LinkedIn is a powerful tool for making business connections—but it is just that, a tool. Even the most active users miss on some simple ways to optimise the way they use LinkedIn.
To make the most out of LinkedIn, here are a few tips which might help you achieve your goals for this social media platform.
Post statuses. Updating your status gives you visibility on your connections’ LinkedIn home page. If you have found something online your business connections would like, or have good news to share about your work, spread the word by posting it on LinkedIn.
Use it as a source of warm referrals. Use it to keep your partners and all of your connections in the loop on your activities via tweets and blog posts. It’s an especially effective tool for creating a point of commonality with potential clients. When you are introduced to a new potential client, immediately reference LinkedIn to see how you’re connected and from what shared source you can get a warm referral.
Write a rich but concise summary. Your summary should be about you, not your company—don’t just copy and paste the “about” page of your employer’s website. Your profile should be about what you do at your company, not what the company does as a whole. Tip: use concrete details like results you have generated and tasks you do on a daily basis to show people how awesome you are, not tell them.
Join key Linkedin groups. Join all the national groups that are related to your industry. Once you’re a member, post your best content articles in the group discussions and you’ll see a big spike in targeted traffic from your niche.
Connect with care. Your LinkedIn network is only as valuable as the strength of your connections. For some professionals, it is advantageous to connect generously, but for the majority, exercise restraint.. If you want to connect with someone and think it might be a stretch, be sure to personalise the message you send with the invite to explain why you want to connect—and why this person should want to connect with you.
Use Linkedin to request product recommendations from customers. LinkedIn allows you to highlight recommendations and reviews of your work product. Many prospective customers will Google a keyword, and your LinkedIn profile stands out. Having recommendations provides instant credibility.
If you write articles, make your article “Trending in Your Network”LinkedIn has a feature called “Trending in Your Network.” This feature is reserved for articles that are being shared by multiple people in your network around the same time. If you have an article that features your company, ask your team to share it around the same time. Since many clients will be connected to multiple members of your team, this increases the likelihood that they see your article.