Using LinkedIn

My guess is that if you are working in marketing, sales, or consulting, you are probably using LinkedIn more frequently since March 2020. That is when the COVID-19 pandemic started and forced everyone to change their behaviours. Anything that involved meeting people in public, indoors, or in groups of more than 10 is no longer possible. Gone are trade shows, conventions, networking events, concerts, and sporting events. Even meetings with clients and prospective clients are gone. Instead, many of us are sitting at home pounding away on the keyboard and having endless conversations on Zoom, Teams, or Meet. 

There are some benefits to staying at home. I spend less time travelling. I haven’t had a cold or the flu in a long time. Every day is a casual Friday. I don’t have to endure people with bad breath. I can take a nap in the afternoon and no one knows (don’t tell anyone). 

I have also found that I’m spending more time on LinkedIn. It has become the go-to social platform for anyone trying to network and connect with potential buyers. LinkedIn now has 740 million members. I’m connected to nearly 11,000 of those members (0.0015%). A few are actually clients, contacts, and friends.

10 Reasons to Use LinkedIn

Here is a list of a few reasons why using LinkedIn might be beneficial to you.

1. Publish posts and articles that are of interest to you and your connections

2. Get feedback in the form of comments on ideas that you are developing

3. Read what others have posted

4. Listen in on topics that you are interested in

5. Message people who are 1-degree connections

6. Find new and interesting connections that are 2-degree connections

7. Find prospects and get to know them (before you pitch your amazing product)

8. Build an audience for the area where you are a thought leader

9. Improve your reputation and credibility

10. Drive some new visitors to your website

I joined LinkedIn 17 years ago this month - in 2004. 

You can find out when you joined by following these steps:

1. Login to LinkedIn

2. Go to Settings. Click the down arrow under Me.

3. Click on Settings & Privacy under Account

4. Under Data privacy, click on How LinkedIn users your data

5. Under Manage your data and activity, click on the last page

6. The date should be under You joined LinkedIn

Your Social Selling Index

A few years ago LinkedIn introduced something called a Social Selling Index. Here is a snapshot of my index. I’m not sure how valuable it is but it is interesting.

The link to find your index should be https://www.linkedin.com/sales/ssi

I say, “should be” because this goes to Sales Navigator. I have a paid account. It should work for you but maybe the link won’t work without a paid account. Try it and let me know.