Making the Most of LinkedIn

At the last networking meeting I attended - a discussion group for entrepreneurs - someone raised the question, "How do I make the most of <a href="http://www.linkedin.com">LinkedIn</a>?" 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? 2008-09-13T12:47:48Z

2008-09-13T16:41:37Z

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making-the-most-of-linkedin

2008-09-13T16:40:44Z

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.

Making the Most of LinkedIn

2009-02-24T09:46:00Z