Creating B2C Connections on LinkedIn: Strategies to Help You Build Your Business Network and Grow Your Customer Base

As a business owner, entrepreneur, someone who runs a company, and salesperson (yes, you are all those things if you run your own business!) you know how important it is to create meaningful connections within a social network and access those relationships regularly!

Whether you’re looking for potential customers or trying to keep in touch with existing ones, social media can be a great tool to help you do just that. And when it comes to growing your connections and keeping that brand awareness high, there’s no better platform than LinkedIn!

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network, and it’s a valuable tool for businesses of all sizes. If you've been around here, then you've heard me say (or write) it before!

There are SO many different ways it can lead you to connect with other professionals, potential customers, build relationships with existing ones, and connect you to new leads. Let's fill that pipeline fam! With almost 900M users worldwide, LinkedIn is an invaluable tool for connecting with people from all over and expanding your network...FAST.

If you’re new to LinkedIn or just looking for ways to strengthen your connections, meet other professionals and gain all the benefits the platform has to offer, there are 3 tips that can help you build your network and grow your customer base:

Create an Engaging LinkedIn Profile

Your profile is the most important aspect of your presence on LinkedIn. Make sure it’s professional, accurate, and up-to-date. Think of this as the sales page for YOU and how you or your product serves your customers. This is where everything you do on the platform is also captured: your personal brand, your content, who you've engaged with and when, your personality through how you write your summary section, who you want to be known for in your headline, and how your previous experience backs up just how qualified you are to serve your clients.

As sales professionals (since that's what we all are), it's important to fully utilize this aspect of the LinkedIn platform.

If creating and optimizing your LinkedIn profile feels like a daunting task and you just want someone to do it for you, check out the Done-For-You services I offer HERE.

Create Posts Frequently

If you want people to remember your business and stay engaged, you need to keep your presence active...aka build your personal brand (or personal presence as I like to say). Post interesting industry-related content regularly and respond to comments quickly in order to build trust with potential customers. Also, sharing content about you personally is also helpful for your audience there to see you as a real human.

For example, maybe you ran into someone from high school at the grocery store and while you may have thought you'd rather avoid them because - well, you get it, it's just that feeling we all have - you smiled, waved, and said hello. From doing that, you learned something great, an insight, just felt good to reconnect for a quick minute, with that old friend...and that's what you post about on LinkedIn.

At this point, personal works. It shows you're real and members connect with that. To me, this is the foundation of your personal branding or personal presence.

There are tons of tools out there to help you create content for the platform and tools that can help you schedule as well. If you need help with content creation on LinkedIn...I gotchu. Check out my FREE LinkedIn Content Playbook HERE.

Engage, engage engage!

The LinkedIn platform loves when members engage with one another. When I say networking on the platform this is what I mean. You're out there, leaving thoughtful comments and insights, making yourself known to other members. According to LinkedIn data, members who engage with 10+ posts per week can expect to see a 5x increase in profile views. What that means to you is more eyes on what you do and who you are. SEE! That's the power of engagement! Seriously, don't be shy and take that extra step for success, my friend!

Reach Out Directly

Your LinkedIn connections are there for you to build relationships with! While LinkedIn's inbox and messaging system may give you feelings of ickiness if you've only associated the inbox with spammers, (I blame you) it is a great way to reach out directly to your network with a personalized message, text, or voice note! When you send personalized messages to members checking in, it creates intentional conversation. What that means to you is you now are opening up lines of communication and getting a deeper understanding of who they are and their needs. The real value is that you can start to build a relationship with someone directly. Being able to build quality relationships and create business opportunities within your network is what you want, isn't it?  Remember that conversations today could lead to opportunities and success tomorrow.

As a business owner and one of many LinkedIn members, the economic opportunity for you is endless. The ability you have to create a constant stream of relationships with other members, freely share insights with the community through your posts, and leverage the platform to create success is an invaluable investment.

By doing these 4 things, LinkedIn gives you the opportunity to connect with current customers, connect with future customers, and connect with other like-minded professionals. There are so many ways to use this powerful business tool to your advantage in fostering relationships, growing your customer base, and ultimately increasing your bottom line.

I hope to see you become one of LinkedIn's Top Voices soon!

Linds