LinkedIn: A goldmine of business opportunity

Feb 03 2010

LinkedIn: A goldmine of business opportunity

This is the third and final (for now) personal case study on how the social web delivers unexpected business benefits. This story features LinkedIn, a powerhouse generator of business connections.

Making connections

I’ve made some of my best business contacts through LinkedIn Group Q&A forums. One example is my relationship with Dr. Ben Hanna, now VP of Dex Interactive. In a casual response to one of my answers in a forum, he mentioned that he was documenting his company’s progress on social media marketing month by month. I thought this was fascinating and asked if I could feature him on {grow}. This led to a number of articles which remain some of the most popular posts I’ve done. Ben and I have continued to support each other on various web-related projects.

Human Resources 2.0

Second example of a business benefit: One of my customers was looking to hire a new technician with highly specialized skills. I suggested doing an advanced search on LinkedIn using the zip code (to narrow the location) and keywords indicating the skill set. He followed my advice, identified three viable candidates and he just hired one of them. I helped my customer with an important personnel issue in one 60-second phone call!

New customers

Another example led to a direct business opportunity. An account executive from GIS Planning read some of my answers on a LinkedIn Group Forum and became curious enough to click my icon, which took her to my website … which took her to my Twitter account … and my blog. Of course I had not connected to her directly at this point but that was about to change.

After a couple of months, she called me up out of the blue: “Mr. Schaefer, I’ve been reading your comments on LinkedIn, Twitter and your blog and I’m convinced you are the voice of marketing we need for or company. Can you take on a new account?”

Well, THAT was a nice surprise!

This led to subsequent phone calls with her executive leadership and it resulted in a business partnership with GIS Planning, an amazing company that produces software for economic development institutions. It pulled me into a whole new industry and allowed me to learn from some wonderful marketing pros. And, it has helped my bottom line, which is what this is all about, right?

So let’s see how this real-world experience relates to my formula for creating business benefits on the social web:

Connections + Meaningful content + Authentic helpfulness = Business benefits

By being active on LinkedIn forums, I was building important new business connections. In the GIS case, I didn’t even realize it.
The content Ben Hanna provided spurred dialogue and cooperation between us. Meaningful content in the form of LinkedIn Group answers provided enough value for GIS to take action to learn more about me. Meaningful content comes in many forms!
When I was participating in the forums, I was genuinely offering help with no intent that I would get anything out of it. Similarly, I enjoy supporting Ben’s projects becuase I always learn something and I truly believe in his vision.

I believe this formula represents the core value of the social web — providing an opportunity to use your life’s blessings to connect to others in a meaningful way. We are living in a historic moment. We are the first generation to have access to free, instantaneous, global communication. If you use this gift well, the benefits can be astounding.

Don’t you agree?

This is the third installment of the unexpected benefits of the social web. You might enjoy these other articles:

Part 1: How to become a CMO in 10 tweets or less

Part 2: On Twitter, even casual connections can lead to business benefits

Tags: blogging, customer acquisition, financial impact, LinkedIn, personal brand

Filed in Case studies, LinkedIn, best practices, blogging, economics of social media | Mark

15 Comments

By Jon Buscall, February 3, 2010 @ 5:26 am

I just haven’t got on with LinkedIn. But maybe I need to take another look. Again, it all comes back to ROI, even for a one-man-band like myself.

Darn! Another thing to add to my ToDo list.
By Steve Dodd, February 3, 2010 @ 9:43 am

Mark, I’ve been a Linkedin fan for years. It’s all about sharing insights and ideas. Eventually, you find people with common interests and things evolve from there. Communities of common interest are formed, friends are made and business gets done, etc. The key is managing your involvement.

But, what you have identified is the secret to successful social web involvement in general. It’s quite simple, really. What’s unfortunate is that most still don’t understand.

As a final example, you communicate and discuss through your blog just like you do on other platforms. This is working for you and us (your readers). Most bloggers do not. And unfortunately, the result of this lack of fundamental understanding is highlighted in the resent “Edelman Trust Barometer” (http://www.siliconvalleywatcher.com/mt/archives/2010/02/wow_edelman_sur.php).

So, I guess the real message is to engage and learn how to make this work from the real masters (like Mark) who do it successfully every day.
By Lu, February 3, 2010 @ 9:56 am

Mark,

I have found LinkedIn and other social networks to be valuable on many fronts.

In tracking our website’s stats from Google Analytics, we find that referral traffic from LinkedIn and Twitter stay on our website for an average of 5 minutes compared with just under 2 minutes for organic search such as Google. My CEO and co-workers have been answering questions on LinkedIn which lead to people to check us out. We’ve closed sales from both LinkedIn and Twitter, and we’re considering re-designing our website and have received helpful suggestions from people through both channels. And we’ve had people inquire about reselling our product, which is new to us!

I completely agree that participation in social media can bring business benefits – we’ve already made money through it and we still have a long way to go. Sometimes I still find myself thinking, “what do I do/say here?”
By Mark, February 3, 2010 @ 10:15 am

@Jon — We’re all faced with “platform overload” at some point but I persoanlly think LinkedIn is too important to ignore.

