Deborah Sweeney says, “LinkedIn isn’t a standard, run-of-the-mill social media site. Its founders built the site for a specific purpose – to help people expand their professional, working network and further their careers. But LinkedIn has grown to be more than a site to showcase a resume and find jobs; people use it to share and discuss news, trends, and other content. Further 22 percent of adults on the internet have used LinkedIn, making it more popular than Twitter amongst that demographic. There is no more excuse for businesses to avoid LinkedIn in their social marketing. Making... [...]

Emma Snider says, “Salespeople are well acquainted with the power of LinkedIn for prospect research, trigger event tracking, and customer engagement. But what about generating new sales leads (read: a lot of them)? If your pipeline is looking a bit empty, peruse the following SlideShare from LinkedSelling. You’ll discover how to whip up a long list of hot sales leads ripe for the contacting. If you’re like most salespeople, you’re on LinkedIn all day for work anyway. Now learn how to make it work for you. P.S. Looking for even more LinkedIn sales tips? If you’re... [...]

Zorian Rotenberg says, “Smart sales reps are getting on board with social selling. Researching, engaging with, and reaching out to prospects on social media sites can help salespeople familiarize themselves with their buyers and separate themselves from the crowd. If used correctly, social insights can warm up a cold email or call to the rep’s benefit. The bad news is that there are plenty of dumb social selling tactics out there. Unfortunately, some reps haven’t gotten the memo on personalizing and customizing their prospecting messages. This is unacceptable through email and on the... [...]

Ann Handley says, “Let’s start with the data: More than half of marketers surveyed say Facebook is the most important social network they use, according to the 2015 Social Media Marketing Industry Report by San Diego-based Social Media Examiner. LinkedIn came in second: 71 percent of marketers use it, but only 21 percent cite it as the most important social network. (Twitter ranked a distant third, at 12 percent.) But here’s another interesting and perhaps more telling stat from the same report: While 66 percent of respondents want to improve their knowledge of how to use Facebook, a... [...]

Rainmaker team says, “While ads on LinkedIn can be expensive, if you know the right formula, they can be very effective. One of the biggest complaints Sean Jackson hears about LinkedIn is that ads are just too expensive and don’t generate results. Well, don’t tell that to Janet Driscoll Miller, CEO of Marketing Mojo. Janet and her firm have not only seen great results for their clients on LinkedIn, it was one of the reasons why they changed their company name. In this episode of The Missing Link, host Sean Jackson and Janet Driscoll Miller discuss the subject of LinkedIn ads, including: The... [...]

Rainmaker team says, “LinkedIn Groups are a powerful way to build authority and leads for your business … if you know how to use them correctly. The Missing Link host Sean Jackson loves LinkedIn Groups. They provide an effective and free way to establish connections online, while also helping you build your authority. But the real power of LinkedIn is in owning your own group. And while anyone can start a group on LinkedIn, the smart marketer looks for ways to go beyond the obvious. In this entertaining episode of The Missing Link, Jabez Lebret — bestselling author, speaker, and marketing... [...]

Tom Whately says, “As a B2B marketer, I’m always looking to LinkedIn as my social media channel of choice (other than Twitter, of course).  LinkedIn operates in a way that cultivates communities around certain professions and industries, and for B2B marketers this can be gold, when done well. We’re currently using seven different techniques for our LinkedIn marketing efforts, and today I wanted to share three that I find most effective. These techniques cover both content distribution and lead generation and should provide you with enough inspiration to experiment yourself“. Three... [...]

Emma Snider says, “If you’re using LinkedIn for sales correctly, you won’t insert an ask into your initial invitation to connect. It’s only after the prospect accepts your personalized connection request and you’ve diligently observed their behavior on the network that you can follow up with a meeting proposal. But just like cold sales emails, there’s a right way and a wrong way to write a LinkedIn message. Whether you’re sending an InMail or a good old-fashioned message, look to the following template as a guide“. The Anatomy of a Great LinkedIn... [...]

Carly Stec says, “Try as I may, I’ll never be able to recreate my mother’s tomato sauce recipe. It’s a science; a tried-and-tested formula that took her years to master. (Time well spent, if you ask me.) But the great thing about formulas is that they provide us with a starting point — a list of the elements we need to produce an intended outcome. From there, it’s up to us to put them together. Over the past year, you’ve probably noticed something a little different about your LinkedIn notifications. LinkedIn announced in February 2014 that they’d... [...]

Brandon Olson says, “If you’ve ever looked for information on using LinkedIn, odds are you’ve come across helpful material from Viveka von Rosen. Viveka is an internationally known LinkedIn expert and author of the best-selling book,LinkedIn Marketing: An Hour a Day. She’s taught a whopping 95,000 (and counting) people how to create business relationships and how to generate business leads using social media. Viveka has even been recognized by Forbes as a key social media influencer for four years running. The amazing thing about Viveka is that she never imagined that she would become... [...]