Do you want a practical approach to using LinkedIn? LinkedIn has a lot of features, and it’s not easy to understand how to use them and what to do to get results. Here is a checklist for making sure your LinkedIn implementation is successful.
1. Make sure your profile is 100% complete. LinkedIn will prompt you if your profile is incomplete. Some of the key factors are adding a photo, getting at least 3 recommendations, adding your education, creating a list of skills.
2. Make sure you connect to your Company Profile on LinkedIn, and other Company Profiles for past jobs. This allows searchers to view what companies you’ve worked with in the past and quickly see what they do. If you don’t have a company profile, as your employer to add one or create one if you’re the business owner.
3. Connect strategically to people you know. Past classmates and co-workers are great connections to stay in touch with, but also make sure you connect to clients, customers, strategic partners and industry
4. Post updates on a regular basis. Keep in mind that your connections may get emails for every update you post on LinkedIn (this is a preference users can modify, but many don’t know how). The frequency of your updates is up to you. It could be monthly, weekly, daily. The topics of your updates can include links to articles others have written, links to blog posts you’ve written, announcements about your speaking engagements.
5. Comment on your connections’ updates. Watch what your connections post and “Like” them or add a comment.
6. Start new, join existing and participate in LinkedIn Discussion Groups. Add discussions and create polls in the discussion groups. Ask how-to questions, request recommendations for solutions. Answer others’ questions.
7. Recommend and endorse co-workers and colleagues judiciously. Take time to write an intelligent, thoughtful recommendation for your connections. Use endorsements, but make sure the person you’re endorsing actually does a good job at the skill before you click on “Endorse.” (See my previous post on this – Are LinkedIn Endorsements Too Easy?)
LinkedIn now has somewhere over 100 million users (see Liz Gannes’ post on this on All Things Digital). Over 90% of corporations use LinkedIn to search for resources and skills. Most recently, LinkedIn is making a bit push to become a go-to website for content. Are you a part of this growth, or still on the sidelines?
Do you need help getting results from LinkedIn? New Incite provides LinkedIn workshops, training, consulting, and ongoing updates for clients. Contact us today for more information.