In the past couple of weeks, I received a couple of inquiries from business owners who found me on Google for the terms ‘LinkedIn media consultants’ and ‘LinkedIn social media consultants’ (well what do you know, I come up on page 1 and 2 of Google for these two terms – singular and plural). These business owners wanted to know my rates to do training for LinkedIn. They received quotes ranging from $500 – $1000 from other social media consultants. Why would I or anyone else charge them? LinkedIn offers free training. Yes, FREE!

In my coaching and consulting sessions, I normally inform my clients of LinkedIn’s hidden treasure. When I started announcing this resource on social networks last week, I was extremely surprised of the reaction and feedback. It seems that the majority of people did not know this, including the ones that have been using the site for a while. If LinkedIn did a better job at marketing their hidden treasure, more people would be active on their site. Right?

I am calling these trainings “Treasure” because they show you everything you need to know about LinkedIn and the only way you can truly leverage and maximize your time on this site.

There are a couple of easy ways to get to the free training modules. The first way is through this URL: http://learn.linkedin.com/training/. The second is through the LinkedIn navigation bar you see on the top of the page.

Follow the three steps below, and you will be well on your way to becoming a LinkedIn expert:

1. On the navigation, you will need to click the “More…” link to pull down the menu, and then select “Learning Center.”

2. This will take you to the “Learning Center” page which shows you everything you need to know about LinkedIn. On this page, click “Training Resources” on the right navigation.

3. So here we are! On this page, you can choose to learn at your own pace through free video modules, see what seminars are being offered, and request custom webcast training for your organization. You will have to ask them if fees apply for the custom training.

Once you learn how to navigate and use LinkedIn through these free training modules, a social media consultant like me can help educate you on how to strategize, prospect, recruit, and build your brand through LinkedIn if you are still confused. This is where I would charge for my expertise not for something that is already offered for free. BUYER BEWARE for consultants who want to charge for training that is available for free!

Were you aware of this training?  Please let me know below.