Here is an interesting infographic based on research of just over 300 people in the US using LinkedIn conducted by Wayne Breitbarth.

In summary:

- 90.9% of those surveyed use the free version of LinkedIn

- 51.6% of respondents had 200 or less contacts

- 5.1% of participants had over 1000 conntection on LinkedIn

- 54.7% of respondents were members of 10 or more groups

- and 10.5% of people were spending more than 8 hours a week on LinkedIn.

When asked how LinkedIn had helped, respondents to the survey said:

- 76.9% found it helpful for research about companies and people

- 68.6% commented that it was helpful to reconect with people

- 49.7% stated that it helped them buld new relationships with people who may influence new customers

- 44.5% said it helped them be more effective in face to face networking

- and 38.3% said LinkedIn helped them uncover potential opportunities.

One of the first things you must do when establishing your network on LinkedIn is to ensure that your profile is complete. LinkedIn recently changed it's approach to how they calculate 100% completeness. If you LinkedIn profile is not yet 100% complete read this recent article about the eight simple steps you need to take to increase your visibility on LinkedIn.

If you are looking for training on how to use LinkedIn in your small business I am facilitating two workshops in Dublin this Spring hosted by Dublin City Enterprise Board and I can promise you they are content rich LinkedIn training programmes:

3 April 2012 - Getting Started With LinkedIn hosted by Dublin City Enterprise Board

29 May 2012 - LinkedIn for Leads and Profits, hosted by Dublin City Enterprise Board

 

 

 

 

 

For fun here is an infographic about LinkedIn - I don't personally agree with the comment about connecting to everyone.

LinkedIn and social networking generally in my opinion, is not a 'numbers game' in terms of the size of your network.

I personally subscribe to the view that you should nurture your network and that you define who you want to connect with based on your professional goals.

 

Have you analysed your most effective source for inbound leads to your business from social networks?

Recent research by Pardot a marketing automation company found that for B2B companies then LinkedIn was the social networking platform that delivered the greatest results.

Lead generation was ranked as follows:

• LinkedIn 32 percent
• Bblogging 27 percent
• Twitter 15 percent.

Remember to use this as a guide rahter than an absolute - the key action for us all is to learn which social networks are delivering the results we are looking for and enhancing our effectiveness - that might be lead generation for some others it could be brand awareness.

This week LinkedIn in Ireland broke the 600,000 barrier - it has seen dramatic growth in the last number of months. The estimated number of members in Ireland is 600,799 as at today.

Once you have become a member of LinkedIn what next though? How do you get the most out of LinkedIn for your business especially if you are a sales professional.

I am delighted that next week I will be running my 'LinkedIn for Sales Professionals' programme in association with the Europa Academy.

Read on below and you will find out how to book your place AND get access to a workshop with Bill Cullen, Jackie Lavin and Brian Purcell of the Irish Apprentice.

Date: Tuesday 6th December 2011

Venue: Europa Academy, Balheary Road, Swords, Co Dublin

Investment: €195.00 per person (10% discount for bookings over 4 people) - Group Bookings of 4 or more receive a 10% discount.

Duration: 9.00am – 1.00pm

Bonus Workshop: By booking your place on the LinkedIn for Sales Professionals programme you also get FREE access to the programme with the Apprentice Ireland team of Bill Cullen, Jackie Lavin and Brian Purcell called '100 Ways To Success In Tough Times'.

Who the Programme Is Relevant For

This workshop is relevant for sales professionals and business leaders who want to discover how to integrate and enhance their use of LinkedIn into their business development and overall sales activities. 

The programme is ideally suited to professionals who are unfamiliar with LinkedIn or have established a profile on LinkedIn but are unsure how to integrate their presence on LinkedIn with business development.

Programme Curriculum

The programme will cover the four point ‘LinkedIn for Business Growth’ programme developed by myself:

Profit From A Professional Profile – how to build a magnetic personal profile so that you attract more business opportunities and qualified leads

Contact Conversion Secrets – how to build your network of strategic contacts and convert those contacts to appointments

LinkedIn Advanced Strategies – how to leverage LinkedIn Groups, LinkedIn Answers, LinkedIn Polls and LinkedIn Company Pages

Building Brand Buzz – how to integrate your LinkedIn profile with your online marketing and social media programme

Programme Preparation and Support

- Prior to attending the programme you will be invited to complete a confidential online questionnaire about your current experience of using LinkedIn in your business

- You will be required to have already established your profile online at LinkedIn.com

- If you wish to get the most out of the programme and update your LinkedIn profile in real time you will need to bring with you your own laptop which can connect to the Europa Academy’s wireless connection.

- You will be invited to an online webinar 30 days after the programme has taken place to support you in using LinkedIn in your business and embed your learning from the programme.

