9 Ways Data Center Professionals Can Get More Out of LinkedIn

You have no idea what you're missing if you’re a data center professional and are not active on LinkedIn.

For example, approximately 1.5 million LinkedIn members worldwide have the phrase “data center” somewhere in their profiles.  Of those, almost a quarter million (248,600) have posted on LinkedIn during the past 30 days.

734,000 of those LinkedIn members are in the United States, with very high concentrations within the Greater New York City area (approximately 63,000), the San Francisco Bay area (approximately 60,000), the Washington, D.C. metro area (approximately 38,000),  Dallas (approximately 37,000), Chicago (approximately 30,000), Los Angeles and Orange County (also approximately 30,000).

With that in mind, here are nine ways that data center professionals -- especially those in executive, sales, marketing, business development, channel, account management, and product management roles -- can get more out of LinkedIn:

1. Develop thorough buyer personas to validate whether your most important prospects and clients are on LinkedIn.

2. Learn which LinkedIn Groups and hashtags matter most to your core buyer personas so you can focus on growing your reach in the most relevant places.

3. Invest in a professional headshot image, as people really do judge a book by its cover.

4. Share helpful educational content that addresses your buyer personas’ biggest questions and challenges.

5. Interact with your connections frequently on LinkedIn by liking, sharing, and commenting on their status updates.

6. Keep your posts professional, and avoid using LinkedIn like Facebook. Steer clear of discussion about religion, sex, and politics on LinkedIn.

7. Don't assume that your LinkedIn connections have given you permission to add their email addresses to your newsletter. This is a biggie.

8. Don't be overly self-promotional. If your feed starts resembling a late-night infomercial, you're doing LinkedIn wrong. When your connections sincerely thank you for adding value to their professional lives, you'll know you're doing good.

9. Play the long game. It takes time to build up and nurture solid relationships on LinkedIn.

Are you active on LinkedIn? What do you think is most important for data center professionals to keep in mind to get the most out of the world’s leading professional networking platform? Share your favorite tip in the comments below.

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Learn more about Colocation Data Center Providers and Go-to-Market Strategy (GTM) for Growth.