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- Learning How to Use LinkedIn
- Website Success Using LinkedIn
- Changing How I do Business Using LinkedIn .
- How to Brand Yourself in LinkedIn
Learning How to Use LinkedIn
You have likely already heard a
great deal about LinkedIn. While eight years old it is only in the
last while that word is really
getting out about just how powerful this site can be to your
business. If you have not yet used
LinkedIn or you are relatively new to the site, you’ll find some
great tips here that can help you
maximize this social media platform and get the most out of i.
LinkedIn is an excellent tool for
building your business and establishing relationships with
individuals within your niche
market. If you use the following tips, you’ll see results. It won’t take
you long to build a strong
following and accumulate connections. Your connection to other
professionals will grow daily. One
of the most important things about LinkedIn is finding the right
persons to connect with to get the
best results if you are using powerful strategies to target
followers.
The best way to start building
your LinkedIn network is to join groups. The key is to not hesitate.
Instead, jump in with both feet
and start participating in discussions and making those
connections. Make yourself a goal
to add at least one new connection every day. Over time, the
results will become evident.
It is really important that you
have your LinkedIn profile 100% finished. Incomplete profiles have
the potential to hinder your
ability to be found on the site. The more information you are willing
to share the more trust you will
build and the more likely you are to enjoy success with your
LinkedIn profile.
When creating your LinkedIn
profile makes sure you upload a good picture of yourself. Don’t put
up glamour and don’t put up your
company logo. Use this spot to help to create to a visual for
those individuals that look at
your profile. Let them see who you are.
Make sure that you obtain at least
a few recommendations, which give you credibility. The
easiest way to get a
recommendation is to give a recommendation. Continue to build these over
time. The more the better.
Finally, seek out groups that are
relevant to your niche, your industry, your profession, etc. The
more groups you join the more
opportunities to promote yourself and your company. Don’t
forget to take advantage of the
company pages that you can build for no cost. It is yet another
tool to help you promote and grow your
business.
LinkedIn is a social media site
just as Facebook is. However, they are much different. There is
no place for children or teens
here. This is a site that’s for business owners, professionals,
entrepreneurs, and freelancers.
Learn How to Receive Recommendations on LinkedIn
When others recommend you on
LinkedIn, it aids in you in establishing credibility. These days,
a LinkedIn recommendation could be
the difference between you getting a position and not
getting a position. SO how do you
get someone who you have done business with to write a
recommendation for you? Glad you
asked. Read on to find out how.
Even when the other party says
“sure” they will write you a recommendation, the question
becomes can they write a good one.
Just because a person is an excellent business owner
doesn’t mean they are a great
writer.
A recommendation needs to be
professional and it needs to tell those reading it why you are
recommended. Are you reliable? Do
you do excellent work? Are you affordable? Are you top in
your field? You get the idea.
If you write a recommendation for
the party you are asking for a recommendation from, it
accomplished two things. First,
they will feel more obligated to provide that recommendation to
you. Second, if you write a good recommendation
about the other party, then they can use that
as a bit of a template for writing
yours and it is much more likely to be exactly what you want.
Make sure there is no swearing or
cussing in the recommendation a person writes for you. A
recommendation should begin with
the ‘best’ thing about the person. It should be brief, concise,
and to the point.
However, you should never write a
recommendation for someone you have not worked with
personally, because you are
putting your reputation on the line when you do so. Go ahead and
link to anyone that you link to
anyone that you like, just be a little more cautious when it comes
to who you will write a
recommendation.
This brings up another point. If
someone you haven’t worked for directly offers to write a
recommendation for you, it is a
good idea to not accept that recommendation. The reason being
is you do not know anything about
that person and as a result if they are less than reputable
that will reflect on you and could be very detrimental
LinkedIn – it seems to have become
one of the buzzwords but still only, a few actually
understand much about LinkedIn
other than its stock continues to grow in value. LinkedIn is
where you will find 100 million
professionals who have gathered. It’s a forward thinking concept,
that’s smart and focused.
There are a lot of people that
still think of LinkedIn as a site where online resumes are stored.
What many don’t realize is that
LinkedIn is eight years old. It came to being long before the
Great Recession. Moreover, while
it is useful in connecting people to job that was really is only
a small portion of the creator’s
vision for the site. Today the site is so much more than that.
As the economy changes and adapts,
LinkedIn will be able to continuously offer value to
professionals in a number of ways,
not just to find jobs. We already have had a taste of where
the creators are taking the site.
