Why LinkedIn Is the Most Powerful Marketing Tool of the 21st Century
LinkedIn is the most powerful marketing tool of the 21st century and
there are three main reasons why — media, partnerships and clients.
LinkedIn certainly has some impressie statistics:
• LinkedIn
operates the world’s largest professional network on the Internet with
more than 313 million members in over 200 countries and territories.
• Professionals are signing up to join LinkedIn at a rate of more than two new members per second.
• There are over 39 million students and recent college graduates on LinkedIn. They are LinkedIn’s fastest-growing demographic.
• LinkedIn counts executives from all 2013 Fortune 500 companies as
members; its corporate talent solutions are used by 94 of the Fortune
100 companies.
• There are more than 1.5 million unique publishers actively using the
LinkedIn Share button on their sites to send content into the LinkedIn
platform.
1. Media
Any business
advisor worth their weight in gold will tell you that media exposure is
critical for raising brand awareness and positioning your brand in the
market. You may have the best product or service in the world but if
nobody knows who you are or where to find you then what good is that?
The problem is
getting noticed can be an expensive and time consuming exercise. Hiring a
traditional PR agency can cost you thousands, and whether or not their
campaign will result in increased sales is another story.
According to a survey by Arketi media group,
over 94.2 percent of journalists and editors are on LinkedIn and 62
percent rate it as their preferred professional networking tool!
Over a period
of 9 months, Alex built a network of over 250 contacts in the media. As a
result he has been featured in over 50 media publications including
Forbes, Inc, Entrepreneur and is regularly interviewed for news stories.
And best of all he has managed to achieve all this without sending out a
single press release.
2. Partnerships
Fostering
strategic partnerships is a powerful way to grow a business. With the
right partner you can refer clients to each other, leverage the power of
offering complimentary products or services, and help grow each others’
businesses.
Finding the
right joint venture and alliance partners however can be challenging. So
where do you go to find joint venture partners, for instance, if you’re
a social media consultant focused on helping chiropractors improve
their marketing?
LinkedIn of course!
One of
Linkfluencer’s community members Martine Martinez, Founder of
Entrepreneur Card, managed to set up partnerships with over 30 leading
brands, get featured in over 10 media publications and attract 150+
entrepreneurs to his launch party. All through the power of LinkedIn.
3. Clients
LinkedIn is
also a powerful tool for finding clients. I believe that regardless of
industry, size or location we are all in the business of marketing. And
to be a successful marketer, I believe its 10 percent what you say and
90 percent how you say it that makes all the difference.
Now if you
really think about it, what’s the real reason why we all market our
business in the first place? It’s to get our message in front of
decision makers right?
Well this is why LinkedIn makes so much sense,
Using LinkedIn
Creel Price, CEO of Accelerate Global and Linkfluencer community member,
managed to generate more than 3000 leads in less than 90 days, license
his methodology to 17 coaches and generated revenue north of $150K all
whilst spending less than $1000 in marketing or advertising.
What has been your experience with LinkedIn? What challenges
have you had with the platform or how has it helped you grow your
business? Comment below and share your thoughts.
Alternatively referred to as a virtual community or profile site, a social network
is a website that brings people together to talk, share ideas and
interests, or make new friends. This type of collaboration and sharing
of data is often referred to as social media. Unlike traditional
media that is often created by no more than 10 people, social media
sites contain content that has been created by hundreds or even millions
of different people.
