I’ve already written about using LinkedIn for business and this article is great for people who are just starting out with LinkedIn. Now I want to talk about using LinkedIn as one of your essential tools to really lift your business, and help you make the most of your networking.

You can use LinkedIn as a business development tool in many different ways. Here are the three I want to concentrate on here:

• Developing your status as an expert and a lovely person
• Reach out with your brand
• More direct business development

Developing your status as an expert and a lovely person

I’m assuming that you have already given some thought to your profile, and that you’re keeping it up to date. Lovely photo, you look good there, by the way.

The next thing to do is to develop a good number of testimonials on your LinkedIn profile page. I just had a look at a handful of my LinkedIn contacts, and they averaged 3 recommendations, which is not enough to form a decision on. 3 recommendations looks a little half hearted. Potential clients will be looking at your LinkedIn profile, and trying to decide if you’re the person they should work with. So you need to make sure that other people are telling them that they should give you lots of money. LinkedIn is the perfect place to get people to write good things about you.

Remember that you want a good handful of recommendations, don’t be one of those people that have hundreds of recommendations as no one will ever read them, and it’s either going to look like complete overkill, or like you’ve spent your life asking people to recommend you. I have 20 on my page, which is more than enough to tell you that I’m one of the good guys.

Reach out with your brand

You want people in your network to remember you, understand what you do, and think well of you. That way, they will recommend you, buy from you and create opportunities. And LinkedIn can be a fantastic tool for reminding people of who you are, and getting a chance to get your brand in front of some new people.

If you’ve only really been using LinkedIn as an online cv, and a way of collecting some contacts, you’ll probably have missed some of the great new features they’ve been adding. Have a look around at some of the LinkedIn groups and work out which ones apply to you, and are relatively active. By joining up, you’ll be able to see what other people are up to, and learn what’s going on. It’s better to lurk a little first to get the hang of things, and then start joining in debates or helping out with referrals and advice.

More direct business development

One of the things I often recommend to clients is to put together a hit list of the people they want to work with – your target clients. I’ve just done this with a client who wants to sell to businesses based in Brighton who do business outside the city, for example. We’ve now got a spreadsheet of names to start contacting. Now, I wouldn’t advise using LinkedIn to contact these people – you need to be a lot more subtle than that in your hunt. However, LinkedIn is invaluable in finding the people you want, and getting lots of interesting information about them.

Maybe you know that you want to sell something to Giraffe Ltd. You know from their website that Mr Frog works there. So you look up Mr Frog on LinkedIn, and find out that he used to work for Hippo Ltd, and where your friend Ms Lioness still works. So not only do you know exactly what Mr Frog and Giraffe Ltd do, and that he is the right person to talk to, you can also ask Ms Lioness to either introduce you, or if this isn’t appropriate (maybe Ms Lioness doesn’t know him that well) she can give you some more really valuable information, such as does he like phone or email, or where does he hang out.

This approach only works well if you’re looking for high value business to business sales, but in this area LinkedIn can be a remarkable tool.

I’m sure that you already follow up the people you’ve met at networking events by an invitation to join your LinkedIn network.  But if you just use the standard invitation saying “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn” you’re missing something.  Everyone knows that’s the same invitation that they get from all the other people – but I thought you were different.  When I met you, I thought that we’d had a good chat and got on well, not that you’d send me the same template email that everyone else uses.

It’s much more pleasant, and takes about 30 seconds longer, to say something specific in your LinkedIn invitation.  Mention what we talked about, when we met, what made you think of me.

I’m a big fan of networking to build your business.  I’ve written about how to get started with networking, what to expect when you go to a networking group, and here’s a list of which business networking groups to go along to in Brighton.

So here I want to go over a few things not to do when you’re trying to build your networks and make friends with people, especially when you’re at a business networking event.

While it’s great to follow up and say hi after you’ve met someone, it’s really not a good idea to send this “damning with faint praise” email.

“Just a short follow-up note to say what a pleasure it was to meet you at the BHCC Breakfast on Friday.  Your work sounds interesting and I will bear you in mind for those of my clients who could be in need of your type of service.” I’m really not expecting any referrals from this guy, who has obviously sent the same email to everyone he met that morning, and possibly everyone he has ever met in his whole life, including his mum.

Then there are the people who “work the room” and collect as many cards as they possibly can, without taking any real interest in anyone, and certainly not making any friends.  If you can meet 3 people and have a genuine conversation with each of them, then you’ve had a successful event. Networking is about making relationships, not collecting people like they were football stickers for your album.

And there’s the people who are talking to me, but make it clear that they’re desperately trying to find someone less boring.  If you’re looking out for someone in particular at an event, why not ask the person you’re talking to help you find them. They might be able to introduce you, or help you out with this.  And if I really am boring (I know I can go on about the joy of spreadsheets) and you want to move on, then just say “Shall we mingle?”  Don’t just keep looking over your shoulder for someone better.

When someone offers you their card, please don’t refuse to take it, as I saw someone do to a friend of mine recently.  This guy thought he was doing my pal a favour, as he didn’t want to take a card unnecessarily, but he ended up being ridiculed by me, and upsetting my friend.  You can always throw it away later (although you never know if that person might be useful, so I wouldn’t) but there’s really no need to be rude.  Think about how you might feel if someone did that to you – it wouldn’t feel good.

If you’re desperate to sell something, then please don’t be so very obviously desperate.  The whole point of this networking thing is to make friends with people who may buy from you or encourage their friends to buy from you.   If you rush round telling people about your product, or shoving leaflets at people, they will be disinclined to buy from you, even if you’ve got the cure for cancer ready to be dispensed.

Right, that’s enough ranting about poor behaviour for now…I shall be watching out for more dodgy techniques and will probably rant some more.  Feel free to add your comments about what not to do at networking events.