LinkedIn Step 4 of 23 Steps to Conquer Social Media 2012

Watch this video or read my explanation of why LinkedIn is a power house for Social Media

Hi, this is Wayne Mansfield. Welcome back to my 23 Steps to Conquer  Social Media 2012.

We're going to talk in this session about one of the most popular and one of the first social media applications to go to the stock market, and get a real value in the real world. Of course we're talking about LinkedIn. 

I love LinkedIn, I've been involved in it for maybe six or seven years. I remember getting an email from Reid Hoffman, when he was getting ready to list on the stock market in the U.S. saying, "Thanks for being an early adopter." I think I was in the first 100,000 or less than that.

So I've been doing this for a little while.

In simple terms, what LinkedIn is a business version of what you probably are aware of as Facebook. It has some great advantages for you if you're in business, in that it's pretty difficult to complete all the details to get a profile, it is then also difficult to get involved in people's networks.

One of the really clever things, though, is it shows you how many people you might be linked up to if your message gets passed on. So in my case, even though most people think that the limit for number of first-level contacts is 3,000, once you get to 3,000 you write to LinkedIn and as long as you haven't bent any of the rules, their terms of service, those sorts of things, they will allocate you another 500 opportunities to link with people.

Now in my case, my first level is 8,600 people. Now with that, I have access to all the details they have cared to share with LinkedIn, and that includes things like their positions in companies, the companies they work for, their real address, their email address, their phone number. All that sort of information's a very, very powerful database that it creates. It shows me that my 8,600 on level 3 of LinkedIn, reach an amazing 21.2 million people.

So in simple terms, I have the ability to influence people on a bigger scale, than merely somebody influencing the people of Australia that has 22 million people. Obviously my people in LinkedIn are spread across the globe.

What I've been able to do within LinkedIn is join or create, because you can do it yourself, groups of people with similar interest. So our business operates in a number of places in the world, so I'm party to a group of people in India in the training organizations. I'm a member of a group called the GCC, which is Middle-Eastern/North African countries, again,in the training area.

We're expanding our business to the U.K. from October on, so I'll join groups of people who are in business education in the U.K. Then, what you have is automatically a group of people who are keen to help you, by sharing really great ideas. In the sharing community, it's not long before, as you share, people will answer your questions and point you in the right direction.

LinkedIn listed on the stock market recently, and has a value of maybe $10 billion, which is really clever. It's used mostly by people looking for people to come and work for them, so you need to be aware that you'll get some direct contacts, and maybe you want them, some direct contacts for jobs, and maybe you want them, some contacts for jobs and things like that.

Surprisingly, out of the blue, just recently, LinkedIn has released an iPad and an iPhone application. I'm sure that it also goes across to Android, but I haven't activated my Android application for this.

It is a spectacularly good application. If you are interested in talking with your groups, you can do it on your iPad or your iPhone. So LinkedIn is a powerful place, within the social media marketplace. It is one of the areas that in Empire Avenue, is scored highly for your activity within what's going on in your social media planning. So if you're not already part of LinkedIn, become part of it. If you are, update your profile, because it is optimized for search engine optimization.

Also, go about asking people to join. There are a number of groups called "LinkedIn open networkers". [LIONS]

That means they will accept every invitation to join their group. I believe in the power of the weak link. So the bigger your network here in LinkedIn, or in any of the other social media applications, the more likely you are to find the unusual or the brilliant, or the game-changing idea, rather than if you have five or ten people in your LinkedIn first line circle.

So LinkedIn is step four in your total   Conquer  Social Media 2012. Look forward to seeing you again when we talk about some other things.