For more information or to book your place, please contact Peter Finnegan on 01 883 9212 or email him at peter@europaacademy.com.

I hope to see you there if you are looking to get more out of being a member on LinkedIn in 2012.

Lab42 recently surveyed 500 Americans who were registered LinkedIn users to discover how they utilized their profile and to see if they valued LinkedIn as a professional networking tool. The survey was conducted online via social networks from July 1 to July 5, 2011 among 500 social media users who are members of Linkedin. 

How frequently do you check into LinkedIn?

Performics, the performance marketing agency owned by Publicis Groupe, this week released results from “S-Net (The Impact of Social Media),” a report from ROI Research Inc. (www.roiresearch.com) sponsored by Performics.

According to the survey of 2,997 active social networkers, 59 percent of respondents said it is important to have a LinkedIn account, more than any other social network.

Furthermore, of the study respondents with an active LinkedIn account, 50 percent visit the site at least weekly and 20 percent visit the site at least daily.

While this new social media study shows the frequency of LinkedIn visits decreasing since the height of the recession in 2010 (67 percent weekly and 22 percent daily visits), the percentage of people who deem LinkedIn the most important social networking site jumped dramatically from 41 percent last year to 59 percent this year.

Photo credit - Marketing Charts

How are you spending the Summer? I always find it is a great time to take stock of my business so that I start back in September ready for the last part of the year and one of the things I always mae time for is some professional development.

If you have been considering using social networking in your business but have not found the time, why not join me for one of the social networking workshops I am delivering for the Digital Marketing Institute where we will be covering how to use Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter in your business. This is a perfect programme if you are just getting started with social networking.

The programme is a one day workshop from 9.30am-5pm and is taking place at the Chartered Accountants House, 47-49 Pearse Street, Dublin 2

Early bird tickets are available - the regular price is €197.00 (Early Bird €147.00, enter code DMI50EB on the checkout)

The workshop is running on three separate dates - Tuesday June 28, Wednesday July 27 and Thursday August 25.

 We will be exploring best practice case studies and covering:

- Establishing your goals for using social networking in your business so that you can track the return on investment

- How to use Twitter to attract more leads including:

• how to increase the awareness and visibility of your business
• best practice for promoting offers
• using Twitter to increase sales of your products and services

- How to use LinkedIn to strategically connect to influencers including:

• how to write a professional profile that will get you noticed
• the etiquette of building your network online
• building your online visibility with strategic contacts through participating in LinkedIn Groups
• developing your company profile on LinkedIn

- How to use Facebook to promote your businesses covering:

• developing a customised Facebook Page integrated into your overall marketing and sales plan
• running promotions that comply with Facebook guidelines
• how to get the most out of Facebook advertising
• promoting your events on Facebook
• exploring new opportunities to promote your business through Facebook Places and the forthcoming Facebook Deals
• how to increase engagement, lead generation and sales through Facebook

- How to integrate social media marketing into your marketing plans

So if you want to make sure that you are using social networking to support your business goals, why not join me for one of these three workshops.

comScore released a study ths week that reveals that the Dutch social networking market continues to grow strongly as sites like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin extend their respective footprints in the market.

comScore comments:

Despite the overall maturity of the Internet market in the Netherlands, the social networking category continues to advance, growing 18 percent to 11.5 million visitors in March 2011 (representing 96 percent of the online population). Hyves continues to hold the top position among social networking sites in the market with more than 7.6 million visitors in March, but Facebook is quickly gaining ground, surging 76 percent in the past year to nearly 6.6 million visitors. Twitter.com and Linkedin.com rank third and fourth, respectively, with more than 3 million visitors and each growing approximately 70 percent in the past year.

As for a comparison across the top 10 countries for LinkedIn and Twitter you will find these results of interest:

Yesterday I hosted a webinar about using LinkedIn to increase your visibility.

One recommendation I gave was that if you are goiung to make the changes to your LinkedIn profile as I suggested, you should turn off the activity updates which is hwere you let people know when you change your profile, make recommendations, or follow companie. You don't after all want to let people know about all the changes you are making.

To do this once you are logged into LinkedIn, at the top right of your screen click on 'your name' then on the drop down box that says 'settings'.

You will then see your privacy settings - click on 'Turn on/off your activity broadcasts'. Then adjust your profile. Of course if you want to boost your visibility on LinkedIn to your coneections, you will want to turn this back on again if you want your updates to be made visibile once you have made changes to your account on LinkedIn.

Remember you can post any questions you have about your LinkedIn profile and how to build your visibility and attract more leads on my Facebook Page.

If you are looking for more extensive training you can join me for a half day workshop I am delivering for the 'Sales Institute of Ireland on 17 May 2011, ‘LinkedIn for Sales Professionals‘.

If you subscribe to my newsletter Biz Growth Express you will be able to learn how to join me on the live workshop at a preferential rate.