Grand-daddy Of The Social Media Sites
I consider my LinkedIn profile like an “About Me” page on a website. I point people to my LinkedIn page to find out more about me. Why? Because LinkedIn is really your resume online! More importantly, you can keep your work history, activities, interests and personal information up to date yourself rather than bothering your website person each time you want to make a change. But LinkedIn is more than just your online resume. It’s an ideal way to connect with colleagues, meet potential employers, form joint venture partnerships an become known as a thought leader. As a Social Media Specialist Virtual Assistant, I show business owners how to use the power of LinkedIn to grow their businesses. Here are my top 10 things to ensure you stay LinkedIn!!
1. Complete Your Profile.
Filling in your complete work history is important and so is the summary. People will often just read the summary portion of your profile so make sure it captures your reader’s attention. Showcase your personality! LinkedIn will tell you when your profile has reached 100% completeness. And it will even suggest items to you to help you get there. Be sure to include a professional photo of you. LinkedIn is one of the more ‘formal’ sites out there. Also, the ‘tag line’ is one of the first things that people will see after your name when they go to your profile. Make it interesting and pertinent. Using your email address would not be appropriate here.
Helpful Tip: When filling in your profile information, write in the first person, be natural and write as if you are directing this information to the person you want to do business with. Keep your sentences short and use language appropriate to a grade 8 reading level. This enables readers to scan your information faster. Also consider using bullet points rather than sentences where appropriate.
2. Account Settings
Make sure to go through your account settings and customize your public profile to ensure people have some access to your information (by this I mean people who don’t have a LinkedIn profile). I check all the boxes and stay transparent but you may choose to limit access to some of your information. That’s up to you, but remember; staying as open and authentic as possible in the social media world is key to your success.
Helpful Tip: Make sure you allow your profile and status updates to appear in the news feed. This helps to keep you top of mind to your network.
3. Contacts
Importing your contacts and building your network are easy in LinkedIn. By filling in your work history and your education, LinkedIn will even be able to suggest contacts for you. Don’t measure your success by the number of 1st level contacts you have. Look instead at your total network. Know that by choosing people to connect with that have a solid number of contacts in their network help increase your overall reach.
Helpful tip: LinkedIn enables you to import your address book from sources like Outlook. Use this feature to help you get started in building your network.
4. Install Plug-ins
LinkedIn offers the ability to import your blog or a powerpoint presentation. Take advantage of these plug-ins. They round out your profile. Also look in the Account settings section where you can copy the LinkedIn button html (like the one below that will link you to my profile) to your Facebook or Blog page.
Make sure all your social media sites and your website link to your LinkedIn profile.
Helpful tip: Consider installing the “company buzz” application. It sends any mentions of your company name from the Twitter feed for you to monitor what is being said about you and your business. This is important for reputation management. Only you will see this feed.
5. Answers
Using the Answer Questions portion of LinkedIn is an ideal way to become known as a thought leader and find joint venture partnerships. Another great way to become known in LinkedIn is to join groups. Actively participate and become known as the ‘go to’ person in your industry.
Helpful tip: Answering questions often and having your answer chosen as the best one can propel you to an ‘expert’ status. You will find the experts of the week listed on the Answers home page in your profile. What better way than to become known as the person people will think of when they think of your products and services?!
6. Jobs
LinkedIn is a great way to either look for potential employers or to post a job opening. As a small business owner, you should consider entering your company profile and advertising positions here on LinkedIn. The people who apply for your postings will already have a resume on LinkedIn and it gives you the opportunity to screen them right on the site. You can even ask your network to recommend and introduce potential candidates!
Helpful Tip: If you are looking for a job, consider looking under the general ’Jobs’ tab of LinkedIn but Groups now have a job posting tab too. Check out those postings in your areas of interest.
7. Recommendations
Recommendations on LinkedIn are very valuable. These are testimonials of your work and only the person recommending you can go through this process. You can’t insert your own recommendations, so people tend to have a higher regard for these testimonials. Don’t be shy to go to your network and ask for one if you feel it is appropriate. And don’t forget to recommend others!
Helpful tip: You will receive an email when someone recommends you but you must accept the recommendation and opt to publish it. It won’t automatically show up so you should check your public profile from time to time to make sure the right information is showing up!
8. Links
Be aware that all the social media sites are heavily indexed by Google. If you want your LinkedIn profile to show up in a google search, you will want to modify your public profile url. You will find this in the Account and Settings section under Public profile. You will also want to make sure people can link to your website.
Helpful tip: When linking to your website, choose the “other” option instead of ‘my website’ and then enter your website address. Then look at your profile page where it says Websites. Instead of just listing “my website” with the link, it will show your actual website address.
9. Staying Noticed
It’s important to stay noticed on any of these social media sites. Here are ways to stay top of mind in LinkedIn.
- Add a new job position or course you have taken
- Add a new link to a website
- Recommend someone
- Change elements of your profile -keep them up to date
- Change your status
Helpful tip: Changing your status often in LinkedIn will also help with SEO. I change my status daily.
10. Etiquette
It’s important to know that there is proper etiquette on all the social media sites. Be respectful of others. Do not spam or try to solicit recommendations or mis-represent relationships. This is a sure-fire way to get reported on a site like LinkedIn. A better way is to ask for an introduction or join a group and make yourself known. Building relationships authentically is the key.
Helpful tip: When you receive a request for a connection from someone you don’t know, send them back an email first to ask why they would like to connect with you rather than just clicking the “I don’t know this person” option. It could be that you actually know this person or that they made a legitimate mistake in contacting you. It’s best to give them the benefit of the doubt at first. If you click the “I don’t know this person, it signals to LinkedIn that this individual might be a scammer and they can have their account suspended. If you receive an answer from the individual and still don’t want to connect with the person, simply “archive” the message. If the person on the other hand continues to harass you, then by all means, click on the I don’t know this person button or report them if they are a nuisance.
These are my top ten suggestions. I love comments! And I offer comment luv here on my blog…By leaving a comment, you will be able to link back to your own site…great for SEO 
Look forward to hearing from you!
While physically located in Newmarket Ontario where Joanne lives with her family, as a VA, she is virtually yours anywhere….
