Do you <3 LinkedIn? Wait, what? You don’t? Why not? LinkedIn is the most fabulous business social networking site on the face of the planet!! Ok, I may be going over-board a bit but I really do think so.
The first thing you have to decide is why do you want to be on LinkedIn? What purpose is it going to serve you? Here are the following reasons that advise clients to use it for:
- I think every business professional should be on LinkedIn for the sole purpose of, at the very least, giving you some credibility. But that means you need to fill it out entirely, have a professional picture, have some professional connections and have some great RECENT recommendations. Your profile does not have to be at 100%.
- If you are using it to be found, your profile MUST be at 100%. If your profile is not at 100%, you will NOT show up in anyone’s search results. LinkedIn has made it fairly easy to get to 100%, just follow their suggestions on the right hand side of the edit profile link and it will offer you ideas on how to get to 100%. It will suggest for you to upload a resume, I haven’t and I’m at 100%. You just need to play with it in order to get there.
- For networking. Remember, networking is a two-way street. Be sure you let the other person know what’s in it for them! Be polite, don’t be needy and be real. Find people with similar interests and meet up with them for coffee or a phone conversation. See how you can help each other. If you help them, they will want to help you as well! Remember the law of reciprocity.
- Be a {LION}!! There are many different theories on this but I like this one. A {LION} is a LinkedIn Open Networker. Which means, in theory, they will accept anyone. This does water down your opportunity to really network with people or offer real introductions. But I’m a pretty friendly person, if I’m nice about it, I could introduce myself to just about anyone, find a commonality between us, and we’d be off to a great relationship! So, the moral to this story is, if you see that I’m connected to someone you would like to be introduced to, don’t hesitate to ask! Just remember #3 above! Also, remember when asking to connect with someone to be sure to change the standardized text to something that says you are human, why they would want to connect with you, etc.
- Join groups. Groups allow you to do many things. They allow you to post relevant content, join in on conversations, ask questions and make connections. LinkedIn allows you to join 50 groups and I’m pretty sure an unlimited amount of sub-groups! I’m in 50+ a bunch of different sub-groups as well.
- I could go on forever but this is my last suggestion for LinkedIn. If you are looking for a job or looking for a client, you can use LinkedIn to get to the decision makers! Find the company, see who you are connected to within the company (hence the more connections you have the better the possibility this will be a reality) and what connections you are connected to that are connected to the company. The possibilities are endless!
When you work with Keys 2 Success Marketing, these are just some of the things we do for you. We optimize your profile, get your profile to 100%, help you gain the right connections and really teach you how to make LinkedIn work for you. Let us know if you’d like to sit down and talk about what we can do for you! Contact Us