With 40 million active users who are their company’s decision makers, LinkedIn is one of the most effective B2B engagement tools available to entrepreneurs. But how can distributors successfully tap into the social platform to ultimately win deals?    

According to Jay Busselle, in his Education Day session “Increase Your Visibility & Leads Through LinkedIn” at the ASI Show Orlando, there are three specific things businesspeople need to do on the site. They are: be visible, offer great content and search with a purpose. 

“Be different by design,” said Busselle, an industry trainer and the marketing director for Equipment Zone, a reseller of various printers. “Document the value you bring and problems you solve and you’re instantly unique on LinkedIn.”

To be visible, the most important step to take is to optimize your profile, according to Busselle. You can do that by using a branded background or header at the top; including a current profile photo; making your headline interesting and not using the default, which is your job title; linking to multimedia; and getting recommendations, first from colleagues and then from clients.

The key is “to explain why you’re an expert. Tell your story because that captures attention. Remember that LinkedIn is your presentation,” Busselle said. 

Strong LinkedIn content can come from several sources, Busselle told the audience. For example, you can “summarize a blog from your website and link back to it,” he said, “or share news about you and your company.” Some other ideas: offer quick helpful tips that resonate with busy businesspeople; post longer how-to articles that demonstrate your expertise; and provide videos that explain why you’re different.

The next step to LinkedIn success is to conduct targeted searches to find qualified prospects. The goal is “to go hyper-local and focus on second connections,” said Busselle. First connections you probably already have a business relationship with, while going after third connections “is just overload,” Busselle said. “The second connections are where the big fish are for me.”

Busselle offered up two search strategies. The first he called a game of peek-a-boo. This is where you search for a job title like “marketing director” in a targeted location like Phoenix. After getting the results, you click on the profiles of prospects you’re interested in doing business with – Busselle recommends 20 or 30 people a day. The way LinkedIn is set up, these prospects will know you checked out their profile. If they then click on your profile, you’ll know it as well and you can assume they have some interest, Busselle said. You should then make a personal invite. “Send an original message that shows off your personality and ask to connect.”

A second approach involves leveraging your connections to make new ones. If a prospect knows someone you’re connected to, ask your connection to make an introduction. “About 80% of the time after an introduction, you’ll get that connection,” Busselle said. From there, he added, “don’t start by talking products. Instead practice social selling” and develop a rapport before launching into deal-making mode.