Why is LinkedIn important for your small/medium business?

By Brenda V.

Even after … years of being created, I still bump with people who don’t even know what LinkedIn is; for all those who seek to answer the question about this I can tell you that LinkedIn is a social network dedicated mainly to help connect people on their professional side; something like connecting with the people you work with but also with former colleagues or service providers.

It’s not only that, LinkedIn has evolved into a much more elaborate and complicated tool where you can join groups of people with the same professional interest than you, ask questions related to your work activities or even put adds completely focused to the targeted markets.

Now, why would LinkedIn be important to you if you have a small to medium business? Local listings aren’t enough anymore, there is a big world out there that might be looking for your services and the only way to get to you is through the use of networking, this is where LinkedIn comes in handy.

Have you ever tried searching for a specific service on Google? I bet you have! Well I dare you to do the same on LinkedIn and you will be surprised about the results… not only will you be able to find the service providers closest to you, but you connect directly to the right people inside those companies.

There are many advantages about having your own LinkedIn Profile and having your small business on it as well:

· You will be able to gain access to your competitor’s staff skill and experience.

· Do a benchmark about what are the companies in your industry doing, what events they are attending, etc.

· Recruit and post job adds in the job section and even inside the groups you join.

· Get in touch with important people inside your industry and network with them.

· Stay in touch with colleagues and see what projects they are working on and how you can help each other advance.

· Get business recommendations by other professionals and previous colleagues or supervisors.

· Ask questions and obtain information form industry professionals who might be experts in the subject of inquiry.

· Join groups in which you can announce your products and services.

· Create online polls and send it to the targeted people that can help you in obtaining relevant information.

· Customize your profile; add all your business background, picture, even reading list or online presentations. As of lately you can even add updates from your own twitter account on your profile.

There are many things you can do with LinkedIn, the important thing about this is to never consider it as a social networking site like Facebook or MySpace; LinkedIn is a professional networking tool that will help you and your company to have an online presence and get known outside of your area of influence.