Making the Most of LinkedIn

Any successful online marketing strategy includes positioning yourself on multiple networking sites, and LinkedIn is one of the largest - and one of the most mystifying to everyone I've talked to.

Written Sep 13, 2008, read 1561 times since then.

At the last networking meeting I attended - a discussion group for entrepreneurs - someone raised the question, "How do I make the most of LinkedIn?" As someone who's been building my LinkedIn network for the last couple of years, there are a few tips I've discovered along the way that work well. Some are content-based, and others are more etiquette-based.

Quick disclaimer here: While I'm aware that we're all here on Biznik to get away from sites like LinkedIn, it's been my experience that any successful online marketing strategy includes positioning yourself on multiple networking sites, and LinkedIn is one of the largest - and one of the most mystifying to everyone I've talked to. My intention is not to lure you away; just to give you tools for maximizing all your networking possibilities. Plus, many of the tips I list here can also be applied very easily to your Biznik experience. That said, let's begin.

1. Know your goals up front. Who do you want to meet? What do you want them to know about you? How can you help them? These are all important things to know before you start tinkering around; otherwise, you'll find yourself wasting a lot of time for very little return. This is where research into your ideal client comes in handy.

2. Complete your profile, completely. This means a few things. For one, it means upload a picture, add a significant amount of your work experience, and connect with some people. The idea with LinkedIn is to present yourself as someone trustworthy and likeable; it's hard to build trust when the person reading your profile can't tell what your qualifications are.

3. Have a great summary. The summary is the first thing that appears below your basic profile information on your LinkedIn profile, and it's often going to be the first (and perhaps only) thing that your potential contact will look at. Make sure it's complete, and focuses on the types of people you work with (your ideal client) and the great things you can do for them (what you do). This is also a good place to list awards, publications, and other "Go Me!" type of stuff.

4. Connect with current and former colleagues/clients, and ask for recommendations. One of the cool things about LinkedIn is that it allows you to request testimonials from your network for your profile. This is a terrific way to enhance the trust factor of your profile, as well as a way to get testimonial content for your portfolio site. This said, a simple rule of etiquette is important here: only ask for recommendations from people who are qualified to give them. This means people that you've directly worked with, or it means people you've been developing a relationship with for a significant period of time. You should never get, or give, recommendations from people who barely know you, or people who haven't had experience with you in a business context. It isn't authentic, and authenticity is essential for anything you do online.

5. Ask for referrals only from people that you've had specific work experience with, or that you've taken time to build a relationship with. There is the odd time when you can connect with someone and immediately ask for a referral, but as a general rule, it's extraordinarily bad form to connect with someone and then immediately ask them to introduce you to someone in their network. LinkedIn is about making quality connections; your connections need a chance to get to know you before you start asking them for help. If you connect with someone new and realize that they have a potentially perfect connection for you, try to establish a repoire with them before you request the referral. Again, this goes back to the authenticity piece; referrals given blindly aren't authentic.

6. Join a group. Over the last couple of years, LinkedIn has brought in some really cool features. For one thing, it now has a groups feature, which many networking groups are starting to invite their members to. This gives you an easy way to connect with like-minded prospects, simply by being a member of the group.

7. Check out the Jobs section. LinkedIn also has a new Jobs feature, which allows you to search for a job on the site. According to a friend who just landed a job interview using the Jobs feature, many companies are now putting jobs on LinkedIn prior to listing them on sites like Monster, CareerBuilder, etc.

8. Answer some questions related to your ideal clients. In the Questions and Answers section, users come in and ask questions related to all sorts of business-type stuff. What are your ideal clients wondering? What types of questions do people typically ask at networking events related to What You Do? By answering questions, you do two key things: a) you position yourself as an expert in the subject, and b) you position yourself as someone who wants to help. Both are key factors to building trust.

9. Tell people what you're doing. One of the fun things that's just been added to LinkedIn is a "What are you working on?" feature, where you can let people know what you're specifically working on. It's much like twitter, except that it should be specifically geared towards what projects you're working on. This is a great way to not only keep your connections updated on what you've been up to, but it's a way to show them the type of projects you work on during the day. When I posted recently that I was searching for imagery for a brownie gift box brochure I was working on and I'd been staring at pictures of brownies for the last hour, I ended up getting three pings from connections who wouldn't have noticed me otherwise.

