Linkedin Marketing: The Secret Behind Social Networking Success
October 11, 2010
Linkedin Marketing: The Secret Behind Social Networking Success
LinkedIn is a professional, business and career oriented social networking site. It allows you to meet professional experts in a variety of industries across the globe.
There’s currently over 35 millions professionals on LinkedIn and these numbers are growing as we speak.
The LinkedIn community enables you to connect with like minded people which in returns allow you to grow your business contacts and network.
As a registered member, you get to create your own personal profile with information about you, your company, your products and services. You can also mention your professional accomplishments.
Once you’ve done this, you can begin to maintain a list of contacts which are known as connections and actively invite others to join your network and that whether they are existing LinkedIn users or not.
Now that you’re a little more familiar with the LinkedIn community, let’s go ahead and detail the numerous ways you can use LinkedIn to increase your business growth and get ahead of your competitors.
<b> #1. Growing & Managing Your Contact List </b>
Jeffrey Combs once said: “Your Networth Is Proportional To Your Network” and this statement is so true. In business, your contacts are everything. You don’t know need to know everyone, but make sure you know the people that know everyone!
That being said, the LinkedIn community is a great place to begin connecting with real professionals in order to begin growing your list of business contacts which could be done pretty easily.
Just like any social networking site, you should approach like minded people to initiate the first contact (make sure that you’re not spamming people with your ads) and regularly keep in touch with them so in the long run, they’ll know, like and trust you.
In addition to this, you can import almost any digital address book and web email contacts (Hotmail, Aol, Yahoo, etc…) from your LinkedIn account hence growing your list of contacts.
<b> #2. LinkedIn Answers </b>
This tool is by far one of the most important tools on LinkedIn. “LinkedIn Answers” allow anyone to ask questions about any topic and anyone can answer these questions.
The cool thing about this is that you can interact with lots of people that are not in your network…Hence, a great way to increase your connections.
So Here’s How It Works: When someone asks a question, everyone can give out answers or suggestions to that specific question.
A few days after the question has been posted and that you’ve received some answers, you’ll be asked to choose the right answers or the answers that helped you most.
And out of all these good answers, you’ll have to pick the “best” answer. Then the person that has been chosen for the “best” answer will be provided with an expertise point that will show up on his/her profile.
Answering questions is a great way to establish your expertise in a certain field. By answering more and more questions or inquiries from other LinkedIn users, you’ll be able to gain more expertise points which will allow you to become the expert people are looking for to do business with.
Remember that in business, people join you or buy your products or services because you’re an expert or a leader they know, like and trust.
With this little tool, you’ll be able to drive a great deal of traffic to your site…Increasing sales and sign-ups!
You can easily become THAT expert in a really short period of time (anyone can become an expert in anything with just a simple research…Please do not share this secret with anyone!), hence attracting potential leads and prospects to your marketing funnels.
Asking questions is also a good way to interact with other experts. Your questions will be read and answered by so many people and you can make use of their expertise to do joint ventures or share business ideas.
<b> #3. LinkedIn Services </b>
The “LinkedIn Services” tool is a complete directory of service providers that have been recommended by other users in your network.
Let’s say that you’re looking for a highly qualified graphic & web designer in your town or city and you really want to make sure they’re real experts. You can use the “LinkedIn Services” to see which graphic & web designers have been recommended by others.
This tool will help you save time researching for professionals you want to hire to get a certain job done.
That being said, I strongly suggest that you get your clients to recommend you as a professional so when people are searching for services or products you offer, then they’ll find you.
That alone is priceless since you’ll get tons of prospective clients at your fingertip without spending a penny on advertising.
<b> #4. Search LinkedIn </b>
The search tool simply allows you to find professionals that you know and even the ones you don’t know.
Then you can either try to get an introduction from someone in your network that knows that person or simply upgrade your LinkedIn account in order to be able to contact him/her directly.
<b> #5. LinkedIn Groups </b>
LinkedIn groups allow you to join any group that you want. You’ll then be able to meet great people and keep in touch with prospective business partners and clients.
Make sure that you’re a contributing member of each group you join. Post great content regularly, keep in touch with the other group members, etc…This will literally help you brand your name, your products, services and even business opportunities because people will begin to relate to you.
