LinkedIn was never about jobs, it was always about networking, building trust and collaboration within your professional networks.
Yes, LinkedIn has become an essential tool for talent managers and recruiters to head hunt and validate the credentials of individuals in the job market, but from its very first “home page” you can see that LinkedIn has been about building a professional network and creating a professional profile.
At its core, LinkedIn was there for people like us, small business owners, to grow. This is illustrated by the introduction of features such as Groups and LinkedIn’s partnership with American Express to promote its offering to small business owners.
Use it to your advantage
LinkedIn is here to help build YOUR professional profile. Yes, YOURS! That means it’s a good idea for business owners to learn how to use platform and its various functionalities.
The biggest benefit of LinkedIn for business owners is the opportunity establish themselves as a thought leader and in turn, expand their network and generate new business. How do you do that? Provide valuable content and share with your network how they can benefit from your brand.
LinkedIn also enables business owners to present a professional image for their businesses. When last did you run an audit of your employees’ LinkedIn profiles? Oh, yes, you can do that without too much fuss. Have your marketing team look at each person’s public profile to see how they are aligned to their current role and your brand?
When you have your employees saying great things about your company, you will attract business and the right talent to your business.
