Top tips for small business owners

By SMBWorldAsia Editors | Oct 20, 2011

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As a small business owner, growing your business contacts and networking is central to your business success. However, traditional networking methods can be time-consuming and expensive, which is why LinkedIn is perfect for your small business. LinkedIn’s professional network is a great place to build your professional brand, increase online visibility, grow your network, engage with like-minded individuals and recruit new employees from a pool of highly skilled candidates. Here are some tips on how LinkedIn can work for you.

1. Raise your profile
Using your own profile the right way can be the gateway for potential clients, employees and industry partners to contact you. The more complete your profile, the easier it will be for people to find you through search engines. Make sure your summary is complete, and add a photo of yourself to increase your credibility.

You can remind people who you are by keeping your profile active with regular status updates.

2. Create a LinkedIn Company Profile
Increase the visibility of your business by creating a LinkedIn Company Profile. Company Profiles give members an opportunity to view information about each company, such as its description, number of employees and the industry it operates in. Develop your Company Profile with a logo, locations and feed from your company blog.

3. Grow and monitor your network
Import your existing contact lists from your mail client to find out which of your contacts are already on LinkedIn. LinkedIn automatically recommends people you might know based on your details and existing contacts, and you should regularly scour through your existing contacts for people you might want to connect with. Offering to connect with everyone - from customers, to clients and vendors - is a great idea because it shows your customers you are online. It also gives you an edge on the competition, who is probably not engaging customers in the same way.

4. Get recommendations
Recommendations are one of the best ways to secure new clients, because this is the feature looked for most when viewing a new profile. They enhance your professional credibility and create a great impression on people reading your profile. Ensure you request LinkedIn recommendations from happy customers willing to provide testimonials. Satisfied customers are the best source of new customers.