How being abundant can build your reputation on LinkedIn
Do you use LinkedIn? There is a good chance that you do! (If not you really should download our free report on Why You Should Use LinkedIn) However, do you make use of LinkedIn Answers?
Here you can pose all manner of business questions and benefit from the wide range of expertise among the millions of professionals using the online network. However, the really clever folk on LinkedIn do not only ask questions, the answer them too!
When you answer a question those within your network see you displaying your generosity and expertise and that will reflect well on you. However, as the answers are graded by the person asking the question there is even greater scope for leverage, especially if yours is deemed to be the 'Best Answer'.
I try and check my RSS feeds of the questions from the most relevant catergories every other day and will swiftly answer any I feel I can add to, particularly if they are relatively new. Sadly I suspect people rarely read beyond the first page of answers!
Your expertise is something that is featured on your profile and other people in your network will see if you are deemed to have given a 'Best Answer'. I recently earned my 4th Best Answer and I thought it would help our blog readers to see how I answer a question.
For example, a marketing consultant from Missouri recently asked:
"What are the ways you can you use social media to naturally extend your business network? For example, if I'm a small business owner who has established off-line relationships with mortgage brokers, real estate agents, and bankers...does it make sense for me to incorporate social media into my marketing efforts? If so, how can I do this naturally? Are there ways I can pick up new relationships by joining other groups without it seeming like I'm there for just one purpose? Your thoughts...?"
Now lots of people answered that question as you would imagine - including me! My Answer was:
Be abundant! Use networking to show how much you know about your particular niche, offering freely the advice and expertise that will convince others of your professionalism, without looking desperate to sell.
At the same time add a Linkedin icon to your email signature, website, blog etc with a hyperlink to your profile - hopefully soon brimming with recommendations from those people who you have helped.
Bring those off line contacts into your online world, again your generosity will show them how they can attract clients this way and then they too will be endorsing you.
The social proof of others saying how good you are combined with the abundant way you offer the advice will very soon attract enquiries and the more people have read about you these closer they will be to committing to use you.
Also, don't forget the PR potential of all this. The traditional media are hungry for stories about how businesses have successfully entered cyberspace, so use the story of the successful approach mentioned above to attract their interest and then the on and offline stories they write will can attract even more enquiries.
It takes time, but if you can be truly abundant it will work.
That last line holds true for LinkedIn, it does take time, but if you can be truly abundant, your expertise will shine through and you will build stronger, more productive relationships in the process.
Incidentally, LinkedIn is the one network where I believe you should be very careful who you are LinkedIn with! So if I do not know you, then by all means follow me on Twitter, or Facebook - by not on LinkedIn!