How to use LinkedIn to improve your business

LinkedIn is a fantastic tool for gathering this intelligence as you don't have to remember who is in a certain industry and who they know.

So let's get stuck into some practical examples!

All of these tips involve using the ‘Advanced' search function which is found on the right of the search box. Instead of typing in the name of someone you want to look up just leave these fields blank, and use the location, industry and relationship boxes. With these you can just search for people you know (or people they know) within a certain industry and importantly within a certain distance.

My first tip is about finding good suppliers. If you are buying a business service for the first time it can be tricky to get the right product at the right price.

Insurance is a prime example of this. If you have the wrong insurance for your business you can get into real trouble. Going straight to the sales desk of a big insurance company or brokerage isn't going to reassure you in most cases. The ideal here would be friendly advice for someone you know. So in the Location box select ‘Located in or near' then type in you post code and select within ten miles. Now go down to Industries and select insurance. In the relationship box select 1^st contacts if you have quite a few or 1^st and 2^nd of you don't have many people in your list.

You will now get a list of friendly people who can give you advice, make recommendations and tell you what the perils and pitfalls might be.

My second tip is about market intelligence. When you are creating a new product or service or just re-packaging and existing one it's important to get the proposition right. Knowing what it should look like, how much to charge and ultimately if anyone is going to want it will save you money, time and most importantly sleepless nights. If you can walk into your first big pitch confident in the knowledge that you know what your client wants you will be far more likely to walk away with a sale. LinkedIn is fantastic for this! Using the same technique as the first example work out who are the friendly faces in your target industries. Send them a message offering them a free lunch so that you can pick their brains about your new idea. People love giving advice and getting free lunches! Do this with a few people and you will gather some great insights into your target markets and avoid being blindsided by some well known industry specific issue. Remember selling successfully is about confidence and empathy for your client.

My final tip is to do with sales. I am not talking about cold contacting people or thinly veiled attempts at selling hidden behind another motive. Being sold to is only annoying when you don't want the product or it is pitched badly. But we aren't doing any of this because we've done our research! We know what our customers will want and how to sell it to them because we have checked with our lovely contacts.

Using this insight you can ask your contacts to introduce you to prospective customers. Search for your ideal client using the same method as before then ‘Get Introduction through a connection' (found on the top right of a 2^nd connections profile page). You need two separate benefit statements here. One is for the potential client that explains why they will want to talk to you. The second is to your contact explaining how they will benefit from passing you message along (this is often kudos or beer or both). 

LinkedIn should be an everyday tool in your business that makes life easier. It should save you time and make you money. Hopefully these simple tips will help. 

Al Tredinnick, Digicave Ltd

If you want to contribute to the Chamber blog, contact us on hannah@brightonchamber.co.uk