A LinkedIn Marketing Secret
The following demonstrates one of the most common LinkedIn marketing mistakes.
Someone asked the following question in one of my groups:
Should you connect with your competitors?
I found the question interesting because it reveals a common flaw in the thinking of entrepreneurs and small business owners when it comes to LINKEDIN® marketing.
The term “LinkedIn marketing” refers to the process of using LinkedIn to get business or generate opportunities.
At the heart of this question is the idea of sharing one’s connections. And one of the first answers to the question suggests that, if one hides one’s their first level connections, connecting could be a good idea.
The flaw in this thinking is that it assumes that one should only connect to one’s existing clients and prospects. However, this is not an effective LinkedIn marketing strategy.
In fact, if you only use LinkedIn in this way, like a Rolodex, you might actually be better off not using it at all. LinkedIn just adds “noise” to your conversation you don’t need. You would be better of simply using the phone, fax, and email to communicate with these folks.
This problem is automatically solved for the true networker who has built a large network.
Take myself for an example. If you were to connect to me because I share my connections and you were hoping to go through them and find good prospects you would be gravely disappointed.
With 8000+ connections you will have great difficulty identifying who I’m actually doing business with, or even who I might be interested in from a future opportunity basis.
I would suggest that your LinkedIn marketing efforts would be far more profitable if you simply availed yourself of LinkedIn’s advanced search feature.
Finally, you should remember that sharing your connections is one of the values you can bring your network.
Though it is not a very big value, it is a perceived value and any value you can add to your network will be useful in getting your network to help you on or off LinkedIn in the future.
That is what networking is all about.
You must remember that your LinkedIn marketing success comes from visibility and accessibility, both of which are dependent on how many connections you have. (LinkedIn marketing, about building your network)
The secret of LinkedIn marketing is making yourself invaluable and highly visible so that you attract those that might be your prospects and future customers. For more on LinkedIn marketing click here.
