LinkedIn is one of the most popular social networks in the world and will certainly be at the top if you could rank it by the amount of business it has been generated. LinkedIn is, after all, the one forum people use when thinking about their company and networking with other professionals. That's why, unlike Twitter and Facebook, it's ripe for lead generation and career purposes that are more 'private' and less 'network.'
Create a polished and personally branded profile on LinkedIn.
The worst mistake you can make on LinkedIn is not taking full advantage of all the different pieces of real estate offered in your profile. Bearing in mind the following guidelines and methodologies, set your profile thoroughly before conducting any kind of network outreach. Accounts with pictures are 14X more likely to be viewed by others by some figures. But no photo whatsoever will do. Select a good professional photo that looks like you, represents your personal or professional branding, and that accounts for at least 60% of the LinkedIn profile structure.
Connect, Reconnect and help — social media marketing at its best.
First, help. Start communicating with your present and past contacts, concentrating on relationships where there is already trust. A quest on LinkedIn to find people you've lost contact is easy to execute. Then, reach them out and in some way give support.
When you get a new business card from someone you know, use LinkedIn to look them up and invite them to communicate with you. If you only start as a user of LinkedIn, you can import your contacts from Outlook, Hotmail, Gmail, and Yahoo! That is, or AOL. Be sure to include your distinct URL in your email signature, in your typical curriculum vitae, on your blog, on your website, and on your business card so people can easily connect to you.
Post Updates and Share Content
The users who get the most exposure and can, therefore, gain the most leads on the website are those who go viral. If you're new to LinkedIn, you might not be aware of it, but just like Twitter and Facebook, individual posts will be viral, and those users will experience a massive surge in the number of leads they get.
Like Facebook, LinkedIn allows you to post status updates and share content with other users on the platform. Your connections will then see your posts; they may like them, and even share a post with your contacts. You will become more aware if you like your connections and share your content with them.
Hashtags
While the # hashtag originated on Twitter, it has spread its influence through social media sites, including LinkedIn. # hashtag Hashtags are useful for inbound marketers as they categorize common keywords that could be searched by potential clients. An article or post with a hashtag can appear on social media sites with other articles using the same hashtag. For a B2B tech business, it can be useful for lead generation to use hashtags to become a part of important industry conversations. Restrict the number of hashtags you are using to two or three per post, however. It can be difficult for readers to use more hashtags than this and potentially push down views.
Stay Active
I think LinkedIn Today is a perfect way to find newsworthy content for your target audience to share with. Staying involved with at least one weekly post on LinkedIn will hold you high on your network. The passive knowledge becomes important when you are reaching out for an introduction or when someone in your network wants your specialty.