Are you leaving money on the table because you’re not using LinkedIn to get clients or you think LinkedIn is just for Job Seekers or B2B type organizations and haven’t realized that LinkedIn has recently passed the cap of 500 Million users. And no, those are NOT all seeking for a job, luckily! Read this post to find out that you just might be wasting your time on Facebook
Who’s your client?
When you search on Google for ‘getting clients’ you will find some good advice and lots of tips such as asking for referrals, follow-up & speaking at local events. But the most important thing to do, before you do anything, is to figure out where your target client hangs out. So let me ask you this? Who is your target client? If he/she is either
- employed
- running his/her own business
- decision maker of a bigger company
then there is a very good chance you can find him on LinkedIn. Do a test. Take some of your existing clients and look them up on LinkedIn. Ok? Found them? Then lets move on to the
… 3 main reasons why you’re leaving money on the table if you’re not using LinkedIn to get clients
Reason #1 : LinkedIn is 277% more effective for lead generation than Twitter or Facebook.
I didn’t come up with this number. It’s based on research by the well known marketing agency Hubspot. In a study of over 5,000 businesses, HubSpot found that traffic from LinkedIn generated the highest visitor-to-lead conversion rate at 2.74%, almost 3 times higher (277%) than both Twitter (.69%) and Facebook (.77%).
What this means is that if you are selling services or B2B products you can get tons of traffic from Facebook, but it may never turn into a sale. On the other hand traffic that comes from LinkedIn has a 3 times higher chance to convert into a lead (a subscription to your newsletter, a call, a sale).
Reason #2: People on LinkedIn are in a business mindset.
They use LinkedIn to look for service providers like you, connect & then send you an email with a meeting request. If you compare that again to Facebook, where people are in a social mindset it makes sense to have a good presence on LinkedIn, doesn’t it? Time on LinkedIn isn’t simply spent. Time on LinkedIn is invested in professional development. LinkedIn members are thinking how they can further their careers and businesses. This makes them more receptive to content that helps them get more knowledgeable and ultimately, more successful.
The other week I was giving a training at a company that offers mortgage loan consulting. The previous week a Social Media guru had told them they needed to be present on Facebook and Twitter and share regular content on those platforms. When they asked me about my opinion on this advice I replied with this question: ‘Who is your ideal client, where does he hang out and where does he make money decisions?’ Long story short they decided to put their focus on LinkedIn.
Reason #3: LinkedIn users have a much higher average income than those of other platforms.
You want to talk to people who have the cash to pay for your services, don’t you? Think about it, who earns the money? Someone who’s employed and between 30 – 65 years old. LinkedIn is the only major social media platform for which usage rates are higher among 30- to 49-year-olds than among 18- to 29-year-olds. 73% of users make more than $50,000 per year.
Click here to see how LinkedIn compares to the demographics of other Social Media platforms.
The least you can do if you when using LinkedIn to get clients is update your profile
If you are just more comfortable on Facebook and it’s actually getting you clients, don’t give that up. But the least you can do is update your LinkedIn Profile. It shouldn’t read like a resume, but more like your website’s About Page. Read this post to find out more.
I’ve alway put off joining LinkedIn, Sarah. I figured it wouldn’t help that much now that I’m an entrepreneur and not working in “corporate”.
Your article has convinced me to start a profile over there!
Thanks for the great info that is making me take action 🙂
Sue
Yay, that’s great to hear, Sue. I definitely think your clients are on LinkedIn. Maybe they are less active there, but at least you should have a profile and share your blog posts with the LinkedIn community. Did you know you can also publish content directly with the LinkedIn Publisher? Great way to repurpose some of your older posts…
Sarah,
As an online art instructor I have not put much energy into finding customers on LinkedIn. You helped me realize that some of my best customers are teachers and may be on LinkedIn. Off to seek them out.
Thanks,
Linda, it depends what type of teachers. In Europe your typical grade school teacher is not usually on LinkedIn. University is a different story. Definitely find them there. Let me know what you find out 🙂
Oh thanks for sharing the value of LinkedIn! It’s so easy to forget about it when you are not actively job hunting. But of course, it’s a great opportunity to find clients. People who are not active on other social media channels often have a presence on LinkedIn.
Any advice of what to do after we update the profile?
Glad you found it useful, Malla. Check out this post for what comes after: https://sarahsantacroce.com/2015/01/how-to-use-linkedin-for-business/