The Low Down on LinkedIn—Why You Need it in Your Internet Marketing Arsenal

By Heather Lutze, CEO Findability Group Search Marketing and CWCC member

When considering a social media marketing campaign, most business owners immediately think of Facebook. It’s always in the news. It has over 500 million subscribers. It is one of the most amazing success stories of the internet age, and it even had a big, Academy Award winning movie made about it.

Not so with LinkedIn…

In fact, I’ve had many clients remark, “I’m not looking for a job and I have no time to network, so why do I need it?”

Consider this: I’ve had numerous speaking engagements over the past couple of years with various CEO groups through the executive coaching organization Vistage International.  When polled about whether or not they use and source services in LinkedIn—99% answered “YES!” In fact, executives from all the Fortune 500 companies have accounts on this B2B portal.

What do they know that you don’t know?

Although it might not get the same amount of press as Facebook or Twitter, LinkedIn is no lightweight in terms of internet marketing potential. Business connections are the purpose of this site, giving it quite a different flavor than any of the others.

Use LinkedIn to represent your brand and your company as a strong, reliable entity. You can enhance your credibility by showcasing professional connections and affiliations with other leaders in your field. Did you know that professional recommendations in LinkedIn carry much more weight with someone who is checking out your company than those old fashioned, generic testimonials on your website?

I particularly like LinkedIn’s “Follow Company” feature. It keeps you updated on developments within the companies you choose to follow via your LinkedIn account. By following competitors or key companies in your industry, you can find out exactly what they are up to and do some competitive marketing intelligence work at the same time!

I have personally found LinkedIn to be an amazing resource:

• for powerful business to business connections;
• for identifying new prospects and new opportunities;
• for keeping up with your industry leaders;
• and last, (but never least) for ranking in Google under the high value keywords for your company. Feel free to find me on LinkedIn: Heather Lutze – Internet Marketing Speaker—and copy how I have optimized my profile.

Okay, so now I can almost hear the wheels in your head turning. “I don’t have time for all this! Should I start with Facebook and Twitter–or try LinkedIn? I sure like the fact that the average household income of LinkedIn users is over $100,000 a year! Hmmmm…..”

The good news—you don’t need to choose one over the other. LinkedIn applications let you pull your blog and tweet stream right into your LinkedIn profile. This keeps your profile fresh, interesting and full of “thought leader” information that features you as an expert in your field.

For step by step instructions on how to set yourself up on LinkedIn, how to optimize your profile, and how to effectively use it once you are on it, visit Chapter 9 of my just published second book: Thumbonomics: The Essential Business Roadmap for Social Media & Mobile Marketing.

Heather is the widely acclaimed speaker, trainer, and consultant who literally wrote the book on search engine marketing. Two books, in fact—The Findability Formula: The Easy, Non-Technical Approach to Search Engine Marketing and the brand new Thumbonomics: The Essential Business Roadmap for Social Media & Mobile Marketing. Her writing and in-demand keynotes are delivered with the same witty, “no-geek-speak” style that has managed to demystify internet marketing for countless business owners. Breaking free of corporate “cubicle” jobs over ten years ago with nothing more than a dream of entrepreneurship and a computer in the basement, Heather built her business into a multimillion dollar company—the Findability Group. Today she leads a dedicated and slightly obsessed team of search marketing pros—their mission—to connect clients with their perfect customers online.