Defining Your LinkedIn Goals

Now that you know some of the opportunities that LinkedIn offers to you, it’s time to define your goals for using it. What do you want to get out of your LinkedIn activities? Do you want to establish your expertise in your industry? Do you want to connect with online influencers to spread the word about your business? Do you want to build relationships with customers? Do you want to find a new job?

If you don’t define your reason for using LinkedIn, then your efforts won’t drive real results. Don’t get overwhelmed or flustered because LinkedIn is an online tool. Just as you have goals when you launch a new marketing campaign or attend conferences, trade shows, or networking and sales events, you should have goals when you use LinkedIn. You can’t define your strategy and plan to reach those goals if you don’t know what they are, or can’t refer back to them to make sure your activities are leading you in the right direction.

Remember, consumers and the online space change quickly, and your goals won’t be set in stone. You need to be flexible and modify your goals to adapt to changing consumers, tools, and environments. However, if you don’t have goals written down to start with, you’ll always feel like you’re just treading water rather than moving forward toward the finish line you establish.

Long-Term Goals

Most importantly, you need to identify your long-term goals. After all, the power of LinkedIn comes from its ability to build your business and personal brand for long-term, sustainable, and organic growth. Leverage that power by identifying your long-term stretch goals. For example, if your long-term goal is to boost sales of a specific product, quantify that goal both in terms of time frame and sales volume. On the other hand, if your goal is to raise awareness of a new service, quantify it through incoming links, shared links, and so on.

These are the types of things you’ll learn how to do throughout this book. Right now, you need to look to the future and determine what you want to get out of the time and energy you devote to LinkedIn.

Short-Term Goals

Once you know where you want to go as defined by your long-term goals, you need to determine short-term goals to ensure you’re on the right path to achieving those long-term goals. There is no point in establishing a three-year goal if you aren’t going to support it with short-term goals to ensure you have a chance to meet it.

At the very least, set up quarterly goals that tie into your long-term goals. Your short-term goals depend greatly on your budget and the manpower resources you can devote to LinkedIn. While LinkedIn is easy to use and can be free, it does take time. Don’t instantly discourage yourself by setting short-term goals that you can’t realistically meet based on the time you can commit to LinkedIn. Don’t be discouraged if once you start, you realize LinkedIn takes a bit more time and effort than you originally thought and you have to modify your short-term goals.

Bottom line: Every extra minute you can spend on LinkedIn can only help you reach your business or personal brand goals. However you can effect positive change to your business or personal brand even with just a small amount of time dedicated to LinkedIn each day. Remember, success comes from brand consistency, persistence, and restraint. If you commit to the long haul, you can’t fail!

The Least You Need to Know

• People around the world are using LinkedIn for a wide variety of professional and business networking and marketing purposes.

• There are a variety of free LinkedIn features that you can use to develop relationships, establish your expertise, and build your business and personal brands.

• Both individuals and companies can have a presence on LinkedIn.

• LinkedIn should be part of your long-term brand-building strategy.