LinkedIn allows you to make connections and find new business at a faster pace and reach new areas at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing. In fact, the only cost is your time. In today’s business climate, being a little web savvy goes a long way. It is important to remember that LinkedIn is a good tool to reach specific people; it is not as good at mass market broadcasting.

5 step process

1. Profile: Build a complete and fully developed profile that highlights expertise, experience and capability that you offer. Your profile should show your unique selling proposition of why business prospects should use your services. Include a link to your website and blog if you have one.
2. Invite: Send out connection invitations to friends, colleagues, customers and suppliers. Look at their connections and discover more people that you know and invite them to your network. Use the advanced search tools to find people you once worked with or went to school with.
3. Network: Use LinkedIn Answers to interact and network with your targeted customers. Ask questions that would interest your customer. Invite these people to become a connection and join your network. Meet these new connections for a cup of coffee or by phone to strengthen your relationship.
4. Prospect List: Using LinkedIn Advanced Search as well as other sources, compile a list of targeted prospect companies. This can be by Industry, geographic area or other demographic.
5. Introduction: Search thru your contact list for people that are currently working at your prospect companies. Look for connections that worked there in the past or that have contacts currently working at those companies. Get an introduction and create a warm call opportunity. This greatly increases your success rate.

LinkedIn is very different from many of the social networking sites that are online. It is positively focused towards businesses and business members.

Trust is the glue that holds LinkedIn together and recommendations are a way to cement stronger bonds within your connections. Recommendations are important in building your image and brand. Authentic references from customers and people you have actually worked with speak volumes about you.

Endorsements from colleagues, clients, and employers add instant credibility and strengthen your profile. These recommendations are really your testimonials that are powerful because they are written by others.

How do you get recommendations? LinkedIN allows users to ask for recommendations from past managers, co workers, business partners and service providers. Don’t be shy about requesting recommendations.

Recommendations

1. Targeting: Seek testimonials from business leaders and satisfied customers. Testimonials from friends and fellow workers will hold much less weight.
2. Customers: Encourage customers to give you a recommendation as you complete work or a project. This is the ideal time to ask for feedback.
3. Give to get: If you are feeling awkward about asking for recommendations, start by giving one. You’ll be amazed at how flattered they are, and they are likely to leave you a professional endorsement.
4. Add value: Think about what value your recommendation will give. It should address the person as a professional or their business. They are meant to show a professional endorsement for that person.
5. Be specific: General comments are weak endorsements. A good recommendation has specific information or examples. Instead of saying “John puts on excellent workshops”, say “John’s workshops are interesting and full of tips and examples that you can immediately apply to your own business.”
6. Be credible: If your recommendations are full of hype and raving statements, they will be discounted by readers. The best recommendations are honest and transparent.

Networking is an increasingly important part of business. Business managers and entrepreneurs are using networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn to establish business contacts and to locate talent for their organizations. The lines are fast becoming blurred between social and professional networking.

LinkedIn is the platform of choice for professional networking. It is a social networking tool that allows members to maintain a list of contacts they know and trust in business, make new connections and re-connect with past contacts and acquaintances. LinkedIn has over 20 million members making it the number one professional networking site today.

The best business networkers are connected into the broad fabric well beyond their immediate professional boundaries. They build relationships and interact with people. They are genuinely interested in people and what they are thinking. They seek interaction because they are curious about people and their ideas.

The modern business networker uses online social networks in addition to traditional networking. They make regular contributions in forums such as LinkedIn Answers and write regular blog articles that are thoughtful and helpful. The modern business networker has a “pay it forward” rather than a “what’s in it for me” philosophy.

They are always looking for ways to help people. They learn something and are looking to pass it on to help others. The best networkers rarely expect a personal payoff. This makes them a natural magnet for people wanting to join their network.

Business networking is a communications skill based on human interaction. The same rules apply to face-to-face and online networking.

I often hear from people who don’t see how using LinkedIn can give them new business. They will ask: “So I have these connections… Now what do I do?”

What they are not understanding is that LinkedIn is no different that face-to-face networking. You can’t expect to meet someone only onceand turn that relationship into a referral. LinkedIn is the same way; you can’t merely add someone as a connection and expect business to just happen.

LinkedIn is like traditional networking; the internet has just made it easier. The same rules apply. Let’s start by looking at what works for traditional networking.

