Use LinkedIn for your Business

The Power of Professionals

For those who you who do not know, LinkedIn is the social network for professionals. Currently there are over 225 million members, in over 200 countries across the globe. Users of LinkedIn are mainly professionals whom are looking to grow themselves and find jobs, or grow their companies and find employees. LinkedIn also has many other features that can be utilized. I’m going to list off a bunch of great things.

Your Profile

This is the most powerful tool you’ll have on LinkedIn. You can showcase your past work, work experiences, qualifications, education, personal/business social media accounts such as your blogs, facebook and twitter. You also have sections to fill out who you are, and what you’re looking for.

Your Connections

The six degrees of separation law states that we are only 6 people away from the entire world. This is a great feature for LinkedIn. You can have your co-workers, friends, colleagues, or business associates introduce you to others and help you build your network of contacts. The more connections you have, and relationships you build, the more success you’re going to have in your personal and business life.

Your Status

Like Facebook, and Twitter – you can post what you’re doing that day, but on LinkedIn most professionals are posting valuable information that can/will help you grow. Such as job offerings, articles that they’ve enjoyed/written, or any other information they find useful. This is a great way to highlight your business, your blog – or whatever project you’re working on.

Your Groups

This is a very powerful tool, there are millions of groups you can join on LinkedIn for any type of interest, or business venture. The great part about this is that you’re connecting with like minded individuals who are looking for what you’re offering, or offering something you’re looking for. Join as many relevant groups as you can, and become a contributor in those groups – you can find yourself with a couple leads a week this way.

IT’S FREE!

For the most part, LinkedIn is a free service. You have the option to pay for a premium account, but for your basic purpose this isn’t necessary.

Join LinkedIn now! and start building your business

Search Engine Marketing

What is Search Engine Marketing?

Search Engine Marketing allows advertisers to pay for a premium spot on the search results page. By far the biggest Search Engine is Google. A good example of search engine marketing, or SEM is. The advertiser will pay each time either their ad is displayed (usually 1,000x is a set fee, also called impressions), or if a click is initiated by a potential customer.

These ads will appear at the top of the search, paid for by each company listed for particular keywords.

Examples of Different SEM opportunities

Google Ad Words
Yahoo! Bing Network

SEO vs SEM

A lot of people don’t understand the difference between the two. It’s actually relatively simple. SEM you pay for, and it’s results are somewhat immediate, and great for short term success while SEO is free (you have to understand how to effectively do it) but takes a long time to take effect, but great for long term success.

SEM vs PPC

What is the difference? They have a lot of similarities in terms of what they actually do. PPC stands for “Pay Per Click” and is offered by many different websites, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. While very similar to SEM they are not search engines, and are not usually target via keyword, but interests, and other factors on ones profile.