BEAR, Del., March 14, 2012 — In December of 2011, Dick Hourigan, the owner of Richard Hourigan, Inc., an Illinois Corporation doing business on the Internet as TheWaterTreatmentStore.com, formed a group on LinkedIn by the same name as the URL of his online store. This is believed to be the first time that someone has done this.
LinkedIn.com is the world's largest professional network. It has 150 million+ members, and gives members the ability to manage their professional identity, build and engage others with their professional network, and access knowledge, insights and opportunities.
TheWaterTreatmentStore.com is a B2B site providing discounted Test Kits, Chemicals, and Equipment to those who own, or work with boilers, chillers, evaporative condensers, cooling towers, pools, or spas. The site's target audience is Property Managers, Facilities Managers, Corporate Engineers, Architects, HVAC Company Owners, and Purchasing Agents who might buy or use the products offered.
By using the website name as the group name we use the power of LinkedIn to create name recognition in our target audience. The LinkedIn group is an information site, not a sales site, but we think customers are far more likely to buy from a company where they also get valuable information.
When we invite large numbers of people to join our LinkedIn group, we not only get new members to the group, but we also get a large increase in the number of visitors to our store. LinkedIn offers suggestions to their members regarding groups they may want to join. This is based on the groups their friends have joined. Thus, we get assistance from LinkedIn in recruiting from our target audience, allowing us to spend less time on recruiting new members and more time developing relevant content.
Dick Hourigan is a retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel with 35 years of service. While in the Army, he was in both Special Forces and the Chemical Corps. On the civilian side he is a degreed chemist who has been in the water treatment business since 1973 in various capacities. Dick runs the operations at www.TheWaterTreatmentStore.com which has sales all over the USA and in 13 foreign countries. Dick is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Water Technologies (AWT).
Additional Contact Points are: http://www.linkedin.com/in/dickhourigan, http://twitter.com/dhourigan, or via SMS by texting: Follow dhourigan to: 40404 (in the United States only). Here is a link to the group: http://www.linkedin.com/groups/TheWaterTreatmentStorecom-4199983?gid=4199983&trk=hb_side_g
Contact:
Dick Hourigan
Tel/Fax: 877-792-8376
Email: Email
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