LinkedIn as a B2B Marketing Tool

LinkedIn - the Business Development Powerhouse

LinkedIn is, as many readers will know, the grown-up corporate ‘cousin’ of Facebook, although they are of course run by different companies. If you’ve a few grey hairs and been in business for at least 15 years,  you will also be able to testify to the fact that LinkedIn was around before Facebook and has always been a useful tool for business to business marketing and networking.

This corporate social networking tool now has over 70 million users and at least 1 million company profiles. I say ‘at least’ as the newest figures I can find are from last June, and the last seven months have seen a steady increase in the number of people and organisations actively using its services. This partly due to LinkedIn’s shrewd marketing and also their focus on usability. LinkedIn is very clear and easy to use and this helps busy people make the most of its tools and features.

LinkedIn is an ideal tool in the B2B armoury as a high proportion of decision markers in the English-speaking business world use it. Its main advantage is that it is free to sign up, although some services come with a price tag. LinkedIn’s additional revenue comes from advertising which is carefully thought through and considerate. The French equivalent, Viadeo is moderately successful but there are challenges for growth due to its charging model. The German speaking countries of Germany, Austria and Switzerland use a similar site called Xing, but those who speak English often have LinkedIn profiles as well.

Now that LinkedIn data is now accessible to the search engines, it is even more important to use this site to improve your internet presence.

So how can you use LinkedIn to raise your own and your company’s profile?

  • Ensure that you have a comprehensive personal profile listing a full career history and explaining your areas of expertise. Use a variety of terms to describe your areas of expertise so that your profile is seen by people regardless of the search terms they use to get there. For example, if you are the CEO of a bakery company, do not just use the term ‘bakery industry’ in your company description but also ‘food supplies’, ‘baked goods’, etc.
  • Regularly update your profile as this will appear in LinkedIn updates
  • Get recommendations from clients, colleagues and ex colleagues and suppliers
  • Ensure that you use a profile picture and that there is a company logo on your company profile
  • Include links to any social media accounts that you are using such as blog sites and Twitter accounts
  • Include a link to your company’s LinkedIn profile and your company website
  • Fill in all the various tabs on your company profile dealing with company services and follow the LinkedIn guides for this
  • Consider advertising to the right profile of individuals

After writing this blog, it occurs to me that it seems like a ‘LinkedIn rave’. Well I think it’s good and anyone who isn’t currently using it should do so. However, here are some ‘negatives’ if you want to be picky:

  • Loss of privacy – it’s the sacrifice you make for further commercial exposure
  • You need to ensure that your LinkedIn profile is a balanced representation of your business otherwise you could be pigeonholed into a particular area
  • As with any business information edited by its subjects, check that the information you are being provided with is correct

For further discussions about the effectiveness of LinkedIn, please feel free to post a comment.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 9th, 2011 at 11:20 am and is filed under B2B Marketing, Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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