Sit back, close your eyes and think of all the users on LinkedIn and Facebook. Think demographics. Think purchasing power. Think influence. And imagine what this community can do for your marketing and brand building efforts.
pecialist agencies spend millions of their clients’ dollars to identify and reach out to a market segment as powerful as the one on such social media. And as a user, this is available to you for the effort it takes for a few clicks of a mouse and a keyboard. Now, why would you not want to use these sites to boost your topline and bottomline?
Find clients anywhere in the world
Being global in its reach, every country in the world is probably represented on social media. Yes, there might be a skew in favour of some countries and sectors but the network plays out not only for direct leads, but in being able to direct you to the relevant ones through referrals. Go and mark your footprint in newer territories before others do.
Small businesses can help each other
Small business owners use LinkedIn to forge informal alliances with other entrepreneurs who may complement what they are doing and for providing leads to one another in non-competing situations. They meet here, share prospects, learn from each other and get to know of markets in regions otherwise inaccessible. It is like a business chamber for them.
Viral potential
If your product or service is buzzworthy for this target group, and you position it correctly, just sit back and watch the fun – word will get around, like a rising spiral reaching out to people you never could have even if you had all the advertising dollars in the world to spend.
Corporate branding
For businesses, it is not enough to just promote their products and services; the corporate brand too needs to be worked upon to attract investors, human resources and customers. For those looking to enhance the image of their company, the social media audience may just be what the doctor ordered.
Lead Generation
Find and be found. Search by title and industry for the ideal contacts at your ideal customers. Search by title and company name for specific target customers. Be sure your profile is complete and contains the appropriate keywords for your business so that people looking for your solution will find you. Endorsements/recommendations count for a lot — get them from people who have actually been your clients if at all possible.
Sales Acceleration
Search for people at the company you are targeting for a sale. Find out about the priorities that are going on at the company — what are the high-level factors that might be influencing the buying process. Be completely open/transparent. If you have a good solution and a really good referral to a true ‘friend of a friend,’ you will very likely find an internal champion in that person.
“The very critical mistake companies do on Facebook when they try to divert the traffic back to their website explicitly through their communication. Facebook or any other online community can be best utilized only when you add value on the existing community - if you do succeed you would automatically get people screaming for you back on your website.” – Santosh Kumar, Manager - Online Marketing at Dream11 Gaming, India
THE HOW OF SELLING THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA
Advertise
Advertise on social media can be done within a controlled budget and, with the right targeting, give you a higher return on investment than many other media.
Interact one-on-one
Instead of spraying everyone with your marketing messages, seek out prospective customers in your network for a private discussion. And you can always ask your friends or contacts to introduce you to those who are not on your network.
Do ensure you don’t start spamming your contacts just because they have allowed you to be in touch with them. Always remember to behave with people as you would in the real world.
Engage over Q&As
Again, LinkedIn Q&As can be an effective forum to attract attention to what you have to offer as long as it is not a direct sales pitch. There would be grey areas here on what is allowed and what is not; just be careful to watch where you are stepping. Don’t allow any of your communication to be interpreted as an advertisement.
Asking questions relevant to your products and services can create awareness, help you identify your markets needs and enable you to follow up on any positive remarks for a possible sales opportunity. As a respondent to any question related to your business or industry, you can create awareness and come in contact with those who may be prospective customers or market influencers. Again, any sales pitch should be subtle – or sent over a private message.
In fact, if you regularly ask questions and respond to those related to your area of work, without necessarily speaking about your business directly, you could catch the attention of those who matter easily. They may see your profile in the process, and contact you to discuss possibilities if they get a sense you may be a trusted vendor or service provider.
LinkedIn for Consultants: Why, How and Now
If you are a consultant who wants to increase his or her income from home, try LinkedIn. The site provides value to consultants in different industry segments by helping them accomplish two of their most pressing needs:
(1) Winning new business
(2) Strengthening existing business
So, let’s see what are the ways in which LinkedIn can help facilitate the above two goals and also some immediate steps you can follow to effect some results.
HOW
Here are five ways that LinkedIn can help consultants win and strengthen their business relationships:
Be found: Potential clients find you when your LinkedIn profile matches a keyword they use for their search. With millions of searches done on LinkedIn per month, odds are someone has already searched LinkedIn for a person with your expertise. Include the right keywords in your profile, so you show up in the search results of potential clients.
Search and Research: LinkedIn not only allows you to find hiring managers in your industry and region, but also enables you to identify new prospects in the networks of your former clients or colleagues. The most valuable information for your clients is rarely on a web page: it is usually in the minds of influencers and potential customers. LinkedIn helps you find these people and reach them through introductions made by your trusted contacts.
Get introduced: Most consultants get the majority of their clients through word-of-mouth referrals. When you connect on LinkedIn with professionals who have referred business to you in the past, you strengthen your relationship with them by helping them reach people you know. Also, once connected on LinkedIn, you can see who they or their contacts know and proactively reach out to potential new clients via referrals from past clients or former co-workers. If you have more business than you can handle, you can also use LinkedIn to find qualified staff and subcontractors.
Get endorsed: One of the first steps in establishing your reputation within LinkedIn is to get endorsed by your former clients and colleagues whom you have impressed with your work ethic. This not only offers examples of consulting work you have done in the past on your LinkedIn profile, but may seem mandatory given the competitive consulting environment in different fields today. Also, don’t forget to recommend your co-workers (past and present) and fellow consultants whose work you admire.
Got Answers? Another effective way to substantiate your expertise in a given field is offering solutions and answers to specific questions being posed by your trusted network through LinkedIn Answers. Besides helping other professionals; this is a great way to further solidify your expertise in your related field of work. We have a slew of categories and sub-groups within LinkedIn Answers that cover a broad swath of possible consulting work.
NOW
If you are a consultant who has just joined LinkedIn, here are four action items to help you get started:
Connect with your past and current clients. Referrals from clients are your best lead source — and once you are connected, you can also proactively search their networks.
Reconnect with old colleagues. You never know all the people your old colleagues know until you connect with your colleagues on LinkedIn.
Connect with people who have recommended you in the past. These people have already recommended or referred you to their trusted network. By connecting with them, you maximize the chances of people in their network finding you when they are looking for help.
Request recommendations from past clients or old colleagues. This ensures that potential clients or employers who find you will choose you from their search results as the person to contact.
Let people know you, business will follow
It may be important to allow people to get to know well. This can be done by being open and transparent on these social media sites and allowing others to see your network and professional history. Let people see your endorsements, and help them connect to other customers of yours. You need to nurture your network and build relationships. Win the trust of people. Once they know you better, business will follow.
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