Week 11 Part A - Marketing with Twitter, TikTok, Google for Business, LinkedIn, and more

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Hi readers, welcome back! Today I’ll be exploring LinkedIn as a viable option for customer outreach. Before I returned to school, I worked in China. I didn’t see LinkedIn in use at all, although now, I see my friends from there on LinkedIn, so it must not be blocked (yet.) It gets very real when you can’t access Google, YouTube, and most other social media. And when your only English Interface search engine is bing. Like a world without color.

Rather, in China we – foreigners and locals alike – used Alipay and WeChat social media apps for everything. Even people who collected handouts did so through a lanyard QR code that passersby could scan and donate. These two apps are locally developed and combine social media platforms and p2p payment systems. I paid rent, bills, entertainment, groceries, friends, online shopping, hotels, trains, vacations and flights with them. I even put my WeChat QR code on my resume (and got tons of hits back.) They were swiss army knives as far as apps go. All that to say, I’m excited to see what LinkedIn can do!

It seems that here in the U.S., LinkedIn is a similar staple for business networking. I’m a budding LinkedIn user but I’ve been unabashedly asking to follow every tech industry teacher or speaker that I meet, so that I’ll have a big professional network when I finish my next degree. It’s also fantastic to see that my contacts from the U.K. are using LinkedIn, and we have shared connections, which broadens my reach. All over the world, it’s who we know, not what we know that gets us the interview and sometimes the job.

Another reason to join LinkedIn is that we get the advantage of checking out a company before applying. Super-secret spy style, alliteratively speaking. We can follow what the company posts to learn more about their company culture and if it’s what we might like. We can also try to sidle up to their employees, and hack them inquire about their company. Ethically, of course. As students we’re in a special position to let people know that we are interested in their project/work and that we would like to follow them on LinkedIn. It hasn’t failed me yet. It’s only weird if we make it weird by being disingenuous.

Another thing to consider is that LinkedIn is secure. As secure as major social media can offer. Equally importantly, they’re transparent about how and under what conditions our information is shared. And users have options as to how much they want to share – to an extent. Considering the flexibility and utility of LinkedIn, and that it’s privacy policies in the clear, it is a great choice for a social media.

As a business, we can also benefit by having a broader reach to talent. Businesses that show off a great company culture and advertise when hiring get an impressive ROI for that effort. The only problem we end up with is having too many applicants, which isn’t really a problem because it allows us to choose from the greatest aptitudes and fit. Interestingly, every business owner that I’ve talked to considers “fit” to be the deciding factor. LinkedIn also helps with this, because as we post for our business, we’re broadcasting our culture, and attracting those with similar mindsets.