Introduction to LinkedIn…

LinkedIn should be an integral part of the social media marketing for every business. In this video, we show how to make the most of your LinkedIn account to help you build brand, develop your client base and win more business. It’s the must have social media marketing for B2B and B2C – and our video will help get you started.

Why we have created this video

Have you found yourself asking the question, what is LinkedIn? This video is a plain English introduction to the social network that’s designed for business professionals worldwide. In this his brief introduction to LinkedIn we will explain ‘what is LinkedIn’ and how you can leverage its power to extend your business network. We also highlight some of LinkedIn’s key features and benefits to using it. This brief introduction to LinkedIn explains its origins, terminology, and covers what you can expect to get out of the 150 million strong social network for business professionals. An absolute must for anyone considering using LinkedIn for their business or personal use, and a concise explanation of what the service can offer you. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoPnp2eDRZE&]   If you found this tutorial helpful then please click the Like or Tweet button below or leave a comment. Remember to watch this space as we will be releasing a range of social media marketing video tutorials over the coming months.

Video Transcription

Hi there, guys. Thanks ever so much for joining me. Now in this video I wanted to talk to you a little about Linkedin and give you an overview of some of the features and the benefits you’ll get from using it. Now it started back as a social network back in 2003 in California, by a guy called Reid Hoffman, and it is based on the concept of six degrees of separation, which basically means that anyone human being in the world is only six steps away from knowing any other person. And this is by way of introduction or through sort of friends of friends, or an extended network that you have. So essentially it’s a platform where you build up connections, and the connections, you can think of like friends or associates and people that you know in your network that you invite and you become friends, essentially. Now with this network you have first, second and third degree connections. So your first connections are people that you know really well, maybe your immediate colleagues and friends and family. And then you have second and third degree, which tend to be friends of friends, or friends of their friends. So the idea is that you use this network to reach out to people who are like-minded. Maybe you’re looking to get into another avenue of business, maybe create new business opportunities, or maybe look to capitalise on new business opportunities, so it’s a really powerful network and it really enables you to reach out to people and build your expertise and also acquire, or garner the expertise of other people. Now it’s currently at 150 million users at the moment, which is pretty amazing considering it’s probably the lesser known of all the social networks, but it is growing quite steadily. Now it uses a symmetric model, similar to Facebook in that it’s kind of a closed gate environment where you have to invite people and they have to invite you, and then you become friends. Now this is a really powerful concept, but also allows you to really have a network of people that you have invited and you kind of know. It really is trying to cultivate an environment of people that are like-minded and also want to sort of connect with each other, rather than building this big, massive following that you do see sometimes on Twitter and Facebook. Now there are basically two types of membership on Linkedin. You’ve got your Basic which pretty much gives you everything you’ll need to get going and get started, and then you have your Premium, which offers a few other exclusive types of features. Things like folders, you’re able to search for more contacts and do a hell of a lot more things. I, myself, just use the Basic and that kind of gives me everything I need to get me up and running. But also there’s an opportunity to search for jobs, for people and business opportunities. Also you can ask for introductions, and these are introductions to other people that aren’t in your immediate network. So you ask your mutual friends and they can then introduce you to other people, so it’s a bit like a kind of BNI but online. Then you can also follow companies. And the great thing about following companies, either through groups or companies directly, is that you can then be notified of any activity within that particular company. So let’s say you’re looking to change your job or you’re looking to find a new placement, and you follow a particular company that you’re interested in. Well first of all you’re going to get notifications. You’re going to find out generally what that sort of culture is like within that company, how they operate, what the benefits are. Also it’s an opportunity to ask questions and get more information; a bit more insight into what that company has. Then they have things like Linkedin Answers. It’s a bit like Yahoo Answers in that you can generate a question and then have people answer that, either in your mutual contacts or with your extended network. So it’s a pretty fantastic tool. Then we have lots of different applications that you can add to your actual account. So it’s things like WordPress, if you’ve got a WordPress blog you can add that to your Linkedin profile. You can also add something like the Amazon reading list, which if you’re into reading a lot of books, like I am, you can then upload your reviews on them and engage with people on those books. And it may be something very specific to your business as well, so you can sort of share lots of different information, which is absolutely fantastic. So the benefits really, you’re able to tap into a massive network of 150 million different users at current. And it’s growing. It’s an absolutely fantastic way of really reaching out to people. And, as I say, if you’re looking for new talent, if maybe you’re a recruiter or you’re a business expert and you want the expertise of someone else and you want to sort of crowd source that information, or even recruit someone, it’s a fantastic platform to do that. You can promote your skills and services, so you’re able to then promote yourself as a businessperson. Maybe you’ve got a company you’d like to promote and you’re going to use Linkedin in order to do it. So it’s a fantastic way in order to do that as well. Also you can establish your company, maybe you’re a start up business, or you’ve been going a little while but you haven’t got into the swing of the whole online or digital marketing. This is a great way for you to leverage that and really increase your expertise, but also become a thought leader. So a person who has an authority on a particular subject matter and really able to sort of tap into that, either locally or worldwide. So if you’re not on Linkedin already I suggest creating an account, and we’ve got some videos that are coming up; you can check them out. And we’ll show you how to set up your account and then how to populate it. Also we’ll show you a little bit about the contacts and things like groups, and really how to get the best out of using Linkedin. So I want to thank you ever so much for joining me for this first introduction, and I hope to see you online and, hopefully, we’ll see you on Linkedin. Speak to you soon. Bye bye.