Using Social Media to Build Your Business

If you haven’t noticed, there is a new sheriff in town and its name is Social Media, led by the likes of LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. As newspapers go under, these upstart social media networks are getting billion-dollar valuations. Facebook is worth, on paper at least, more than General Motors, Chrysler or Ford — maybe even more than all three combined. Fueling this frenzy is the exponential growth in subscribers and the business relationships they represent. Social media looks a lot like the Web revolution of the ‘90s, and it’s here to stay.

Whether you’re a business owner, channel manager, sales professional, sales engineer or even a lead generator, social media can provide a tremendous competitive advantage for you and your business.

LinkedIn is the clear leader in this space, so this article will focus there. First, let’s look at how specific individuals in the channel can use LinkedIn to grow their business opportunities:

*Business Owners. As the chief executive, your credibility is at one with the credibility of your business. When potential business partners see your credentials on LinkedIn, you are halfway to creating that important business relationship — before you speak the first word.

*Sales Managers. Got some targeted accounts? Got specific territories that you sell to or wish to sell into? A database of prospects on LinkedIn is just a few keystrokes away. Need some hot candidates to fill sales positions? LinkedIn works very well there, too.

*Account Managers, Sales Representatives, Sales Engineers. Wouldn’t it be great to have pages and pages of prospects, complete with loads of background intelligence at your disposal? Want to sell more to existing accounts? Farming is a terrific application for LinkedIn.

The LinkedIn applications that provide the most immediate results for these channel players include:

• Discovering new business prospects, business partners, lead sources (prospecting)
• Researching individuals and companies to select who is best for you (targeting and qualifying)
• Engaging the highest value targets (business development)
• Getting noticed on the Internet and on social media platforms (marketing)

So, let’s map out the process to get established, fluent and making business happen with LinkedIn. This methodology, pioneered by Integrated Alliances, makes LinkedIn adoption logical, systematic and relatively easy to implement.

1. The first step is to create your identity — your LinkedIn Profile. This identifies you, your work history and skill sets and gives you credibility to participate in the LinkedIn world.
2. Once your profile is completed, it is network-building time — connecting to other individuals on LinkedIn. When you have a larger network, you will realize more search results and you will have more intersections with others. My network, for example, has 22,000 direct connections, so I get a lot of results when I search.