LinkedIn Tips from Small Business Owners

We'll start with sharing the concerns and frustrations raised by small business owners and then we'll move on to sharing all the success stories.

Key frustrations shared by small business owners were:

• Many groups look like they have a lot of members but only a few people are actively participating. 
• Connections made on LinkedIn weren't converting quickly enough into clients.
• Search ads on LinkedIn aren't working as well as people had anticipated.

Specifically, here are some comments made about these frustrations:

• "I have a full-service corporate video production business working with clients spanning nonprofits to Fortune 500s. I have approached LinkedIn from a number of angles, ranging from asking questions to answering questions (in relevant groups I've joined) to tweeting and retweeting interesting information.
  
  • While we have not gotten new clients out of those experiences, we have had LI success by posting information about our company's capabilities on the alumni group page for my university.
    
  • I found that other group pages contain mostly anonymous people, and while the majority of LI members of my university may not be personally known to me, there is a degree of comfort and confidence in knowing that you probably personally know people who know group members. This, of course, produces trust, which forms the basis of all relationships, personal and business, and so it was the avenue through which we met a few clients.
    
  • Ellen Friedland,  Voices & Visions Productions, Ltd.

From our experience:  that's true about many of the groups with the most members.  They do tend to be either "empty" or have a lot of spammers posting things.  Good tip about joining college alumni groups!  The best groups may be invite only and are run by a facilitator who nurtures active and professional discussions.  It's easy to join and unjoin groups.

 

Know this:  Have you heard of the 90/10/1 rule about social media? 

• 90% of people who visit a LinkedIn Group, read a blog or visit a Facebook Fan page will not contribute anything.  They won't make a comment or post anything.  They will observe. 
• Of the remaining 10%, only 1% will contribute a lot; the other 9% will contribute a little. 

 

• "I've been on Linked In for 4 years, received multiple recommendations, and tried their forums, in-mail and more.
  
  • I've never received 1 job from it.
    
  • Twitter however, has been incredible for my networking.
    
  • I only use LinkedIn now as an online resume when asked, in lieu of
    sending PDF attachments or snail mail.
    
  • Overall, LinkedIn hasn't worked for me, nor for others I've spoken to."
    
  • Walt Ribeiro, Composer, Pop Songs Arranged For Orchestra

From our experience:  LinkedIn works best for small businesses that sell products and services to other businesses.  Facebook is a better social media forum for companies selling products/services to consumers.  Many people participate in both LinkedIn and Facebook.  Many older people consider LinkedIn to be "for business" and Facebook to be "for fun".  Younger people tend to use Facebook for both social and business. 

 

• "I just recently got an inbound request from a prospect (what is working). I have not been able to anything with linked ads (what is not working)."
  • Chris R. Keller, Business Aid Profitworks
    

Yes, some people are frustrated with LinkedIn search ads and the low click thru rates they're getting. 

• MarketingZone's LinkedIn Advertising How-to Guide covers what the typical response rates are and gives tips on what you can do to improve your results.  
• Many larger companies buying LinkedIn display ads (the ads that are more expensive and larger in size), find they are getting very respectable response rates.  It may be the search ads are too small to be noticed. 

• "I'm a solopreneur doing leadership consulting, leadership development, strategic planing and coaching. I just launched my business on the web about 3 weeks ago
  
  • and have found LinkedIn extremely usefully as a part of my social media strategy, which has gotten me placements on two very large websites - Smartbrief and BlogHer - and a few smaller ones in my target market (women managers and leaders).
    
  • It hasn't landed me a client yet, but its helped me get newsletter signups, lots of tweets and a "top influencer" status this week in one of the groups I've joined on LinkedIn.
    
  • I'm still very much in the early phases of my rollout strategy across all of social media and LinkedIn (working on getting street cred before focusing on target market groups and researching target markets while I'm at it), but I couldn't be more pleased with how its all working and the exposure I've gotten so quickly."
    
  • Dana Theus, Principal, Magus Consulting
    

From our experience:  it takes time to build connections and trust with those connections on LinkedIn.  The business owner who wrote in from Vietnam on a consulting project he'd gained through connections on LinkedIn shared those connections had been built and nurtured over a two year time period.  Like with all business networking, it takes time. 

 

• "I've had good success marketing myself. Small business marketing is a little tricker."   Patrick Egan
  
  

From our experience:  that's a relevant observation Patrick.  LinkedIn is set up for their paying customers (HR execs and recruiters) so the site is great for personal profiles and "selling yourself" as an individual (things you can do for free).  LinkedIn is  now offering Company Pages.  If you want to set one up:  MarketingZone Company Page How-to Guide