“A good connection goes a long way.” In this digital day and age being a part of a business group or communicating with business or career driven people helps you in browsing relationships and maintaining contacts which further lift you up career-wise. LinkedIn is one such site.
LinkedIn is an employment-oriented website which deals with professional networking. It is a mixture of Facebook (a social networking site) and a basic job seeking website. A well-known quote from Jill Rowley states that LinkedIn is no more your online resume, it is your digital reputation. It is not only great for finding jobs you can also publish blogs and create an outreach platform for building your brand. It is an online platform which people can use to develop their social networks apart from daily face to face communication.
Social media networking sites like these are really good for socially awkward people. People who crawl under their blankets at the name of social interaction can use sites like LinkedIn to connect with people of the same mental process. One might think, Facebook is a great social networking site why use LinkedIn? Well, LinkedIn is a business-related site, it helps people in getting jobs and connecting with people in their career fields as well. You can not only connect with people, but you can also earn money through LinkedIn. You can make money on LinkedIn by selling products, promoting products, getting hired, offering services.
Making connections
Add connections to your profile, one great way to promote the selling of products is having people around you who will actually buy the products. You can “connect” with people on LinkedIn. You can be anyone a salesperson or a businessman you need connections and networks to be able to sell your product or service anywhere. People can send and accept invitations on LinkedIn.
Sending invitations
If you want to send an invitation to someone, you must follow these steps
- Explain why you want to connect, send a reasonable email.
- If you have met the person you are trying to contact before, you can mention that as well.
- You can also mention where you heard about them.
People are very particular about who they connect with, so this is a crucial step to increase the dollar bills in your pocket. We must realize that LinkedIn is not about selling and buying. It is for relationship generation. It is also not a sales tool; LinkedIn is a lead generation tool.
Follow companies
If you want to sell a service or a product or you just want to earn money on LinkedIn, you must follow companies that you find essential. You can also follow various customers, partners, even competitors. You can then reply to their posts, sometimes just a few words in a comment can land you a promising job or contract. So, if there is a particular client you want to work with try to get in touch with them through their profile. You can also study their profile and see what kind of work they are looking for as well.
Service providers
Freelance promotion
There is a services section on LinkedIn. Freelancers can use that section to promote themselves and their work online. You can use banner images and link them to your website, and you can add videos and information about the kind of freelancer work you do. You can make LinkedIn your promotion platform and since this is a great place for connecting with buyers of services or clients you have high chances of getting a gig.
Connecting with potential clients
Waiting for clients to respond to your pitch can be very frustrating, you might not even get a response. LinkedIn comes forward as a savior here. You can directly contact your potential clients. People using LinkedIn can also reply to their questions publicly and then contact them in private as well.
Profile
Make your profile in such a way that clients can find you. Add titles, and you can also post your work and make LinkedIn your portfolio.
Blogging to the rescue
Blogging has been a major help for freelancers and other people who want to make money online. It is a great way of promoting yourself and earning money as well. If you post great posts that are very efficient, chances are you will get many views. You don’t need a million views to promote yourself just a few right ones. You should start by making great headlines for your posts, a powerful headline is a great way for you to attract clients. Add images that are aesthetical, and they must send a message as well. Delivering good content shows that you are capable of good work. Blogging for writers is especially very essential and fruitful as well. You can very sneakily and easily drive people to your website through blogging.
Join groups
There is a group search function on LinkedIn, you can see what your interest is in and groups in relation with your interest. Joining as many groups as possible is favorable. This also means that you will have to look through a lot of self-promotion, you really need to find the ones that are reliable. You can figure out the status of a group by looking in the activity tab, checking the comments, etc. There is no use of joining an inactive group.
You can promote yourself and your products or services in these groups.
LinkedIn Advertising
You can launch a targeted campaign using the LinkedIn’s advertising feature. This feature is set by LinkedIn’s self-service solution. LinkedIn is the most accurate targeting ad platform. You can focus your ads on a certain audience that you want to target specifically. You can specify the ad size. This means you can fix the target size. If you want your audience to be limited to 1000 people. You can remove the ad anytime you want as well.
Free signups
You can let your clients sign up for free content and then turn them into buyers. People can do this by using the LinkedIn advertisements. You can lure them into becoming buyers by providing them with a special offer for a limited time.
Target specified
Usually, people don’t get the results they want from their ad campaigns because they keep looking at the wrong audience for it. One must remember that for the best sales of a product or service, the correct audience is required. You can use targeting options to get the attention of specific groups of people.
