Book Review: Maximizing LinkedIn for Sales and Social Media Marketing by Neal Schaffer

I thought I knew everything about LinkedIn. I’ve been using it for years. But after reading Neal Schaffer’s Maximizing LinkedIn for Sales and Social Media Marketing, I realized there is a lot more to learn, especially since there are more than 100 million members including executives from Fortune 500 companies on the site.

Laced with case studies, Schaffer’s new book is certainly worth the $21.95 retail price and then some.

For starters, I didn’t realize the importance of a 100% completed LinkedIn profile for search engine optimization reasons. One of the tips he wrote about was to make sure that all of your employees are on LinkedIn and that they use the same description about your company. He feels that the more data and key words added to your profile will help maximize your SEO when people are searching for you.

The search engine on LinkedIn is incredible. You can actually segment your market and if you are a premium user (paid-user), you can even send individualized notes through InMail to your target market. Schaffer says that if you do a search, make sure to go back every day and check to see how many new people have joined.

He tells the reader that it’s not so much about the first-degree connections; it’s the second-degree that are “most critical to your network.” The other interesting things that he says is that it’s imperative to get involved in groups and answers.

I remember when I opened my Rochester office, I opened a networking group on LinkedIn and every time I was in town, I would send out notices to my group members. As a result, we would have at least 10 people sitting around a table chatting and networking. Although it didn’t directly lead to business, it helped me establish myself in the Rochester market.

According to Schaffer, there are more than 17 million people in groups and more than 1.5 million join one every day. Get involved in as many groups as possible; he suggests you join 50 groups. He tells the reader to make sure to send messages to people in the group who you are not connected to to make contact.

Answers is also a great way to get exposure and become an expert in the industry. Make sure to check it every day and if there is a question in your category answer it.

He talks a little bit about the importance of LinkedIn Today and how you can get up-to-date information on LinkedIn’s features and on social media.
Schaffer recommends having at least one status update a day and finds it unnecessary to link LinkedIn with Twitter. He talks about ways to enhance business development.

One of the questions I always get when I am speaking about any topic on social media is how do I find time to use these different sites. He suggests with LinkedIn in particular to go on every day, check feeds, answer questions and send inMails. It should take approximately an hour or so.

Maximizing LinkedIn for Sales and Social Media Marketing is a must-have tool for anyone who needs to develop business using LinkedIn.

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