1. Who: Your networking strategy starts with who to I wish to meet? What are you looking for in a good referral partner or targeted client.
2. Where: Where can you best find these people? Chamber events, professional associations or even Rotary meetings?
3. Make a plan: who will be in attendance and why are they there?
4. Listen: Networking is not about you; it is about meeting people, asking questions, subtly qualifying them, and then listening to them. Find out how you can help them.
5. Have a message: Lets people know what you do and how you can support their need.

So how can you make this work with LinkedIn? Start with a complete profile that has your photo, links to your website and a complete story about who you are. After all, when a person is interested, this is the first place they will go to learn about you. An incomplete profile shows you in a poor light .

The best networking in LinkedIn is LinkedIn Answers. This is where you can ask or answer questions. Anyone can ask or answer any question. That gives you access to over 20 million people. By asking a question that interests your targeted client; you get a chance to start a conversation. A well written question can get over 50 answers.

I follow up with a personal response to everyone who answers one of my questions with one of 3 possible responses:

1. Already a connection: I thank them for taking time to give an answer and tell them I appreciate their taking time with my question.
2. Not connected, but I want to: I thank them for their answer and ask them to send me an invitation to connect if they are likewise interested.
3. Not connected, but not interested in connecting: I just thank them for their answer.

This gives you a way of increasing your connections, interacting with current connections and becoming increasingly known by the LinkedIn community. This gives me a steady stream of leads and an increasing network of people that I send referrals to.

LinkedIn is much more than just a networking tool you can use it to meet new prospects and generate new business. It is a powerful research tool that helps with background information on sales prospects, your competition or even prospective employers. With over 20 million searchable profiles, LinkedIn is a powerful people tool.

Imagine going into a conference room filled with people you have never met. You may know their names and their companies, but not much else. You can use LinkedIn to understand these people and develop some ideas for conversation starters.

1. Research your sales prospects: Look for connections and contacts within your network to create an introduction. Use LinkedIn to understand your prospect before you meet with them. You can learn where someone has worked, where they went to school, their hobbies and more. LinkedIn details their past career experience and positions held, and reveals their personal interests and expertise.
2. Research your competition: Do an advanced search on their company name. Understand past and present employees by reading their profiles. What skill sets and backgrounds are in key positions? You will get an idea not only what they are doing now, but what are the capable of doing.
3. Research a prospective employer: The more you know about a prospective employer, the better decision you can make if you are offered a job. Do advanced searches by company name. Contact people in your network that currently or previously worked there. See where people go before and after. How long do they stay?

Combine LinkedIn with a thorough Google search and you can gain a great deal of intelligence to help make decisions and increase your sales conversions

Facebook has about 70 million users worldwide and this is expected to reach upwards of 200 million by January 2009. But Facebook is for personal social networking, not for businesses… right? It seems that Facebook is evolving to capture the business social networking market that LinkedIn has previously locked up.

A basic premise of marketing using social networking is that business is both social and personal. Business involves people, communications and relationships. In business, we prize networking skills. We forge relationships by talking about sports, weather, hobbies and family. Marketers need to figure out how to best use online social networking.

Not only are your friends on Facebook, so are your prospects, your customers and of course your competition. Facebook has been changing itself to be the place for both personal and business social networking.

Unlike Plaxo, Xing or LinkedIn…  Facebook is both a personal and business networking site. Recently, Facebook launched a “People You May Know” feature that is almost identical to a popular LinkedIn feature of the same name.

Back to the question we started with. Should Your Business be on Facebook? This should be a strong YES! Facebook is not just for college students anymore. It has attracted the white collar business market. Facebook is in transition and growing strongly. Facebook is poised to become a major B2B marketing site that attracts corporate executives and decision makers.

Facebook is slowly positioning itself to be a place where both personal and business networking can take place at the same time. It is in direct competition with LinkedIn but largely depends on word of mouth to influence business buying decisions.

Is social networking a passing fad? Or is it a permanent evolution of our online culture? Should businesses embrace social networking and make it part of their marketing strategies? Social networking started out as a teen-age craze, but an increasing number of businesses are putting it to work.

I believe that social networking is part of the human dynamic and is here to stay. Social media is growing with people to people networks. Even in the earliest days of the Internet, forums allowed interaction, discussions and collaboration. This movement is a long term trend toward socialization of the web.

