Incorporating LinkedIn with your Business Marketing Plan

Have you been wondering how you incorporate LinkedIn with your business?

Well I wanted to shout out shout Angelita Gimenez (a new LinkedIn associate) & TopRank Online Marketing for sharing these tips on how to integrate LinkedIn into your business marketing plan.

Some reasons you NEED to be part of LinkedIn:

** 60+ million members
** New members join just about every second (WOW)
** Some of the hottest, top notch Executives from Fortune 500 companies are LinkedIn members

Ok so here’s how you can begin to incorporate LinkedIn with marketing your business

1. Build a Network, Then Start a Group

Create a personal account and build a network of contacts. Reach out to customers and/or clients that you do business with whom you have established a solid relationship with. Ask them to write recommendations for you and/or your company – these will post to the left within your profile.

Once your personal account is setup, create a group for the brand. By branding yourself, you now have the possibility to maximize reach far beyond your network. Within the brand group, feel free to begin discussions, share news, post jobs and create subgroups.

2. Make the Most of Your Profile

Your profile is the first thing your LinkedIn community will see, so make the most of your profile. Begin to use:

Keywords. Include relevant URLs in your profile, and use links with anchor text. For example, instead of “My Blog,” use a keyword to describe it such as “SEO and Online Marketing Blog.” Use keywords in descriptions. That includes the summary, specialties, experience and all other description categories.

Include images in your profile. Since LinkedIn is one of the “professional” social networks, use it to your advantage! Add those personal touches to your profile where ever possible to maximize engagement and allow others to put a face to your brand.

3. Leverage Third-Party Applications

New and improved third-party applications have become available to aid in making your LinkedIn activity work for you. For example:

Box.net: Add links to files like resumes and marketing kits
Slideshare: Share business presentations and demos with your network
Company Buzz: Monitor messages sent out on Twitter about your brand or other subjects
TripIt: See where members of your network will be travelling to and when you’ll be in the same city

4. Update and Engage Frequently

Make sure you take the same effort in posting on LinkedIn as you do blogging, sending Tweets or engaging with others on Facebook. These marketing efforts should be equal because the more activity and interaction, the better the results. To consistently engage with your network:

Sync blog posts to your profile with tools like Blog Link or WordPress LinkedIn Application.
Frequently update your profile with the LinkedIn status feature, much like Facebook status updates.
Leverage the LinkedIn Question and Answer function – participate in others’ questions and ask your own.

5. Promote Your Profile

In order to expand your network, LinkedIn marketing efforts – like anything else – must be promoted in other channels. Include a link to your profile on your website and blog, in individual blog posts, in email signatures and even on business cards. Be sure to optimize your profile for important and relevant keywords. Allow enough of your profile to be public so search engines can rank that content accordingly.

Keep in mind these are merely 5 tips. If you are looking for more I would check out  www.toprankblog.com/ . They seem to have some GREAT tips and blog posts!

After reading this post, I’ve already started integrating these tips into my LinkedIn site and look forward to creating new and exciting personal and business relationships, groups and subgroups too! I am confident the same will happen for you as a result of putting these tips into action for yourself as well.

So for now, I’m signing off.

To your heath!

Indira Wilburn -- Living life to the fullest and helping people Get Healthy!
 https://www.facebook.com/HealthAmbassadorIndiraWilburn
On Twitter @MsDebtFreeDiva

Incorporating LinkedIn with your Business Marketing Plan