Point # 22 – What If Your Target Audience Prefers LinkedIn?
You have done your homework and just as you suspected, your target audience prefers LinkedIn – they do not spend a lot of time on Facebook or Twitter. They definitely prefer to use LinkedIn to grow their business connections.
LinkedIn is a highly-reputable online social community where you will find C-level executives, as well as business professionals, consultants, medical professionals, and entrepreneurs connecting.
One of the great things about LinkedIn, is that being more open about your business intentions is more acceptable and even expected. Unlike Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Pinterest, people use LinkedIn with the intention of growing their business through other business people and it is completely acceptable to be explicit in promoting your business.
Socializing on LinkedIn is similar to networking person to person with other business professionals as you would at a tradeshow, Chamber of Commerce event, BNI (Business Networking International) etc. People use this social network to advance their careers, find employment, and to explore new business opportunities.
LinkedIn is an online business hub where professionals can learn more about movers and shakers in their particular industry, which can be effectively accomplished through the groups on LinkedIn. You can find them by simply by adding a relevant keyword in the search bar. For example, if you want to connect with graphic artists, you would search for “graphic artists.”
Keep your search to general keywords in order to produce the best results. The recommendation is to request to join groups that have the largest membership in your preferred niche.
I also recommend you stick with the ‘free’ version of LinkedIn. There are expanded features available through three different upgrade levels, but chances are you will make all the connections you need with the free version. At least try it out to see how it works before adding a $20 -$75 monthly premium LinkedIn service level. I upgraded for a few months and found that it wasn’t necessary and chose to go back to the free version.
Action Steps
If this is a good social media platform for the audience you want to attract, take the following steps:
- Review your profile, update it and set up your account on LinkedIn.
- Search for groups to join and do so.
- Plan out blog posts to appeal to members in these groups and be sure to send updates to LinkedIn after posting to your blog.
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