There’s a lot of value in using LinkedIn and I’m still surprised at how under-utilised it is by a lot of small business owners.

In this article I’ll share a real-life example of how a simple shift in approach helped one of my clients grow their business using LinkedIn.

I’ve been asked not to share specific details regarding the name of my client and their business, but they are happy for me to tell the story of how I helped them.

A lot of people purely focus on their own LinkedIn connections when trying to get more work, but the example below illustrates why it pays to cast your net a bit wider.

It’s all about introductions

As I said in the title, this really is a simple tip, but not one that’s widely used. My client was attending a lot of offline networking events then connecting online with people they’d met.

My advice was once they’d got to know and like someone, offer to introduce them to any of their LinkedIn contacts they would like to speak to. In most cases, people will reciprocate this offer which suddenly opens up a whole host of potential new connections.

In my experience people are happy to make introductions and in this particular case it worked a treat. My client had met a person a few times at a regular networking event and made the offer I described above. The person returned the favour and it just so happened that when my client looked at the connections of their new contact, there was one person they really wanted to speak to.

Knowing me, knowing you

The introduction was gladly made between my client and the person they wanted to speak to. They arranged an initial meeting and quickly hit it off. The result is that my client has landed orders in excess of £3,000 in the past month alone from the person they were introduced to. All it cost them was a kind offer to one of their contacts which was then reciprocated.

If that sounds like the kind of ROI that you’d like in your business, why not give this simple LinkedIn tip a try?

If you liked this article you should also read: LinkedIn company pages: 5 good reasons to set one up

Image credit: spekulator

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 12th, 2012 at 8:35 am and is filed under Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.