Internet Marketing The Right Way Or The Highway
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With the unending number of social networking sites that have sprung up recently, trying to select the most worthwhile for your business can be a daunting task.

If you are a small business owner or entrepreneur, then one of them stands out. Created in 2003, LinkedIn is the ONE social network that you, as an entrepreneur or business owner, should join.

The goal for any businessperson joining LinkedIn is not to add friends and swap stories and pictures, but rather, to make new business connections. LinkedIn marketing has its own rules.

A LinkedIn marketing strategy can be tricky. Most small business leaders do not realize the importance of LinkedIn for marketing, lack the resources for it, and do not adequately budget for marketing activities.

In just the past 5 years, LinkedIn has done wonders for small business marketing. Small businesses can't ignore LinkedIn for the following reasons:

• First and foremost, marketing with LinkedIn is either free or relatively low cost.
• Once a LinkedIn marketing strategy is in place, it is not time consuming to update pages.
• It is possible to reach a large, and if necessary, international audience using LinkedIn as a marketing tool.
• Small businesses can network via personal connections or B2B.
• It starts with having an attractive Profile. Focus on building the "Know, Like, Trust factor", not on selling your products or services. People need to know, like and trust you before they will buy.
• Then you need to build your network. LinkedIn offers 4 ways to do that fast through Contacts/Add Connections.

LinkedIn has since evolved and has created a world of opportunity for small businesses.

• The basic plan costs nothing. Companies can have all employees register, create a page for their company and have employees follow the company to start a fan base.
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• Links to other social media. Yes, you can create a company page on LinkedIn at no cost, but it is limiting compared to Facebook, for example, where you can add photos, links, etc. Through personal status updates and posting links, you can link to other social media outlets.
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• Personal connections: Put a Name to a Face. In a technology-driven world where personal relationships are the key to small business, LinkedIn adds a personal touch to business.
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• Applications! Part of your LinkedIn marketing strategy should be to Post your upcoming events, company news, a PowerPoint presentation of your company, create polls relevant to your industry. It's all available through these free applications. Digitally enhance your marketing material, and do it for free.
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• Join Groups. Groups are one of the best ways to expose your company. Join groups related to your company, your industry, and yourself on an individual level. Then, contribute to discussions or start your own, post a link and share. Watch how many people start looking at your profile! It's a great way to use LinkedIn for marketing. There are even groups that will show you how to market your business on LinkedIn
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• Sell your talent. This is perhaps what separates LinkedIn the most from other social media sites. What makes up a company? The people. Use LinkedIn to showcase company talent. Once employees link themselves to the company, make sure their profiles showcase industry talent.

If you have done the steps I have just talked about, you have your foundation ready to get real results from LinkedIn as a marketing tool. They come from starting from your goals, thinking who are the people in the best position to help you reach those goals and then use LinkedIn Marketing strategies PROACTIVELY to find them. Unfortunately many people don't give enough attention to who is their target group and don't take action themselves. And then LinkedIn marketing can be a waste of time.

Small businesses need this social media tool to highlight their company's USP, showcase marketing material at little or no cost and share knowledge of the industry.

The biggest challenge may be an overall LinkedIn marketing strategy: how to get people to follow the company? Employees, most importantly top management, need to be involved. Update regularly, participate in discussions and groups and use the analytics to track performance.

Remember: the goal of a LinkedIn marketing strategy is not profit, it's connections. And small businesses certainly should know the importance of networking. Take the advice of this article and learn how to market your business on LinkedIn.

To your Huge Success

I hope you have An Awesome Day Too :)