We have seen:
Signal – It’s a tool that allows
you to see what is happening in your network by letting you sort
through relevant tweets, status
updates, and connections. Are you ready for the next rollouts
that LinkedIn developers are going
to introduce?
You will be happy to know that
it’s as easy as can be. Make sure your profile is credible. Take
some time to review it at least a
couple of times for accuracy. Check to ensure it is complete
and that there is no important
information missing. Is your story consistent?
Give your connections the
attention they deserve. If you do not have enough connections, you
will miss out on the powerful
tools LinkedIn offers. If you have too many connections then these
phenomenal tools also become
useless because your network is really just junk. So choose
your connections wisely.
Do not be afraid to connect with
your connections. Every now and then drop by their profile and
say ‘hi,’ ask how their family is
doing, or how they have been feeling. If you are aware that
someone is completing a major
project and find out how things are going and if they are coming
together.
It really is very simple. Whether
you are looking to find a job, get yourself promoted, or find out
more about what is happening in
your particular field you will be ready. When you use LinkedIn
as the powerful tool, it is you
can enjoy website success.
Changing How I do Business Using LinkedIn
If you find yourself wondering if
LinkedIn could have a positive affect on your business, the
answer is an emphatic yes. Many
online business owners will tell you that LinkedIn is one of
their most valuable tools.
Participating in LinkedIn is a
great way to bring in questions and queries that are later converted
into paying sales. Many businesses
have been able to get business directly from LinkedIn. The
key is patience. You won’t generate
revenue overnight but the customers you do establish often
become long-term customers.
If you are targeting B2B
companies, LinkedIn will be a very valuable tool, as it is preferred over
Twitter and Facebook according to
a recent study. However, it is not enough to just put up a
profile. You will need to take the
time to create a detailed profile, and then you need to
participate on the site. Groups
are a great way to do that.
When it comes to groups, the more
the merrier. Seek out groups that meet your profession,
your industry, or your niche. Then
make sure you engage in conversation on those groups. Over
time, you will increase traffic to
your website, and you can improve your Google ranking. Make
sure you use Google Analytics so
that you can see where your traffic is coming from.
Do not make the mistake of
thinking LinkedIn is just a source of business. It is so much more.
You can use it to seek our
vendors; find consultants, hire professionals, and these same people
can refer business over to you.
Group discussions can be a
valuable source of information. You can learn all kinds of great
things like streamlining business
procedures, learning how to use LinkedIn to change how you
do business, finding ways to find
better vendors and suppliers. The groups are a wealth of
information. If you participate in
the groups you are a member of, you will also be a source of
information for others. It’s a two
way street and when used properly can be very beneficial.
The internet has changed the way
we do business. Social media has changed the way business
is done even more, and LinkedIn,
which prides itself in being a business resource, simply takes
things a little further keeping
things focused and business related. If you are not yet using
LinkedIn, the time has come for
you to sign up and begin to enjoy the benefits it has to offer.
How Professionals Can Benefit From LinkedIn
Professionals turn to LinkedIn as a method of communication. By creating relationships and
sustaining those relationships,
they can enjoy the full benefit of LinkedIn. LinkedIn builds
credibility, which in turn
provides networking opportunities to professionals.
Referrals that are obtained
through a professional LinkedIn network offers a number of
opportunities These referrals are
also more qualified and because LinkedIn offers a very
efficient method to build your
referral base, it’s extremely popular. LinkedIn is an excellent forum
to network and to build referral
systems that are strong and reliable.
When you connect with individuals
on LinkedIn, you then are able to take advantage of what are
referred to as second and third
tier contacts. You can take advantage of these levels in order to
further build your referral base.
It can quickly gain momentum and before long, it will be growing
rapidly.
Quality not quantity are the best
motivators. When you are connecting with individuals on
LinkedIn, it is more important
that you look for quality connections. Qualify your connections
before you start sending out he
invites. When you are communicating with any of the referrals,
you should reference “LinkedIn
Today.” The news section will provide you with relevant industry
news that can help you determine
quality and relevance.
LinkedIn continuously adds new
products and apps that help to improve the professional lives of
those using LinkedIn, which is
more than just a place people go when they are looking for jobs.
LinkedIn focuses on building
relationships through groups and by using “LinkedIn Today.”
Other like-minded professional
contacts, which was made so that you can communicate freely.
You will be updated with industry
news that is relevant, so you will be prepared and ready.
LinkedIn is able to use a vanity
URL specified for the business, which can be more professional
and easier to find on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn offers job postings and it offers tracking of information
such as when individuals leave a
company, along with day-to-day tasks.
