Fred Abaroa

With many business adopting social media I am often asked, "What about LinkedIn?". My answer is always, "When was the last time you looked at your LinkedIn account?" For the most part it may be once or twice a week vs the once or twice a day we look at our facebook pages or the countless time we look at twitter. So where does that leave LinkedIn? Again we have to think about the people we are marketing to. Are they on LinkedIn, and this is important, consistently. I know I have invited a connection and waited months for the invitation to be accepted.) I started to get a complex until I noticed sometimes it has been months since the person has been on.) The LinkedIn users who frequent it the most are recruiters. And in that light many businesses look you up here to see what your background is. Lesson to be learned is to complete your profile. Think of it as your resume. I had, and may still have, several spelling errors, grammar, etc because when I set it up I was in a "hurry". We need to go back after the initial set up and correct our misteaks and enhance our profile. Another part of LinkedIn that has helped market me is the Answers section. I love answering questions there. It has helped me develop some of my strategies. You will find less "Marketing Questions" in this section than you do in the Groups section. Let's talk about groups. I have found the local groups to be far more effective as a networking tool. I'll often look for interesting people, prospective clients and send a message to see if they will be at a chamber event. Then when I arrive at the event I have someone to look for. (More on "Going To An Event With A Goal" in my upcoming book "The Networking Artist") When choosing a group to join look at the discussion. Are they really discussion or statements. For example I have seen several discussion topics that are a question to all the members. So I click on it only to find the answer as part of the "Additional Details". Poor form indeed.

So the answer is "No". It is not a dead end and can be useful but is probably more work than other social media tools.

Fred Abaroa aka “CostaVidaFred”
The Marketing Imagineer

fred [@]costavidafred.com 

Twitter:
@FredXpress
@TMIFred

Blogs:
www.CostaVidaFred.com
Podcasts:
WordOnTheTweet.net
MakingMountainsOutOfMoleHills.com