Why Entrepreneurs Should Use LinkedIn

As my regular readers will know, I'm a huge advocate of social networking and social media for entrepreneurs. While entrepreneurs most often start using these tools for marketing, the savvy soon realize that they are also useful for finding business partners, suppliers, employees, as well as invaluable tools for problem-solving, market research and more.

While LinkedIn may not have gained quite as much mainstream recognition as MySpace or Facebook, it is the one site that I recommend unequivocally for every entrepreneur. While some users seem to take to it quite naturally, others join and then ask the question, "Now what?"  Still others give it a try, but then don't get the results they're expecting and drop it.

Among the hundreds of people I've worked with on how to use LinkedIn more effectively, I've found that the most common problem people have with understanding how to use LinkedIn effectively is when they try to use it like other social networking sites, or try to use it like a contact management system or other tool they're familiar with. While it has similarities to these other tools, LinkedIn is unique in the value it provides.

I could write a book on the many different ways you can use LinkedIn to grow and enhance your business (for a sampling, see 100+ Smart Ways to Use LinkedIn). But for now, I want to answer the question, "What, fundamentally, is the unique capability of LinkedIn?" What makes it different from your contact management software? Or from other social networking sites?

Its users have adapted LinkedIn for all kinds of uses, but fundamentally, LinkedIn addresses three basic issues significantly differently than other solutions:

1. People search. Web search engines are lousy at searching for people. Sure, there are automated biography tools like ZoomInfo which are useful, but they have challenges with people like me who have a common name, and there's often a lot of "noise" there compared to "signal" - not nearly as concise and organized as a properly done LinkedIn profile. And in your own contact database, you only have the limited amount of data obtained (and recorded) through your interaction with them. Sure, if I know your e-mail address, I can contact you. But what most people can't do with their contact database is answer a question like: "Who do I know who used to work for one of the big accounting firms?" Or maybe: "Do any of my friends have a background in musical theater that maybe I don't know about?" No matter how well you think you know people, you don't know them as well as they know themselves. I don't know of any other solution that does this as well as LinkedIn.
   
2. Keeping in touch. People change jobs these days like some people change clothes, and it becomes hard to keep track of people who are genuinely friends or business associates, but that you're not in contact with on a regular basis. Every time you change jobs or e-mail addresses, do you contact every single person you know and tell them? And even if you do, do you think they all update it in their contact database? Once you're connected on LinkedIn, you no longer have to keep track of that data - the person whose data it is now keeps it up-to-date, and you'll always know how to reach them. For the millions of LinkedIn users, that's also a huge collective savings in data maintenance. Rather than trying to keep track of several hundred people's contact information, current employer, etc., now they all keep it up-to-date for you, and all you have to keep up-to-date is your own information.
   
3. Your extended network. LinkedIn's core value proposition is simply this: the ability to answer the question, "Who do I know who knows and can recommend somebody that." .works at XYZ company? .is an expert in widgets? .is a good lawyer specializing in whatever my problem is? Without LinkedIn, how do you do this? You either a) pick the most likely people in your network to know that kind of person, but you may still miss them because so often those connections aren't necessarily obvious; or b) you contact everybody you know, which starts wearing thin if you do it a lot, since 99% of the people you ask won't be able to help. LinkedIn makes it so that you only ask the people who are likely to be able to help. It's like being able to search not only your own contact database, but those of your friends, and their friends, and then ask for the introduction when you find the right person.I hope that helps, and I'm happy to answer any further questions anyone may have about LinkedIn.

There are, of course, many more ways for entrepreneurs to use LinkedIn, such as:

• Asking questions in the Q&A section to solve problems or gauge public opinion.
• Answering questions to demonstrate your expertise and meet new people.
• Joining and participating in group discussions to meet others with common interests or in your industry.

Now these are things can be done on any social networking site -- or even a discussion forum. They are enhanced by taking place in the LinkedIn context, though, e.g., one-click access to the business profile of anyone asking or answering a question. But if you want to truly understand what makes LinkedIn uniquely powerful, focus on the three core capabilities above.

Related on About:

• Ten Steps to Dramatically Improve Your Network with Social Software
• How to Use Online Networks to Market Your Business
• Virtual Business Development