3 Things You Missed if You Didn't Read Chapter 4 of "Social Media Marketing Workbook"

This last week I had to read Chapter 4 in Jason McDonald's "Social Media Marketing Workbook." Like in the previous chapters, he laid out the social media platform for us and then dissected it in a way to help us with our marketing strategies as they relate to said social media platform. This chapter was all about the platform known as LinkedIn. Here are three key points that you don't want to miss from this chapter.

1) LinkedIn Is All About Business

I am including this because while many of us already associated LinkedIn with the business/professional world, McDonald pointed out some aspects that I did't know about the platform. I learned things like companies do well on LinkedIn if their employees are on there interacting with other business people. In this way McDonald compares LinkedIn to a team sport when looked at compared to platforms like Facebook. LinkedIn requires companies to rely on employees because of the inability to use a "top down" marketing strategy where you use your company page as primary customer interaction vehicle. On LinkedIn you reach people through the use of your employees. This is why it is a smart idea to keep your employees happy!

2) A Profile on LinkedIn Is Like a Public Resume

Apparently nowadays people vet potential hires right after they meet said potential hire right, and one of the websites you can use to gain professionals' trust is by having a good public resume/LinkedIn profile. McDonald recommends using your LinkedIn profile to "show off your expertise and talents," and it should be "optimized to be found and put your best foot forward." While LinkedIn has a lot more space to put information about skills you have and past job experiences, I think it is still important to remember that this is a social media platform still. This means still having a clear profile picture, having your profile be on brand with the rest of your platforms and remembering all the tips we learned from Guy Kawasaki in the last book we read. Furthermore, McDonald recommends populating your profile with relevant keywords that people might use to find you and making your profile easy to read.

3) Schmooze With Different Levels of Contacts

LinkedIn encourages schmoozing. Schmoozing is business slang for networking, and can now be done online through LinkedIn. The point of schmoozing is to expand your circle of business contacts, nurture their respect for you and keep yourself on the top of their mind so that when opportunities come up you have a chance at them. LinkedIn provides a great way for users to network, and this way is accomplished by taking advantage of different levels. LinkedIn provides different levels of connections with different users. People who have accepted your connection request are first level,  people who are connected with someone you are connected with are second level contacts, etc. This is useful, because a great connection starter between you and other users could be the bond that forms from knowing/being connected to the same person. When asking to connect you could send messages like, "Hello! My name is ___ and I work for ___. I see we both know Sally Jenkins. I had a great time working with her last year during ____. I see that you do ___ and I was hoping you could share with me how you got yourself to where you are today. Thank you for your time!" I am pretty sure this would be a good base for messages sent in situations where there is a second level connection.