success.

The expectations small business owners have for social media are related to external marketing and engagement, and include identifying and attracting new customers, building brand awareness, and staying engaged with customers. Fewer small business owners expect social media to help them with collaborating with external suppliers, partners and colleagues or with staff internally. The external marketing is an obvious use of social media, but there may be a vast untapped potential for using the medium to link members of the supply network, colleagues and staff to gain advantages in creativity and productivity. Such internal uses are harder to imagine and in their infancy, but have the potential to unleash a vast reservoir of creativity and joint problem solving as social media users grow exponentially. Examples of such uses are developing a new product or service, finding low cost resources, teaming to pursue business opportunities, or leveraging an expert source to solve a special problem.

Copyright 2009 Network Solutions, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Source: “The State of Small Business Report”, Network Solutions LLC, and the Center for Excellence in Business at the University of Maryland.

The areas that users have been successful in are generally the same as expectations. However, there is one notable gap: while 73 percent of users expect to identify and attract new customers with social media, only 61 percent have accomplished this successfully. Thus, social media performance is below expectations in bringing new business in the door, although it meets expectations for building brand awareness and staying engaged with customers.

Figure 20

Social media use is not without problems, the main one being the amount of time involved. Half (50 percent) of small business users of social media have found that it has taken up more time than they expected. A common concern about social media in a business context is that it gives people a chance to criticize the business on the internet, but only 17 percent cite this as a concern. Related to this, only 6 percent feel that social media use has hurt the image of the business more than helped it. Overall, these users are able to control the medium, but are finding that it takes a lot of effort to maintain and contribute content, interact, and monitor information on social media sites.

Copyright 2009 Network Solutions, LLC. All rights reserved.

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What Types of Social Media Do Small Businesses Use?

What do Small Businesses Hope to Accomplish with Social Media?

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Some Background on LinkedIn

• Founded in 2003• Over 67 million members; 1 new member per

second; 50% outside US• All Fortune 500 represented; over 4 million

small businesses

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Why embrace LinkedIn?• Increase your visibility, improve your Google page rank and

search engine results• Increase your connectability: locate people from your past,

present and future• Research companies and people (staff movement, hiring

turnover, job descriptions)• Give and get—ask questions, answer questions, write

recommendations• Promote yourself and your business with added apps,

and website, blog visibility• Scope our the competition, potential customers and

employers• Keep track of job movement of your network

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How to do it…• Strive for 100% complete profile (click on the button that

shows how complete your profile is: it will help you complete it!)

• Use the “professional headline” for more than your current title: use it to describe yourself (in Basic Information section)

• Use “current status” field to raise your professional profile: e.g.: what are you working on, what are you reading, what are you attending…

• Make your profile and work experience as complete as possible: it will bring more potential connections to your attention

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How to do it…• Remember your LinkedIn profile should complement

your resume, not duplicate it• If you’re a business owner, create a business page for

your business• Change your public profile URL to your name; add

this URL as a hyperlink to your email signature• Add your websites and blogs to website listings: you

can list up to three (could also list causes that you are involved in)

• Summary: is NOT a resume: use it to explain who you are and what you are passionate about

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How to do it…• Applications add functionality and visibility to your profile:

select ones that you’ll use (I love Amazon Reading Lists, SlideShare and Blog Link, but choose what works for you)

• Give and get recommendations strategically: do not give recommendations that you would not give in “real life”

• Look for groups that will complement both your professional and personal interests

• Ask questions when you are trying to solve a problem or find a solution: particularly if you are looking for something specific

• Track companies

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How to do it…• Use LinkedIn proactively: research someone before you

meet them, if you are going on an interview or business pitch, request to LinkIn BEFORE your meeting, so that they can review your profile

• Events: promote professional events you are involved in, invite your network

• Create your own special interest group: create additional credibility for your expertise

• To learn more: Guy Kawasaki’s article on LinkedIn (http://tinyurl.com/2fbver)

• Check out LinkedIn movie:(http://press.linkedin.com/about)

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The Fast Fifty(or almost free websites)

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google.com/alerts

What are they saying about you on the web?Track it and your competitors…

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google.com/adwords

What are the hot words on the web?

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google.com/analytics

How does your website rate?

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google.com/trends

How does your website rate?

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google.com/readerKeep all the blogs you follow in one place

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Docs.google.comCollaborate, edit, store

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dimdim.com

Free web-conferencing and audio bridge for up to 20 people

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websitegrader.comFree SEO tool: easy to use and understand; also has facebook and twitter graders

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instapaper.com

Read later icon in toolbar

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tinyurl.com

Create short URLs with one click: indispensable for FB and Twitter

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Healthyskeptic.org

Alternative, informativeHealth and diet information

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marshallgoldsmithlibrary.com

Author of “What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There

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“Getting Things Done”

Davidandco.com:David Allen’s process: GTD

The god of productivity gurus

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43folders.com

A David Allen disciple:great productivity tips and tricks

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thefourhourworkweek.com

For those of you who love Tim Ferriss, or really hate him; either way he’s interesting

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itunesu.comClasses available for download on any subject from some of the best universities in the world

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Trendhunter.comKeep track of what’s hot around the world: great free reports

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charlesandmarie.com

My favorite shopping site: their Soupe du Jour: a product offered for only one day, is fabulous

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bagsnob.comNeed I say more? Can any woman have too many handbags?

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flightstats.com Find out where your flight REALLY is

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someecards.comFor those of us who prefer snark to sincerity.

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trademarksearch.comA government site that actually works.

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brandsoftheworld.com Logos, logos and more logos

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yousendit.com Free file transfer/ftp site. If you need more, we suggest sharefile.

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Printwhatyoulike.comSave paper: print only what you want from a web page

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lifehacker.comProductivity tools and tricks: particularly involving technology

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zenhabits.comGood advice for those of us over-scheduled, over-worked people

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mashable.comStay up to date on what’s going on in social media, and it changes daily

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ted.comGive yourself a gift and listen to at least one TED talk a week. Share on Facebook and LI

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presentationzen.com

Have to deal with powerpoint? This will help your presentations not suck quite so badly

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findsounds.com

Free SFX. Can be used in ppt!

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visualthesaurus.com

Note: trial is free, website is not. If you write, you’ll love it

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thesaurus.com

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clichefinder.com

Sometimes that cliché is right on the tip of your tongue…find it here

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smartbriefentrepreneurship.com

Links to the best articles for entrepreneurs. Many other smart brief editions available.

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groupon.com

Great deals, if enough folks sign up

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tripadvisor.com

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iltrafficalert.com Set up alerts based on your own schedule and route

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opentable.com

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dailybeast.com A somewhat snarkier CNN. Good columnists that you won’t find elsewhere

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newser.com Similar to Daily Beast, a smart news aggregator

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alltop.comAn aggregator of great information on almost any topic. Try here first rather than wikipedia…

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pagesix.comGossip, gossip, gossip.

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blurb.comGossip, gossip, gossip.