Groups are one of the most
powerful tools that LinkedIn offers. Not only should you join relevant
groups, you should participate in
those groups. Doing so can be far reaching and it can lead to
new business, which translates to
more jobs, and increased revenues.
When you use all or some of the
tools that LinkedIn has to offer you can create a profile that can
have maximum impact. As a
professional, you’ll discover opportunities you never dreamed of.
Improve Web Traffic Combining
LinkedIn and Facebook
Many have willingly dove into
using Facebook, but those same people are often hesitant to try
LinkedIn. That’s mostly because
they do not really understand what LinkedIn is. Let’s look at the
difference between these two, and
why it is important to actually use both.
It was on September 26, 2006 that
Facebook went public. Anyone that was age 13 or older was
allowed to join the site. Since
then, teens, moms, dads, young adults, grandmas, grandpas, and
adults alike have arrived in
droves at Facebook so that they could stay in touch with friends and
family. The site has few
restrictions and is all about personal social networking. You post you
landed that new job, you tell your
friends that your boy just scored the winning goal, or you post
pictures of your kid’s birthday
party.
This is where LinkedIn differs. There’s really no place for children’s sporting events, or birthday
parties here. LinkedIn is a social
network for professionals. On LinkedIn, you can connect with
coworkers, colleagues, and
professionals and others that you meet while you are networking.
It’s an excellent place to connect
with others that like-minded, gather ideas, and find career
opportunities with potential.
Resume is setup rather like a
resume that’s professional and polished. Make sure you take
advantage of all the features on
the site. The LinkedIn groups are of great value and an
excellent way to network and meet
others.
LinkedIn is not just for you to
connect with those you know or with people from within your own
industry. Make sure to think
outside the box. Thinks about what industries might compliment
your own. Then connect with
individuals from those industries. Join groups and then seek out
those with the same professional
interests you have. Then you can connect with them.
On Facebook, find people you know
and people who share your interests or your profession.
Join groups and pages, then reach
out to those individuals within the groups or pages, and
connect with them.
So let’s recap what each has to offer.
Use Facebook to:
Connect with friends and family
Reveal your personal feelings and
thoughts
Keep up-to-date with friends and
family
Chat with friends
Post personal photos and videos
Share fun information
Follow brands you like
Participate in groups
Connect with professionals,
colleagues, and coworkers
Post your online resume
Connect with like-minded people
Find potential career
opportunities
Share your expertise
Learn from others
To keep up-to-date with your
professional networks.
When you understand the
differences between Facebook and LinkedIn, you can use both to
bring traffic to your site. Both
are very valuable tools to bring traffic to your site.
Is Your Private Information
Being Leaked on LinkedIn
One of the most common concerns
that arise by those using LinkedIn is whether or not their
private information is being
leaked out to the internet and to the public. What you may not
realize is that this leaking of
information can be very beneficial to you and your business. There
is a lot of information on social
media sites like LinkedIn.
There’s plenty to take away from
the company information that can be found on LinkedIn. The
competitive intelligence and
marketing information is invaluable. There are tons of valuable
information on this social media
site for anyone who is seeking to get their hands on corporate
data.
On LinkedIn, individuals are busy
promoting their professional credentials and tend to share a
lot of information. If you use
some of the LinkedIn search tools that are available for free, you
can pull out the information that
you need.
You may be surprised at just how
many corporate secrets are actually floating around on
LinkedIn. Employees have a
tendency to share information that they think is harmless, when in
fact it is often providing the
competition with information they need.
For example, Company A’s employees
writes in his status “I just signed the largest Wi-Fi
contract that’s ever been signed
at a whopping $10 million dollars.” Company B is wondering
what the competition has been
doing with their Wi-Fi contracts. They obtain this information on
LinkedIn, which otherwise may have
been very difficult to obtain.
While what you find might not be
earth shattering. If you take just 10 minutes to surf the site
looking for information on Apple
you would discover:
*In 60 days Apple shipped 2
million iPads.
*On launch day, there were more
than 300,000 iPads available.
*Apple HR had more than 30
internal sites.
If your company has strategic
information that you do not want to find searchable on LinkedIn,
you should consider using one of
the software programs that will monitor your LinkedIn profile(s)
watching for posts on your
company.
So what does your LinkedIn profile
or your LinkedIn company page say about you. What are
you sharing with the world, and is
it information that you wanted to share? Have a final look to
make sure you have no ‘company
secrets’ floating around that you didn’t intend to share, and
instruct your employees on what is
considered acceptable posts about what is going on in within
the company.
