Like many people, I was not quick to join LinkedIn. As a matter of fact one of my friends invited me and it took me 2 months to accept his invitation and join. I was thinking: “Not another time wasting social network”.When I finally joined the network I added people from my outlook and found that several of them where already on the network, a total of 30. I thought, “Cool, I know some people here” so I added them to my network on LinkedIn. After that I joined 4 different groups that where of interest to me including one on venture capital, one on marketing, another for book authors and the last one on keynote speaking.
Now I was on LinkedIn and had my 30 connections, my 4 groups and I thought I was done. Then I asked myself: “What next?” I already know the 30 people I added to the network I don’t need them to contact them. So what’s the value of this? What’s the difference between this and Facebook, or MySpace, or Hi5? What’s the buzz on LinkedIn?
For months I did nothing, thinking this was a place to socialize with people you already know. One day I was looking on Google the keywords “Venture Capital” as I was advising one of my customers get some funding. I then visited LinkedIn and logged in. Then I did a search on Venture Capital once more. Wow, 50,000 + came up. Quickly I noticed that these where not just company names, I was getting the name and many times email and phone number of actual people, with photo, title, interests, hobbies, all what you would wish for.
The downside of my Venture Capital search is that none of them where connected to me directly so I could not contact them as in LinkedIn it is considered Spam. Nevertheless I started to understand the value of this network. Imagine if of these 50,000 I could have a few hundred connected to me directly. I could call them and ask for advice. I could email them and see if they are interested in my project or ask them to point me in the right direction. Now the task was connecting to them.
I did have some connections at a 3rd level. This means that I know someone that knows someone that knew lot’s of people in Venture Capital. This one person was my friend Gustavo. Gustavo is a programmer and one of his customers is a Venture Capitalists. That one person connected me with 300 people at a third level. If I really wanted to speak with one of those 300 people I could ask Gustavo for an introduction through his customer; but that was not my idea, I did not want just one connection, I wanted hundreds, or thousands.
I played more with the software and did more targeted searches by clicking on “Advanced Search”. I searched by zip code to see the closest contacts to me and therefore the ones I could contact in person. I also searched for keywords like “beverage” and “consumer goods” as the company I was working with was a beverage company. For every search I got great contacts. I thought this could turn out to be my very own private rolodex.
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Thanks for reminding me about the opportunities for marketing through linkedin. Actually, I read where you work with a beverage company. I’m a marketing specialist in beverages and in the culinary fields. Reference venture capital, I have a client who needs money to expand her gluten-free bakery.
Let’s connect for further networking.
Thanks, Suzanne Brown
Hello Jorge,
Interesting experience which kind of mirrors my own. I have just launched my new line of business building on over 20 years of research. I have not yet worked out how I can effectively market this through Linked In. I know the services I have are intriguingly unique, but are also scary to many people.
I will share my experiences with you as I carry out my marketing activities.
Keep writing (and smiling),
Have a magical week,
Sonny
Hi Sonny,
Thank you much for your post. Yes, please share your experiences with me and our readers on LinkedIn marketing and any other strategies and ideas you use.
Jorge Olson
Hi Jorge,
Thanks for this posting. I have been using Linkedin for about 2years now but I really do not thought of this networking until about 2weeks ago when I thought of how I could raise fund for my small business. But I have a slit problem in connecting to the right people. I am base in Ghana – West Africa and I have a company (SME) registered to mining Gold but I do not have capital for the business, can you kindly assist in directing me to the right connection for a capital venture in Ghana – Africa. I will be delighted to hear from you and every other member of the group.
Regards
Mary
Good collection of use cases at http://www.linkedintelligence.com/smart-ways-to-use-linkedin/
Jorge:
Thank you for your post. I am currently in a similar place with LinkedIn that you described. Thanks for the tips that I will use to reach out a little further.
Best,
Belinda
Jorge,
My sentiments exactly. I’ve had prospective clients read my answers to questions posed, contact me because they liked my answer and liked my profile, and now they are paying clients. So, the equation goes like this: a little time plus a free service equals new business… money in the bank.