I would translate “social networking” to conversations… The essence of Web 2.0 is technology assisting conversations and people interacting.

Social networking is a skill that marketers need to develop in order to stay ahead of the curve in marketing trends. It is rapidly becoming a means to target and communicate with customers in more interactive and strategic ways.As a result, wise marketers are taking advantage of them to deepen their relationships with consumers.

So what does the future hold for social networking? The growth seems to be in mobile social networking. The use of mobile devices continues to grow and be a part of our culture. Can you imagine using your mobile device to quickly check the online profiles of the prospect you are getting ready to meet?

What ever the future holds, social networks will be a basis for communication and interaction… unless of course, social networking evolves into a newer and better media.

Networking, either online or face-to-face is still networking. LinkedIn is a virtual form of networking. You are networking because you want referrals. You have to give to get. You have to be active with your network.

Networking is still about building relationships, visibility, trust, and likeability. You want to use the power and leverage of technology. Results are multiplied when you combine online social networking with offline networking. This can be as simple as scheduling a phone call or meeting for coffee.

3 Steps to get referrals from your network:

1. Build a targeted network.
2. Communicate what you do.
3. Interact with your network regularly.

One of the best tools to use on LinkedIn for networking is LinkedIn Answers. Answers allow you to ask and answer questions on most any topic. By focusing with subjects related to your industry, you are interacting with people who are interested in your market.

On questions that I ask, I will follow up with a personal reply thanking them for answering my question. If they are someone that I am not connected with and I think they would be a valuable addition to my network, I will suggest a connection. If they agree, then I will send an invitation.

Make a point to participate in answering questions posed by your network. This allows you to interact on their questions. You will also have a portion of your network that reads what is being posed and answered by their network. They do this to learn and obtain expertise. By participating in Answers, you are reaching this part of your network.

With LinkedIn you will get out of it what you put into it. It is a networking site and as in face-to-face networking you have to put in the effort.

Social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace have exploded in popularity. There are literally hundreds of social networking websites to choose from. How many of these sites should a person participate in? How many can a person handle before becoming overwhelmed?

Most people should participate in a maximum of two. More than that and you lose focus. This is one of the principles behind BLiF marketing (Blogging + LinkedIn + Facebook). Choose which social networking sites based on your objectives.

In BLif marketing, LinkedIn is more of a business networking site where Facebook is more social. There is an overlap between the social and business networks. In LinkedIn you establish a good rapport with your business contacts, then one starts discussing things other than just business. With Facebook, you are in a social setting and discussions may lead to talk about business. This way one is for business and one is for pleasure.

LinkedIn is for business contacts and career opportunities. LinkedIn is a good way in seeing what is happening in your field of expertise and in communicating with people in your field all over the world.

Facebook is for meeting and discussing in a relaxed social atmosphere. There is also a place for businesses by using Facebook pages or groups. Generally people gravitate to the social network where their friends are. Facebook is the fastest growing social network.

If your business or personal objectives better fit other networking platforms, then choose up to two and spend your time and energy there.

People are forming relationships online and real estate is a relationship based business. Facebook is the social networking component of the BLiF marketing system (Blogging + LinkedIn + Facebook). This is where you connect with your network on a more personal level. The key here is to make it fun, make it social and be there to interact. Facebook is a great socializing place to talk with your friends.

Once you build up your profile, you want to work on building up your network. Encourage your past clients and new clients to add you as a friend. Spend your first few weeks of network building by inviting 10-15 people per day with personalized requests. You are building a sphere of friends that you can share with.

Keep your content fresh and updated. This is how you keep people interested and coming back. If you just put up a page and leave it unattended, you will lose your audience. If you are a good networker that is constantly reaching out and engaging, you will be able to leverage the power of Facebook.

Facebook allows third parties to develop widgets and applications that you can add to your profile. There are over 20,000 applications available with some excellent real estate applications that help make your profile much more interactive.

Highlight your properties in creative ways. You can share your properties with your friends by including photos or videos of your properties in your profile. You can add external links to your listings or send flyers to your friends.

Facebook allows you to create “groups” which are communities of people with a common interest. Create a local homebuyers group for your sales area. This is a great place to interact with potential clients and you can showcase your expertise.

Use Facebook as the “cocktail party” setting for your BLif marketing campaign. Social media marketing is the new frontier in real estate marketing.