10. Pay attention to grammar, spelling and basic etiquette. It may seem obvious, but it's remarkable how many people neglect this simple thing. Nothing diminishes trust quicker than typos in a profile, or internet shorthand; taking the time to spell-check your profile and use proper grammar shows professionalism and attention to detail. Also, when making a connection request, remind people of why you want to connect with them instead of using the default "I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn" message. Not everyone will remember that they met you at a networking event last Tuesday; give them something to go on. Personalizing the connection request also gives you a key opportunity to throw in a link to your website; that way, people can check you out and make sure you're cool before they decide to connect.

This is just what I've learned along the way using LinkedIn, but I'm sure there are even more things you can do to maximize your LinkedIn experience. What are your favorite tips?

Learn more about the author, Dani Nordin.

Comment on this article

Posted by Dan McComb, Seattle, Washington | Sep 13, 2008

Fantastic article, Dani. I view LinkedIn as a very different and complimentary tool from what's happening here on Biznik, and one that if you used properly, can be a great tool in a small business owner's marketing toolkit. I think what you're in essence saying is, "participate fully if you want the full benefits." And that is definitely true of social and business networks in general.

Question: I'm a member of two LinkedIn groups, but find them to be more of a way to show affiliation than anything more substantial. Groups can't have events, for example. Can you explain in greater detail how you use a LinkedIn Group?

Biznik Business Networking
Posted by Barry Hurd, Seattle, Washington | Sep 13, 2008

I agree Dani, good article covering the essentials of Linkedin.

When I use Linkedin groups, the most essential aspect is that it gives is moderator access to the e-mail of everyone involved to coordinate events and communication elsewhere. This is fairly critical for Linkedin, as normally you do not have access to personal e-mail.

To grow a group and communication list, it is usually simplest to participate in other like-minded groups that touch on the fringe of your own group. After a while you can send out a request to the moderator of a larger group and ask for inclusion in the next mailer or group communication that they send out.

I also make A LOT of introductions across groups that I moderate. My end goal is to personally talk to everyone involved (either via e-mail or phone) to identify niche expertise and refer them to one new person with the same niche (peer networking) and to connect them with one person who probably needs that niche (prospect networking).

That allows me to quickly build a relationship and provide value, which drives my long-term value with frame of mind referrals to my own business later down the road.
Posted by Carole Freeman, Redmond, Washington | Sep 13, 2008

Thanks for a great article, Dani! Reading Entrepreneur magazine over the last year has really raised my awareness of the importance of social networking sites like LinkedIn. Now I know a little more about how to make the best of my profile there.

I second Dan's question: Do you have any advice on how to make the best use of the group's I'm in?

Carole
Posted by Dani Nordin, Watertown, Massachusetts | Sep 14, 2008

Thanks all for the great comments. I think that Barry had a lot of great input on using LinkedIn's groups feature; my primary experience with it is that many of the in-person networking groups I belong to use LinkedIn Groups as ways to keep their membership in touch with each other and add value to the physical membership.

For example, I'm a member of the Downtown Women's Club, who has a LinkedIn group. If I look through the members of the group and decide to touch base with one of them, I have an automatic point in common with them, so it's easier to make a warm introduction instead of going in cold. This is especially helpful when you're trying to get in touch with a specific person, but nobody in your network knows them.
Posted by Colleen Johnson, Ruther Glen, Virginia | Sep 14, 2008

I absolutely love using LinkedIn. In a service-based business, I believe it provides a certain level of comfort and trust to PCs. I have links to my LinkedIn profile on my web site and my log. I think that they've come a long way and it's even better now that they have group discussion capabilities.

Nice article Dani.
Posted by Ilise Benun, Hoboken, New Jersey | Sep 14, 2008

Love your article, Dani, and will link to it from our blog too.

The way many of my clients are using LinkedIn is as a research tool for finding their ideal prospects. There's so much info there that you can really qualify people well before actually reaching out to them.

Anyone else using it this way?
Posted by Dani Nordin, Watertown, Massachusetts | Sep 14, 2008

@Ilise,

That's a great thought, actually - I honestly hadn't thought of using it that way. Good thing to try out!
Posted by Tia Peterson, Erie, Pennsylvania | Sep 15, 2008

Great article, Dani! I used LinkedIn for years as a corporate employee, and since starting my own business, have really only "updated" my company information to what it is now.

