The Power of LinkedIn for Small Businesses

Every small business owner is always on the lookout for more tools to help make their business more profitable. One way to do this through social media that you may not have considered is LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a site for professionals and companies to share knowledge meet each other and interact in many ways.

LinkedIn was founded in December 2002, and launched a few months later in May 2003. From a start of only 350 members, it has grown to more than 300 million users in more than 200 countries and territories all over the world. Its members include many businesses both large and small and LinkedIn has become a fantastic way to beef up your business’ brand, as well as attract more customers and even help to hire professional and talented staff and crew members.

How Can LinkedIn Work For My Small Business?

Small business owners are using LinkedIn in innumerable and innovative ways. Some have discovered the power of tools within LinkedIn such as Company Pages and Groups, while others are finding new allies and partners in other businesses, as well as boosting the traffic to their websites through up-to-date and relevant postings of articles, photos and more.

Here are some tips and suggestions of ways that LinkedIn can work for your business, no matter if it is large or small:

Make Connections on LinkedIn to Boost Your Profits

LinkedIn is a great venue for sharing information about your business. Through your LinkedIn network a business can acquire followers and then get new connections through the recommendations of those followers. LinkedIn offers the power to form these relationships with professionals in your niche, as well as interested customers, all over the world. This can truly turn your company into a global venture where you can get hundreds or even thousands of potential sales all over the world instead of being restricted to your own location.

Keep Your Postings Relevant and Up-to-Date

It’s vital for a business to regularly post relevant and up-to-date information on what’s going on in their niche and what new products and services they are creating. The more posted, the more your business can be seen as the “go to” company in your niche. This helps your company to establish credibility in your field by you interacting with your followers through the answering of questions, participation in LinkedIn groups, and sharing all kinds of data that people truly want to know. Put a face to your company and get it out there on LinkedIn and people will start learning your name and how your business can help them meet their needs.

LinkedIn Endorsements and Recommendations Help Businesses to Grow

LinkedIn also offers what are called recommendations and endorsements on a business’ products and services. These can be given by your followers or the people or companies in your Groups. It is similar to a Facebook like or a Google+1 endorsement in the other social media venues. Recommendations and endorsements are like word-of-mouth testimonials about your business and what it has done to impress someone or meet their needs. These tools help to make your business more credible and real and so they encourage others to try out your business and can turn potential customers into loyal fans and future clients.

LinkedIn Groups Can Forge Powerful Connections for Businesses

LinkedIn also gives you the ability to both form groups and join groups. You can search for groups in your niche and request to join them. This can help you to become noticeable in our field and to grow the brand name of your company through interaction with group members.

You can also form your own group and invite people to join it. This can be turned into a way to educate potential clients, potential new employees and other business professionals in your field about how your company works, what it does, what products or services it offers and why it is something they will want to know about. Don’t waste the opportunities to both join and form a group on LinkedIn or you will be turning away hundreds of opportunities to get traffic and interest in your company websites, blogs, etc.

Recruit New Members

Another sometimes overlooked tool for businesses on LinkedIn is finding great professional and qualified people to join your team. There are millions of professional workers in your niche with accounts on LinkedIn that may be just the type of people you are looking for to fill open positions in your company! You can learn a lot about them through their profiles, and through the recommendations and endorsements they have received from other LinkedIn members.

The bottom line is that having a LinkedIn account is vital to all businesses small or large, so don’t let this this great opportunity pass you by; make your account now!