This is the third part in a series on the 3 Basic Keys of LinkedIn.  Part one covered “optimizing your profile” and part two looked at “building your networks”.  If you followed the tips and strategies you should now have a pretty good profile and be on the way to expanding your reach on LinkedIn.

Leveraging LinkedIn simply means that you are making it work for you.  You’re in control and taking the actions that support why you are on LinkedIn.  I’m here to make money so everything that I do is geared to communicating a message to my networks.

Over the last two years I’ve learned how to use the various social media/networking sites to develop new business for my Individual Health and Employee Benefits companies.  Last week alone I received 3 calls from prospects.  What’s interesting about that is that I’ve updated my profile and activity to focus more on the social media consulting that I’m doing.

My prior and continued activity has allowed people to get to know, like and trust me.  So, even though the focus isn’t 100% on health insurance it still drives results.  And I’m starting to see results from the social media/networking side as well, having received a call from a technology company to discuss their social media/networking strategy.  Four leads in a week with a potential of over $20,000 in revenue.

Social media/networking works if you leverage the tools available.  With that in mind, here are 5 Top Ways to Leverage LinkedIn:

1.  Communicate to Your Direct Network
On LinkedIn you can communicate directly or indirectly with you direct connections.  Two ways to communicate directly is by sending a message to a connection or by using the status update function.

I typically will only send a message to my direct connections to notify them of local events that revolve around LinkedInor social media.  I never send a sales message or mention how I can help them with their insurance or social media/networking.  I don’t care to receive sales solicitations in my LinkedIn inbox so I don’t send them.

I use the status bar to share success stories, communicate about events, announce press releases, promote my groups, etc.  I could announce that anyone needing help with their social media/networking strategy should contact me and it would be fine here.

The key is to share information that others will find interesting or that at a minimum communicates a message.  You can include a web link just make sure to use the http:// format so people can directly click on it rather than having to copy and paste the URL.

Whenever you add a connection, update your profile, join a group, answer or ask a question, or give or receive a recommendation your direct network is notified on their home page.  The more your name appears on your connections home page the more likely you are to receive profile visits.  Through this indirect communication you can let your profile do the selling for you.

2.  Interact with Your Groups
Discussion posts are a great way to engage your Group network.  You can generate a discussion or simply take part in one that is already started.  This can be a great way to share information and position yourself.  Be careful of what you say and how you say it.  Remember everything you say either adds to or subtracts from your brand.

If you’ve ever been on a sports message board most people are known by user names and there’s little to identify the person behind the posts.  Here people tend to be quick to throw out a jab or be critical.  You can’t do that on LinkedIn because everything you say is tied to directly to you.

Share good information, help others, and keep your posts on topic and you’ll begin to build your brand.

3.  News Articles Allow You to Share Information
One of the ways I’ve built trust is by sharing information with others to help them more effectively utilize LinkedIn.  I’ve been able to share this with the members if my Group network by posting the blog posts as news articles.

Groups represent collections of people based on usually a single factor…alumni, location, industry, etc.  If you belong to the groups where your prospects hang out then you have an effective way to build up name recognition and trust.

You can share articles that you have written or simply ones that you think others in the groups would find value in.  In discussions what you say builds your brand; in news articles the information you share does the same.  I think you get more value from an article you write, but there is value in sharing the information others have put out there.

4.  Demonstrate Expertise through Answers
Your Direct and Group networks are likely your most relevant networks, but it’s still effective to communicate with your third network…the entire LinkedIn membership.  Answers allows you to do this at no cost and it’s a great way to build credibility.

You simply need to focus on answering questions where you can provide the most value and where you derive the most benefit.  I tend to answer questions that are about LinkedIn or insurance.  This allows me to share information or thoughts (provide value) and to demonstrate my expertise (build credibility).

In each category there is an RSS feed link.  I have set up a RSS reader that allows me to monitor new questions in these two areas and to respond.  Whenever I answer a question my direct network is notified, it’s attached to my profile, and its out there for the entire LinkedIn network to see.

I make sure that before posting an answer that I’ve taken the time to think about what I’m saying and how I’m saying it.  I also will not answer a question if someone else has already done a good job in addressing the question.  There’s no need to be redundant.

If you work in an industry that doesn’t have many questions asked you can take the initiative and ask questions.  This can allow you to generate a discussion.  Just be sure that your question doesn’t sound like an advertisement.

Finally, Answers can be a great place to tap into the knowledge of others or secure feedback on a topic.  I’ve used it successfully to find other professionals to partner with or to find a resource for my clients.

5.  Prospecting
Most people on LinkedIn think about using the site to network and its great for that.  Its also a great place to prospect for new clients.  The people search allows you to identify individuals based on a number of variables.  Once you find them you can look to see how you are connected, see if you have any common groups, and determine the best way to be introduced.