I find, as I review literally hundreds of profiles each week, that most people don’t know how to write a profile that will get their ideal clients to pick up the phone and call. Professional profiles are like ad copy, they need to be written by a pro to get the response you want.
I love that you are teaching people how to leverage LinkedIn in their marketing efforts… I do this, too, all day long, with both public and private clients. Let’s set up a time to talk and see how we can help each other promote this new technology and it’s power to ignite relationships!
Andrew Barden
http://www.mtsacsbdc.com (where my public clients get free business counseling, paid for by your tax dollars!)
Andrew,
Thank you much for your great post.
I will spend some time at your site and yes, let’s talk on the phone. My nunber is 619 852 6942.
Jorge Olson
I am still new here and trying to figure out the benefits of social networking so thanks for the hints that you have given me. It’s amazing to think that 12 years ago, I didn’t even own a computer and now I have the world at my fingertips!
Jorge,
The value of Linkein really depends upon the person.
If you are looking for friends to reconnect with then its simple and requires not much time to set-up.
However, if you are a business and trying to gain exposure then it takes a little more time but can be very effective.
As with most I started out adding friends so we could reconnect/stay-in-touch but soon after noticed others that were connected, groups they joined and thought they were on to something. I decided to check out some of the groups they joined and they seemed really powerful and asking questions on subjects I thought I could help answer.
Before I knew it the traffic on my webpage grew because I promoted it through the answers I posted to others questions. – This is the value I see in this site!
Note receiving value may be a function of not using properly. Web 2.0 is all about Pull not Push. Think of it like pulling a chain behind you, it is far more effective to pull it rather than trying to push it (visualize the effect).
It is about doing for others, not about others doing for you. To get value, offer value. Provide feedback, answer questions, share ideas – creat a following. Then those followers will feel obligated to assist you.
Wow, it goes to prove one can “never” do enough to market, and/or research for information to assist in making a business better.
Hey there Jorge. Thanks for the great info. I’ve been trying to figure out the marketing value of LinedIn as well so I appreciate the tips and comments that I’ve found here.
So far, I’ve used it to connect to grad students at DePaul where I’ll be attending later this year. My next step is to figure out how to find funding for school. I think maybe I should work more with the advanced search feature like you mentioned in your post starting with fellowship as my keyword.
It would be nice to see if there’s an effective way to use it to attract guest attendance at my Toastmasters International club as well. I’m the VP of Membership so growing the size of the club is my responsibility.
I’m going to subscribe to your feed and become a regular reader. I’m also going to click Krill’s link from his comments and see if there are some use cases that I can apply to either of my situations.
Thanks again.
Martin,
I’m glad you are a member of Toastmasters. I am also. I’m the VP of Education and I need to create the agenda today!
Yes, you can increase your membership by starting a Toastmasters Group. Maybe Call it “DePaul Speakers and Leaders – Toastmaster Club” and start inviting people to the group using the LinkedIn invite group. Also, you might want to create a meetup.com group. We’re doing this in the whole San Diego district.
Thanks,
Jorge Olson
I wrote a 3 part series on using linkedin a few months ago for Catalog Success Magazine. YOu can read it here: http://gilbertdirectmarketing.wordpress.com/2008/11/24/why-you-must-always-be-networking-and-linkedin-is-the-key/
Also I did a presentation to my local DMA group. Anyone wants a copy, email me, jimdirect@aol.com
Jeorge,
Great post! LinkedIn for me has been a very valuable tool that I use to help me help my clients. It’s amazing how all levels of employees can use LinkedIn as a tool – HR to find quality candidates – Marketing to find designers, experts and new tools, Sales to brainstorm leads and share economic stimulus ideas, Manufacturing to develop systems and gauge feasibility. I’m still learning something every day!
Have you ever considered adding more videos to your blog posts to keep the readers more entertained? I mean I just read through the entire article of yours and it was quite good but since I’m more of a visual learner,I found that to be more helpful well let me know how it turns out!