LinkedIn is often the ugly step child to Facebook when it comes to where many businesses focus their limited social media efforts, but it has many features that businesses can use including answering questions to build brand authority.
For those not familiar with LinkedIn answers it’s an online forum where people can post, respond and read answers to questions that pertain to them. Most questions and therefore answers are generally business focused and are segmented by industry making it easy for businesses to find questions and answers that relate to them.
Answering questions is a great way to share your expertise with those who are looking for it. It’s also a great way to develop not only you, but your company as thought leaders in your industry. By creating a level of expertise and knowledge, other companies and people will begin looking to you because they know you have the answer. Of course the end goal can also be a soft sale with a focus on lead generation.
Top 5 Ways to use LinkedIn Answers for Businesses
- Learn what questions your prospective clients have and use this to generate content for a blog post, videos, or email content
- Identify and connect with key influencers who are asking questions to help build your network
- Develop yourself as a thought leader in the industry by providing helpful answers without the hard sell
- Set your company up as a resource for your clients and prospects without the hard sell so they come to you organically
- Build brand awareness and generate leads
LinkedIn answers provide a great opportunity to engage with your market during their initial research phase and begin lead nurturing and build brand awareness.
Get practical, hands-on advice to generate more business from LinkedIn this December at the Social Media Strategy Summit (December 5-7). During his hands-on workshop, "Leveraging LinkedIn to Grow Your Business", Kent Lewis will share how to take advantage of LinkedIn groups, company pages, and ads to generate leads and build your brand. See Full Agenda.
YThanks for the reminder! Answering questions was the first place I started to build a following on LinkedIn. Sometimes I forget to participate!