LinkedIn is the top social media site for business to business companies to network, whether they are hoping to generate leads or sell business related products online, but most businesses aren’t sure how effective it can be. What happens is professionals create a LinkedIn profile, link it to coworkers and rarely take advantage of the many other features LinkedIn has to offer. The businesses that are avid about LinkedIn though are find great results. If your business needs a boost in leads or sales, you might want to follow suit and utilize LinkedIn’s features to grow your business income.
While your LinkedIn profile should highlight who you are as a professional, it should also be designed to funnel people back to your business website. How you design your profile will indicate how successful you are in compelling people to click through to learn more about your business. This is a measurable practice and you can start with making sure that your website link is prominently displayed on your profile. Simply listing your website name as the link is standard, but adding descriptive links to further compel visitors to want to discover more will optimize the results.
When your profile is geared towards highlighting your personal professionalism and also designed to funnel visitors back to the business website, take time each week to build connections. The more connected you are on LinkedIn, the more weight your profile will have and the higher exposure it will receive. Looking for connections from top customers, affiliates, vendors, and complementary businesses are all good areas to start. Joining discussion groups will also help you find more connections.
When you spend even twenty minutes a week on LinkedIn, your success in driving profile views and blog traffic will significantly increase. Valuable activities to help with this success include updating your profile, posting status updates, engaging in group discussions, commenting on other connection’s status updates, posting links to your business website, and answering questions on LinkedIn Answers.
With just a minimal amount of consistent time and effort you will see how effective LinkedIn can be to help drive traffic to your business website. To further optimize your efforts, ask that all staff members also spend some time on their own profile’s on a weekly basis. Their time will be well spent when it directly funnels potential new customers to your product and services pages.
