Using LinkedIn as a Small Business Owner

Posted on January 13, 2009 by mdpr

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LinkedIn is looked at as one of the recent online success stories.  The service, which is used to help people manage and make connections with other people, is easy to use and provides a helpful breadth of information.

Since the basis of LinkedIn is work information, the service obviously has value to recruiters and to those looking for a job. Over the past few months we’ve also used LinkedIn in a few other ways to help our business that may be useful to other small businesses.

New business – The number one question I’m always asked about LinkedIn is “Can it help my business grow?”  The answer is yes.  This month is our second month working with a new client, that came to us through LinkedIn. How did it happen? The answer is “Answers.”

Check out the “Answers,” section of LinkedIn. This is a forum for people to ask questions. Two months ago, I came across the question below:

Recommendation for PR Agencies with experience in the education market?

Hi, can someone recommend a good pr agency or freelancer in the San Francisco Bay Area with a strong background in the education market?

Below is my answer.  I noted our experience, along with a link to our firm. More importantly, I included the recommendation and links for several other agencies with similar experience.  This demonstrated our confidence in our abilities as well as our familiarity with this specific market.

Our firm (morgandorado.com) has extensive experience in education specifically in education technology. A few others to look at include Charlene Blohm (cblohm.com) and Kati Elliott (kehcomm.com).

Links:

So what happened?  A week later we received an email asking us to present our capabilities. We won.  The cost of the new business?  Our time spent on the proposal. Ps – also keep your profile current!  Check out mine. If anyone has ideas on how to make my profile more effective, I would love to hear from you.

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16 Responses

  1. Charlene Blohm, on January 14th, 2009 at 3:30 pm Said:

    Hiya Josh – Congrats on the new client, and thanks for sharing the great LinkedIn tips. Thanks also for the shout out; http://www.cblohm.com is where you’ll find us! @CharleneBlohm

    Reply
  2. Josh Morgan, on January 14th, 2009 at 4:45 pm Said:

    Thanks for checking in Charlene. I always try and point people to the best, and you and your team are there for education (when it’s something we can’t do ;-)

    Reply
  3. Jane Buck, on January 21st, 2009 at 12:41 pm Said:

    I have found busines and business solutions using Answers on Linkedin. The size of your network affects the reach of your questions so first expand, get some 500+ people in your contacts and then ask and answer relevant questions. I’ll gladly connect and share!

    Reply
    • mdpr, on January 21st, 2009 at 1:47 pm Said:

      Thanks for your comment Jane, but I think you and I see LinkedIn a little differently. The network of people I have on LinkedIn is made of people I know and in most cases have worked with. This is why my network is powerful. The connections have value. There is history associated with the connection, therefore if someone makes a recommendation I am more likely to trust it. If I just make connections to make connections, and connect with people I don’t know, then how do I place a value their input? Just as importantly, how would they value mine?

      Reply
  4. Kevin, on January 21st, 2009 at 8:12 pm Said:

    When we were running our web development firm, LinkedIn was the second largest source of new business (direct referrals were our first.) One could argue that LinkedIn is merely a reflection of your existing network, but we saw plenty of evidence that people search LinkedIn for professional help within 2-3 degrees of separation. Many times, clients would skip the referral and come straight to us because we shared a common connection. Now that we have our own startup, we regularly use LinkedIn to source service providers.

    For professional service providers, building out your LinkedIn network is a no-brainer. The cost of doing so is negligible, the benefits material.

    Reply
  5. Dobes Vandermeer, on January 21st, 2009 at 11:23 pm Said:

    I’ve also found that Answers are the best place to network on LinkedIn. LinkedIn groups are filled with junk, and people don’t really use the ability to search their network much it seems – they’ll even ask “do you know an accountant” in the Answers section even though the point of LinkedIn is that you can search your network.

    Reply
  6. mdpr, on January 21st, 2009 at 11:40 pm Said:

    Thank you Kevin and Dobes for your comments. Just curious, how’d you run across this post?

    I agree with you both. I think there is quite a bit of power in LinkedIn if you use it effectively.

    Like all social media, it’s necessary to hit that right balance of giving and receiving.

    Reply
  7. Small Business Marketing, on January 22nd, 2009 at 5:26 am Said:

    I also have used the Question and answer facility of LinkedIn to do some market research on the stealth and it has given enough data points to keep me from making a wrong business decision around a technology start up.

    Thanks for the post.

    Reply
  8. Profit Success Using LinkedIn – Actions You can Replicate - Capture Business Profits, on January 28th, 2009 at 1:23 pm Said:

    [...] Morgan of “Don’t Eat The Shrimp” told the story of his success in Using LinkedIn as a Small Business Owner.  Basically, someone posted to LinkedIn asking for suggestions for a Bay Area PR agency with a [...]

    Reply
  9. Merra Lee Moffitt, on January 28th, 2009 at 1:28 pm Said:

    Thanks for the detailed tips on how to be profitable using LinkedIn. I’ll share it with my clients on my blog. It’s great to see the tool maturing into something beyond an online resume.

    Reply
  10. Flip Elliot, on March 8th, 2009 at 10:48 pm Said:

    Don’t overlook the obvious opportunity to reconnect with business contacts who used to be colleagues but who may now be prospects or who may be able to refer new employees to your company.

    Also, by carefully reviewing profiles of competitors or business leaders in your market or region, you will probably can find groups, associations, events, and relationships that you could join to expand your marketing coverage at very little cost. It’s worth taking a look to see if you are missing out.

    Reply
  11. Marketing Ideas for Tough Times | Internet Marketing Blog, on April 12th, 2009 at 10:23 pm Said:

    [...] Another way to gain valuable exposure for your business is to participate in Q & A relevant to your business/expertise in online discussion groups -  Facebook discussion, Google Groups, Yahoo Answers, LinkedIN Answers,  Twitter are just a few of the many online.  For any answer or input you provide, be sure to include your company name, web address and contact info.    Do a search on these sites for “kauai” or your specific industry and you’ll be amazed at the amount of chatter there is about topics you may be able to provide helpful answers for – while at the same time providing free online exposure for your company. Here’s an article about a small business that was able to land a new client just by answering … [...]

    Reply
  12. Social Networking for Business / Chaos To Clarity™, on April 17th, 2009 at 6:18 am Said:

    [...] Using LinkedIn as a Small Business Owner [...]

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  13. Social Networking for Businesss | Chaos To Clarity™, on June 30th, 2009 at 6:11 am Said:

    [...] Using LinkedIn as a Small Business Owner from Don’t Eat the Shrimp [...]

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  14. Social Networking for Business, on August 15th, 2009 at 5:22 pm Said:

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