LinkedIn: Learn eight ways to generate more sales leads for Canadian small business owners.

LinkedIn is “the” social networking site for business people.

While growing up my mom always said you can never have too many friends. Whereas my dad said, you can never have too many business acquaintances (the term networking wasn’t in his vocabulary in those days). My sister says, unless you’re networking you cannot grow your small business to generate more profits.

I say if you have time for only “one” social media site – if you are business to business LinkedIn is your best option. Why? You need to expand your business contacts to attract more sales. If your business is primarily consumer based, you need to understand if they use LinkedIn before you prioritize this site.

Social Networking is no longer just “social”. LinkedIn focuses on interactions and relationships of a business nature versus personal or non-business related. Why should you have a profile? Their slogan says it all – relationships matter.

Gee whiz facts:

• Over 225 million LinkedIn users in more than 200 countries.
• Approximately 90% of the members are business professionals; only 10% are students and recent graduates.
• Three new members join every second.
• Over 11 million Canadians and 74 million Americans have a profile. Source: LinkedIn January 2013.

Social networking has been slower to gain traction with Toronto and Canadian small businesses. Typically there is a distrust of time versus measurable benefits. The following eight powerful statistics from Portrait of a LinkedIn User: 2013 Edition are based on Power Formula’s research. Click on the infographic to expand its width. It’s a quick read and simple to understand. The following should alleviate business owners’ confidence to sign-up for a LinkedIn personal profile and company page.

1. Generate identifiable business opportunities: 28%
2. Build new relationships with potential customers: 39%
3. Build new networking relationships with individuals who may influence customers: 45%
4. Increase your face-to-face networking effectiveness: 41%
5. Increase branding and marketing in the market places: 36%
6. Research people and companies: 76%
7. Reconnect with past business associates/colleagues: 71%
8. Help uncover potential job opportunities: 36%

The following is a LinkedIn primer:

Connection: business equivalent to a Facebook friend. Members are business people who want to build their network, drive more sales leads, and share and learn with other professionals.

Recommendation: testimonials from customers, colleagues, suppliers, business partners

Member profile: individual profile (Think of it as your 6-page life-long resume: include an overview of your current responsibilities, career summary, jobs held, education, significant accomplishments, volunteerism etc. Provide status updates to keep your connections up to date. Don’t forget to link to your company profile.

Company profile: describe your business, promote your products and services, gain recommendations, recruit employees, share important, interesting, and useful updates etc.

Group: Join local, national, global, association and industry based group of like-minded professionals. Engage in discussions, post-jobs, and make connections to generate more sales leads. Maximize your groups for business development to generate more profits for your small business.

TIP 1: Get educated

• Google the word “LinkedIn” and watch current videos.
• Use the help on LinkedIn which is actually ‘helpful’.
• Read the questions and answers and post a question on LinkedIn’s forum. This is the best forum that I have ever seen – image questions that are answered in a timely fashion!
• Power Formula’s website is a great resource for training and understanding how to leverage both your LinkedIn profile and company page.

TIP 2: Sign-up for a basic (free) LinkedIn profile

Until you are leveraging its full value, hold off on committing to the monthly service. NOTE: Only 15% of members subscribe to a premium plan which ranges from $21-76 monthly. When I find the need to subscribe to a monthly plan, I will let you know.

The bottom-line

Attract more customers by building your LinkedIn connections and then leveraging those relationships. Ask to be introduced to their connections and generate more sales leads.