Now it’s time for the new Holy Graile (not the Monty Python version) of social media sites to have a presence on for a small businesses. For years, LinkedIn has been a home strictly for business and nonprofit organizations to connect. In recent years they have fine-tuned their focus in that area and have somehow managed to stay above the fray which has consumed most other platforms with everyone’s opinion on everything. This is to your advantage if you have a business or organization that you want to promote. You can not only prospect for new customers here but also make connections which may have the even more powerful effect of spreading all aspects of your organization to others, not just sales.

Before you charge into over-prospecting LinkedIn as is becoming the case right now, you might want to keep some things in mind. First, LinkedIn is ALL ABOUT the connection. You cannot directly connect to someone and just start sending. It’s best to have a direct connection to someone or a “secondary” connection such as the same school or business or knowing someone who knows them. Anything beyond that is a “3rd-level” connection and this decreases your chances of someone approving your request to connect unless you give them a compelling reason. If you are cold prospecting on LinkedIn, we can help with proven messaging methods reaching out to a few people at a time. We do this to avoid being flagged by LinkedIn for spamming but also because we believe in the value of a connection as well and will help you to nurture this to success.

The other thing to dovetail from this is the privacy of members”. An organization can’t just spam everyone looking for connections, although many try, and this goes against LinkedIn’s core values as well. You can, and should, review LinkedIn’s About Page for lots of information about how to succeed in the LinkedIn Community. Respect and professional behavior are huge things in this world and this is partially what sets the platform apart. If you work with other businesses or nonprofit organizations or offer professional services or products to individuals, then LinkedIn is a great place to spend money and get results. We can help with prospecting and ads for what you offer but will spend more time than most working with you and setting up this engagement to ensure you have the right approach for success.