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5 Tips to Raise Your Target Group Visibility With LinkedIn

Author: Jan Vermeiren   |   January 22nd, 2010

LinkedIn is a very powerful tool to be successful in sales. In this article we focus on how to raise the visibility, reputation and online branding of yourself and the organization you work for using LinkedIn.

To get the best results from the following 5 tips it is necessary to have a good target group definition, but that should be the case anyway if you want to be successful in sales.

1. Make sure you have a good professional headline.linkedin networking tips
This is the most important part of your profile. The reason? Your professional headline is shown in search results, when you contribute to a discussion in a group or answer a question in answers. It has to be inviting so people click on it and read the rest of your profile.

If you want to be found on LinkedIn and on the web, use words people use when they look for someone with your function or expertise. If the title on your business card is Marcom Director, but people look for Vice President Marketing or Communication Manager, chances are small you will be found.

2. Contribute to discussions
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Remember to help people by sharing experiences, posting links to useful websites or mentioning experts. In other words, it is not about selling your product or service, but about helping others.

3.Answer questions in answers
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The same approach applies as for discussions: it is about helping other people, not about selling your own product or service. If you do this well, you can also earn expert points. The one who asked the question can (only) reward the best answer with an expert point.

Once you have gained some expert points you will also be listed in the experts directory, which raises your profile even more. How many points you need to be in that list depends on the category. In some categories there are only few questions and also only a few people who answer them. It is easier to get in the expert list of that category.

But since there are not so many questions your visibility as an expert will be limited. But it all depends on your situation. You can also refer to other people as experts. In that way you are not helping the person who asked the question, but also improve your relationship with the expert.
Note: you can’t gain any expert points by helping people in discussions.

4. Applications. In your profile there is room to automatically add your own blog posts (or those of the organization you work for). If the blog posts contain good tips, this will increase your credibility with your target group.

Also add the SlideShare application and share slides with others. Use Google presentations to add a video with tips. Not only will this add to your expert status, but it also will get you on top in Google and other search engines!

5. Introduce people to each other. The best network action which doesn’t cost any money and just a little bit of time is introducing people to each other. For example, if you have two customers who could learn from each other, introduce them to each other via LinkedIn or via an email (with a reference to their LinkedIn profiles).

Jan

About Jan Vermeiren
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