LinkedIn Mentions: How to Use Them Wisely
LinkedIn created a tsunami of fruit flavors last week when it announced a new feature that allows users of its popular professional network to start real-time conversations with their connections.
The feature, called “mentions,” is generating big buzz. The blog post announcing mentions has already been shared on LinkedIn more than 1,300 times. Plenty of folks (perhaps even your boss) are frothing at the mouth to give it a try.
This news should excite you and terrify you at the same time.
Why are LinkedIn mentions a big deal?
LinkedIn boasts more than 200 million members. So, the mentions feature provides some awesome opportunities for B2B sales prospecting. Just remember not to abuse this new tool.
Or you can choose to go overboard and act like a jerk. Your choice.
Here are some non-spammy ways you can use mentions:
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Congratulate one of your professional connections for earning a promotion or completing an important project at work.
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Ask a trusted expert a relevant question.
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Respond directly to a comment on an existing conversation.
Here are some spammy tactics you’ll probably want to avoid:
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Blasting the pants off all of your contacts with your amazing product offers.
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Thoughtlessly interjecting yourself into other people’s conversations with self-promotional platitudes.
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Attempting to draw attention to yourself by being argumentative, belittling or offensive.
How can you use this new feature?
Lucky for you, LinkedIn created a handy-dandy slideshow to show you how to mention other users. And we’ve embedded it below. Check it out.
What did we miss? How can inside sales pros use LinkedIn’s mentions effectively? Let us know in the comments.
Photo credit: Riza Nugraha
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