Silly question; of course, you’re busy. Most of our clients come to us looking for marketing partners that can elevate the visibility of their business, allowing us to take daily marketing tasks off of their plates. We understand exactly how important your time is.

We also know how important personal touches can be to further a personal brand. A personal note or point of contact could be the difference between gaining a new client or losing to a competitor. The best place for those personal touches is social media, specifically LinkedIn for a business audience. While to many, social media can seem daunting and frivolous, it can be quite easy, as well as critical, for your personal marketing strategy.

Consider this: there are 240 million active LinkedIn users across the world, and that number grows every day. Seventy-nine percent of these active users are 35 or older, which given the usual growth of a working individual, these users are most likely mid- to senior-level employees — also known as your direct targets, either for potential clients or an expansion of your network. Still think that social media isn’t for you?

Making social media work for you doesn’t have to be a long or drawn out process. In fact, according to an infographic by BlueWire Media, all you’ll need is five-minutes or less, each day. Here’s how:

If you’re a beginner to LinkedIn, spend one minute accepting pending connection requests. Make sure that you’re connecting with people that you know, people that you want to know, and people that can help to connect you with people that you want to know. LinkedIn can be used in many ways, including promoting events, recruiting new staff, etc., so a diverse and high-level network can help you reach the audience that you need. While you’re accepting the requests, be sure to take about three minutes and send your new connections a message thanking them for the connection. It might be a good time to catch up with an old college friend, find out what a former colleague has been doing or introduce yourself and your business. Finally, in your last minute, request one person. Use the “People that you May Know” suggestions, and turn those people into real connections.

Once you are, or become, a more frequent LinkedIn user, you can move on to using your five minutes by checking out who has viewed your profile. Send them a message and find out why they’ve recently viewed your profile, and if there is any value that you can bring to each other. You never know until you ask! After that, spend a few minutes sharing some content! Have you written a blog or an article lately? Read an interesting article that you think your contacts would enjoy? Add it to your profile. If you’re reading or writing something interesting, people will appreciate your insight and you’ll become a person that they trust.

For the advanced users, share a piece of content and submit it to the LinkedIn Today editors. This will allow your content to reach all of the active LinkedIn users, spreading your name and company throughout the world. This wider platform will allow you to reach users that you would have never connected with or reached through the earlier steps. Finally, spend a few minutes commenting on the status or content of one of your connections and set up a coffee or lunch with a contact that you haven’t seen for a while.

With a little practice and constant attention, LinkedIn has the power to become one of the most important tools in your personal marketing arsenal. Make sure you’re using it wisely! If you need any help with social media or are interested in learning how to make social media work with your marketing plan, contact us.