Building Your Business with Linkedin Tip#3 - Share Your Knowledge

Regardless of your industry, the basic tenets of Marketing 2.0 are the same. Share your knowledge and content with the online community with the intent of establishing yourself as a thought leader in your industry. Few tools on Linkedin will help you establish professional credibility like answering the questions of other users. If you find yourself here and you have not read Tip #1 or Tip #2, I would suggest you take five minutes to read both of those and then you will be up to speed with what we have discussed to this point.

If you recall, we talked about joining groups and being active in them in an effort to develop an online community. It is important that you not get that tip confused with this one. This tip revolves 100% around you seeking out questions and answering them. The following points are all important, so pay careful attention:

• Set up your home page with a section that displays the questions pertaining to your primary business. There are a ton of different categories on the questions section, so make sure you spend time to find the one that most accurately aligns with what you do.
• Each time you log into Linkedin, make sure to scan this section to see if there are questions that you are able to answer. If so, take the time to answer the user's question(s).
• At least once a week (preferrably twice) go into the questions section and look at other categories that pertain to your area of expertise. You are only able to display one category on your home page, so you will have to manually search for the other questions. This is definitely worth your while.

Now that you have set up your home page, are checking it when you log in and are searching the general questions at least once a week, let's talk about what a good answer looks like!

• A good answer is concise and to the point. Give the person asking the question enough information to understand the topic but don't bore them with the details. If they want more information and you have gained their trust with your initial answer, they will reach out to you directly for more information.
• Include links to your blog or other articles that support your position. By including links, you are not taking up a bunch of space with your answer. If the user that asked the question is interested what you have had to say, allow them to make the decision to click on the links to dive deeper. Remember, by including links in your answer, you help your answer show up higher in Google searches on the same topic.
• Most importantly, a good answer answers the question the user asked. I can't tell you how many times I get disgusted by other people who have answered a question before me. They are self-promoting their business, they are answering a whole host of questions that have nothing to do with what was asked or they just put their name and phone number for the other user to call them. Not good! Remember, this is a forum to answer, not to advertise. Your advertisement is your great answer that fulfills the needs of the person who asked it. Anything other than that is a recipe for Linkedin disaster.

Why do I answer questions? What are my goals?

• First and foremost, your goal is to establish PROFESSIONAL CREDIBILITY. By spending the time to give a concise, well thought out answer with supporting links you are setting yourself up to be awarded a "BEST ANSWER" for that topic. The person who asks the question chooses the best answer to the question they asked. This award shows up on your profile. The more best answers you have, the more professional credibility you get.
• Second, based on the number of best answers you have, Linkedin will give you an Expert Rating. The expert rating will help you show up at the top of the list when people are looking for answers within certain topics. When they go into the questions forum, it will show a list of experts for that specific topic. You want to be at the top of that list.
• Third, it will help you show up higher in Google searches when people type in your topic as search words. The more questions you answer with links attached, the better your chances for showing up in a google search.
• Finally, it helps you show up in Linkedin searches. People will often type in searchwords looking for people in your occupation. Again, you want to be at the top of this list. The more you participate, give good quality answers and are subsequently awarded Best Answer status, the higher you will show up on this list.

If you would like to see how Best Answers appear on my profile and have helped me out, please feel free to connect with me on Linkedin by clicking here. There is a lot of useful information on my profile and by being connected, you will have access to everything. It will also help you to see the tips I write about in an actual profile.

 David R. Carothers, CIC, CRM is a Risk Management Consultant and Licensed Insurance Agent with Praxiom based in Tampa, FL. To contact David Directly, please email him at drc@praxiom-rm.com