The business benefits of LinkedIn

A blog article I found today touts the business benefits of the Web site LinkedIn. The networking opportunities found on this site are tremendous. In addition, the business opportunities seem to be beneficial as well.

A friend recently asked publicly if LinkedIn had any benefits at all, even saying it was difficult to navigate. Look at this piece and you decide:

I’ll start with the biggest issue, getting business. I am quite sure that most people are not finding the networking activities on LinkedIn profitable. There is a very simple reason for this – most of them aren’t networking and don’t understand how to create non threatening situations where opportunities for business arise.

I base this on the fact that during the almost two years I have been on LinkedIn very few people have approached me using any of the methods I teach other to use. The majority of the messages I get from others actually qualify as SPAM and almost no one engages in any kind of relationship building activity.

If you aren’t focused on building valued relationships first, you are going to find it difficult to approach and generate opportunities.

Additionally, most people don’t really understand that to get business on LinkedIn in you must “attract” opportunities and to do that you need visibility. Visibility comes from the right kinds of participation and from specific promotional activities that are possible within LinkedIn.

Words to live by.

E.C. :)