Top Tips for Utilising LinkedIn – Why and How to use LinkedIn as a business professional.
Are you on Linkedin?
Why wouldn’t you be?
Everyone in business – especially consultants and sales people – can benefit from using Linkedin.
Here are some Facts to introduce the Power of LinkedIn:
1. There are 80 million users worldwide!
2. Over 50% of these users are at senior management level
3. Their average household income is US$107k
4. Approximately 20% of the total users are small business people
In summary,
“there is no other social networking site where you have a greater chance of being able to interact with an influential decision maker”, Neil Schaffer of Windmill Networking
LinkedIn is like a Virtual Trade-Show, operating 24/7
If you are a business professional, particularly one who relies on networks, it is essential that you are on LinkedIn.
And done properly, it will support your other marketing activity.
There is more to utilizing LinkedIn than just setting up a Profile and accepting connection requests. As more and more people use Linkedin as a networking tool, those with incomplete or out-of-date Profiles are missing out and, worse still, negatively portrayed.
What is your Social Media Goal for the LinkedIn Platform? For example: Do you want to advance your career, raise your personal profile, market your brand, meet new contacts, grow your business into a new area, develop and strengthen business relationships etc etc.
Perhaps it’s all of the above. These are all possible on LinkedIn.
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Later in this Article, I will introduce you to 5 easy ways to effectively utilise this professional social media tool to promote yourself and grow your business.
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Firstly, the Key Reasons to be on Linkedin are:
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- To Network with others – in a network circle that is 3 degrees deep!
- To Promote Yourself – LinkedIn is like an interactive resume, a snapshot of your career, but updated regularly with new activity it becomes a chance to showcase your accomplishments. All this gives Credibility.
- Business Prospecting – by using the search engine of Linkedin you can find people based on their company and their job title. By doing this, you can learn about someone before you meet them and receive industry information, including shared interests, latest news etc. A lot of people have reported that they obtain business as a direct result of their Linkedin activity.
- Find a Job – many executive jobs are being listed on Linkedin. This is a whole other topic, but LinkedIn is a very effective way of searching for a job and promoting yourself to be found by potential employers. In addition, your company can use LinkedIn to promote itself favourably to attract the best potential employees.
- Improve your search results online – both on Google Search and within the Linkedin Search – so people can find YOUR BUSINESS when they are looking for a business professional or company that meets their needs.
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Setting up your LinkedIn Profile – The Top 2 Tips for an great Profile are:
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- Keywords – to optimize your Profile on a Search engine like Google, especially if you have a more common name, you need to use your keywords effectively. Make sure they are throughout your Profile.
- Completeness – LinkedIn measures how complete your profile is by a % measurement – they say that a completed profile gives you a 40% greater chance for networking success! (so it’s worth the time).
Completing your profile means:
- Photo – a good professional one
- Headline – write a compelling headline of you, using keywords
- Summary of who you are – some experts recommend that you write in the third-person, to avoid too much “I”, however this is a personal choice as the advantage of using first-person is that it adds personality
- Job History – current and at least 2 past positions, describing your role
- Specialties – your selling points, using keywords
- Recommendations – ask others for a recommendation/testimonial
- Groups and Interests – join groups of interest to further expand your network (more about this below)
- Recommendations – increase your word of mouth referrals by asking your satisfied clients to write you a recommendation. Quality over quantity – try for at least 3 recommendations
How much do you put on your Profile? – the experts agree that at the very minimum, your Profile should reflect your current situation as well as possible. Don’t forget contact information too. Don’t just copy and paste your resume, keep it conversational and don’t say too much.
When your LinkedIn Status Bar shows you are 100% complete – that’s great!
But don’t stop there…
Ongoing Utilisation of Linkedin :
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1. MAKING CONNECTIONS
a) Upload your Address Book – this is a great start to building your network
b) “Are you on Linkedin?” – this is the question that you should be asking every new business contact that you personally meet – when you are back in your office – add them to your online network
c) Promote YOUR Linkedin Profile – you have a unique URL – link to it from your website, include it on your business card and other printed material
d) Search for new contacts – if you really want to build your network to find NEW customers and contacts, there a number of ways you can do this, including
- using the Advanced Search tab to locate people in your industry and area
- Browse networks of your immediate network and look for potential introductions
- Join Groups that are related to your industry/target market.
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TOP TIP for making Connections:
When adding connections to your network, I highly recommend you personalise your invitations (I am amazed at how few people do this) – take a moment to do this by changing the standard invitation request and say something personal. If you don’t it’s like just saying Hello, full-stop, nothing else. Also send a personalized message back when you accept an connection.
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2. POST UPDATES – sharing what you have been up to and sharing your knowledge is a great way of building your reputation.
Regularly post Relevant updates, remembering that LinkedIn is a professional network (ie. these updates may differ in tone and content to your Facebook or Twitter updates).
Updates are like brief conversations you might have with someone if you were at a networking event, for example:
- Ideas
- News Articles
- Events you plan to attend
- Job Opportunities
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TOP TIP for posting Updates:
Give and you will receive – read and comment on other people’s updates, or simply hit the LIKE button. This is interacting. People like to know they are being listened to.
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3. GROUPS – join groups or better still, if appropriate, set up your own group.
This is the best way to be seen as an industry leader. Groups can be business related or interest related. They are forums for people to connect with each other.
People within a group can view your profile, whether they are a personal connection or not – what a great way to get yourself out there in front of the right people at the right organisation!
Consider this – someone may not take a cold-call from Mr Joe Blogs sales agent, but they would certainly receive a message from their fellow group member Mr Joe Blogs Top Influencer.
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TOP TIP for utilising Groups:
Once in a Group, ensure you Share Updates with them, either within the Group as a Discussion, or from your Profile Update area. This is very powerful for sharing your knowledge with relevant content, which in turn establishes credibility and “thought leadership”
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4. Q&A – LinkedIn Answers is like a database full of relevant answers to “real” problems/questions asked by the professional community on any topic.
Using this area of LinkedIn gives you the opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise. It gives you the power to be recognized as a thought-leader both within and outside your industry.
There’s opportunity here to give links back to your own websites/blog posts to further assist the reader at the same time as solving their problem.
Conversely, find answers to questions by tapping into the wisdom of your network.
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TOP TIP for using Answers:
Set up a Search to find questions relevant to your industry, and when they come up, simply Answer them.
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5. APPLICATIONS – there are many applications you can add to your LinkedIn Profile – take time to review these and upload if they are relevant to you. These are my TOP PICKS:
- Slideshare – set up a Slideshare account and connect it to your Profile to share any presentations you have done. You can even embed a welcome video into your profile!
- WordPress Blog or Blog Link – sync your Blog directly to your Profile, so an update to your blog is automatically shown on your Profile. This is a good time-saver, if you wish to share Everything on your Blog with your LinkedIn network
- Tweets – display your most recent tweets on your LinkedIn profile. However, make sure your tweets shared on LinkedIn are just business-related ones. People can always follow you in Twitter if they are interested in receiving more.
- My Travel – if you travel a lot for business, this is a good one to see where your network is travelling and when you will be in the same city as your colleagues.
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My Overall TOP TIP to effectively utilise the Power of LinkedIn is :
Make sure you log in to LinkedIn daily or at the very least, a couple of times a week, and quickly check your Home Page Updates – see who your connections are connecting with, who’s saying what, who’s joining what – and Join In.
As LinkedIn themselves say: “Relationships Matter”.
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