This is great stuff and will be useful when I start using LinkedIn as a networking tool.

@Ilise - I haven't used it that way, personally, but that's a great strategy and I know that at my last company, the sales team did use LinkedIn for prospecting and also for gathering contact data.
Posted by Allan Smith, St. Louis, Missouri | Sep 16, 2008

Thanks for your article, Dani, and great suggestions, all. One of my concerns with LinkedIn is at the same time a potential source of prospecting, as pointed out above. When I joined, I invited a whole slew of people from my address book, some of whom had been added automatically from one email. I honestly didn't expect for them to accept my link invitation, but some did. Now I receive updates about whom they have added, which is yet another degree of separation.

It is important to me to find a way to try not to get distracted from a barrage of LinkIn updates, to rank the relevance to me and what I do, so that in preparing a prospect list or trying to form a "group," I don't mismanage my or anybody else's time.
By far, I find that biznik is more relevant, useful, friendly, and flexible for my taste.
Posted by Dani Nordin, Watertown, Massachusetts | Sep 16, 2008

@Allan,

That's fair. On the updates, though, how often do you receive them? I get an e-mail maybe once a month, and rarely do I find it distracting. Aside from which, updates work both ways - they both keep your connections in your line of vision and you in theirs; having the connection doesn't help you if you can't keep "in front of them" in some way, even if minorly.
Posted by Annika Hipple, Seattle, Washington | Sep 16, 2008

Great article, Dani! I'm a long-time user of LinkedIn and have recently been exploring the groups feature to make new connections I otherwise would have been unable to link with. Some people are reluctant to accept invitations from people they don't know, but since one of the goals of networking is to make new connections, I don't restrict my connections in that way. What I do make sure to do before accepting any invitations to link to people I don't know is to really check out their profile in detail. I like to see recommendations because they give me a sense of who the person is and how he or she is viewed by colleagues and/or clients. If there is a website link in their profile I also check that out before agreeing to the connection.

I myself have sent out requests to link with people I don't know who look interesting, but it's important to explain why I am interested in linking with them in my invitation. After that, I agree that it's bad form to start asking for anything (referrals, introductions, etc.) without doing a little relationship building first. It's definitely worth taking the time to have a dialogue with new connections and getting to know them a bit. Another nice new feature of LinkedIn is the discussions within groups. It's a good way to increase your visibility within a group, though as a new feature, these discussions are still just taking off. This feature is similar to the Q&A section, but it allows for discussions within a more targeted group of people.

Allan, you mention getting bogged down with LinkedIn updates. Have you set your account preferences to limit the number and types of e-mail you receive? As for the network updates on your LinkedIn home page, I don't think there's any way to avoid seeing everything, but I find that even the updates about connections I don't really know can occasionally be useful for triggering new ideas (for discussions to join, people to search for, etc.). I love Biznik and agree that it is much more friendly and easy to use, but like Dani I find that LinkedIn can also be a useful tool. I think it's well worth maintaining an active presence on several of the largest networking sites, and for me that includes both Biznik and LinkedIn.
Posted by Allan Smith, St. Louis, Missouri | Sep 16, 2008

Dani-I receive about two link updates a week. It's really my fault for just blasting my yahoo address book out there at the onset--it was just too darn easy to do. I need to spend more time (just one more thing on my list) really reading up on the people and their links to take better advantage of the site.
Since I'm a newly appointed biznik Ambassador in St. Louis, more of my efforts will go toward building up our local biznik community, but it's all good! Annika, it's not emails, just the networking updates about people with whom I have no real connections. But your point is very well taken about stimulating ideas. I learned a lot both from the original article and the comments it elicited. Thanks, guys and gals.
Posted by Alline Anderson, Rutledge, Missouri | Sep 17, 2008

Hi Dani. I followed the link from TZK because just this morning, trying to find a former colleague, I ran into LinkedIn. I joined in order to email her, but am now realizing all of the potential that is there. I was able to ask her to support my bid on Ideablob.com and she asked me to write a referral. I look forward to utilizing both Biznik and LinkedIn more as I get my business launched. Life is good!
Posted by Dani Nordin, Watertown, Massachusetts | Sep 17, 2008

@Alline: that's terrific! I'm glad to see you've gotten results already.
Posted by Kimberly Dow, Frederick, Maryland | Sep 18, 2008

thanks for a great article dani. I started my linkedin profile a year before i ventured off on my own, just as an alternative means of getting my new business on the web. I will definitely use some of your suggestions in order to get the most out of it as an actual networking tool.
Posted by Kare Anderson, Sausalito, California | Sep 18, 2008

Dani Having read about 10 articles on your topic I found yours to be the best at how to be authentic, non-pushy, helpful to others and efficient in using LinkedIn - thank you so much
Posted by Sally Anne Giedrys, Portland, Oregon | Sep 18, 2008

Dani,

Great article! I have found LinkedIn to be a great tool for network building.

