by Kathy Bernard
You’ve heard that LinkedIn can be an effective way to reach prospects, but not if your potential customer network is too small. Grow your network by taking these steps:
- Join prospect-filled LinkedIn groups. For example, if you sell to hospitals, join healthcare purchasing groups by typing “hospital” into the search box, selecting “Groups”, and clicking “Join” next to relevant groups. Once you’ve been accepted into a group, click “Show all” in the members’ box to view members. Click a person’s face to invite them to connect. Add a note like “I enjoy connecting with other Hospital Purchasing group members. Let’s connect.” Once they’ve accepted, send them LinkedIn messages for free.
- Type a target company’s name into the search box. Click “View page” to visit its company page. Select “People.” Type a person’s probable title, such as CIO, into the “Search employees by title, keyword, or school box.” Scroll to view people who hold that title to invite them to connect.
- Scroll through your My Network page to invite people to connect whom you may know from your city, college, organization, or industry.
- While on your My Network page, click “Connections,” select a person and then the blue link that reads “500+ connections” (or whatever number they have that’s fewer than 500 connections). If the line is gray, the person doesn’t share their connections. Change where it reads “1st” to “2nd” to invite the person’s friends to connect.
With a little work, you CAN grow your LinkedIn network with target customers. Get started today!
Kathy Bernard (kathy@wiseru.com), CEO of WiserU.com, is a St. Louis-based LinkedIn consultant/trainer who equips businesses to maximize LinkedIn for sales, marketing, or fundraising.
Submitted 1 years 6 days ago