<b> #6. LinkedIn Jobs </b>
LinkedIn is also a great place to post jobs or recruit employees to your company. Thousands of companies are hiring and recruiting on LinkedIn so if you’re a business owner looking for prospective employees, there you go!
If you’re looking for employment, there are so many great companies on LinkedIn offering great career opportunities.
<b> #7. Search Engine Optimization Made Easy </b>
SEO marketing is one the toughest things out there in cyberspace and takes a lot of effort and learning to become an expert.
Since LinkedIn is highly ranked in all top search engines, your LinkedIn page will easily show up in the top 10 in search engine results for certain keywords. That’s literally free organic traffic your page without all the SEO marketing hassle.
Give it a try: simply type my name “Souleymane Maiga” on Google.com and on the 1st page, you’ll see my LinkedIn profile.
<b> #8. Conclusion </b>
In conclusion, I would like to say that LinkedIn is a great social networking site. If used properly, it could increase your visibility and brand name.
It also adds more credibility to your image and brand (“LinkedIn Answers” easily allow you to become a known expert in your field of expertise).
Keep in mind that LinkedIn should not be used a mass marketing outlet like Facebook or MySpace or even Twitter (you should only target what you’re looking forward to accomplish).
Souleymane Maiga is a 20-year old successful marketer that has been helping others grow their businesses for F.R.E.E. Steal his best-kept secrets today: http://www.ImmediateRiches.com
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What Link Building Can Do For Your Internet Marketing Business
November 21, 2008
There are several things you can do to strengthen your internet marketing business and link building is certainly one of them. Although it can be a difficult method for search engine optimization, it can also be one of the most valuable pieces to your success. When done correctly, you will receive more traffic to your site than you know what to do with.
Link building consists of getting other sites to place your web site link on their site. In return, you usually have to place their link on your site. Sometimes you can find one way links, which are by far the best for you. This consists of a site putting your link on their site without you having to do so in return. Typically this is done because you have done a good deed for them in some manner.
The key to link building is finding quality internet marketing businesses to exchange links with. To benefit from link trades you typically will want to exchange with sites that have a Google page rank equal to or greater than your site.
Trading links with other sites, however, is not the only method to link building. If you have the money to spend, buying links can be beneficial to your business because you can purchase according to quality. Obviously it will cost you more for better quality links, but you will know exactly what you are getting. You just have to determine if it is worth it to you to spend money when there are so many free methods available.
Another option is through article writing. You may not have realized it yet, but writing articles is a great way to build links and get backlinks pointing to your site. By writing an article with a resource box included, you will have your web site link within the resource box. This gives people an opportunity to easily be directed to your site if they like your article. After writing an article, submit it to as many article directories as you can and watch the traffic flow in.
Lastly, writing testimonials can be a way of getting your name and link out on the web as well. By writing testimonials for your web hosting company, article writer, program coordinator, or anybody else that has helped you, you are benefiting them as well as yourself. This is a great way to potentially get linked with a large web site.
Link building is a vital piece to having success with your internet marketing business. It can drastically increase your traffic volume in a short period of time. The more methods you use, the better opportunity you have of people seeing your link on the web.
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Building Links To Your Site: Vital For SEO Success
November 21, 2008
With any online business, generating traffic to view the products or services you have to offer is essential. Since the World Wide Web is a huge arena, you can bet there is plenty of competition out there. It doesn’t matter how great of an item you have to offer if people don’t find out about it. To get your business the recognition it deserves, it is vital that you understand the various techniques for building links to your site.
If you want to rank well on the search engines, you have to have quality backlinks from other websites. Without quality backlinks to your site, you will not be able to rank well on the search engines. The good news is that there are lots of ways to build links to your site. Some of the ways to building these links are going to cost you money, but some of the most successful ways really won’t cost you anything more than your time.
One of first places you want to start is with submitting your website to the various web directories. There are 100′s of web directories that will give you a free listing for your website. The most important thing to do when submitting your site to web directories is to read the instructions. If you don’t follow the instructions, your listing will likely be denied.
There are also many places on the internet where you can submit articles for free. The articles can be informational in nature but they can’t be a direct advertisement for your business. However, at the bottom of the articles you can add a section that provides information about yourself and a link to your website if they want more information. Article marketing is one of the best ways to get quality one way links to your site.
