How LinkedIn Answers Can Help You to Understand Your Customers
LinkedIn is a fantastic online resource for all those interested in learning from their peers. The networking site is growing every year and is now connected with professionals from over 200 countries. The great thing about LinkedIn is that it brings together millions of professionals from across the globe, creating a very useful resource if you are looking for specialist advice or feedback.
LinkedIn Answers
My favourite part of the site, and a useful section that enables you to build up connections with industry experts. You can ask questions which will be viewed and then answered by other members in a specific industry. This feature means you get a broad section of answers from various professionals and experts in your chosen field.
As with any social site, it’s a two way street and you would be advised to help others with questions they have posted. LinkedIn Answers is a great way to get insider information and gather data from other people with the experience and knowledge you may be lacking. Just remember to interact and give something back.
Content-Based Questions
The best way to make use of LinkedIn Answers is to ask content-based questions. Make your questions concise, but include as much detail as you can so that people can understand what kind of answers you are looking for. A good example of a content-based question is “What is the best way I can monitor my paid-for online marketing campaign?”.
This is much more specific that just asking ‘How do I monitor my marketing?” and makes it more likely that you will receive relevant answers. There are a hundreds (if not thousands) of experts online in all fields so you should be able to get a selection of quality answers to good content-based questions.
Answering Questions
- Don’t forget as well as getting answers to your questions you can also reply to questions yourself through LinkedIn.
- You may have the experience or skills to provide good quality answers for other LinkedIn members in your niche.
- This is a good way to build your online LinkedIn profile and develop contacts with other members. The more questions you answer the more you will be able to build up your own reputation.
- Another benefit of answering questions is that LinkedIn will reward you for quality answers. You can work towards an ‘expert’ status in your subject area.
- The ‘expert’ status puts green star next to your profile ID which is an invaluable distinction that will set you apart in the LinkedIn environment.
- You can earn expert points every time someone selects your answer to their question as ‘best’.
- It is important for you to provide quality answers and not just use this resource to promote your business. LinkedIn is all about providing value to others and creating a helpful, supportive network of professionals.
- If your answer is obviously only about self-promotion then members will flag them as inappropriate. Too many of these flags and your comments will be removed from the Answers section completely by the LinkedIn team.
Using LinkedIn Answers
LinkedIn answers can help you to explore a wide range of subjects, from marketing to website design. With this great resource you can discover new ways to understand your customers and meet their needs. If you haven’t already set up an account with LinkedIn, then I would highly recommend you do so today, and make use of the great features available.
Matt Beswick is the technical director of Electric Dialogue, as well as running a number of web sites which include Lomito and Pet365 – his own retail site.
Image Credit: 1.
Very informative post. I have got the idea and I really learned a lot from how linkedIn answers can be very helpful. Keep it up!
LinkedIn is a great way to connect to millions of professionals and learn from their experiences.