The number one goal for any business is New Leads (Twitter) and Retaining Leads (Facebook) but there's another factor that empowers any venture, large or small - connections.
That's where LinkedIn.com comes in. A large, buzzing hub of professionals, all posting about their daily business/professional life, coming across new and old business connections, gaining recommendations, and potentially, powering up their little black book.
LinkedIn has a fantastic array of tools that help you tell the business world who you are, with ample plugins, room to boast about your achievements, and a sure-fire way to know that those in your industry are noticing you.
Taking the LinkedIn experience to new heights is their connections system. Your immediate business associates/affiliates/contract are your 1st degree of connections. A 'suggestions' panel, which finds connections that are in subsequent degrees lets you know who actually knows them that you know, and thus forms a credible link to that person.
It's always surprising to see just how close you are to that Principal or Director you've always want to hook up with, or just how many potential business contacts you could actually form with this valuable tool.
The best thing about LinkedIn (and the reason it stays so credible in the business world), is the fact that you must ACTUALLY know the person you're making a connection to, and that person must reciprocate their knowledge of you, before a connection is made. This keeps LinkedIn (mostly) spam free, and you can spend more time forming valuable relationships, rather than blocking some schmuck.
As a bonus, you can use your LinkedIn profile as a type of eBusiness card, with blog feeds, Twitter feeds, Recommendations and experience for all to see. Crucial in this digital referral age of ours.
With LinkedIn, its definitely a matter of 'it's not what you know, it's who you know'.
Until Next Time,
Tomer Garzberg
http://ping.fm/ygknx
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment