Are you making the most of LinkedIn?

Did you know that every second a new professional joins LinkedIn?

Did you also know that Australia and New Zealand is the fastest growing region of LinkedIn users?

LinkedIn is a free online networking tool for professionals.  Founded in 2003, LinkedIn now has 55 million members in 200 countries and is the world’s largest business network.  To explain its power - all the executives from the Fortune 500 companies are LinkedIn members.

LinkedIn is used to:

• find new business contacts;
• display your professional expertise and experience;
• connect with people you know or have worked with;
• advertise upcoming events;
• promote your blog and its posts;
• find new contacts via people you are already connected with;
• find job candidates;
• apply for vacant positions and conduct research on the company and its employees and interviewers.

Here is a quick overview on how to use LinkedIn.

CREATE:

• Create a personal profile starting with the basic free account. 
• Create a company profile for your business.
• Make sure your employees also have LinkedIn profiles and are listed in the company profile as current employees.
• Complete 100% of your profile on who you are, what you do, your skills etc.
• Enter details of your previous positions and employers as this helps to market your experience.
• Try to use relevant keywords in your profile summary as it all assists in search engine optimisation.
• Have LinkedIn convert it into another language if needed.
• Add applications such as your blog and its posts, slideshare uploads, reading list.
• If you travel for business, add the “My Travel” application as it tells your connections what city you currently are in.  It’s a great way for your contacts to find you and meet with you if they are nearby. 

UPDATE IT:

• Keep your personal profile up to date.
• Regularly enter a status update eg.  What are you working on? Conferences you are attending etc.
• Promote your latest blog post via your status update
• If you are a large organisation, put someone in charge of keeping the company profile up to date and ensure keywords are in the company profile.

 ASK FOR RECOMMENDATIONS:

• Once you have found your business contacts, ask them for recommendations which will be posted to your profile.
• Go to your contact’s profile in order to request a recommendation.
• When asking for a recommendation, be specific on what you need the recommendation to be about eg. your graphic design skills.

GROUPS:

• Groups are likeminded professionals joining together
• Join relevant LinkedIn groups to your industry.
• Use groups to get answers to questions.
• Answer questions put out to groups in order to display your own expertise.
• Post articles onto LinkedIn discussion boards.
• Create your own group once you have worked out how they operate and  if you have the time required to manage one.

EVENTS:

• Publicise your events on LinkedIn.
• Your events will appear on your home page as well as the main events listings.
• Search for events to attend that are relevant to your industry.

ADVERTISE:

• Companies can place advertisements on LinkedIn pages. 

PROMOTE:

• Promote your LinkedIn profile via your email signature, business card, links from your social media sites, promotional materials.
• Invite your business contacts to ‘connect’ with you on LinkedIn.
• When you meet someone ask for their business card and see if you can connect with them on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is a free marketing exercise which highlights your reputation and expertise in the marketplace.  Join LinkedIn and make the most of it !