CompuKol Connection

LinkedIn groups are being used more often now by those in career transition as well as by entrepreneurs. Are you using it to bring more traffic to your blog? Are you using LinkedIn to its full capacity for job networking?

If you are not yet using LinkedIn groups for professional networking and to drive traffic to your blogs, the steps below will guide you on how to accomplish this as well as how to increase the number of visitors to your website and blogs.

A very valuable feature on LinkedIn that is underutilized is the Groups feature. The focus of your intention when getting involved with groups on LinkedIn should be “how can I help someone else” instead of “what’s in it for me.” The feature is very user-friendly and you will feel very comfortable navigating in no time.

Find groups on LinkedIn relating to the subjects that you write about or provide on your site

Since LinkedIn allows you to subscribe to a maximum of 50 groups, you should take advantage of this and subscribe to as many groups as possible that relate to your business. However, to protect you from being perceived as a spammer, you shouldn’t post the same article to more than a few groups at a time.
 
You have to post to each LinkedIn group manually. The process to post an article to a group is:

1. Go to the specific group.
2. Click on the News tab.
3. Click on Submit a News Article.
4. Paste the URL of your article (which comes from your blog).
5. Your article title and summary will now be retrieved from your blog.
6. You have an option to add a comment and check a box to be notified when other people post comments on your article.

The more relevant the article is to the group, the more likely people will be to click on and read your article on your blog and to leave comments.

Get involved in discussions with the group

Merely posting links without any real, active involvement doesn’t earn you the trust of the other members of the group. Get involved with those who comment on your submissions and visit other posts to add your opinion. The power of your communication is that you will gain the trust of others and will earn credibility. You will be viewed as a subject matter expert and you will be considered a valuable resource by others who will want to connect with you. All of those connections are of value, either as potential customers, valuable job networking connections, or to build valuable business relationships.

Answer LinkedIn questions
 
By having a proactive voice in the LinkedIn questions arena, you will strengthen your credibility by becoming a subject matter expert. When you post your response, remember to include a description and link to your content in both the website and text sections.

Ensure that your profile has your status updates and updated site links and install the blog applications

Make sure that your information is always up to date so that visitors to your profile have quick access to your site. In addition to posting your blog articles to LinkedIn groups, you can install the blog applications so that your blog articles are automatically posted on your profile through your RSS feed.

Conclusion

If you follow these simple steps, the result will be a dramatic increase in your blog or website traffic and in your networking connections. LinkedIn will enable you to build strong relationships with others with whom you can share a mutually beneficial relationship.

For more information how to leverage social media for your business, visit us at CompuKol Communications.

About the Author.  Michael Cohn is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of CompuKol Communications. He has over 25 years of experience in IT and web technologies. Mr. Cohn spent a significant amount of time at a major telecommunications company, where his main focus was on initiating and leading synergy efforts across all business units by dramatically improving efficiency, online collaboration, and the company’s Intranet capabilities, which accelerated gains in business productivity. He also reduced company travel and travel costs by introducing and implementing various collaboration technologies. His expertise includes business analysis; project management; management of global cross-matrix teams; systems engineering and analysis, architecture, prototyping and integration; technology evaluation and assessment; systems development; performance evaluation; and management of off-shore development. Mr. Cohn earned a Master’s degree in project management from George Washington University in Washington, DC; and a Master’s degree in computer science and a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, NJ. Mr. Cohn is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).