Linked In | What's the purpose of it?
For sometime now something’s been bothering me. I have an account with the business networking website Linked In and I have done for some time. I’m connected to lots of people and when I meet someone for the first time, they often ask “Are you on Linked In?”. I politely respond with “Yes, of course I am”, but deep down inside I don’t know why.
I hear wonderful stories of people generating all of their new business via this website and stories of outrageous success, all because of Linked In. But I’m missing a trick. I also come across the Linked In' ‘trainers’ who will take me to one side and go through how exactly I’m meant to use the site, but I manage to figure out blogging, Twitter and other networking skills myself, surely I can crack Linked In!
So as I write this and I think about my master plan to get more out of Linked In, let’s assess the basics………
-
Linked In is a good way of keeping in contact with your customers and suppliers.
-
Sending them a personal message via the Linked In system, might stand more chance of being responded to than an email.
-
It can be a way of making contact with that business owner or key decision maker, rather than being turned down by the ‘gatekeeper’.
-
You can show off your customer testimonials to your potential customers.
-
You can bounce ideas off each other using Linked In groups.
I still think that email’s, phone call’s and other social media tools work just as well as Linked In, but I’m here to be convinced.
Over the next few weeks I’m going to be as proactive as possible with Linked In and see what happens. Now before you jump out of your skin and declare it’s a ‘slow burn’ process, I know this, but I will simply make an effort over the next few weeks and if I like what I see then the rest should just become habit like Twitter and other forums that I use.
I’ll post again with an update to let you know how I’m getting on and what I’ve found out.
Once I’ve found the real purpose of Linked In, I will let you know straight away!
Acknowledgement: This article was inspired by a recent conversation with Paul Alekna from E-Response Recruitment, a good personal friend, a good customer, but unfortunately not so good at football.
About the Author: Gavin Moorhouse once jumped into a lake to rescue his fishing rod. He also run’s an IT Support and Computer Services business in Redditch, Worcestershire. You can contact him here (or check him out on Linked In!)
