How are you using LinkedIn? Today we talk about ways that you can increase your effectiveness with this social platform to get more quality leads for your business (and some mistakes to avoid too).

Josh Turner started a company called LinkedSelling to help business owners harness the power of LinkedIn. Josh shares tons of practical and actionable today, but we also talk about how he saw this opportunity and got started creating a business around LinkedIn. Join us for this conversation so that you can use LinkedIn to build relationships with those people that can build your business.

In this episode, here’s what we’ll cover:

• Who is generating consistent results on LinkedIn and how are they doing it?
• How to create a profile that reaches your target market.
• Who should leverage LinkedIn’s ad platform?
• Thought leaders: how should you use LinkedIn?
• Sponsored updates: what are they and how can you use them?
• A personal page, a company page or a group: when to use each of them.
• What’s the #1 LinkedIn profile mistake?
• How to proactively utilize LinkedIn, according to Josh.

Josh’s Target Audience: Josh’s target market is businesses who want to generate leads with LinkedIn and they do it in one of two ways: either these businesses allow Josh’s company to do it entirely for them or they attend Josh’s company’s LinkedIn University so they can learn to do it on their own.  

Josh began using LinkedIn in 2006 when he was the CFO of a construction and manufacturing company. He saw the potential for business development and so he learned how to use it. In 2009 his same company was hit hard economically, and was forced to shut its doors. Since he had been dying to go out and do his own thing,  that’s exactly what he did.  

Initially he was a freelance CFO and worked with small businesses who wanted to outsource their finance needs. One of the ways he grew his client base was through LinkedIn.

His light bulb moment came a few years later in 2011. A couple of his clients asked if he’d do for them what he’d been doing for himself on LinkedIn. Josh realized not many others knew how to do LinkedIn the right way, he saw the opportunity and seized it. 

It didn’t take long for his business to explode! Today they have clients all over the world in different industries and different countries. His team of 10 in St. Louis, Missouri helps their clients generate leads online,  primarily through LinkedIn, webinars, email. 

In this episode, Josh graciously shared his wealth of LinkedIn knowledge on everything from how to create a plan for connecting and marketing on LinkedIn to who should be using the platform and how to fully utilize all it has to offer. Josh also explains the difference between reactive and proactive use on LinkedIn and why being consistent is so important.

LinkedIn is just one of the marketing tools you should have at the ready and Josh gave us a full briefing on some of the basics to get you started!

Practical & Actionable: (26:01)

Josh’s practical and actionable advice for a business leader looking to grow their company using LinkedIn, you need to look at who are the prospects you are trying to reach, then do some research. Where can those prospects be found? And how can you start reaching them and then start developing some campaigns with a clear plan for the activity you’re going to be executing on a daily basis.

And then start doing it. Keep track of what you’re doing, so you can see the results of what’s working and what’s not working. And then start doing more of what’s working. If you do that and stick with it, you’re bound to get some solid results.