Jamie Ginsberg Social Media Strategist

Looking at my network statistics on LinkedIn, I can’t help but think that 80 million profiles on LinkedIn is amazing! It was only August of 2009 that LinkedIn hit 40 million profiles. While this pales in comparison to the growth on FaceBook (over 500 million),many of these profiles are open – public profiles. LinkedIn is investing the resources in improving the quality of the experience, particularly the mobile tools (check out the iPhone App – it rocks).

What is really important to remember, is that your search and the quality of your experience is limited by the size of your network. Grow your network and the quality of LinkedIn as a research tool grows exponentially (second and 3rd degree growth). Do you have a strategy for how you are using LinkedIn?

I went to a presentation on Social Media today hosted by the Web Association, it took every ounce of self control to save this post for tonight (rather than baiting the panelists with a loaded question). As I watched the panelists discuss very intelligently how they have used social media I was generally impressed. However, the only reference I heard to LinkedIn was for “building your personal brand.” I felt like I was the crazy person in the room, how can we ignore the goldmine right in front of us?

Every single company MUST have a strategy for LinkedIn. First of all, your employees must look like the qualified, intelligent people you hired. Their profiles should be flush with a mix of personal and professional information that establishes their credibility and gives people ways to connect with them. Second, every employee must be connected with each other. Your web starts with your employees, build from within. Third, each employee needs to have goals for numbers of connections and recommendations given (these will vary by the employee). Finally, the employees MUST be taught how to Phish (build connections), in general use the site/software and most importantly turn this online activity into real world meetings and sales.

This is a Back To Basics approach on LinkedIn. Yes, we will figure out details for your company. Yes, we will fine tune the strategy 6 months in to maximize the effectiveness of your strategy. However, LinkedIn MUST be a part of every social media campaign. Why, because we are going to find gold on LinkedIn. We are going to get the short term return that enables our overall strategy to establish a Return On Investment that justifies the time and effort we put into FaceBook, Twitter, You Tube and Blogging. If you don’t have a strategy for LinkedIn, you don’t have a strategy for social media. I have said it before and I will say it again: I will NOT hire anybody that is not on LinkedIn…and you shouldn’t either. LinkedIn should be the core of your social media strategy. Know Your Network, get LinkedIn.