It’s been just about eighteen days since I started to actively market on LinkedIn. Here’s what I did; I joined about a dozen professional groups, introduced myself to four or five of these groups as a whole, and, then, have followed up by sending a short personal letter of introduction to lots and lots of individuals with an invitation to visit http://www.aSiteAboutSomething.com. In all instances, I’ve asked people to share the site address with anyone they thought might be interested in my work or the site.
So, what kind of results am I getting? Actually, fantastic. In eighteen days, I’ve built a network of 260 people: a diverse group of musicians, producers, writers, publishers, agents, SEO and IT professionals, online marketers, etc., who’ve been exceedingly generous with their time to visit the site and offer feedback—some of it very useful. I’ve had two tentative offers to use my music in video/film projects and a connection with an internet radio station. I’ve been approached by a record label, and I’ve made phone or Skype contact with quite a few of people who I believe will become good friends and colleagues. The site itself received its largest numbers of visits yet this month: 3579 according to Awstats or just under 4900 according to Webalizer. (I’ve always used Awstats, because it’s the lower number.) But the bottom line is we had just under a thousand more visits this month than last.
Pebble-in-pond marketing is a term I heard online. In essence, it’s the effect of tossing a pebble into a pond and creating ripples that fan out. A lot of the people I’m connecting with on LinkedIn know people who know people who might be interested in what I’m doing. So if they send my site to those people, that’s far more likely to result in visits from people already predisposed to what I do.
You’ll have to draw your own conclusions about whether LinkedIn marketing is a good way to go for you. But for someone like me who’s trying to build an audience using a website as the primary vehicle, it’s terrific. On top of that, you meet some really nice people.
Tags: building collaborative professional networks, marketing on LinkedIn, pebble-in-pond marketing, professional networks