Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I recently signed up for a free account with LinkedIn, and have begun asking a few select clients to network with me etc... I`m thinking that since my clients are all business owners, that this may be good source of new referrals for my company.

Has anyone had any success with this system? Have you found it useful?

Thanks!

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Sage Media :: Full Service Graphic Design Firm    |   Portfolio     |   Blog

I signed up a few months ago, but I haven`t had much success with it.  As I have posted in other forums, I have had better success with this site and with www.squidoo.com.

I do hope you have a better experience with LinkedIn...keep us posted.

Best of luck!


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Rod Call
Snoloha
www.snoloha.com
rod@snoloha.com

I`ve found LinkedIn to be fairly successful in bringing potential clients my way in a short period of time.  It`s also been a great way to research possible vendors for my business.

- J.




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Jeff Fisher | Jeff Fisher LogoMotives | Tweet! Tweet!

I`ve found it to be helpful to keep in touch with current business contacts who use it frequently. I haven`t really used it to pursue new business so I`m glad to hear it works well in that regard.

Melanie

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Melanie Rembrandt
CEO, Rembrandt Communications®, LLC
Visit www.rembrandtwrites.com for valuable PR tips and SEO copywriting help!
Twitter: @RembrandtWrites

I`ve been a member for a few years and haven`t really seen much come out of it. Like PRPro, I find it just helps me keep up to date with what`s going on in my colleagues`, partners`, and customers` lives

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Dan Pickett
Principal
Enlight Solutions, Inc.

www.enlightsolutions.com
www.twitter.com/dpickett

I`ve used it for over a year, but just to keep up with business contacts.  The only caution I would give you is that it is very hard to remove someone once they are linked to you.  If you are using it to "keep up" like I am, then make sure you are very selective on who you link to.

There is an in-depth write up on LinkeIn in the current issue of Business 2.0 magazine.

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Rod Call
Snoloha
www.snoloha.com
rod@snoloha.com

If you want to learn more about how to use LinkedIN, I suggest joining the Yahoogroups that are dedicated to it. There is the My LinkedIN Power Forum and/or the LinkedIN Innovators forum. Both have thousands of members on it and are very busy.

I have a business colleague and acquaintance in Scott Allen who runs the LinkedIN Intelligence blog. He talks about LinkedIN Networking tips, news, and other need to know info on Linkedin.

As for me, I use it very passively but have had a couple people inquire about my services because they found my profile. I got a recent inquiry a couple weeks ago for some SEO Web copywriting and a blog design because I was a few degrees away from the inquirer. I just submitted a marketing proposal to the guy so I should know soon if LinkedIN was helpful to me in this regards.

Of course, there are others like Robert Scoble who completely hate LinkedIN.  If you read the comments, they are priceless  But then there are others like Scott or other business acquaintances and friends like Bill Vick or Des Walsh who use it unabashedly and religiously and made a profit from selling how-to information on using LinkedIN.

Ultimately, LinkedIN is a networking tool and like all aspects of networking, you need to learn how to use the system and invest time into it. Networking isn`t a one time deal-- you gotta practice at it.

But it also depends on what type of business you run and the goals you have that will help you decide how to use it.

Like any networking organization, it takes time to build a trust and reputation.

I`ve been on Linked In for more than 2 years and it hasn`t really helped drive any new business, but I`ve made a lot of contacts that may help me in the future.

A friend of mine regularly gives seminars on how to get the most out of Linked In.  He says to build your network as large as you can as quickly as you can. 




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Scott Watson.::.

Acme Data Online Backup Service     

Don`t Wait Until It Is Too Late To Recover Your Data

I would agree with many of the comments above...the challenge with linkedin from my perspective is everyone is there for their own reasons...so although you can `connect` with them, they might not want to do whatever it is that you want to do.  You may need to find a networking site that is specific to your needs.

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Andrew PS - Here's a free report on creating your startup success. Free report