In the Dublin Chamber of Commerce group in LinkedIn I wrote a post which outlined some very valid reasons why you should really take LinkedIn seriously and start using it to develop your network. I get business and I hear so many more people getting business, finding employees, finding partners and much more so why aren’t you?

I had 5 things on the list but here is the list expanded out to 10 items. I could expand it out to 100 items but I’ve lots of other work to do!

1. Warm Calling – Nobody likes doing the cold calling. If there’s a company you want to connect with search for them on LinkedIn. If you don’t have a connection to them maybe somebody connected to you has. This alone is worth the LinkedIn time investment. Your network is your net worth!

2. Hiring – LinkedIn is full of qualified people so it’s a great place to hire and it’s free to advertise in groups that you are a member of.

3. Events - If you are running an event create it within LinkedIn. It’s a much more effective way of getting more people going to your event.

4. Influencers/Decision Makers – Did you know that most people on LinkedIn are over 35 and over 66% are influencers or decision makers. It’s certainly a good bunch to network with!

5. Getting Business – Instead of using a search engine to find some partners, employees etc more and more people will go straight to their network of choice. So make sure you’ve got a great profile and lots of recommendations. If you do then you’ll get people contacting you with business opportunities.

6. Research – I do a some social media training and I’m always looking for ideas regarding what type of practical exercises to do. I posted a question on LinkedIn and I got some really interesting answers from many people around the world. So if you are looking for some fresh ideas on anything you’d be amazed how helpful people are on LinkedIn. As well as questions/answers you can also run polls with your network.

7. CRM - Customer Relationship Management systems were developed before social media took off. If you were developing a CRM system from scratch now you’d develop it a lot differently. It would actually look a lot like LinkedIn. I’m not saying to throw out your CRM system but it can’t be used in isolation. If there’s integration available between your CRM system and LinkedIn then you’re laughing (e.g. Salesforce)

8. Stay in touch – So you’ve come across a business contact that’s not interested in your product or services now. What happens in 6 months time when they are looking for your business card or trying to remember your name? Stay in touch using LinkedIn. Send them an update every couple of months, let them know you’re still around and open for business.

9. Effective Networking – When an event is organised through LinkedIn that I’m going to I’ll go through the list of people going to the event and check out their profiles. I love meeting all sorts of people at networking events and you never know where you’ll get business from but maybe there’s one or two people that you’d love to hook up with. Well prepare that list and bring it with you.

10. Promote yourself – Your company is a brand but what about you? Why don’t you let more people know about who you are, your skills, connections and background.

LinkedIn also does not replace face to face networking. I’m a member of Dublin Chamber of Commerce and many other networks as I really enjoy meeting new people. But LinkedIn makes my networking much more effective and helps me to keep in touch with many people. So keep turning up but also connect up!

Have you found LinkedIn to be an effective tool for you? I know I have as I get business through it. What are your experiences good or bad?