Getting Hired
Specific jobs
If you are looking for a specific kind of job you can create your profile according to that as well. You can direct your profile in such a direction that the clients related to your job profile will get attracted to you. You can write about your passion your experience and the previous jobs you have done.
Beginners
This site is not only for the ones who have a lot of experience it is great for beginners to kick-start their careers as well. You can add the skills you have to your profile so that you can reach closer to getting the job of your dreams. You can add a lot of endorsements for your skills, just below your summary. Sites like LinkedIn are great for people to connect with companies and clients. Many people find their dream jobs with the help of this business related relationship building site.
Contacting companies
LinkedIn is a dream platform in the literal sense; it has made contacting and connecting with companies easier than ever. You can contact the company you want to work with by means of comments and groups. You can comment on their posts and join their groups and keep participating in the group conversations. A great feature in LinkedIn is the career tab, from here you can keep an eye on the jobs section in the group for any open positions available.
Affiliate products
Through groups
Affiliate marketing is a way to earn extra money if you have a blog or if you are thinking of blogging. Bloggers usually add links to products they are promoting online, and they earn money depending on how many people bought the product using their link. In LinkedIn, you can share your affiliate marketing posts in the groups you are a part of. You can contact or reply to the group members personally, or you can send link publically in the group.
Profile
You can also do affiliate marketing using your profile. To do this, you can use the publications section in your profile and link your affiliate product reviews.
Finding sponsors
If you are looking for events or companies to sponsor LinkedIn is a great way to go forward. You can find such opportunities through LinkedIn very consistently. You just need to make sure to keep checking the advertisements in the LinkedIn sidebar and other areas in the website; there is a chance that business might be trying to find sponsors for some audiences.
Contacting people
You can find people that you can contact through the search bar as well. You can use a premium account to use the advanced features of LinkedIn. Some of these features include search filters and Inmails.
Book sales
If we are talking about the actual use of LinkedIn, it is not anywhere near selling or buying. But people use it for increasing their sales and promoting their work. This is why you can use LinkedIn for earning money or increasing the flow of money in your pockets. You can keep your contacts updated about the publishing dates etc.
Marketing
You can use this platform to sell your books and increasing the sales as well. You can add links that people can use to reach a site where they can buy your book.
Writing
If you are a writer and you already have a blog you can link it with your LinkedIn profile. You can post great content, and the opportunities will flow towards you. LinkedIn is a great option if you don’t have time to dedicate to each and every profile you have on social media.
Selling digital products
You can use the product section to promote your product and make people buy the products that you endorse. You can create product listings on your page. Sellers can use banners, videos to explain the use of the product can prove to be of great use as well. Reviews are a great way of establishing trust of viewers or buyers in your product. When people go to the new or unknown site to buy a product, views contribute majorly to whether they end up buying the product or not. This is one of the general marketing tactics. If a person who is famous or is well-known reviews your product then the sales might shoot up very quickly. You can add commercials and other videos that help you to attract people and lure them in buying products.
Photography
You can make LinkedIn your Business Instagram profile. If you are very keen or fond of photography and you breathe through the pictures, you click. You can earn money by clicking pictures. People can start the business of a photographer through LinkedIn and get more and more people to see your work. You can get clients through LinkedIn, and you can connect with clients through this platform as well. The one thing that differentiates LinkedIn from any other platforms where you post pictures is that all the people on LinkedIn want to connect and make business-related relationships in some way or other. So you will find many event management companies and clients who want an event to be clicked as well.
Create an information product
An information product as the name suggests it is a package of resources that provide advice or information about a product in depth. You can also add video and audio recordings to explain the uses of the product in detail.
Teaching or giving lessons
You can give lessons and teach through this platform as well. You can get some extra cash by doing this. Tutors or teachers can contact students through LinkedIn, and you can also join groups of teachers and tutors. This a platform where you can connect with clients, and it provides you with opportunities to get more and more work.
Conclusion
LinkedIn is a marvelous website to join, but it is not a selling platform that you can use to stock up money in your pockets. All the ways and methods mentioned above have one thing in common which is relationship building. This site is specially made to help people connect with other professionals. Just like we can’t breathe without oxygen, we can’t live without communication either. LinkedIn provides a unique platform which helps people connect professionally and hence it helps in increasing financial gains. It starts and boasts careers worldwide.