Entrepreneur? Here are three reasons why you need to be on LinkedIn

Entrepreneurs drive most local economies — not only do they provide jobs to the local community, but they also boost consumerism. This is one of the main reasons why the growth of an economy is directly related to the number of professionals starting their own venture.

But it is surprising that many of them don’t use LinkedIn to promote their services. Many businesses fail to understand the principles of social media. They mostly use it as an extension of their PR and communication strategy. In a recent piece, Archana Venkat had discussed some key reasons why this was a challenge for businesses.

But if you’re an entrepreneur, there are ways to leverage social media to enhance and promote your business. Here’s why you should give LinkedIn some attention:

Target the customers you really want

The average household income of a LinkedIn user is roughly around US $110 000 per annum according to a recent report. In emerging markets like India, almost 24% of users have household incomes above US $28 500. This is also significant as Indian professionals form the second largest group in the LinkedIn roughly around 13-million users.

On LinkedIn, you can reach a target base that (probably) has the money to buy your product or services. As an entrepreneur you would understand the importance of having access to a group that has the money to spend, rather than Twitter and Facebook users who have much lower household incomes on average.

Focus on the decision maker

Twenty nine percent of LinkedIn users globally are senior level executives, and 39% of LinkedIn users manage the budgets for their companies. Now this is a significant statistic: those of us who have sold to companies or individuals realize the importance of the consent of the budget owner. When you use LinkedIn, you are reaching out to a professional who drives business decisions 4 out of 5 times. That is an incredibility high average.

This all but solves the problem of not reaching the decision maker. Most startups with frugal budgets can ill afford to spend time and money convincing a prospect only to find out that s/he is not the person who can really make the final call.

It’s the place for business

Some 1.8-billion business leads were generated on LinkedIn globally in 2011. So if you are not using LinkedIn for that purpose, your competition probably is. Some 65% of users globally say that they use the social network to develop relationships and grow new business. For example, 149-million leads that were created on LinkedIn in India last year. Business leads can accelerate the sales cycle, ensuring you can realize the returns on your investment much faster.

This article by Dr Vikram Venkateswaran originally appeared on Trak.in and was published with their permission.