I know it's Canada Day and all, but when you are out enjoying the festivites, I want you to think about how you can do more with Linkedin to generate more leads for your business.  I promise you don't have to think about it to much over the weekend, maybe just for a brief second or two while you sip on one of these.  

Photo Credit: Skevbo and Berry Bucket Sangria Recipe

After you are done drinking a few Berry Bucket Sangrias and have had enough with the fireworks, when you retrun to work on Monday I want you to recall the thoughts you had about Linkedin and how you can improve your presence on Linkedin.  Why are you going to want to do that?  Well some of the information you are going to see below will really get your wheels turning, or at least it should. :-)

Why You Can No Longer Afford to Ignore LinkedIn

• LinkedIn is now adding one new member per second
• 45% of LinkedIn’s members are considered the major decision makers for their companies.  (Twitter and Facebook account for only 24-29%!)
• LinkedIn holds the record for the Highest Average Household Income over all other Social Networking sites at over $109,000 per member!
• With the IPO of LinkedIn, it is now valued at over 6 Billion Dollars and interest and awareness are at an all time high.

Did you know that LinkedIn is now driving more Traffic than Twitter and Facebook?

It’s true, seriously, I didn’t think LinkedIn was THIS powerful.  Yes, LinkedIn, the professional social network which just went public is now by far one of the biggest referrers of social traffic. 

Now What?

Well I think it's time for everyone, me included, to start learning how we can tap into this social network to help our business.  If you're already creating content, and you're struggling with getting traffic to your website/blog, LinkedIn may be the cure.  

Here is what I am going to do

I am going to learn from one of the today's leaders in the Linkedin space, Lewis Howes.  Lewis is a highly successful and sought after speaker, who is also an author and entrepreneur. He started out as a professional athlete, achieving All-American in two sports, and going on to play professional football. Howes attained his degree in Sports Management from Principia College and has maintained his involvement with the sports industry since retiring from playing.  Sounds kind of familiar, well at least the former professional athlete part. :-)

A well-known expert on LinkedIn, he has aslo co-authored one book, LinkedWorking, and authored another on his own, LinkedIn Master Strategies. Seeing the need for a real training resource for those wishing to master LinkedIn effectively, his latest offering is a full training course on using LinkedIn for maximum benefit – Linked Influence. 

Lewis, really is the man when it comes to using LinkedIn to grow a business. This may just be the best way to find targeted leads, and more powerful traffic than any other social network online.

So, enjoy your Canada Day long weekend, but when you come back to work on Monday, I think you should definitely watch what Lewis has to say in this video and think about how you can integrate Linkedin into your lead generation process for your business.

PS - While we are on the Linkedin kick you should check out Vizualize.Me  It turns your linkedin profile into a very cool infographic in an easy to scan format for HR folks and/or gatekeepers.

PSS - Lets hook up on Linkedin