Are You Getting the Most Out of LinkedIn?

Sure, you have a LinkedIn profile. But are you truly tapping into what this social networking site can accomplish for your small business? It’s a lot easier than you might think to maximize LinkedIn’s tools and tricks to help you achieve your business objectives. “There’s a stigma with LinkedIn that it’s just for job seekers,” says Tech Guru CEO Dan Moshe. “In reality, LinkedIn is a business tool that I put to work daily.”

We asked Dan to tell us how, precisely, he uses LinkedIn. Without hesitation, here’s what he rattled off:

1. I like to meet people in my industry. I use it for finding mentors.
2. I use LinkedIn to find great vendors. I just used it to find a company that could install accoustical panels in our new space. I wanted to work with somebody I could trust. Since I know nothing about the acoustics industry, I did a search on LinkedIn by areas of expertise.
3. We recruit talent on LinkedIn. I look for people who have ‘top sales performer’ or ‘achieved goals’ in their profile, and use the LinkedIn search tool to reach out to people who will be a good fit for our company. I also look for people with lots of recommendations in their profile.
4. I use it as a tool for creating strategic partnerships.
5. This is a social site for business people. To that end, I look for prospective customers. I can really drill down into the number of employees, I can find the name of the CEO, and then I can ask for an introduction through mutual contacts.
6. We’re all busy, and logging into LinkedIn every day just isn’t going to happen. But I set up email notifications so that I don’t miss anything important.
7. To accomplish the above, I think it’s worth paying for the professional version with advanced search parameters.