Online Business Networking - Is Linkedin Good Place to Generate MLM Leads?
By: Jim Green
Submitted: 2009-12-17 12:53:49 | Word Count: 637
In this piece we suggest a strategy for using social business networking to grow your MLM business. We specifically discuss one of the best online business networking sites: Linkedin. Linkedin is currently the most popular business and professional networking website. The guidance in this discussion would also apply to other business networking sites and business models.
Linkedin is a free business networking website used by many professionals to share information and for networking. A premium membership is offered to expand your networking opportunities. There are now more than 47 million members in 200 countries that participate in Linkedin, including executives from all Fortune 500 Companies. The median household income of Linkedin members was $109,000 at the time of this writing.
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The Linkedin profile has the cability to list your job history and recommendations from employers, coworkers, clients, and other professional contacts. The profile is useful to employers and clients so they can easily locate the best available resources for filling employment and consultant needs. In addition, Linkedin includes an important feature for group discussion and sharing: LInkedin Groups. Linkedin Groups are established to facilitate discussion and information sharing in areas of common interest. The discussions are quite focused and helpful to very specialized business needs.
Facebook and Twitter are also great for social and business networking, but Linkedin is usually better for finding MLM prospects, since it is generally populated by a different type of individual, including professionals and many entrepreneurs. These people can be ideal prospects for your MLM business. In order to most successfully reach these prospects, what methods work best on LinkedIn?
It is crucial to create a credible profile. Your professional experience and recommendations are important in order to be taken seriously in this community. Recommendations are essential to enhance and verify your profile content. And, a professional photo is essential.
Linkedin "Groups" are a effective feature of LinkedIn that can be leveraged for your business, mainly by uplifting your own "value" as a networker, but also by linking you to thousands of prospects. The most effective Internet marketers are also the ones that contribute at the highest level to the Groups that they are part of. As you contribute more effectively, and provide helpful suggestion to a Group, you will develop relationships, and eventually establish contacts for growing your MLM enterprise.
LinkedIn Groups are monitored and restricted much more than those on Facebook. In order to join a Group, you must first submit an application to the Group owner, who will most likely check out your profile to validate your expertise in the subject matter at hand. Group owners are also much more inclined to remove postings and even your membership to their Group if you abuse your membership. Direct reference to your business opportunity or MLM company, is considered self-promotion and will be the fastest way to be deleted from a Group
The usefulness of your contribution in a Group will establish your effectiveness in making connections and eventually turning these connections into leads for your enterprise. Although we put the spotlight, in particular, on MLM business leads, networking in Linkedin Groups will be advantageous regardless of your business type or model. Consultants, in particular, can also generate business leads from their group participation, resulting in consulting engagements. Network marketing is a very real fit for members in Linkedin Groups, although paradoxically, network marketing should not be addressed directly in the group context.
In this piece we suggest a strategy for using social business networking to grow your MLM business. We specifically discuss one of the best online business networking sites: Linkedin. Linkedin is currently the most popular business and professional networking website. The guidance in this discussion would also apply to other business networking sites and business models.