Get Linked In or Get Left Out

LinkedIn has 50 million members from around the world and. Over 50% of LinkedIn members are business decision makers. LinkedIn is a major social networking website for business people around the world that you can leverage to market yourself, your business and establish valuable business connections.

The first step is to sign up for an account and then create a complete profile.

LinkedIn is for business networking – complete your profile from a business perspective. Research indicates that LinkedIn members with a 100% complete profile with comprehensive and appropriate business-oriented information are 40 times more likely to receive requests for connections, jobs and other opportunities.

•LinkedIn tracks your profile completeness – get it to 100% or as close as you can.

•Always include a good, recent photo of yourself

•Include maiden names, nicknames, AKA names, etc. to help people to find you.

•List and provide links to your business-related website(s) and blog(s).

•Include acronyms and spell them out to ensure you are included in relevant searches.

•Include relevant keywords in various areas of your profile to help being included in searches.

•Review your profile – are you representing yourself in the manner you wish to be known?

•Thoroughly edit your profile – no grammar or spelling mistakes.

•Personalize your LinkedIn URL and make your profile public.

Having a 100% complete profile with comprehensive content is just the beginning – the real value is participating in the LinkedIn community:

•Connect with people. Find business associates, current and former colleagues, customers, etc. to invite to your LinkedIn network.

•Be generous with recommendations for others and also ask for recommendations. Recommendations significantly improve your credibility and network presence.

•Join and participate in relevant groups.

•Start your own group if you are willing to make the time commitment to manage it. There is a need for quality (not spam fuelled) groups on Linked In. Facilitating one of these groups improves your personal brand

•Answer questions to demonstrate your expertise and build credibility.

•Provide regular status updates of interest on your profile.

•Check the various updates from your community on your home page every day or at least once a week. Find possible participation opportunities and members to invite for connecting with you.

•Add a link to your LinkedIn public profile to your email signature.

•Depending on your business and objectives with LinkedIn, consider whether the additional fee-based services and advertising are worthwhile.

How to use this information to benefit your business:

•Think of LinkedIn as your expanded business card on the Internet – if people want to know who you are or who is behind a particular business, they’ll search on LinkedIn or find your public profile via a general Internet search.

•You and your business are intertwined – a good business-oriented personal profile and appropriate participation activity can promote your business.

•Don’t be spammy to promote yourself or your business. Participating and contributing to the community and demonstrating your expertise by helping others will produce much better results.

•Keep an eye on competitors by checking out what they are doing on LinkedIn and who they are connected to. Also be aware that your competitors will be watching you so be strategic in the information you are sharing.

You can connect with me on LinkedIn HERE

Original Article here