Linkedin Offers Huge ROI for Small Business Owners, Says Business Marketing Expert

Sept. 9, 2012 - PRLog -- Small business owners looking for free online advice can find a treasure trove of marketing ideas from marketing expert Randy Kirk at either of his two blogs:  googleplaceshelp.blogspot.com or help4smallbusiness.blogspot.com.  Over the course of the last two months Kirk has produced over 60 posts with detailed marketing approaches that will be useful for retailers, service providers, importers, wholesalers, and manufacturers, whether local or even international.

Starting on September 7, 2012, Kirk started a series on how to set up Linkedin that includes posts on:

    1.  How to set up your profile on Linkedin
    2.  How to get connections on Linkedin
    3.  How to get recommendations on Linkedin
    4.  How to set up your company page on Linkedin
    5.  How to set up a product page on Linkedin

Kirk says that while you may end up spending 20 or 30 hours completing these five tasks, that, "Your time investment will almost certainly pay off.  Much of that set up time can be done by staff or in front of your TV watching football."

Kirk, who has started 34 businesses and written 8 business books in his career, senses that Linkedin has been a sleeper that is going to break out big time.  "You can watch the company stock of Linked in that has doubled since its IPO while Facebook is in half.  That might tell you something.  Or you might check out your updates and see just how much activity there is with your connections connecting and reconnecting.  All of that activity has seen Linkedin score 160 million members, all of whom are almost certainly real people.  Compare that to Twitter at 140 million which may be half fake."

Linkedin has generated many new tools, and third parties are now also providing apps and helps.  Kirk notes, "just giving and getting testimonials is worth your time.  There is nothing else anywhere that provides such an easy way to generate great recommendations for you and your business."

Since the beginning, Linkedin has been able to claim that their members were a cut above other social media sites.  The demographics tend towards men, but the big difference is in the income, with almost half their members earning over $100,000 per year.  "How else are you going to reach that demo for free," asks Kirk.  "Linkedin offers some paid products, too.  I'll admit that I have not yet tried any of them.  The free ones work just fine."

Kirk lives in Los Angeles where he does marketing consulting for small businesses