If you have not heard about LinkedIn, as a business owner or executive, you should take some time to investigate it - it can drive people to take a closer look at you and your company. LinkedIn is the social networking site that is geared for business networking, not social networking like Face Book.
How have you been marketing your business lately?
Passive marketing – having a company web site or sending out an email newsletter is like posting a sign on the side of a highway advertising a number to call or picture of your product – many people don’t act on that kind of advertising. In fact, not a lot of time is spent (usually under 2 minutes) on web sites when people visit them so you need other ways to let people know who you are and what you do.
Passive marketing still needs to be done so your company has a public presence over the web and is always front mind because they receive, but may not read, your newsletter.
Active marketing – this is simply about making a personal connection with people who may want to purchase from you or know someone who may want to purchase from you. There is nothing new about this except that LinkedIn has organized a way to do this online.
LinkedIn puts a personality behind the business which is something a web site just does not do. You don’t have to connect with people one at a time on LinkedIn either. There are always people who ‘listen in’ (read) conversations without participating, just like at in person networking events then come to you afterwards or visit your web site to learn more about you – they get to do this without being sold to – its great!
I recently started to build out the Zypes company profile and make personal connections with Groups on LinkedIn. Remember, people buy from people not web sites or newsletters. You can connect with me on LinkedIn by going to - http://www.linkedin.com/in/tristynd
