Can I really get business from LinkedIn?

One question we get asked quite often is ‘can I really get business from LinkedIn?’ – or, more accurately, ‘is LinkedIn actually worth bothering with?’.

This is a common concern for many business owners. As your time is valuable, and the time you’re able to concentrate to networking and winning new business is precious, you don’t want to waste that time on something that isn’t going to generate any results. Social media is, by its very nature, extremely time consuming and is something that can, very quickly, run away with your day. Should you spend time on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest or, more traditionally, should you spend your time on the phones making sales calls, and going out into the real world to meet people?

The short answer is yes, you can get business from LinkedIn. The long answer is more involved, however. The success you can get from social media largely depends on two things:

1. What sort of person are you?
2. Where are your potential customers?

The first point, while important, can be open to change. If you’re the sort of person who just doesn’t understand social media and doesn’t see the point in posting on the different platforms, then you will initially struggle to make LinkedIn (or any other social media site) work for you. Social media isn’t something you can tackle successfully unless you fully embrace it with conviction, as those who just dabble for the sake of having a presence will never get anything from it.

If, however, you’re a social media believer then you’re in a much better place to make LinkedIn work for you. It’s still not a certainty though, as LinkedIn isn’t just a social media platform where you post and others listen – it’s more of a real-world networking group made into a website. What is your view to networking? Are you a ‘people person’? Do you like to meet new people, find out about them and listen to what they have to say?

Most social media is about broadcasting your own ideas and beliefs, whereas LinkedIn is a little different in this regard.

Finally, what’s your goal within your business? Are you looking to speak to new people yourself, or are you the director of a company who just wants to grow your network? LinkedIn will only really work for you if you’re actively looking to network with people yourself. If you’re a client-facing member of your business (whether or not you’re the owner) then LinkedIn could be a good investment in time. If, however, you’re someone who doesn’t need to speak with clients, doesn’t want to liaise with people and is happier just ‘getting on’ with the work then LinkedIn would, in all likelihood, be a pointless distraction.

Where are your customers?

This may seem like an obvious point, but it’s absolutely worth mentioning as it’s often overlooked or not even considered at all. Who are the people you’re trying to reach, and where are they most likely to be? Have you profiled your potential customers? Do you know who they are? Do you know where they spend their time? If they’re not the sort of people who would be on LinkedIn in the first place, then it’s obviously not the right place for you.

Build a profile of your target customer, their age, gender, interests, family life etc. and then decide which social media platform is the best fit for them. It could be Facebook, it could be Twitter or it could be LinkedIn. Only once you know this can you decide where to invest your budget and time.

If, after all of this, you do decide that LinkedIn is the platform for you we can help with that. We have a full diploma course on mastering LinkedIn for your business that you can download today. The course costs £190 but, by entering the discount code LINK29, you can buy the course today for just £29. Add the course to your basket and enter LINK29 in the checkout to receive the discount. The course will teach you everything you need to know to make a success with LinkedIn.