Leveraging LinkedIn as an Account Development Tool

Most of you have a profile, but do you know how to use LinkedIn to your greatest advantage? For me, LinkedIn isn’t just an online resume. It’s an Account Development tool that can be used in a multitude of ways, such as…

A Research Tool

LinkedIn is incredibly valuable as a research tool. You can identify where people have been, who they are connected to now, and often why they’re connected. Their LinkedIn profile is this living document that details the career journey someone has gone on. It tells you what information streams they pay attention to and where they apply their trade. There’s a story there, but it’s between the lines. You can learn a lot about a person through what organizations they’re connected to, the people they know, and how far they’ve come in their career growth.

Looking a company up, if you don’t see a lot of people collaborating on the page, that sends a message. Those people are trying to share information and share the diversity of their message at all different levels. They have collaborative go-to-market strategies.

To Build Relationships

There’s little value in sending out a flurry of invitations. There’ a big difference between sending the pre-written message, and telling the other person, “I’d like to connect with you because you’re connected to these other people, this is what I believe you could have some insight on, something you may have context on”, etc. You’ll rarely get turned down if you give people that understanding as to why you’d like to like to add them to your professional network on LinkedIn.

Don’t do this…

Instead, do this…

But then you have to do something with it. Connecting on LinkedIn becomes simpler when you think of it as an authenticity tool. The more I become more active in looking at and disseminating information on LinkedIn, the different interaction I receive from other people. It’s this big authenticity journey, and the more active you are, the more you can keep in contact with relationships you have begun.

A Communication Platform

In my opinion, creating a group to pull together like-minded thinking is the way to impact the connections flywheel. You get people together who are passionate about one thing together, encourage them to contribute information and discuss, and gears start turning. That’s how big things happen. Though in its infancy, that’s what we’re hoping will happen with The Instigator Crowd LinkedIn group.

On my personal profile, I find value in the interactions I receive when I share articles that intrigue me. When I read intellectual property that reinforces and relates to our practice, I use LinkedIn as a platform to react. Even if I didn’t write the article, there’s a bounce that comes out of there, and it gives others the opportunity to understand what I’m coaching from a different perspective.

Here’s the Bottom Line…

If you posted your current position on your LinkedIn and that’s all, you’re missing out on potential business opportunities. Post your picture and tell your story, so people can connect.

Whether you’d like to maintain a relationship or create one through a LinkedIn invitation, a personalized one is the way to go. It shows the person on the other end that you value them enough to type a brief message.

Share, share, share! When you post on Social Media, you’re opening a door and allowing others to CONNECT.