Is LinkedIn the Rodney Dangerfield of social media?

LinkedIn Is Your New Best Friend. Here’s Why

LinkedIn is the Rodney Dangerfield of social media: in spite of 200 million highly influential users, it gets no respect. Even though it is consistently ranked among the social giants Facebook and Twitter, it doesn’t seem to get as much buzz in the mainstream media. But as a tool for marketing your small business, it provides a huge edge over its more popular peers. Because unlike Facebook and Twitter, which often trade in cat photos, inane one-liners and political rants from crazy uncles, LinkedIn is all business.

How businesses are leveraging LinkedIn

There are 1.3 million small-business owners in the network. How are they using it? What sort of benefits do they see? Here are just a few:

1. Sharing wins: Promoting your successes is just good marketing. It will make you look good to potential customers. With 2 million C-level executives utilizing the site, you may find yourself with some influential new friends.
2. Getting referrals: LinkedIn removes a lot of the friction and awkwardness of giving and getting endorsements for the work you are doing. Best part? When someone gives you props on LinkedIn, everyone inside your network will notice in their activity feed.
3. Finding new talent: If your small business is growing, you’ll definitely need to hire new employees. LinkedIn is an excellent place—scratch that, it’s the BEST place—to find new players to add to your team.
4. Promoting events: LinkedIn’s event feature is a game changer! It has never been easier to spread the news and boost attendance for upcoming events. You can even use their service directory to find a caterer for your gathering. Simple.
5. Boosting website traffic: Here’s a little-known secret about LinkedIn: it’s very influential with Google, so if you have a presence on LinkedIn, you’re likely to see a bump in search engine visibility, too. More eyeballs, more prospects.
6. Getting answers: LinkedIn is a goldmine for advice on operating a successful business. You can uncover great advice from some of the savviest business minds in the world in LinkedIn Answers and Groups. There are over 2000 groups focused on small-business-related topics.
7. Finding investors, vendors and partners: It’s a networker’s paradise. Whether you need some capital, a new accounting firm, or a business partner, you’re not going to get a better resource than LinkedIn.

This is only the tip of the iceberg, folks. Pay a visit to LinkedIn and set up a page for your small business. Trust me; IT’S WORTH YOUR TIME.