Top Secrets for
Using LinkedIn to Promote
Your Business or Yourself
by Gini Graham Scott, Ph.D.
Author of a Dozen Books on Work and Professional Development, including Want It, See It, Get It! and Enjoy! 101 Little Ways to Add Fun to Your Work Everyday
www.ginigrahamscott.com
Smashwords Edition
Copyright © 2010 by Gini Graham Scott
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any Web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART 1: THE BASICS OF GETTING STARTED THE RIGHT WAY
CHAPTER 1: CREATING A POWERFUL LINKED IN PROFILE
Creating Your Headline
Creating Your Summary
Describing Your Specialties
Describing Your Work Experience
Listing Your Websites
Including Your Interests
Listing Your Groups and Associations
Listing Your Honors and Awards
Using the Network Updates and Status Bar
Adding Network Updates
Ways to Use the Status Bar
Using a Photo
Using Contact Settings
CHAPTER 2: CONNECTING WITH COMPANIES
Adding a Company Profile
Adding Information to Your Company Profile
Connecting with Other Companies
Finding and Becoming a Service Provider
Finding Recommended Providers
Recommending Other Service Providers
CHAPTER 3: USING RECOMMENDATIONS
Viewing Recommendations
Getting and Giving Recommendations
Some Ways to Get Recommendations by Giving or Asking for Them
Being Selective About Your Recommendations
CHAPTER 4: THE IMPORTANCE OF GROUPS
Searching for Groups
Finding Different Types of Groups
Finding Groups in a Location
Finding Groups in an Industry
Finding Networking Groups
The Power of Joining Groups
What to Discuss
Using Your Signature in Your Postings
Adapting Your Postings to the Group
Pacing Your Postings
Keeping Track of New Discussions and Posts
Getting Permissions from the Group Moderator
Using the News Tab
Using Articles to Promote Yourself
Getting Your Name Out There by Submitting Articles
CHAPTER 5: MAKING CONNECTIONS WITH MEMBERS
Viewing the Members of a Group
Connecting with the Members of a Group
Increasing Your Chances of Making a Successful New Connection
Finding Out if the People You Know Are on Linked In and Inviting Them to Connect
Connecting with Colleagues and Classmates
Adding Connections
CHAPTER 6: STARTING YOUR OWN GROUP
How to Create a Group
Creating a Discussion
Adding News Articles and News Feeds
Submitting News Articles
Adding News Feeds
Managing Your Members
Sending Announcements
Creating Subgroups
PART 2: FINDING WHAT YOU WANT THROUGH SEARCHES AND QUESTIONS
CHAPTER 7: USING SEARCH TO FIND CONTACTS AND INFORMATION
Doing a General Search
Doing a More Targeted Search
Searching for References
Searching for Work
Searching for Companies and People in Companies
Searching for Groups and People in Groups
Searching for Groups
Searching for People in Groups
Connecting with High Level People
The Advantage of Being in Groups in Doing a Search
Searching for People in a Selected Area
Searching for Names or Subjects in Your Inbox
CHAPTER 8: FINDING ANSWERS AND ASKING QUESTIONS
Searching for Answers
Asking Questions
Becoming an Expert
CHAPTER 9: THE TOP TEN APPLICATIONS
Company Buzz
WordPress
Blog Link
Google Presentation
SlideShare Presentations
Events
My Travel
Box.net Files
Reading List
Polls
PART 4: DECIDING ON YOUR STRATEGY
CHAPTER 10: DECIDING ON THE BEST STRATEGY
LinkedIn's Tools and Techniques
Using LinkedIn with Other Social and Traditional Media
Getting Started
Building Your Contacts and Group Connections
Using Search, Questions, and Other Applications
Using Your Home Page to Build Your Connections
CHAPTER 11: ASSESSING YOUR CAMPAIGN
The Size of Your Network
The Number and Type of Responses
Increasing Awareness and Brand Identity
Using Your Analysis to Decide What to Do
INTRODUCTION
This book is designed to help you use LinkedIn to promote yourself or your business -- or if you are already on LinkedIn to help you expand your effectiveness. Even though there are other popular social networking sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, LinkedIn is the premier business-oriented service for connecting people who want to do business together. It currently has over 65 million members in over 150 industries and over 200 countries and territories around the world. Executives from all the Fortune 500 companies are LinkedIn members.
I developed this as a guide to accompany a series of workshops and seminars I have been doing on using the social media to promote oneself and expand one's business. I developed the material for these workshops and seminars and this guide as a result of using LinkedIn and the other social media to promote my own books, films, and TV projects over the last three years.
In the process, I participated in several workshops led by social media experts and worked with a social media consultant, who advised me and several employees who were working for me. I received several writing assignments for books and films as a result of clients I met through LinkedIn, have provided people in my network with advice and received advice from them, and have attended a number of events organized by people in my network.
Please note that I am writing this as an individual business owner with a LinkedIn account. I am not a representative of and have no other affiliation with LinkedIn.
Use your computer to connect to your LinkedIn account to follow along. Or go to www.linkedin.com and click on Join Today to create an account if you don't have one.
PART 1: THE BASICS OF GETTING STARTED THE RIGHT WAY
CHAPTER 1: CREATING A POWERFUL LINKED IN PROFILE
A first step to using LinkedIn is to create a complete and compelling profile.
A reason for this is that having a presence on LinkedIn will help get your name, Website, and profile to the top of the search engines. So you want your profile to be a strong selling point for your company, product, or service when people first come to your site. Even if you already have a strong Web presence, build your LinkedIn profile. Moreover, the more information and key words you put in your LinkedIn profile, the more that will help you with search engine optimization (SEO).
For example, my own LinkedIn site, comes up 5th, but that's because I already have a very active blog site, Wikipedia entry, and books on Amazon. If I didn't, my LinkedIn profile would be in 2nd or 3rd position.
Another reason to have a completed profile is that when someone goes to your profile to learn who you are, whether they're a potential client or prospective employer, you want to put your best foot forward. Your LinkedIn profile is like having a resume or posting your credentials online.
For example, at workshops I have repeatedly heard that researchers have found that 85% of employers before extending an offer will review a candidate’s LinkedIn profile in doing a background check. So you want to make sure you have as much information in your profile as possible.
Creating Your Headline
Your name and your headline are the first thing that people see when they go to your LinkedIn profile. First they see your name and then they see a second line which is your headline. Don't use the headline to list your title and the name of your company, which are already listed under "Current." There is no reason to waste space with a headline that tells someone what they will find when they look down and see the same information at your current position.
Also, use your headline to convey something about your business, since LinkedIn is a business networking site. Thus, if you want to promote what you did this past weekend or let people know that you like to ski or surf, use Facebook or another site that features fun activities. The purpose of LinkedIn is to promote business networking to build business relationships.
Accordingly, in writing your headline, you might write something like: "Entrepreneur, Social Media Expert, and Business-to-Business Marketing Specialist." Use three or four descriptive terms to create an eye-catching headline, so when people see your profile, they will see what you specialize in right away. Think of it this way: in business you typically have about 5-10 seconds to catch people’s attention. So use your headline to do just that.
To enter your display name and your headline, go to the Edit My Profile tab, and fill in the Basic Information boxes with this information.
Creating Your Summary
As part of completing your profile, complete your summary, too. Consider this summary a snapshot to draw people to want to do business with you.
For example, in your summary, you might highlight you the professional but include a little bit about you the person. You can be unique in your summary, as well as provide details to feature the main things you do in one business or a number of businesses. Thus, you might note some of the specific services that your company provides or promote your multiple businesses. Avoid having an incomplete summary, so fill it up with as much information as possible.
It's best to update your summary once a month with fresh content, just as it's preferable to keep your Website current. Keeping your summary updated regularly will not only provide information for clients, but help with your SEO, so you optimize your opportunities for search engines to find you. The process is the same as adding new content to improve the SEO for your Website. If you don't have time to keep your profile updated yourself, find a local or virtual assistant to post new information, such as new products, services, or news about your company or yourself.
In short, think of your summary as a way to engage people to want to do business with you. Thus, don't only talk about yourself, but talk about how you can help people, since people want to know how you might assist them in making their own business grow. Then, if they think you can help them, they will want to know more about you. So always try to find ways to give value and help people.
Describing Your Specialties
The Specialties section is where to put the main types of products and services you provide. Use as many common keywords as possible, since this will not only help prospective customers and clients see what you offer, but it will help the search engines find you. When they do, you will come up higher in the rankings when prospects put in these words in a search.
If you have specialties in different fields, include them all. For example, one woman at a workshop had one business offering health services and a place that could be used for meetings. Plus she assisted with party planning and special events. In listing her specialties, she should include a number of terms related to health and to her party and event planning business. In another case, a man specialized in accounting and taxes, but also was proficient in Excel and database management. So he should put all of that in his list of specialties.
Describing Your Work Experience
Ideally, include your past five years of work experience in your LinkedIn profile, and some people even go back 10 years. The reason for including this detail about your past work is that when people search for you, they may look for you by the company where you worked. So suppose they know you from when you worked at XYZ Company, though now you’re with the ABC Company. If you don’t have the XYZ Company in your profile, when they do a search by your name, they may find multiple people with the same name as you. So they won't be able to tell whether someone with your name is you or not unless you have the XYZ Company in your LinkedIn profile.
Thus, go back at least five years, and if you're looking for work, it's even more important to have as much work experience in your LinkedIn profile as possible. Consider LinkedIn like having a second resume.
Listing Your Websites
LinkedIn also helps to drive traffic to up to three of your Websites. It has generic fields for Websites, which are “My Company,” “My Blog,” and “My Personal Website.” While you can use these three, you can readily adapt them to list the most important Websites for you, if you go to “edit my profile” and choose "Other." But if you have a blog, keep that.