Local Search Marketing: LinkedIn and Local Search

When used effectively, LinkedIn is a valuable tool for getting local business

Most people have heard of LinkedIn, the social media platform for professionals. On LinkedIn, you can connect with colleagues and potential clients in your local area. You can find people you already know and also get introduced to people you’d like to know.

Many professionals have created a profile and added connections, but aren’t sure what to do next. The answer: use it as a marketing tool. LinkedIn is very useful for local search marketing for law firms and other small businesses. Just don’t use it for blatant self-promotion.

What is Local Search?

Local search is what people do when they look for products and services in or near their neighborhood. Before the Internet, people turned to the phone book or community business listings published by their local chambers of commerce. Today local search is moving online. In fact, about 20% Google searches include location information.

How Can LinkedIn Help Your Local Search Marketing?

You may wonder why a lawyer even needs search marketing. After all, unless your message arrives right when someone needs a lawyer, it’s not likely to result in new business. Remember, though, that marketing is not the same as advertising.

You can discretely market yourself on LinkedIn by positioning yourself as an expert in your field. Fill out your profile completely, using relevant keywords, including location. Create a separate profile for your business as well, using similar keywords. This doubles your odds of appearing in search results.

Other things you can do on LinkedIn to increase your credibility:

• Give and Receive Recommendations: When you recommend others, you help them gain credibility as well as get your name onto their profiles, where people can see it and click through to your profile. When others recommend you, it boosts your image.
• Join Groups: Not all groups are local, but you can still meet new people who may become a source of information, collaboration or referrals. You can offer the same benefits to them.
• Answer Questions: When you answer questions, you appear helpful and knowledgeable. When people read your answers, they gain a favorable impression of you and are more likely to think of you when they, or someone they know, need a lawyer.

Every action you take on LinkedIn is an opportunity for local search marketing, potentially increasing your visibility to both human searchers and the search engines.

Related posts:

1. Using Twitter for Local Search Marketing
2. Local Search Engine Marketing: The Basics
3. The First Free Step in Marketing Your Law Firm Online: Local Search
4. Basics of Local Search in 7 Days, Day 4: Google Places, Bing Local, Yahoo Local
5. Basics of Local Search in 7 Days, Day 6: Local Directories and Reviews