@Steve Agree. All the platforms in the world won’t help if there is no engagement!
By Mark, February 3, 2010 @ 10:18 am

@ Lu This is a wonderful succcess story. Fascinating information about the inbound traffic and time spent on your site! Sounds like a case study you should document and highlight on a blog? Maybe this one even? ; )
By Billy Mitchell, February 3, 2010 @ 11:09 am

This is a timely reminder for me. I’ve let a little dust gather on my Linkedin account lately.

As you say in the comments, I may have “platform overload” which really means I just need to adjust my scan and/or filtering method.

I’m in many great groups and recieve daily feeds full of interesting discussions. It’s often TMI. Instead of letting them come and go without scanning them, I need to make more of them weekly feeds and make time to engage.

Thanks for the wakeup call!
By Jamie Lee, February 3, 2010 @ 12:38 pm

Mark – You are truly a rock star when it comes to bringing your elegantly simple formula to life.

When clients come to me looking for the “silver bullet” that they believe is shrouded in social technology, I promptly sit them down for a little reality check.

There is nothing magic or push button about social media success. Although automation tools can help expand and streamline certain aspects (monitoring, for example), the engine behind the whole machine is the heart and mind of a real person. In your case, you have harnessed your genuine desire to help others with your spot-on ability to create interesting and relevant content. Those two spark the connections that eventually lead to your success. It’s a thing of beauty if only people would stop over-thinking it.
;)

Thanks for another great post. I’m starting to feel like a bona fide groupie.
By Lu, February 3, 2010 @ 1:57 pm

I will definitely document our progress/success, especially once enough time has passed for us to really measure. We’ve only started to see results in the last couple of months. Which is still exciting! I’ll keep you posted :)

One question I have for you is: how much time do you find is “optimal” to spend engaging in social activites? Time is one thing we’re all struggling with, and many people want to see results fast. I find that it takes so much time just searching through Twitter and LinkedIn, finding and reading good blogs, and by the time you’ve answered a few questions or added a few comments – the day’s gone by.

I’m finding it difficult to get buy-in from my co-workers because they find it too time-consuming to constantly provide free, helpful advice. When we got our first sale from Twitter, a few employees quickly signed up their own accounts and started blasting sales messages and spamming people (they’ve since stopped). But now they have joined the ranks of the inactive tweeters – “I don’t have the time”.

And everything moves so quickly in the social space – miss a day, miss a lot!
By Marc Winitz, February 3, 2010 @ 2:19 pm

Mark – I really appreciate your engagement (and example) with this community and me personally. I am sure you where thinking of this anyways but thank you for your consideration of my suggestion on this – really good stuff. You need to trademark that formula above.//Marc
By Mark, February 3, 2010 @ 3:17 pm

@Billy If I had to pick one platform to stick with for pure business efforts it would be LinkedIn. They are putting a lot of resoruces behind new product development, so it’s just going to get better. I think 2010 is going to be a huge year for them.

@Jamie — Your wisdom is spot-on as usual. Thank you for taking the time to add to the community. We can be co-groupies!
By Mark, February 3, 2010 @ 3:32 pm

@Lu — “How much time is optimal?” That is THE question when it comes to social media marketing. Probably need to do a whole post on just that topic!

It boils down to cost/benefit. At some point, whoever is working this channel is going to have to stand up and explain why. The cost of the activity will have to exceed the direct or indirect business benefits or you will be asked to stop … and you should. And, if things are going well, you may want to spend more time and money in this area. Certainly that is waht we’re seeing from the major consumer brands.

Right now the channel is in a honeymoon phase for many organizations. They’re willing to experiment to say they’re on board but they will have to see demonstrable benefits in reputation, brand awareness, sales, etc. for it to continue long-term. So keep documenting and never lose sight of the importance of MEASUREMENT! Measure, even if you’re not being asked to.

As for your co-worker Twitter Quitters, well, that may be a good thing for you personally! Those who truly understand how to participate on the social web, like you, will have a long-term competitive advantage. This is big, this is important, and this is permanent. If you can demonstrate applied business acumen in a social media setting, you will be a hot property. In the mean time, try to keep them from doing something too stupid, be patient, and always show kindness and authentic helpfulness.
By Mark, February 3, 2010 @ 3:35 pm

@Marc — Here is a secret: I learn more from the community than it learns from me. You guys take me to school every day. The comments are ALWAYS better than the original post. Nearly every article I write comes directly from an idea or request from the {grow}-ers.
By Steve Dodd, February 3, 2010 @ 4:55 pm

The key is speaking “with” your community, not “at” them.
By idutms, February 3, 2010 @ 6:21 pm

From Wikipedia: “The perception of business acumen as a valuable and necessary quality for high-level corporate leaders has occurred within a short period of time… some have classified business acumen as simply a buzzword.” Your comment made on this blog post is helping to make business acumen mainstream and less of a gimmick. I think you’re right on the money that those that can articulate the language of business in an online social setting are the long-term winners.