LinkedIn is great place to foster relationships (connections) necessary to driving your B2B services. It works like a conventional networking session only its global, runs 24 hours and you get to wear one heck of a fancy name badge – a name badge (your LinkedIn profile page) where readers can look over your entire resume, keep up to date with what you’re doing (home feed), what you’re looking for (homefeed), what you want to talk about or can talk about knowledgeably (discussions) and all the nice things clients have said about you (recommendations).
Of course a networking session with the wrong attendees isn’t likely to be useful. Who do you want to meet? Think about your motives for attending any networking situation and you’ll be making a great start to the process of building useful connections on LinkedIn. At a conventional networking session you want to meet people who
• want or need your services
• can be a source of valuable advice and information on your market
• may one day be the partner or employee that gives you that edge
Unfortunately there will only be a limited number of people you have met personally who come under any of these categories and LinkedIn encourages you only to connect with people you know. How do you get around this? The answer is join groups. Being a fellow member of a LinkedIn group gives you the licence to request connection with other members of that group, and most, given that they share a like interest, will respond positively.
What groups should you join? Here are some examples for each category.
People who want or need your services
If you’re a conference centre join event organiser groups. If you’re a tradesman search and join letting agency groups.
People who can be a source of valuable advice and information on your market
Join groups centred round your industry, either directly – If you’re a decorator look into groups centred round construction, or indirectly – If you’re a printer of brochures etc look into festival organiser groups.
People who may one day be the partner or employee that gives you that edge
Let’s say you are a growing environmental engineering company in need of staff. Join engineering groups associated with universities and college departments. If you run a language school join ESL groups
