Nine Tips for Using Linkedin with Your Local Search Marketing Efforts

What Kind of Party Would You Have for Your Customers?

If you invited your customers to a local search marketing party, what kind of party would it be? Would it be a barbeque party with beer and brats? Or would it be a cocktail party with hors d’oeuvre and drinks?

You are more likely to find Twitter and Facebook participants at the beer and brat party. (Someone may even video the party and put it on Youtube!) This party is a great place to meet friends, exchange stories and jokes. From a business perspective, it’s a good place to sell retail products, e-books, find affiliates and do viral marketing. The party will get loud and noisy. Still it’s a good place for quick and easy local business sales.

The Linkedin customers will be found at the cocktail party. This group is older and more professional. They wear a white shirt and stripped tie rather than a T shirt with Save Mother Earth written in green letters. Loudness is replaces with a low humming sound. It’s a great place for selling local professional services. Linkedin is a place for bigger business deals. Sara Palin recently joined Linkedin. She’s not looking for a job; she is looking for speaking engagements!

Linkedin and Local Search Marketing

Linkedin was designed for professionals, either individuals or in a corporation. 499 of the top 500 Fortune 500 business have Linkedin sites. Don’t let this fact deter you from using Linkedin for your business and local search marketing.

Linkedin was designed to eliminate the limitations of other social networking sites. Networking is done by specific invitation. Linkedin participants believe a selective network is more profitable than thousands of connections. While you are expected to spend time on your Linkedin network, you are not expected to engage in small talk or write about what you ate for breakfast.

You may conclude from my description that Linkedin is boring and unattractive. Here’s the secret. The people on Linkedin are serious about their business networking. They use Linkedin’s tighter networking rules to benefit their personal and local business goals.

Nine Tips for Using Linkedin with Your Local Search Marketing Efforts

1. Create a robust Linkedin profile. Your profile is your brand on Linkedin. Let people know how your brand can work for them. Make sure your geographic indicators and key words are a major part of your profile. Internet search engines search Linkedin just as they do other websites. Think of your Linkedin site as another internet location for search engines to find when people are searching for your products or your location.

2. Use the Linkedin Group function. You can join as many as 50 groups. When you join a group (they must approve you) you get special Linkedin privileges. It’s like joining a fraternity. Hang around with the people who will be your best customers or valuable resources for your local business. Build your own Linkedin business network around your geographic location. By applying traditional networking skills you can make valuable contacts with key people. Here’s an example:

The Boston Networking Club on LinkedIn was founded by Jeff Popkin, owner of BostonEventGuide.com. With over 5,000 members, there’s a pretty good bet this group serves as a conduit for Popin’s main business locally. (John Jantsch, Duct Tape Marketing Consulting Network).

3. Get and Give Linkedin Recommendations. You saw how that customer reviews are a key ingredient in local search marketing. Today’s customer wants to hear about other customer experiences rather than see a Better Business Bureau logo. Get plenty of Linkedin recommendations showing why people like working with you. These recommendations will foster your local search marketing.

4. Use the Advance Search Linkedin function to get access to the key local people and decision makers. Linkedin has a set of rules for doing this. You probably already know that in your local area, there is an establish network of key local business leaders. Linkedin Advance Search is a great tool for getting introductions to these local leaders.

5. Make a smooth transition from Linkedin contacts to your website or blog. You can continue the conversation and the relationship you start on Linkedin on your website or blog. Linkedin will help you identify the key local people, they will trust you and now you can use your other marketing materials to foster the relationship. Your blog or website builds on what you start in Linkedin. Linkedin allows you to send people to three different links.

6. Check out your local competition. You can use Linkedin to check out your local competition. Who is on their team? What type of recommendations are they getting? Who are their clients? Having this information can help your local search marketing.

7. Show off your local expertise. By participating in Linkedin’s Questions and Answers section, you have the opportunity to ask questions of others as well as to give answer to their questions. When you participate in these Questions and Answers, always add your geographic identifier so people recognize your local expertise as part of your local search marketing.

8. Internet Visibility. Google recognizes Linkedin as a valuable internet site. When you place your local business on Linkeded, you piggy back your business on the credibility of Linkedin. Your Linkedin presence is given its own URL. The search engines (Google, Yahoo and Bing) will visit your Linkedin site. When they find your geographic indicators and keywords on Linkedin, your SEO rating will improve along with your local search marketing.

9. Linkedin Advertising Program. If you local customers are professional, Linkedin advertising may be an option for your local search marketing. Linkedin allows you to advertise by geography, industry, gender and age. You can use Linkedin’s pay for click program that has no long term commitment and can be stopped at any time. This targeted advertisement program may be a useful tool for your local search marketing.

Conclusion

There are many other wrinkles about Linkedin that make it a difficult social network to master. Once you make the rules work for your business and gain access to the right group of people, you will find it a very effective tool to add to your local search marketing program.

Can Linkedin help your business? Only you can answer that question. If your business is more comfortable at a beer party, it’s probably not for you. If you are looking for a quieter, more disciplined approach to social networking, Linkedin will enhance your local search marketing and should be included as one of your social media tools.

PS

For a list of the Ten Linkedin Networking Tips click here: http://budurl.com/10Linkedintips