Business Growth Blog

A couple of months ago, I decided I wanted to start actually communicating with my online network, and I thought LinkedIn groups would be a good place to do that.

It wasn’t long before, lo and behold, I started to get some sales leads from my efforts.

I don’t just go into Linkedin groups willy-nilly. I have a purpose, and truthfully, it’s not necessarily to sell. But the cool thing is, once you start putting yourself out there and getting to know people, sales start to happen. That’s what networking is about though, right?

Here are 4 really great reasons to start engaging in LinkedIn groups:

Creating a website is hard enough, but the work doesn't end there. The truth is, the majority of people will probably find you on social media first.

For example, someone connected with me on LinkedIn today, and I read his company profile on LinkedIn to find out about what his company does. I got the info I was looking for and didn't even go to the website.

So, what does that mean? It means you have to treat your social profiles the same as you treat your website - not as an after thought, but as a strategic part of your marketing plan.

Your social profiles should have the same components as your website, including:

Many businesses are still foggy about how blogging can impact their revenue goals. Here is an example to help clarify:

Increase website traffic

Tactic: In your social media status update areas (like on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter) create a compelling short sentence that directs people to the blog article on your website.

Here is an example of a comment I would post on social media:

“Check out these three reasons why salespeople should start creating blog articles - https://www.ascendbusinessgrowth.com/blog/salespeople-should-start-creating-blog-articles.”

Once someone clicks the link, they are on my website. Okay, website visitors are great, but how does that affect revenue growth?

Most companies are missing huge opportunities to use LinkedIn for business growth. Usually, employees are pretty much on their own. LinkedIn is technically a personal asset. As an employer, you can’t force your employees to update their LinkedIn account. The way they represent your company on their profile and to their network may – or may not – align with your corporate communication strategy. Companies can create a win-win by helping their employees develop strong LinkedIn profiles and habits.

It’s the beginning of a new year and you’re probably thinking about what you want it to look like for you. You may have some challenges you want to overcome or things you want to improve upon. I know I do!

It got me thinking...what if we shared our goals with each other to see if we can collaborate in some way?

The problem is that, for me, asking for help is extremely hard. But I recently learned a lesson that is helping me get over it!

Our client, Jill Konrath, author of two best-selling sales books, Selling to Big Companies and SNAP Selling, started a LinkedIn group called Fresh Sales Strategies back in August of 2008.

Her goal was to develop a community for salespeople to come together to share fresh ideas about what works in today’s selling environment.

When Moon Marketing joined forces with Jill to implement social media strategies in August of 2012, she had about 2500 group members. Not too bad! As part of our strategy development, we evaluated the return on investment in spending time developing an even stronger LinkedIn group. Here is what we discovered:

After the launch of my new website in August, 2013, I knew the next step was to start blogging and get more involved in social media. I do it for my clients all the time and consistently bring in website traffic and contacts, so I know it works.

I struggle the same as everyone else though - I get so involved in client work that my own marketing gets pushed off until later. Now, here it is, Friday morning, and I'm finally writing a blog which should have been done much earlier in the week.

These days social media is a critical marketing channel for attracting new customers. It’s the new reality. However, just having a social media account doesn’t help at all. It’s what you say on social media - and how frequently - that’s important.

You can have the best content offers in the world on your website, but if no one knows they're there, they won’t get you any leads.

That’s why promoting the content you create wide and far is critical for lead generation. Building a following gives you an opportunity to promote your content to an increasingly bigger audience.

Here’s an example of how we are consistently helping this client build a following.