You can also learn a lot by simply reading the person’s profile.

The second way to prospect on LinkedIn is by using the Companies search.  Once again you have several variables to find your target prospects.  In a recent search I was able to identify 150 prospects based on industry and company size.  I was then able to see how I connected into each opportunity and to determine the best means of approaching the prospect.

If you use a prospecting source such as Sales Genie, Businesswise, Info USA, etc. you can generate a list of prospects then cross reference this with LinkedIn to build a better prospecting list.  A list of  1,000 prospects it make take some time to cross reference but if you break it down to 20 or 30 per week it should be manageable.

Wrap Up
There is a tremendous amount of opportunity to use LinkedIn to grow your business.  You simply need to determine which tools will help you support your purpose of being on LinkedIn.  Start by developing your goals and then creating a strategy that will allow you to achieve them.

Then it’s simply a matter of taking the time to optimize your profile, expand your reach by building your networks, and then taking the right actions.  It will work if you make it happen.

What are some ways that you are leveraging LinkedIn?

If you would like to learn more about how to use LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, and Business Blogs to grow you business, SONARconnects offers two options:

Social Media Training that teaches you how to optimize your accounts, build communities of friends, followers, and connections, and how to monetize social networking and social media.

Social Networking/Media Management: We take on the responsibility for managing your social media accounts including creating and writing your business blog.

For more information contact me at   (404) 939-7186 or visit http://www.sonarconnects.com.  Have a great day!

I’m often asked by people how many hours they should spend on LinkedIn each day.  The simple answer is I don’t know.  The time you spend will be dependent upon what you’re trying to do.  There are also different phases to LinkedIn (or any of the social networking sites).

When you first start to learn how to use these site they can take a lot of time.  You’re starting from a knowledge base of zero.  At this point you have a choice:

A. You can do what most people do and learn it on your own by experimenting.  To really learn it though you’d have to explore every page, every feature, and search out for free information information and blogs.  LinkedIn has a Help section that can answer many of your questions (though if you’re looking to move beyond classroom learning you need to find out how others have used LinkedIn)

This blog is a great reference for learning.

B. You can shorten the learning cycle by taking advantage of the knowledge of others.  There are several books that will tell you the basics of LinkedIn and these usually include some examples.  There are fewer books that actually talk about how people are using LinkedIn strategically.  The value of purchasing a book verses reading a blog is that the information is likely to be better organized.

For example on this blog I provide a lot of help and guidance but each weeks post is based on what I’ve recently learned or what is interesting to me this week.  The LinkedIn MBA, my “How to” and “What is” LinkedIn book, is organized based on the navigational structure of the LinkedIn site.  It makes it an great resource to read or to easily refer to when you have questions.

So back to our question about how much time does LinkedIn require.  If you choose to learn it on your own more than if you tap into others knowledge.  Either way initially you will need to try and put a hour or two in a day, but with the books the number of days or weeks required to put in this amount of time will be shortened.

Once you’ve built your foundation of knowledge you’ll move into using it to move beyond connecting to collectiing (driving business).  Once again this will require time to discover what works for you.  In the LinkedIn Marketing Secret Formula I lay out how I’ve used LinkedIn over the past year to drive business.  There are not many other resources out there to help you do this so it will require some experimentation on your part.

Try to commit a minimum of one hour a day, but each extra hour simply puts you that much ahead on the learning curve.

JD’s comic this week is one that I know well.  Since I have a real job (running my two insurance companies) I often find that I spend from 10PM to 1AM keeping  Linked Intuition up to date with new posts and other activities.  Coffee keeps me sane and moving in the morning. (JD actually sent me this cartoon at 2AM in the morning, so if you see him out in Chicago today buy him a cup of coffee.)

If you haven’t stopped to ask yourself this question, how do you know what actions you should be taking?  You have to have a defined purpose to take decisive action.  

Most people join LinkedIn because either they heard or read about this site that could help them network more effectively.  Most people initially join for the networking component.  A recent question in Answers asked “Why are you on LinkedIn?”  The majority of responses related to meeting new people, connecting to former friends, coworkers, etc.  Few people actually answered “to grow my business”.

It’s almost as if there is this underlying perspective that trying to use LinkedIn to make money is a bad thing.  It’s not.  Social networking is about making friends.  Business networking is about making friends that lead to making money.  I didn’t join my local Chamber of Commerce because I thought the people were really nice (they are).  I wanted to meet some great people and develop relationships that lead to new business.

If you want to find success on LinkedIn you need to shout out loud “I’m on LinkedIn to make money”.  “Show me the money!”  Yell Jerry McGuire style.

Because here’s the point; if you can’t make money on LinkedIn why are you here?  You can join Facebook and some other social networking sites that do a better job of letting you interact with your network.  They have better tools and widgets.