Along with expanding my network, I've been using LI to re-connect with and keep on the radar of former colleagues, connections from previous roles, and well-connected friends. This piece alone has resulted in new clients and a couple of important strategic alliances.

@ Ilise, I have been using LinkedIn for prospect research, too. It's really useful as a research tool. I'm also finding that other folks are similarly using it to research me as well.
Posted by Stacy Karacostas, Seattle, Washington | Sep 18, 2008

Thanks for sharing Dani!

LinkedIn was the first network I joined, and I get a lot of value out of the Q & A section. As you mention, I regularly go in and answer questions as a way to participate and show off my expertise.

But I also love just seeing what questions are really on people's minds, then using that to choose new article and seminar tactics.

I've found in general the biggest key to all these networks is to participate. Then they can do a ton for your business.

Stacy
Posted by Dani McDonough, Seattle, Washington | Sep 19, 2008

Linked in is a good resource. I do think Biznik is special as it connects people from a certain geographical area so you can physically connect. I'm a big fan of both & appreciated your input here today Dani. Nice name by the way! Warm regards, Dani

There's no place like home . . .
Posted by Dawn Olinek, Lafayette, Colorado | Sep 19, 2008

I'm relatively new to LinkedIn but have made a number of connections and joined some groups too. Like others mentioned in previous posts the groups portion has not been worthwhile to me; maybe I need to do a little more work in that area. Nicely written article, Dani.
Posted by Marianna Paulson, Surrey, British Columbia Canada | Sep 20, 2008

Hi Dani: You've done your job! One of the purposes of an article is to cause us to reflect.

As a result of your article I am going to go back to my LinkedIn profile and fill in some gaps, that I had taken out.

I was drawn to this article by this line, "one of the most mystifying to everyone I've talked to. "

I've had some 'issues' with LinkedIn and unlike Biznik, no one seems to be 'home' and checking or answering questions.
Posted by Dan McComb, Seattle, Washington | Sep 20, 2008

You nailed it, Stacy - participation IS marketing!

Biznik Business Networking
Posted by Gabriella Sannino, San Francisco, California | Sep 21, 2008

It's also a great way to contact old friends you have lost touch with. I left SF for several years and decided to find old friends I lost contact with.. LinkdIn was the way to go. I also found our new attorney and several new employees. Needless to say excellent connections indeed.
Posted by Joy Gilfilen, Bellingham, Washington | Sep 22, 2008

Excellent, and I love the quality of comments here. I have never really found much that I wanted to comment on in blogs before. And I have been scared to be writing all my opinions in public.

But I am getting used to the idea...and this discussion is expanding my market intelligence...so thank you all!

I loved your comments about the opening summary, and went back and rewrote my biznik summary...and it is significantly better and has more zest to it. Thank you.

AdaptAbility Mentor, In-The-Now Skills, Leader Models
Posted by Bill Quinlan, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | Sep 23, 2008

Dani and Fellow Posters, Great convo and insight here, very qualitative and fruitful.
I wanted to briefly inform you all of a start-up that's generating more and more buzz, called Anthillz (www.anthillz.com). They are the newest professional networking site that only permits users that exchange testimonials of their trusted colleagues. It's a very interesting site, not as massive (quantitatively speaking) as LinkedIn however the entire site is qualitative.

All the best everyone!
Posted by Phil Greely, Seattle, Washington | Sep 28, 2008

The step that biznik takes past linkedin...which I love...is it provides a proactive forum for creating and attending "in person" meetings. The biznik events function separates biznik from the rest of the competition.

Your Seattle Real Estate Resource
Posted by Marianna Paulson, Surrey, British Columbia Canada | Oct 01, 2008

I previously commented that I've had some 'issues' getting my questions answered by the people at LinkedIn.

That situation has been rectified and I've just received some excellent customer service from them.