LinkedIn, the professional network, is probably the most under-utilised social media platform.
This is according to Zibusiso Mkhwanazi, CEO of Avatar Digital, a digital marketing agency.
Speaking at the ITWeb Social Media Summit last week, Mkhwanazi discussed the benefits of fully utilising LinkedIn.
Mkhwanazi said that 71% of LinkedIn users use the platform to network, 69% to learn what their colleagues are doing, 54% to stay up to date with industry trends, and only 13% to maintain relationships.
The platform can be used to generate sales leads and lends itself to targeted campaigns, said Mkhwanazi. He explained that LinkedIn's user profiles provide information about who they are and also what work they do and have done in the past.
According to Mkhwanazi, LinkedIn users should also use the platform to share content that is relevant to their industries. The platform can be used to drive traffic to a user's blog, for example, if the user posts links to these blogs on the network, Mkhwanazi added.
He also suggested that the main benefit of social media is that it allows users to engage and share relevant content.
Finally, Mkhwanazi said LinkedIn users should ask people who they have worked with to give them recommendations. He pointed out that the more recommendations a person has on LinkedIn, the more likely they are to come up in search results when potential employers use the site to perform searches.
Share