When it comes to building links to your site, there are a couple of areas you want to pay special attention to.
Be careful with link exchanges. Link exchanging is the process of you placing someone else’s link on your web pages in exchange for them doing the same for you. Be careful of what sites you link to – you don’t want your site to be linking to a bunch of low quality or unethical sites.
Be especially wary of automated link exchange programs. These systems may save you time, but they are frowned upon by the search engines and may cause you problems. Google, Yahoo, and MSN may penalize your site for using automated link exchange programs (often called link farms), or they may even ban your site.
If you decide to engage in link exchanges, be very selective about who you do it with and how many you have. Make sure the ads you do place there aren’t a direct competition to what you have to offer. They should be for a product or service that is related to what you have to offer though. Try to do link exchanges with sites that will link to you from a semi-prominent page on their site.
When building links, be sure that you include your site’s keywords in the anchor text of the link. For example, if your site’s main keywords are buy widgets and blue widgets, you might use the anchor text buy blue widgets.
Don’t get caught up in the process of placing numerous ads for other sites on your own web pages. Not only is it distracting to the customers who visit your site, but it can cost you business. When a visitor clicks a link to somewhere else there is a very high risk that they won’t be returning to yours.
Building links is time consuming, but with hard work and some ingenuity, you can gain good search engine rankings.
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8 Ways to Build Links
November 21, 2008
To purchase links or to not purchase links, that is the question. Of course links are crucial to SEO success, but is there an easy efficient way to get them without paying for them? We should hope so, particularly given Google’s decision to penalize websites that contain paid links. Google is instead developing algorithms that favor websites to which others have linked naturally, meaning that they are linked to because the linking webmaster chose to link instead of being paid to link.
Which leads us to the next logical question: How do you get natural links? Here are eight ways to build up your natural links and win at the SEO game:
1. Join an Online Community
Online communities are everywhere and they address everything from maternity clothes to fishing equipment. Find a community that relates to your product or service and join in. Present yourself as an authority and be helpful to others in the community. Because you are confident, friendly, and helpful, others will automatically want to link to you.
2. Exchange Quality Links
Although it may sound intimidating at first, ask to exchange links with others who might be interested in your product or service. If you can get a link from your local library or a local or online community, you’ll have moved a long way toward effectively building your links.
3. Deep Links
Make sure than some links point to your site’s inner pages rather than your front page. If you can build up deep links, you will eventually dominate search engine results for that topic
4. Make the Main Thing the Main Thing
Remember who you’re marketing to and focus on that niche. Don’t try to be all things to all people. You’ll spread yourself too thin and end up shooting yourself in the foot. Your family may love that you keep pictures of your kids on your website, but your potential customers won’t be able to take you seriously if they don’t believe you spend every waking moment building your business.
5. Create Good Content
Once you’re clear about your focus, create high-quality content that others can’t help but want to link to. Other experts and professionals are more likely to link to you if there’s something particularly helpful or interesting on your website like a “how-to” article.
6. Write Articles
Submit your articles anywhere you can. This builds backlinks to your site and helps you establish yourself as an authority in your community. Make sure your articles aren’t spammy and don’t be obvious about promoting yourself. Just focus on writing good content that others will find relevant and helpful, and the links will come naturally.
7. And When You’re Not Writing Articles, Blog
This is another great way to establish yourself as an authority in your field and create relationships, which is what the new wave of internet marketing is all about. People will be more likely to link to you if they can put a face, a funny story, and a writing style to your company name. Blogging is also good motivation to ensure that your content is always fresh.
8. Sponsor Some Links, But Only if You Have To
Some industries are so competitive that it’s nearly impossible to get links with paying for them. Adult, SEO, finance, gambling, and mortgage are some of the most competitive industries, so if you find yourself in one of those, you may want to consider sponsoring links.
The best way to be successful in SEO is to come by your links the honest way. Don’t be pushy or overbearing. Don’t market yourself heavily. Be courteous and confident, helpful and relational. When others perceive that you really want your product or service to help them, they will be much more likely to respond to you. And if link-building is still an elusive enterprise, you can also hire a SEO expert or internet marketing firm to help you increase your link-building savvy.
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