My Review of Linkedin in 2015
While Linkedin continues to evolve
over the years, the basic premise remains the same. Use it to find
people or businesses who can help you or become a prospect for your
business, through people you know and trust. Job seekers can also use
the site to learn more about a company they may wish to work for. They
can also find employees of a company they are researching for
information they can't obtain elsewhere.
Creating and maintaining an up to date profile on linkedin with a recent professional photo remains a key first step to take on the site.
Linkedin provides a view of your network, which includes not only your
direct connections, but also their contacts and more, going out to the
third degree. You can search for people in your network by many criteria
including company name, location, school and industry. You can also
search for people who are members of Linkedin groups using similar
criteria.
Use the site to keep in touch with your contacts. Post
articles, in groups or on your own profile page. Send messages to your
contacts. Read the Linkedin blog, to learn about new features on the
site.
Linkedin provides you with a social selling index to help
evaluate your selling results using four criteria: creating a
professional brand, finding the right people, engaging with insights,and
building strong relationships. Linkedin conducted a survey of top sales
pros and used the results to correlate key selling characteristics with
sales success. The results enable you to work on areas that need
improvement. Each of the four areas has its own score,and they are
combined into a final score. The scores are not public but many
individuals promote their scores if they are high. To apply social
selling techniques, Linkedin also offers a sales navigator application
for which there is a cost depending on the size of your company. This
app also integrates with another product for premium users, called lead
builder, in which you can create and save lists of prospects you uncover
on the site.
I've been a linkedin user since its initial year and
was quoted in the New York Times in its September 30th, 2010 issue for
how I used Linkedin to keep in touch with my network. I look forward to
hearing from others to compare notes on using Linkedin and to see how we
can be of help to each other in growing our networks which will
ultimately lead to new business and increased business success.