How to Use LinkedIn for Marketing/Non-Sales Professionals – Part II

In our last post we shared some tips on how to use LinkedIn to build credibility online. Regardless of the resource you need, whether it is someone to give you advice or share knowledge about a particular system, trouble-shooting issues you may be having with a software program, learn new ways of doing something that is frustrating you, or whatever you need to know — it’s likely that there is someone on LinkedIn who has had a similar experience and can offer answers or advice.

Sure, you could do this by looking in your address book and calling folks you know, but LinkedIn speeds up the process by allowing you to connect with so many more people, so much faster.  And even more important than the speed, is the ability to connect to people you don’t yet know (either through introductions or through the Answers feature, where you can post a question out to people who are connected to your connections and receive answers, as well as make new connections in that process).

Learning about New Opportunities

Many times, someone from within a company will post a status update or a question within a Group or the Answers section that will spark an idea you may not have thought of previously.

One of my client companies has a director of IT who was struggling with a particular networking challenge.  He happened to see a post from a connection related to a similar problem, along with a solution his connection had suggested.  He wasn’t even out on LinkedIn looking for an answer to that particular problem, but he stumbled across the answer just because he was associating with like-minded folks on LinkedIn, saving him time, headaches and (he says) a lot more grey hair.

Keep an eye out for part III of our LinkedIn for Marketing/Non-Sales series later this week!

Published on: August 3, 2011