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I’ve recently purchased the book, “The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web.” It’s been a great resource for learning more about social media and how to best use it.  Today, I’m going to offer some of the helpful tips it provides about the social networking site, LinkedIn.

For those of you that haven’t used LinkedIn, it is similar to other social networking sites, such as Facebook or MySpace as far as the registering for the site.  You simply sign up and start to build your profile.  LinkedIn is different; however, because it has you set up a profile similar to how you would build a resume by including items such as your educational and work background. If you need more information on getting started with LinkedIn you can view the “What is LinkedIn?” page. Then you can start to build your network! There are a couple of extra tools the book mentions though that can be used in the LinkedIn network that can make your marketing efforts more efficient.

• First of all, LinkedIn offers a Q&A section in which you can ask a question to your network of friends.  Your friends can then answer the question, which then offers your company firsthand feedback or ideas to consider in the future.
• Of course, like other social networking sites, your company can purchase a direct ad on LinkedIn.  A direct ad offers you the opportunity to market your company to a specific audience.  You can then track to see how well the ad is doing in the LinkedIn community.
• One of the newest features of LinkedIn is their applications.  The Company Buzz application allows you to see recent mentions of your company or other companies on the social networking site, Twitter.  Using another application, you can place your company’s blog on your LinkedIn profile for others to see.  There are others that may be relevant for your company to use as well, including SlideShare, Box.net, and others.

Although LinkedIn is not designed to act as a mass marketing tool, it can still be useful and beneficial for your company to participate.  If you agree, visit their website to start building your profile today, it’s easy!

Lavon Temple | Marketing