LinkedIn has revealed it has 15 million members in the UK, just two years after it announced it had reached the 10 million mark.
In a fascinating infographic, the business-to-business social network revealed that membership includes: 59 body builders 66 rocket scientists 146 chimney sweeps 744 magicians 2495 detectives 4083 farmers 7090 hairdressers 12,530 journalists 48,679 solicitors 374,711 engineers 6 mermaids
and 14,000,000 so-called social media experts.
OK, so we made up the last one…
LinkedIn tell us that the number of students on LinkedIn has more than doubled in the last year as they recognise the opportunities to build a career on the network.
What is more telling, though, is that very few people are still using LinkedIn well. Out of the last 300 connection requests made to Status Social staff in the past two months, less than 2 per cent created a personal message. The other 98 per cent, meanwhile, wasted their opportunity to build relationships and grow their business.
One of our clients told us last week they’d got back 1888% of the cost of their LinkedIn training just three days after their workshop. Now that’s worthy of an infographic…
So what do you do? It’s a common question in the world of business and I used to struggle to give an answer that summarised my job. “I do social media”, I used to reply, but it never seemed a very satisfactory answer. So now my answer isn’t what I do for a job, it’s what I can do for the person asking.
I was asked this question at an event in Derby recently. My answer: “I help businesses make money from social media.” The person who asked the question was one of the top people in sport in the East Midlands and he looked surprised. “Can you really make money from social media?” he asked. You can, but social media often works best is where it’s mixed with events outside social media. Sometimes I identify a business I really want to work with and social media becomes part of my strategy to get that opportunity. LinkedIn is one of the strongest networks for doing this.
There was one particular organisation that we identified early on as being significant for the growth of Status Social. They are well known in Derby, have influence amongst other businesses, and they have an ethos of enthusing about others – so I targeted them.
I had met the top man of the organisation a year or so earlier at an event so I sent him a LinkedIn connection request, pointing out I’d looked at his social media and I could see room for development. I had no idea whether he even remembered me. He replied within a few days. He was interested in what I had to say and invited me for a coffee in Starbucks. But in the meantime, he said, can we continue this conversation away from LinkedIn because he was more comfortable using email? Fair enough.
I met him for coffee, I sent him a proposal and he hired us to train him and his staff how to use social media to achieve his business objectives. Two years later that training session has led to us working with a variety of organisations, including a city university and tourist board.
So how did that contract come about? Event. LinkedIn. Email. Starbucks. Proposal. Booking. A real mix of strategic social media use and real life. When it comes to achieving your business goals, ask yourself, where does social media fit into the chain?
One of our clients is the Derby Conference Centre. Its sales manager Mark Averill has really embraced social media. He recognised how using LinkedIn alongside information available away from social media could lead to a great opportunity with clothes retailer TK Maxx…
Want to know more about how we can help you attract big business through LinkedIn? Then check out our LinkedIn training.
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