LinkedIn currently has over 41 million members and the majority of people are not really that active.  Coincidentally the majority of people are not making money from being on LinkedIn.  If they were, they would be more active.  People tend to put their time and efforts to where they expect to find success.

Most people get the social component of LinkedIn which is connecting to others.  Where there is some work to do is figuring out how to go from connecting to collecting (as in new client’s or dollars).  This requires some work, some consistency, and some time. 

You need to first build your foundation and then move on to strategically using LinkedIn.

The fastest way to build your foundation is to tap into the resources provided by others sharing their thoughts and expertise.  This blog is one of several that share valuable information for free.  You also should consider investing in learning LinkedIn by purchasing one or more of the LinkedIn “How to” books available.

When I first got serious about learning how to use LinkedIn I bought a book about it.  This one book allowed me to tap into the knowledge and experience of the author.  What I learned I could have learned on my own, but it would have taken time.

The book I purchased was $19.99.  At the time based on my income and a 40 hour week I determined that each hour of my time was worth $50.  That book cost me the equivalent of 24 minutes worth of work.  

If I tried to learn everything in the book on my own it would have likely taken me at least 25 hours if not more.  These 25 hours represented $1,250 at $50 per hour.  $20 or $1,250 in time, the decision was easy.

Once your foundation is built, you can begin to focus on using LinkedIn more strategically.  It’s a step by step process and your profile and credibility will play an important part in the success of your strategic efforts.  

So going back to the beginning, “Why are you on LinkedIn?”

**If you would like more information on building your LinkedIn foundation the LinkedIn MBA ($1.97) and the LinkedIn MBA Workbook ($7.97) are excellent resources.

If you’re ready to take the next step and to start using LinkedIn strategically the LinkedIn Marketing Secret Formula  is the first LinkedIn book to focus exclusively on how to communicate your message to tens of thousands of LinkedIn members. (Priced at $39.97 the 40% Blog Reader Discount – $23.98 – will end tomorrow.  Use Discount Code: x40sbsbr in the shopping cart)

90% of the users on LinkedIn are still trying to figure it out.  Many of these people won’t take the time required to develop a solid foundation.  My new eBook, “The LinkedIn MBA” is available based on the price you set.

This is the book I wrote to explain to friends the purpose and use of each page and link on LinkedIn.  I like to say its “Painstakingly Detailed”.  If you have laser focus, read it cover to cover.  If you’re like me, periodically focus challenged, you may be better of using it as a reference guide.

If you have a question about Answers, read the Answers chapter.  Need to know something about Account Settings, read the Account Settings chapter.  The book’s chapter structure is based on the navigational structure of LinkedIn.  No appendix needed.

It’s the guide that I wished I had in June of 2006, 2007, and 2008.  For those of you still trying to get up to speed this book is for you.

There is also a number of people who are on LinkedIn that have not been able to take that next step to making LinkedIn a productive tool.  How do you go from connecting to monetization?  It’s not a short step.

It takes a strategy which has been the missing link in just about every LinkedIn book.  There are some folks who have connected into opportunities, reconnected into opportunities, and found business, but it’s been hit or miss.

“The LinkedIn Marketing Secret Formula” seeks to change the dynamic by laying out a strategy that you can use on a daily basis to communicate your message to tens of thousands of LinkedIn members.  It shows you how to get under the sales radar.  You’ll learn how to conduct ongoing marketing activities to drive activity.

Some people will argue that there’s no place on LinkedIn for sales or marketing.  I agree and disagree.  There’s no place for up front direct sales pitches and SPAM.  There is a place for using the available LinkedIn tools to provide value and communicate your message indirectly.

Some stress that it’s a networking tool not a lead generation tool.  My response is that I like my connections but I love my new client’s.  It should be both.

While typing this post I received two calls from people needing help with their health insurance.  One was from a Chamber friend (offline networking is still important) passing on a referral; the other was from someone who I have never spoken to before.  Because of the strategies detailed in the “LinkedIn Marketing Secret Formula” I was top of mind when she had a health insurance need.

If you’re still trying to understand LinkedIn and the available features download a copy of “The LinkedIn MBA”.

If you’re ready to take the next step and learn how to strategically use LinkedIn to grow your business get a copy of the “LinkedIn Marketing Secret Formula“.  The book is regularly $39.95 but for the next seven days I am offering a 40% discount, so the end price is $23.97.  To get the discount use the following Discount code:  x40sbsbr

I also detail in the book how I used LinkedIn to drive traffic to my blog growing from 2,200 visits in March to over 20,000 in May.

For those of you who have read the Linked Intuition blog over the last 17 months, thank you.  It has been my pleasure to be part of your LinkedIn experience.