Category Archives: B2B Advice for LinkedIn

5 Steps to Success on LinkedIn

March 30, 2019 by ,

Using LinkedIn: 5 steps to successThere has been much written about LinkedIn over the years and how it can work for you in business. Given that I have spent the last 10 years training companies and individuals on it, you are likely to expect that I’m going to be positive about what it offers. You’d be right, I’m a fan.

Having said that, I also recognise there is no single way to benefit from it – from job seeking to recruiting, networking to online training, business development to inbound marketing, the potential uses are many and very varied.

There are, however, some key underlying elements that we can all tap into – key steps to success if you like – and what we are going to look at below are some that will prove beneficial to using LinkedIn effectively, whatever your motives are for being on the site.

1. Decide what your current objectives are

LinkedIn is such a potentially wide-ranging tool, that you can use for a whole host of different reasons. Indeed, during your career as you enter different phases, your use will be radically different according to your current needs, situation and role.

Therefore, our first challenge is (more…)

Article Categories: B2B Advice for LinkedIn, Business Development on LinkedIn, LinkedIn Strategy, LinkedIn Tips, LinkedIn Training
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Get linked up to your Company Page

February 8, 2019 by ,

One of the things that I always check for when getting ready for a training session are the profiles of the people who will be attending – I look at a number of elements that we can then look at during the session. Most of which are very much outward facing and designed to communicate with their desired audience, the readers of their profile page.

There is one element, however, that is very simple yet also impactful that I check and that is whether they are successfully connected to their Company Page.

Connecting to the Company page may sound natural but it is in fact something in most cases that you have to actively do. LinkedIn did used to try to connect you automatically but there were so many mismatches that they no longer bother, so we have to.

Why connect?

There are a number of reasons why you might want to do so. (more…)

Article Categories: B2B Advice for LinkedIn, Business Development on LinkedIn, Company Pages, LinkedIn Company Pages
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Getting the most from LinkedIn in 2019

January 3, 2019 by ,

While it is the start of the year, it’s true – oh, and Happy New Year by the way! – checking and confirming that we are using LinkedIn in a focused and targeted way is something that we should ideally be doing on a continual basis.

Sounds all a bit harsh, but if we are doing to get the best return on the time that we put into our time on LinkedIn, then it’s important that we have all of the elements working together for us.

So, almost without further ado, here’s a few things to bear in mind as you do so:

1) Be clear what you want to achieve on LinkedIn

This, for me, underpins everything else. I consider LinkedIn to be a tool to achieve a goal, not a “place to hang out” – though there are clearly benefits in interacting with your target audience on here.

Nevertheless, most of us are using LinkedIn to achieve something and have our “day jobs” to fit in as well – therefore, we need to clear in our own minds what are our goals for being on LinkedIn – effectively, why are we spending time on there in the first place?

It might be to develop new business, recruit new staff, market your company or services, find a new role or simply network and use it as a personal branding opportunity. Whatever it is, make sure that you are clear about your aims and focus your efforts behind that – without an objective, you will in all probability be wasting your time on LinkedIn. (more…)

Article Categories: Advanced LinkedIn, B2B Advice for LinkedIn, Business Development on LinkedIn, Content Marketing, LinkedIn Strategy, Using LinkedIn
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3 things to have in place before you buy Sales Navigator

August 19, 2018 by ,

I run lots of training sessions on using LinkedIn for Business Development, many just using the free account. I also do so on LinkedIn Sales Navigator and, while I wouldn’t have recommended it 3 years ago when it first came out, I certainly do now. However, not unreservedly.

My reticence is not because of the software, which is ever improving, but rather on the supporting elements we all need to ensure are in place around it which are key to it being a truly useful sales tool.

Personally I would highlight three elements to work on that are all things that you require when prospecting, whatever account you have on LinkedIn. If you can get these three things right and use all of the capabilities of the free account, then you can get a great deal out of it. However, putting them successfully in place, means that they can really come into their own when Sales Navigator is added to the equation. (more…)

Article Categories: B2B Advice for LinkedIn, Business Development on LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, Social Selling
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People Also Viewed – do you really need it?

June 20, 2018 by ,

The ‘People Also Viewed’ section is an area that has great potential value to certain types of people looking at your profile page. However, unlike most other parts of your profile, this is one that you don’t directly control in terms of the information it provides as it is created by LinkedIn.

More annoyingly, the value it provides isn’t reflected back to you, but rather benefits the person looking or indeed the people who appear in this list. Not good! In fact, it could be just the opposite and actually be detrimental to you, giving a link away from all the great information you are providing on your profile.

Just to be clear, the section I’m talking about is the column on the right hand side of your profile page which displays a series of profile links. (more…)

Article Categories: B2B Advice for LinkedIn, LinkedIn Advice, LinkedIn Strategy, LinkedIn Tips
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12 Hacks you’ll love on LinkedIn

July 24, 2017 by ,


Okay, you’ve already sussed me out, I don’t really know what a hack is … it always used to be something negative when I was growing up but now it just seems to be used in place of “ways to do things”.

So, anyway, here are 12 great hacks that you might find of value on LinkedIn, that’s to say some “really useful things you can do and find on LinkedIn that you may not have previously known about”.

Okay … “LinkedIn hacks” is shorter, I’ll grant you that.

Now, these aren’t going to make or break whether LinkedIn is a success for you – having an unfocused profile, blindly connecting, not engaging and pitching when you should be listening will all make a much better job of that – but perhaps they may add a little to your experience on the site and open up some of the options you have available to you.

1. Connect Date

The date when you first connected with someone on LinkedIn can be remarkably useful, particularly as you start (more…)

Article Categories: Advanced LinkedIn, B2B Advice for LinkedIn, Content Marketing, LinkedIn Search, LinkedIn Site Changes, LinkedIn Tips
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