Why LinkedIn?
LinkedIn is geared directly towards professionals. There is no need to endure a multitude of spam and ads for games and quizzes. Signing up for LinkedIn is very easy, and it’s free. After you “sign up” you will create a professional profile. This includes a personal statement highlighting what you do, or any distinctions you may have. You may want to also share your previous employers, or any organizations you are a part of. Once your profile is tweaked, edited, and ready for viewing, you can then start to establish "connections."
There is no other business social media/social networking site on which you have a greater chance of being able to interact with a decision maker directly. Remember the six degrees of separation (or Kevin Bacon). That is how you can think of LInkedIn. It is the largest professional network in the world at 150 million members, and is growing at a rate of 2 members per second. More than 2 million companies have LinkedIn pages, and executives from all of the 2011 Fortune 500 companies are on LinkedIn.
Fewer than 100 connections is not ok!
A small “trusted” network is not the way to go. If you have this mindset you will eventually be asking yourself why your message isn’t spreading and why you haven’t achieved any of your marketing goals. Leverage your network by posting your blogs, ebooks and other content to attract them to your site.
You do not want to be a part of a neverending circe of limitations in an exclusive, and narrow network. You want to be able to promote your product or service across many networks of people, and this can be done through connections!
So What?
To Sum it Up - 6 Reasons why LinkedIn is a Marketing Must-Do: