Social Media Dive: LinkedIn

In my previous blog, Social or Not To Social, I discussed about how important it is to be on Social Media. We are now going to look in to the popular Social Media Platforms for next few weeks. This week let’s start with LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is a professional social media platform that has its intentions set out clearly from the beginning, connecting with people professionally. LinkedIn was founded in 2002 and launched on 5th of May 2003. As of June 2013, LinkedIn has over 225 million users in more than 200 countries and territories. LinkedIn is available in 20 languages worldwide.

With such a strong network base, LinkedIn has become one of the most powerful tools to help you connect with people professionally. LinkedIn can help you get new jobs, find new employees, get new clients, get more sales and expand your network.

There are ways in which you can take your profile to the next level, and make the most of this professional network. Let’s look at some of the things that can be done to take your profile to the top notch status.

Complete your LinkedIn Profile: Sounds obvious, but I have seen so many profiles that are not complete, or are missing the key elements in making the profile complete. Getting your Name, Headline, Profile Summary, Skills & Expertise, Experience, Education and Languages filled in properly.

Optimise your LinkedIn Profile for Search Results: When searching for people in Google, LinkedIn results are favoured. So make sure you claim your unique URL on LinkedIn. Headline, Skills & Expertise are keyword searchable, utilise this section carefully. Add links to your website, blog and other social media platforms, this helps in building an interrelated and interconnected network, which Google loves.

Make Valuable Connections: Connect with people who are relevant to you, rather than sending random connection requests. When sending connection requests, mention how you know them or why they should connect with you. The standard connection requests looks like you are not interested in making meaningful connections.

Give and Ask Genuine Recommendations: It is valuable to have recommendations from your connections on your capabilities and expertise. If you have worked with a client or a supplier write a genuine recommendation including how they have helped you solve a problem? Reciprocally, if you have worked with certain clients and delivered your projects with satisfaction, ask for recommendations using the same concept “How have I helped you solve an issue?”

Regular Activity: There is no point in having a fantastic LinkedIn profile, if you are not using it. Add regular updates that are shown in the activity feed. When adding updates, add valuable information, rather than sales messages. The more interaction you have on your LinkedIn profile though interactions, the more people will find you’re credible.

Here is my take on LinkedIn Profiles. This is just a starting point. Once you have started with the basics, you can go deeper with other sections, apps and products to even further optimise your LinkedIn profile.

I look forward to hearing questions you have about LinkedIn. Are there any interesting tricks and techniques that you have discovered? If so tell me about it.