SlideShare was introduced in October 2006 as a platform for presenters to share their slides within an internal office and individuals attending a presentation. Today, after being acquired by LinkedIn, SlideShare is so much more than a presentation sharing site. It is a robust business content sharing platform with built-in lead generation capabilities. With its social integration with LinkedIn there is so much opportunity for B2B marketers looking for a place to share great content and build a database of relevant leads.

Content Sharing on SlideShare

We like to think about SlideShare as “YouTube for Business.” Most people don’t turn to YouTube for business research. They may click on a video that appeared in organic search, but they don’t look to YouTube for business answers. At their genesis, SlideShare was a site to share presentations. Now they host so much more. You can post video content, infographics, documents and presentations. The content that business people use most.

SlideShare is a Social Platform

With the combined power of LinkedIn, SlideShare truly is a social platform. LinkedIn and SlideShare have built-in integrations that allow you to share followers and content between both platforms. With a LinkedIn user base of more than 300 million and SlideShare’s user base of 60 million, there are plenty of business professionals ready to see your content. I am new to SlideShare but have already seen some great results. I posted some slides after a presentation and left them only to come back a month later to find hundreds of views and shares. That is when I realized the potential of SlideShare.

SlideShare Generates Leads

With the most basic account, you can post and download content. However, if you upgrade to paid account something special happens. You can “gate” your content so that users have to share their information (including email addresses) with you in order to see your content. Here is the best part. These users are basically the same demographic of LinkedIn – professionals. On LinkedIn, they are looking to network. On SlideShare, they are looking for valuable content.

5 Things You Can Do on SlideShare Today

• Register for an account (and consider a paid account)
• Connect your account to your social profiles to your SlideShare account
• Follow all of your LinkedIn contacts in SlideShare (it only takes one click)
• Post a presentation , infographic or video you have produced
• Repurpose a blog or webpage as a presentation and post on SlideShare

If you asked someone what the top ten social media platforms are, you probably wouldn’t think about SlideShare. In fact, in polling the social media strategists in my office, they named 17 other platforms before SlideShare. However, if you are a B2B marketer or sell products/services to businesses and professionals, you need to think more about SlideShare.