LinkedIn business development best practices

Recently, I was asked by a friend new to LinkedIn how to make the best use of it for business development. My response went something like this:

LinkedIn is your business suit, in that it's designed strictly for business. The one exception is the Status Updates feature in the newsfeed that, in my opinon, does not fit the business tenor of the site. 

LI offers a number of business development features:

Individual Profile - That's the base of operations for any social network, but it's particularly important where LinkedIn is concerned. It's vital, therefore, that you fully complete the profile, something LI helps you do via the profile progress bar. LI's search feature enables you to find prospects with whom you can connect. 

Recommendations - Part of the profile includes getting recommendations from co-workers, vendors, clients, etc. The more the merrier so far as I'm concerned. 

Groups - There are now over 300,000 groups on LinkedIn where professionals are discussing, sharing news and collaborating with each other. This is a great way to network with prospective clients and colleagues. LI just announced an additional feature, sub-groups, which they define as being akin to "breakout sessions at a conference." 

LinkedIn Answers - This feature gives you the opportunity to prove your worth as a knowledgeable resource. Respond to questions that fit your area of expertise. 

That covers the feature set, but doesn't get to the heart of how to build relationships that lead to business transactions. For that, I turn to a co-worker, Charles Lauller.

Charles Lauller's LinkedIn Strategy

Charles Lauller, Bizzuka's SVP of Sales, is a LinkedIn member who pro-actively uses the network to connect with others on a daily basis. His first attempts proved fruitless, however, because, to quote Charles, he focused on “pimping my company and its products.” 

He quickly learned what author David Meerman Scott teaches, that "no one cares about your company but you," and changed his tactics to something that was much more of a comfortable fit given his generous nature, that of expressing sincere interest in learning about others and offering help. 

That altruism turned things around. “Eventually they run out of things to say about themselves, and start asking me about my business,” says Charles. The result is he gets between two-five warm leads per week which, according to him, is about the equivalent benefit of making 200 cold calls. “And no one slams the phone in your ear either!"

I asked Charles to outline his approach to building business on LinkedIn and he said:

• Drop all of the bogus I'm pimping me and my company bologna.
• Be yourself. Honest, sincere, authentic (assuming that's you) But, whoever you are you will likely attract individuals like yourself to your network.
• It's cliche, but “seek first to understand,then be understood.” I always (when seeking to expand my network and connect with people) learn about them from their profile, and ask how I can help them. I've found that when I continually ask others how I can help with recommendations, referrals and/or introductions, they usually want to reciprocate.

I would be interested in learning more about how you use LinkedIn for marketing and business development. Please feel free to comment. 

Comments

[Mike Mueller]

Paul - good stuff, I would add the WP or Typepad Plugin that brings your blog posts right into your profile.
The other underused item is the summary. It shows up right under your contact info and allows you to really personalize your profile.
I am of course: http://www.linkedin.com/in/mikemueller

[Paul Chaney]

Good points Mike. Yes, I completely forgot about the plugins.

[Brenda Young]

Hi Paul,

As usual, a great list that I can point to when I have questions from people about best practices on social media.

Thanks for putting this together!

[Paul Chaney]

Thanks for saying so Brenda. I appreciate it.