The Importance of Social Networking for Business Part III: LinkedIn Chapter 1
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Written by Renee C. Quinn B.S. Pennsylvania State University M.B.A. University of Phoenix Posted: May 13, 2010 @ 9:24 pm ReneeQuinn.com | Blog | Twitter | LinkedIn 
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Ahhh, the long awaited Part 3 of the series. In the previous articles, I discussed the importance of Social Networking to Small Businesses. Each and every day IPWatchdog.com generates many page views as a result of our social networking through Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and others. We can state with certainty that as traffic to our site increases so do the number of inquiries for our services. Increased traffic and increased sales DO go hand in hand. Increased visibility for little to no cost is an invaluable tool for any businesses, let alone small business, start up companies and entrepreneurs alike. In this series I have covered Facebook as Part 1 and Twitter as Part 2. Now let’s shift the focus to LinkedIn. Because there is so much information to share on LinkedIn, I have decided to split this into multiple posts I will call Chapters. In this first Chapter, I will give you the first 7 steps that you can use to get started and the most out of your LinkedIn account and how you can use this tool to help build your brand and grow your business.
Continue Reading @ ReneeQuinn.com
About the Author
Renee C. Quinn acquired a Masters of Business Administration with her course work focusing on e-Commerce and e-Business, with an emphasis on marketing via the World Wide Web. Her particular career focus to date has been on business-to-business and business-to-consumer marketing. She writes on various business and social media topics for IPWatchdog.com. You can follow Renee on Twitter at IPWatchdog_Too. Renee is available to consult with individuals and businesses on how to set up and effectively use social media and social networking tools to establish a successful marketing campaign. You can contact Renee via e-mail.
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Hi Renee,
So I believe you’re advocating connecting to anyone and everyone for marketing purposes, but I find it dilutes who you can actually call on for help if you use LinkedIn for more than just marketing. For example, if I am looking for an IP attorney but I have a few thousand connections I made at random – I would be at a loss for who could refer me.
But if I kept my network to the people I at least have engaged with in person, then I might have a better chance of figuring out which relationships I can leverage to get what I want. Also, I wanted to add some tips for the people out there:
1) If you find a second or third party connection you wish to message but do not want to pay LinkedIn, join one of their groups and chances are you will be able to message them through the group directly. FREE
2) If you mesh real world networking with social networking, we built a tool to discover and add contacts across multiple networks (Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) – great place to take those business cards after an event. http://www.olynk.com
Cheers,
Will Tungpagasit
VP, Product Management
O Lynk
@shabuta
Will,
Thank you for your comment. I agree with you if you are targeting a specific audience that you need to be able to leverage those you have connected with. However, I do not agree that you need to limit the number of connections you have to do so. No matter how many people you connect with, LinkedIn has an advanced search feature that allows you to search your first connections only. Therefore, even if you have a few thousand random connections and you are looking for an IP attorney, you can use the advanced search feature to narrow down your search significantly. I just did a 1st connection advanced search checking only 1st connection and leaving everything else on “All.” I searched for the key term “attorney” and out of my 167 current connections only seven who are attorneys were returned on my list. I also tried “IP, attorney” as one search and “patent attorney” as another and the search resulted in a return narrowed down to 4. Incidentally when I searched for “IP, attorney,” IPWatchdog, Gene Quinn, did not show up on my list but he did when I searched for Patent attorney. Which brings about another important aspect of lLinkedIn. Be sure to use a multitude of key terms in your searches in order to get the best results in your search.
Another thing to keep in mind Will is that if you have thousands of connections and you find 2nd and 3rd connections you wish to get acquainted with, not only can you join groups they are members of, but the best thing you can do is to request an introduction from the first connection you have in common. Again, people respond much better to those who are recommended to them. And not only that, by limiting your connections to a smaller group, you are limiting yourself to the number of new people you will meet. Again, you can always ask for introductions but you must keep in mind that with every connection you make, you will then have access to all of the connections they have. LinkedIn is a tool and tools do not work on their own. If you know how to use the tool, you will get the most out of having it in the first place.
Thank you so much for reading IPWatchdog and for taking the time to comment. I will look at your Olynk service and perhaps may mention it in a future article.
Renee
Hey Renee, great job! Once again you have given us a short but complete guide to using an important social media platform. I have found LinkedIn to be THE social media platform that has brought me the most rewarding and satisfying connections on the internet. I would have qualified that statement by saying “professional contacts,” but too many of my contacts that started out that way have turned into friendships that I don’t want limit myself.
Will makes some good points. But I personally have found that the more connections I have the better. If you work the connections through the message capacity on LinkedIn you can really build relationships that matter.
Groups are important too,. The best thing I did on LinkedIn was to start my groups LAW AND SOCIAL NETWORKING and BOOK FANATICS. One is “professional” and the other “personal,” but like everything else with social networking, the line is pretty blurred.
Love your postings here Renee.
Nils
Nils,
Thank you for your comments and for following along with us on IPWatchdog. This however is not the complete list. n fact I am currently working on Chapter 2 which I promise will not take so long this time. Already I have tips 8-14 in the works and that includes creating and joining groups. In my experience and research I have uncovered so many ways that you can use LinkedIn for the benefit of business. Will did make good points as did you. The way you use this tool and how you build relationships with it is what matters most.
Stay tuned for more…
Renee
Great article Renee. I work with small business owners teaching them how to leverage the Internet and increase their sales with social media list building. I am always searching for more great information on social media list building because their is always another new angle that is just around the corner and you don’t want to miss it. Again thanks for the great content.
Dennis Hampton