In the year 2017, if you are not easily found on the internet, you do
not exist. This is the first in a series
of articles; “How to Create and Maintain a Social Media Brand – the Lecture
Series”. This is all you need to know
to create a social media presence for the independent consumer based
business. Enjoy, and Happy New Year
2017.
LinkedIn is the social network for
business professionals. Seventy four
percent of professionals are registered with LinkedIn. Sixty percent of LinkedIn users check their
LinkedIn site more than 3 times a week.
To network in 2017, use LinkedIn.
In the olden days, I would get a
business card, perhaps enter the information in Outlook, and then, with many
contacts, lose touch with them as they changed emails or changed jobs.
With LinkedIn, the contact
maintains the information and the changes to their emails and job
situation.
Rule 1:
Keep your contact information up to date in LinkedIn so that people can
contact you, especially if they have no other contact information. (oh yes, and have a professional photo of yourself)
Networking is more than just
getting someone’s contact information.
It is about sharing who you are and learning about who they are and
sharing updates.
Rule
2: Share professional updates: these
can be articles of interest that you find on some publication, thought or
musings or issues as they come up, company information, press releases, news
and events in the business world that you work in, industry information,
information about your profession.
Write articles: If you
really are an expert about something, and good at your profession, you can
write the occasional article that supports this.
Rule
3: Write articles for LinkedIn. These can also be published on your blog if
you have one. Sharing updates and writing posts/ articles are 2 different things. Updates appear on the news feed on the Home page and flow. Posts or Articles appear on your profile and do not flow away in a few hours. So it is worthwhile to take the time and write the articles.
Company Pages explain to the
world, the company that you work for.
You can showcase events and achievements of your company on these
pages. Your company is part of your
professional legitimacy. People do
search on LinkedIn and Google treats LinkedIn information almost as highly as
it does Wikipedia.
Rule
4: Create and maintain a company
page. (Post weekly or monthly).
Groups are a forum for you to
connect with people in similar professions and interests, exchange ideas and
publish opinions. Join groups that
reflect your professional credentials to further establish your professional
credentials.
Rule
5: Join Groups that reflect your
interests and skills. Joins discussions
and share interesting articles from groups to your contacts.
for more info: Social Media for Business Workshops
