What is LinkedIn Marketing?

With so much talk about social network and marketing, you simply can’t be left behind if you want to increase the visibility of your brand. So what is LinkedIn marketing all about?

In a nut shell LinkedIn is a social networking site, that is dedicated to help promote professionals and their business and career oriented objectives. The site has a data base of more than 35 million professional in different sectors. Keeping in mind the fact that this is a huge prospect of meeting people from different industries, it makes a lot of sense to register yourself in this website.
With LinkedIn marketing you get to meet a huge number of professionals who may in some way help you in your business and also turn future partners/clients. Moreover this is a place to connect with like minded people, which helps you make new business contacts. LinkedIn marketing is also a great way of building up on your networks with the right people your want to be known with.

In order to start off with LinkedIn marketing, you need to be registered on the website. Once you are a registered member, you can create your own personal profile, which has information about yourself, what you do, your brand or company. You can also add information about your products and services. In fact LinkedIn marketing is one of the best ways of promoting yourself and your professional achievements. People can know about your experience in the industry as well as about your professional accomplishments.

It is advised that once you are a member you maintain an active profile, where you regularly update your achievements, any new avenues that you might have ventured into, etc. You can also invite new professionals who are not on the website and increase your network.

LinkedIn marketing helps you in lending a personal touch to marketing activities, which is very effective. Moreover you can add contacts and even recommend them to specific areas of expertise that would help them. This will help you in gaining a positive reputation and also be recommended by them in other ventures where your expertise is needed.
LinkedIn marketing allows you business opportunities in the form of connecting with service providers, prospective clients, joint venture partners, suppliers, and consultants, who might be of tremendous use in expanding and growing your business prospects.

Apart from LinkedIn marketing, the website provides professionals with the opportunity to improve their knowledge base, learn about different aspects of similar industry from experienced people, and keep themselves up-to-date on different industry related activities, etc. Interestingly you can also create your own groups and invite people from similar background to participate in discussions that are part of the group.

LinkedIn marketing helps you to project-

- Your experience in the industry
- Your company profile
- Your affiliations, websites, blogs
- Your product/service

Participating in discussions and your keeping yourself up-dated about industry related activities has the effect of giving you an edge over others. This will help you in projecting yourself as an expert on the industry you are in. This can help in the marketing your services/products while establishing yourself as a person who is respected in your field.

Avoid common Facebook Marketing mistakes

While Facebook marketing is a great platform for all business houses both big and small, you need to be aware of the pitfalls and avoid the mistakes. Let’s use this space to understand that marketing through facebook can be done effectively by bypassing some of the things we often overlook.

If you are a marketer who is confident that Facebook marketing is THE thing that could promote your brand to new heights, you probably are right but at the same time don’t loose of the things you should avoid to make the journey a smooth sailing one.

A major Facebook marketing related problem is to know where to draw the line between the personal and the professional. While Facebook marketing thrives on the personal touch between the owner of the business and their clients, there is such a thing as allowing too much of the real person coming through. This is more difficult if you own a small business and run it personally and oversee all the marketing aspects.

While it’s nice to keep in touch with your clients and interact with them on different aspects, beware of divulging too much of the person you are. Strangely enough most people do not want to see a brand sprouting personal information, no matter how curious the onlookers may be. The ideal situation would be a judicious mix between the both.

There are many business houses which have a profile of their own but forget to have a fan page. You need to of course start off with a profile page but follow it up with a Facebook fan page too. This could add a lot of width to you Facebook marketing. A Fan Page can have more than the 5000 people allotted for a profile page and can be very useful for marketing your business on Facebook. Marketing from your Facebook profile page will have its limitations as well as not being really encouraged by the Facebook team.

Being seen and being heard amounts to being known on Facebook marketing jargon. Don’t make the mistake of not following up and updating your status from time to time. Facebook gives you a wide range of options for keeping in touch with your fan base. You could for example, upload articles, post photographs about Company events, write notes to inform people about company details and involve them with your opinions. Be regular in posting new stuff, ask for opinions from time to time, encourage discussions, and basically interact. This will help all your followers keep track of company activities and make them feel involved.

Don’t make the mistake of not inviting your followers to other pages that they might be interested in. This shows a healthy attitude that will actually endear you more to your fans and keep them still rooted to you. To avoid this you could include an opt-in box on the Fan Page.

While indulging in Facebook marketing give your fans the idea that you care about them and are a part of their lives as much professionally as personally, while knowing where to draw the line. This will help you in overcoming your mistakes and take full advantage of Facebook marketing tendencies.