Small Business

Tips for growing your business using LinkedIn Groups:

1) “When you’re running your own group, moderate your posts,” Hueber says. “Then you can make sure discussions stay on track and are providing value to members.”

2) “Post content you’ve created, like blog posts or articles, in your groups,” Hueber says. Not only does this help showcase your knowledge, it can help draw traffic to your profile or Company Page on LinkedIn.

3) “Tone down the hard sell for your business,” Hueber advises. Whether you’re sharing information in your own group or other groups, obvious shilling will be frowned upon by group members. “If you share compelling content, it will win you more attention than sending a message that looks like spam,” she says.

4) “Share your group posts on other social media,” Hueber says. For example, share LinkedIn Group posts on Twitter to help bring new people to the group.

5) “Stay in touch with group members with weekly announcements,” she suggests. “When you run a group, LinkedIn lets you send members a message once a week – that’s the perfect opportunity to offer up your thought leadership.”

When you’re growing a business, you need to go where your clients are, says Christine Hueber, who provides advice to small businesses seeking better results for their social media marketing. As a longtime marketing expert, Hueber always has her eyes open for new ways to bring her business in front of a wider audience. Here’s how she used LinkedIn to raise awareness of her social marketing expertise, winning new clients in the process.

Putting social media to work for business development

Hueber spent the early part of her career as a marketer for companies like KPMG Peat Marwick, Citibank, and Charles Schwab, before deciding to strike out on her own as a marketing consultant. “I found great clients, but it was a lot of work and involved a lot of traveling,” says Hueber, who’s based in the San Francisco area. “It occurred to me that social media could help me get the word out about my expertise to a larger audience.”

Hueber discovered LinkedIn in 2006: “I decided to take the plunge and create a profile,” she says. “As the economy became more challenging, I started taking a closer look at the social media platforms I was using, like LinkedIn, to see if I could market my business in a more strategic way.”

Member Success Story

Winning new clients with LinkedIn Groups

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By taking part in group discussions, and by posting links to useful articles or blog posts she’s created, Hueber can expose potential clients to her expertise and services. “If group members read my articles, they’ll often be interested enough to go to my website,” she says.

As Hueber keeps up a steady stream of discussions and valuable information-sharing on LinkedIn, she’s found that new clients come to her – which means she doesn’t need to do as much outbound marketing as she did when she started her business. Says Hueber, “It’s magical – out of the millions of LinkedIn members, the right ones find me in groups, schedule a consultation with me, and become clients.”

Hueber’s typical clients, she says, are entrepreneurs – and since they often tend to embrace LinkedIn, she knew her desired audience was there. Getting their attention, however, was the challenge. “As I spent time on LinkedIn and watched what other people were doing to increase the visibility of their businesses, I saw what they had in common – they often had their own LinkedIn Groups, or they were active in other groups,” Hueber says.

Building “mini-communities” with LinkedIn Groups

Hueber started her own group, Social Media and Marketing Results, on using social media to energize sales. “To me, creating my own mini-community with a group was the best way to position myself as a thought leader,” Hueber says. “It was a smart way to build up my business in an attention- getting but low-key way.”

Hueber invited her LinkedIn contacts to join her group, and began engaging group members by starting up discussions and answering group member questions. “When you make your group a resource for information, people will share what they’ve learned with their connections,” Hueber says. “So it’s important that you keep the conversations going – it means more people will learn about your group and your expertise.”

As Hueber got her own LinkedIn group up and running, she also joined other groups related to marketing, social media, and small business. “I join the groups where my ideal clients are, like small business owners and entrepreneurs,” Hueber says.

“Taking part in group discussions on LinkedIn helps you quickly establish yourself as an expert and a trusted partner to other professionals. It’s an effective way to get new business without resorting to a hard sell.”

Christine HueberMarketing ExpertChristineHueber.com Marketing