How To Use LinkedIn

by Jaco Grobbelaa

2 min read

Sun, Apr 08, 2012 @ 08:19 PM

Plenty of business people are not using LinkedIn to the best of their ability because they don't know how to make it work for them. LinkedIn reported that it has reached 135 million registered users as of November 3, 2011, up from 100 million the end of March 2011, consisting of people from more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. Why are people flocking to LinkedIn?

Many people look at LinkedIn as a way to find a new job or find someone to hire. When I was invited to join LinkedIn, I turned around and invited some family and friends to join. One friend of mine, an IT tech, dutifully filled out her profile and within days had received three job offers. Since I already have a brick and mortar place to work, I didnt do more than fill out some of the profile and forget about LinkedIn until I heard Lewis Howes during one of his webinars. He talked about ways to use LinkedIn as if it were a business card.

I first read about the idea of using LinkedIn as a business card from Mike Clough in his April 2010 article at http://bestbizpractices.org/2010/04/20/linkedin-the-new-business-card-exchange/. We all know how useful business cards can be. You probably pass yours out at every Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club or BNI meeting. Often someone calls you that you hadnt given the card to, but the person you gave the card knew that this person needed to talk to you. Ah, networking.

LinkedIn is about networking the same way, only it has so many features that some busy business people dont have the time to learn them all; and then they dont make the best use of this powerful tool. So for those of you too busy to learn all you need to know about LinkedIn, I am going to answer some of your unanswered questions on LinkedIns best practices in the next series of blogs.

We will look at LinkedIn etiquette for making the most of your online business card, joining groups, forming a Company Page, and bringing your blog to groups to encourage people to answer your call to action. Some of these things are not necessarily related and can be done without doing the others. So dont go away, I know that there is some information here for you.

Jaco Grobbelaar is the owner of BroadVision Marketing. BroadVision Marketing works with business owners to put in place inbound and outbound marketing strategies that consistently secure new clients. The BroadVision Marketing Training Center is located in Petaluma, CA and primarily serves companies in the San Francisco Bay area.

Jaco can be reached at jaco@broadvisionmarketing.com or 707.766.9778 or connect with Jaco on Facebook - www.facebook.com/broadvisionmarketing - and LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/in/JacoGrobbelaar.