When you are on LinkedIn, what do you usually see - a stream of updates from professional colleagues and acquaintances, your business's profile, the discussions in your subscribed groups? These are all common ways to interact through the social-media platform, and they can all be used, to varying degrees, in your online marketing efforts.
Still, there is another feature that is less well-known but a lot more effective: LinkedIn Questions and Answers. To find this feature when you are logged into your LinkedIn account, go here:
In this application, people can ask and answer professional questions.
First, I'll address the answering part. Go to a sector or industry in which you are very familiar and that is a relevant location where your clients may be. Online marketing - like that which I am describing below - is just one of the areas that is extremely popular:
There are categories for law, finance and accounting, start-ups and small business, and many more. Find a question that you can answer extremely well, and enter your response in the field provided:
Include your website in the resources, but do not sell anything in the answer directly - the goal here is to be as helpful and informative as possible.
When you take the time to answer a question thoughtfully and comprehensively, the response will help to brand you as a thought leader in your industry. People who view the answer may decide to visit your LinkedIn profile and/or your website - and then, you may have the potential for a new prospect, a new person to network with in your industry, or a fellow expert who may be able to help you learn more about your chosen topic.
In addition, each time that you answer a question, it is listed in your profile's feed - and the best answer to each question (as determined by the asker) is officially deemed the "Best Answer." Your profile lists how many "Best" and "Good" Answers you have given.
People can follow new questions in any sector or industry through an RSS feed at the bottom of each section's page (also note below that each industry's top experts in terms of the number of "Best Answers" are shown):
I'd highly recommend that our clients subscribe to their relevant industries' RSS feeds for LinkedIn questions, review them each day, and take time to write thoughtful responses where appropriate. A little bit of effort here can go a long way!
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Second, asking LinkedIn Questions can help you as well.
Of course, we are always looking for ways to improve all of the services that we offer to clients. So, in the context of our clients who are lawyers, I recently posted this LinkedIn Question in the Law category:
We received many great answers like this one:
All of the advice that I received, of course, will be reviewed by our staff. Obviously, this is a great, free way to do "market research" and get actual, human responses rather than just statistical data. By posing such questions on LinkedIn, you can get a lot of information and advice on your industry. In addition, by briefly mentioning what you do (but not selling directly!), you can also obtain more prospects whose interests you have piqued. A copy of each answer is sent to your LinkedIn Messages, so you can also follow-up with the respondents personally.
As our readers and clients surely know, social media is increasingly an important way to market your business in order to obtain more clients and customers. By incorporating LinkedIn Questions and Answers into your daily marketing-mix, you can communicate with many more potential prospects each day.