As a business coach and marketing consultant I am always looking for the next new social media tool to give my clients the edge in their marketing.

Photo: Contributed

Recently I decided to spend a little more time on an older Social Media tool called LinkedIn which is a social tool for businesses to business decision makers.

My past sales training and business experience has always guided me to the highest level position in any organization when negotiating or making a sale.  This is where the decision makers preside in the rarefied air of top management.

If I am going to spend my time and money on research to be told no to my proposition ......I’d rather that it come from a top decision maker than a lower level bureaucrat.

Here is the reason I make that statement:

• LinkedIn - known as the network for professionals is a very powerful network that is quickly growing in popularity with 120-million worldwide users.
• LinkedIn users attract a much older and typically more educated user base. Many users find it difficult to learn the network at first, due to its professional atmosphere and intimidating user base.  CEO's, CFO's, Presidents, Vice Presidents and Senior Managers.
• LinkedIn has an excellent reach to the decision makers of companies because of its professional setup. Below is additional information on the typical LinkedIn user:
  • Average Age: 43 (as of end 2010)
  • Average Annual Income: $109k
  • Average # of Friends: 63 plus

In the last month I have concentrated my social marketing activities to focus more on LinkedIn and specifically to joining groups that are relevant to the services of Floodlight. 

I also joined groups that had larger followings.  The larger the group meant that the information within the group must be more relevant or the association was more predominant for one reason or another.

In total I joined 30 plus groups and extended my reach to over 10 thousand people!!!!

Over the four week period I posted eight articles to LinkedIn and the results to my overall business were amazing.

The different approach to LinkedIn caused a 12% increase to my website with 178 visitors directly from LinkedIn spending more than one minute on my site.

My posts were commented on 15 different times with relevant comments and interaction.

The best of all was that Floodlight received a qualified lead and a large sale was closed.

Since it is largely focused on B-to-B connections, LinkedIn should be a big part of your social media marketing strategy to help Build Your Business.