The Marketing Mentress: LinkedIn Tip #9

One month since the big LinkedIn updates and we are still finding surprises!

Well, if you are not using it much, you may have just discovered them.

No worries! In the LinkedIn Book of Christine, it is all good!

The groups received a huge overhaul.

Now we only have to use the "Advanced" search tool to look for key people we want to know and do business with. It used to be that you could use this tool, or go directly into each group to perform a search of the members there. Then you could send them a message, follow them, or ask them to connect with you. You did not even have to know them in order to message them.

Here are the keys to the "Advanced" search tool:

You can select more specific search parameters. For example: You can choose which type of connections to search or which groups you wish to search. You can get your search nailed down to the postal code for the exact area in which you wish to search. So Cool!
You can set up a search and just leave it in place for a while. LinkedIn will continue to search for those parameters and send you the results, depending on how often you wish to receive these results. The frequency of emails can be set up through your settings menu.
You can search your first connections, or second connections, or groups, or 3rd plus connections. My suggestion would be to search one of these at a time. With each group that you search, for instance, you can change your search criteria as many times as you wish until you have exhausted all your options for that group. Once your search results stop bringing up results, it might be a good idea to leave the group and search another one.

Play with the "Advanced" search tool for a bit and discover how slick it really is. The "Advanced" search tool is not really that new. You could always perform these types of searches. Most of us did not use these to their max. However, the new updates have refined this type of searching, in my humble opinion.

The fact that LinkedIn will keep sending you results from your searches until you change them is phenomenal!

Once you find some key people you would like to build a relationship with, you can take it from there. Remember that the relationships are built online, and real business gets done offline, face-to-face.

People want to do business with people that they know, like and trust. It takes time to build those relationships. It may take as long as 3-6 months to start getting business through LinkedIn, but if you are building solid relationships with people, taking your eyes off yourself and finding ways you can help others first, you will be amazed how LinkedIn will work for you.

Christine Till