Of course I’m talking about LinkedIn.

According to a study of people who use social media for their business and conducted by ROI Research, the importance of having a LinkedIn account has increased from 41% in 2010 to 59% in 2011.

Why has the impact of LinkedIn grown over the last year, while the perceived impact businesses get from Facebook has fallen from 56 percent last year to 53 percent this year?

For some time, LinkedIn has been perceived as a stuffier, business-only, not as much fun Facebook. While it isn’t the social media free-for-all that Facebook has become, LinkedIn has much to offer for the business-minded person.

Some things that you can do easily with LinkedIn that are harder (or impossible) to accomplish on Facebook include:
•    Tracking who views your profile. When you know who’s checking out your business, you can research them and target them more effectively in attempting to make them a client.

•    Learning who is connected within your community. This can be very important when it comes to networking with other business owners who may need your services or that you could develop strategic alliances with.

•    Participating in groups that can have a stronger impact on your business because they are business-focused. By engaging with these groups, you can connect with more than just friends. You can connect with people who share the same interests for their business as you do for yours or who may be in need of your services.

As opposed to Facebook, on LinkedIn, you can do targeted searches for people and companies in your industry or community that you can network with to help your business. Want to find all the CEOs within 100 miles of your office? It’s just a search away on LinkedIn.

For instance, if you owned a Business Coaching firm, you can search for business owners in your community and begin to develop relationships with them. You can invite them to take part in discussions with other like-minded people that may also help them in some way.

More importantly, by building this relationship, you enhance your value to them. This is obviously far more effective than just engaging anybody who has “friended” or “liked” you on Facebook.

It’s good to see that business owners are finally catching on to the concept of LinkedIn as a powerful resource, but there are still many who have not embraced the platform.

Are you one of them?

Is all your social media still focused on Facebook and Twitter or are you LinkedIn?

It’s kind of like potato chips.

No matter where you are or what you call them, people like potato chips, as they are called in America, or crisps as they are called in other parts of the world.

While people from virtually every culture love the crisp, salty treats, that’s where the similarities end. If you travel the world, you’ll notice how the popularity of flavors vary, depending on the nation.

For instance, squid flavored chips that are popular in Japan would be a very hard sell in the United States, while the ever-popular sour cream and onion variety favored in The States probably wouldn’t have the same affect on Spaniards who prefer ham-flavored chips.

The fact that everyone likes chips, but each culture, and even in some cases, each region of the same countries prefer and buy different flavors, is a pretty interesting scenario when you look at it through the scope of marketing.

One of the basic principles of good business is sell what people want to buy.

After all, I know very few Americans that are looking for those Mint Laccha chips that are so popular in India.

Targeting the correct audience with an offer they are interested in means you’re well on your way to developing a customer base that is a powerful resource for your business.

When you look at marketing critically, you see that many businesses produce marketing that is akin to selling Spicy Rice Cake chips in Texas or Marmite-flavored chips in Thailand.

In other words, their offer isn’t matching their target.

If the market isn’t selling what you’re buying, it could be you don’t understand the flavor your local market craves and you have to take the time to learn.

Start by writing down who your ideal customer is, what they do, where they live, why they will buy from you and any other factor that makes them your theoretical ideal. From there, develop offers in your marketing that match their tastes.

Or leads?

Many creative types who work in ad agencies (and who love to spend an owner’s money) would say branding.

After all, without a brand, how do you drive customers to your business?

But think of it another way …

Without leads … how do you build a brand?

In the world of ActionCOACH, marketing isn’t creative or high concept layouts.

Marketing the ActionCOACH way is simply math.

If an ad generates cost effective leads for your business, it’s a good ad.

If it doesn’t, it’s not.

This is a hard lesson for a lot of marketing people and agency types to deal with in working with our company (or even in our company!) … and our clients.

Because as a marketing-driven CEO, I only care about tactics and strategies that drive leads into a company … at a profit.

That’s the only way to turn your marketing “expenses” into “investments”.

After all, could you afford to continually buy a share of stock for $10 and sell it for $5?

So … why would you continue to buy an ad or run a marketing campaign that doesn’t make you money?

Branding or leads …

Which is more important for you?

Jodie Shaw