Using LinkedIn for Lead Generation

By Justin Chugg

Although its common for agents to use social media platforms, very few actually leverage the technology to its full potential. With literally thousands of social networking sites to choose from, it can be a little overwhelming to choose the right one. The big three are obviously Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. To put things into perspective, Facebook houses half a billion members while Twitter holds 75 million and LinkedIn boasts 80 million. Each of the groups is growing at an astounding rate, but not every platform is suitable for business purposes. In a recent study conducted by NetProspex, it was found that 43 percent of employees at the largest companies in America use LinkedIn while 11 percent use Facebook and 3 percent use Twitter. Facebook and Twitter are generally geared for personal use while LinkedIn is 100 percent business.

LinkedIn has proven to be a powerful resource for businesses, but even more so for channel partners. With 80 million members, there is a wealth of information at your fingertips for virtually any company in the world. LinkedIn will enable you to identify key prospects at a company and even allow you to interact with them. One of the best features available through LinkedIn is the information youre able to gather about a prospects background, including interests, education and their role at the company. Knowing that you grew up in the same city or share a common contact makes it easier to avoid the awkward silence after, Im doing great, thank you.”

Before you can begin generating business with LinkedIn, you must build a foundation by following four easy steps:

1. Create a profile
2. Establish connections
3. Join networking groups
4. Maintain your visibility

Create a profile. Your LinkedIn profile is as important if not more important than your corporate website. Business is all about relationships and only your LinkedIn profile can sell you on a personal level. LinkedIn allows you to talk about your strengths without sounding egotistical. More importantly, the personal recommendations you receive will build confidence among your clients and business partners. There are two ways to get recommendations: one is to request them and the second is to give them. Any time you write a recommendation for someone, LinkedIn will automatically request the individual to return the favor.

LinkedIn will help you market yourself in search engines. LinkedIn has an extremely high page ranking, helping your LinkedIn profile to be ranked No. 1 whenever your name is searched for. To enable your profile to appear in search engines, simply edit your profile status to full view” and allow the URL to carry your name instead of a string of random numbers. I would suggest buying a domain name with your name like JustinChugg.com. This will enable you to add a link to your profile in your e-mail signature without having to use the LinkedIn URL.

Establish Connections. Adding connections offers you much more than a confidence boost; it is a powerful link that will open endless doors for your business. LinkedIn is a numbers game; the more people you connect with, the more visible you are to others. If someone was researching for a telecom consultant, your profile would rank higher if you had more connections, especially if you share connections with the researcher.

Gaining connections is easy. Regardless of how you know someone school, work, relative, church, etc. add them as a connection. You will be surprised to see how many people you know and, more importantly, who they know. There are two ways to add a connection. The first is to perform a name search and then manually add them as a connection. This will allow you to add a personal note, increasing the likelihood they will accept the invitation. The second option is to upload a list of e-mails and blast an invitation to everyone you know. Many e-mail clients keep an ongoing list of everyone you e-mail.

Anytime you interact with someone, whether its at a party, on a blog or even your neighbor, its important that you remember to add them to LinkedIn. Like Facebook, LinkedIn will enable you to stay in contact with someone regardless of where they move to or even if they change companies. A good place to start is the LinkedIn advanced search tool. LinkedIn will allow you to search for individuals by keyword, industry, group members and much more. As you connect with people, it is important to categorize contacts in your connections section as friends, colleagues, suppliers, prospects, customers, etc., enabling you to customize messages to specific groups in the future.

Join networking groups. Although LinkedIn groups offer a wide range of advantages, their No.1 benefit is the ability to contact other group members. I would recommend joining groups for business executives, IT professionals, VARs, telecom forums, commercial real estate forums and any other industry in which you feel comfortable. You should seek groups with the highest membership levels, helping you grow your potential client list. The LinkedIn group search tool will rank groups based on membership numbers, making it easy for you to find the largest groups. If you feel ambitious enough, you may form your own group, creating an optimal environment to target your potential clients.

Maintain your visibility. The culmination of these three steps will allow you to leverage LinkedIn to its full capacity. One of the priceless resources available through LinkedIn is the search tool. With the click of a button you can uncover millions of decision makers across thousands of companies. LinkedIn will help you identify shared contacts in the search results and even let you see their business profile. If you share a group with the individual, you can send an e-mail directly to their inbox. If you would like to take a less direct approach, you could review their profile for recent posts or comments and begin interacting with them.

Unfortunately not every LinkedIn interaction will lead to a sale at least not right away. By categorizing your contacts into groups, you will be able to reach out to your network on a regular basis. LinkedIn e-mails will not only bypass spam filters, but they will stand out from other e-mails in the recipients inbox. A copy of the e-mail will be stored on the users LinkedIn account, doubling your chances of having it read.

E-mails should be customized for each group of contacts. For your customers, it may be a friendly follow-up on their services. For friends and family, it may be a request for a referral or an update about your life. To potential partners and industry contacts, it may be an e-mail about industry news or a new promo that is available. Regardless of the message, it is important to maintain a constant mind share of your network, enabling you to always be at the right place at the right time. LinkedIn is the only platform that will enable you to achieve this goal. Dont miss out on this grand opportunity; begin building your business today one connection at a time.

Justin Chugg is marketing manager for master agency

Telarus Inc
., which leverages patented quoting technology for research and instant carrier quotes. He can be reached on LinkedIn at

www.linkedin.com/in/justinchugg
.