According to Wikipedia, LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking service. Founded in December 2002 and launched on May 5, 2003,it is mainly used for professional networking. In 2006, LinkedIn increased to 20 million viewers.As of June 2013, LinkedIn reports more than 259 million acquired users in more than 200 countries and territories.
1) Your headline is your advert a LinkedIn profile has your name, your picture, and a heading. Use the heading to communicate what you do and what you offer keep it brief, keep it interesting!
2) Post a face picture people are statistically more likely to speak to you if you have a face picture. If you meet someone and they try to find you on LinkedIn, they will remember your face be visible!
3) Be clear whether you are after partners, suppliers, clients, employers know what you want and make sure that your profile reflects this.
4) List your skills I rarely connect with someone who hasnt told me what their skills are.
5) Have a great summary the summary is about YOU [not your company] use this to demonstrate to people the benefits of linking with you.
6) Business Intelligence when you are due to meet new people, check their LinkedIn profile chances are you will be able to see what their role is in their current employer. Also, you can probably see who they are connected to [mutual contacts] and which Groups they subscribe to.
7) Be choosy whilst you can play the numbers game to build a network, you may be adding the wrong type of person. Your networking strategy should be a mix of online and offline when you meet someone, Link to them on LinkedIn.
8) Get endorsed people in your network can endorse your skills it is not foolproof but, at a glance, people can see what you are about. They can also furnish you with testimonials use them.
9) Explain why you want to connect when you ask someone to connect to you DONT use the generic LinkedIn message. Tell them why you want to connect if you cant be bothered to explain why why should they be bothered to say yes to your request?
10) Add sections, there are sections for you to showcase experience, projects, foreign languages even if you lack extensive work experience, you still have a lot to offer by adding more sections to add weight to the profile.
11) Join the groups admittedly, some of the groups are full of spam [if the group is a waste leave it]. Take part ask questions; answer questions.
12) Include media LinkedIn gives you an opportunity to connect media links to your profile including video, audio, pictures, documents and presentations make your profile as rich and interesting as you can [without it being too busy].
13) Link your profile there are plenty of ways to promote yourself link your profile to your Twitter, Google+, personal website when you post a status update, make sure it updates your Twitter.
14) Post statuses status updates make you visible to your connections as it appears in their newsfeeds. Remember to hashtag part of the update as it appears in your Twitter feed too.
15) Follow your favorite "Influencers" in Pulse.
16) You can use your LinkedIn blog to add a new level of personality and expertise to your page. Share details about your new job, showcase a new project you're working on, or share some professional insight that your network could learn from.
Weed out connections that are no longer useful.
17) While Facebook and Twitter are great outlets for sharing lighthearted viral content with friends, LinkedIn is the place to share articles and videos relevant to your industry and business.
18) LinkedIn says that active group users get four times as many profile views as those who don't use this resource. A good place to start is to join your alma mater's official group and see what discussions are going on. And if you're on a job hunt, it could be a good place to reach out to alumni.
19) Use a professional headshot and a customized URL.
20) The worst thing you can do is have your profile be one long list. Recruiters won't bother learning about you if your page is a chore to read. Make sure you distribute your information across each of the sections LinkedIn offers, and arrange them in an order you consider most relevant to your industry and the job you're seeking. For example, if you have experience in the non-profit sector, highlight it in "Volunteer Experience & Causes" rather than the main "Experience" list.
21) Finally, don't neglect the crucial "Summary" box. Think of it as a first impression of your professional profile. It is also the perfect place for keywords that will enhance search engine optimization (SEO) benefits for your page.
22) And finally, remember to keep updating every time you update part of your profile, it goes into your contacts newsfeeds as we build networks, we see a lot of updates from our connections so continually improve your profile as a way to feed information to your current network whilst being increasingly attractive to new ones.
LinkedIn is a great business tool to have in your sales strategy oh and be sure to link to me!