8 Ways to Maximize Your
LinkedIn and Your Personal Branding
Personal branding is key to your
success and LinkedIn is an excellent tool to help you achieve
that. Let’s look at 8 ways to
maximize your LinkedIn and your personal branding.
1. Make the Most of your Profile
Using your LinkedIn profile
properly is very important. When you communicate with others on
the site, your profile will speak
for you. Don’t just upload any photo, upload a good photo. Don’t
upload your logo here. People want
to see what you look like. Make sure you completely fill out
your profile – do not leave any
areas blank.
2. Build Your Contacts
When you first join LinkedIn you
need to build your contact base. Connect present and past
colleagues along with your alumni
from your university or college.
3. Recommendations
Recommendations are very
important. In fact, it is one of the most powerful tools that LinkedIn
has to offer. That’s because
people recognize recommendations as sincere and trustworthy.
Other people must write them and
they are very hard to fake or forge.
4. Use Groups
There are three ways you can use
groups: lead generation, increase your LinkedIn profile
development, and personal
development by learning from
5. Promoting Events
Using LinkedIn to promote your
events is a very wise move. You can easily target your
audience and you can spread your information
quickly all the while establishing your personal
brand.
6. Use Your Status Updates
The LinkedIn status updates are
not used to their full potential. However, that’s been changing a
little bit thanks to the
integration of Twitter with your LinkedIn profile, a move that was much
needed. Update your LinkedIn
profile with relevant blog posts and news. When you use your
status updates wisely they can
play an integral role in your person branding.
7. Using Applications
LinkedIn offers a very good learning
center to help you get the most out of the various apps that
are available including the best
way to go about creating your personal bonding.
8. Networking for Lead Generation
LinkedIn is a very powerful tool
for you to use to connect with others who are looking to
individuals from within the
corporate community. When you take full advantage of the tools
LinkedIn offers you can build a
powerful personal brand. It will not take as long as you might
think, and it is worth every bit
of time you put into it.
Getting the Most From
LinkedIn Searches
There are plenty of social media
sites out there and LinkedIn is one of them. Unlike Facebook,
which caters to users of all ages
over 13, from all walks of life, and with all kinds of interests,
LinkedIn is far more focused.
LinkedIn is the best social media site for professionals,
businesses, and freelancers alike.
There is no room here for teens or hobbies. This is a site that
allows you to promote yourself and
your company and to network with other businesses within
similar markets.
One of the powerful tools that
LinkedIn has to offer is the ability to search. When you know how
to get the most from your LinkedIn
searches, you can truly get the most out of the site. LinkedIn
is built on a highly evolved platform
with a well-developed search platform that is broken into six
separate sections. Each of these
sections will offer you a mix of suggestions as you type. The
advanced search is a very powerful
tool.
6 Sections for Advanced Searches
Here is the brake down for the six
individual sections for your advanced searched.
Updates – You can filter your
results based on your connection level. You can set updates from
your immediate network – from
friends of your friends, friends to friends, or your third level
marketing. You can also filter by
time, location, range, etc.
People – You can filter by
relationship, location, school, and industry. There are several more
options available if you have a
premium membership.
Jobs – You can filter by how
current the jobs are, the industry they are in, the experience that is
required, etc. There are a number
of other search options available in this section.
Companies – You can filter by
industry, location, company size, relation, fortune, etc.
Groups – In groups you can filter
by language and category.
Answers – You can filter by
categories, and you can even add multiple categories.
With so many options, you
shouldn’t have too much difficulty seeking out exactly what you
need, especially if you also use
the search Boolean operators. Using these operators, you can
exclude words, add words, combine
two or more phrases, and add that final touch to your
search. Tweaking ensures you get
the exact results you were looking for.
Understanding how to use the
LinkedIn searches to their fullest capability offers you stimulating
opportunities that will inspire
you to search more creatively not just on LinkedIn but on other
social media sites too.
Building Meaningful LinkedIn
Relationships
If you have any type of
professional life, which most of us do, you should have signed up at
LinkedIn. You will create a
profile just as you do on other social media sites. However, just
setting up your profile is not
enough. You need to make sure your profile is complete and
working effectively so that you
get the most benefit and value from it.
LinkedIn is recognized as a very
effective way for professionals and businesses to build
relationships that eventually will
lead to business opportunities. It is also recognized as a great
way to strengthen your network,
maintaining it and keeping it strong, and ensuring you get the
most out of your business.
To begin with, you will establish
connections that will help you increase your exposure online
and help you to boost your
reputation. Make sure that you have filled out the business profile so
that those who are surfing and
visiting the site can check it out. You should include people from
within your company that you work
with.
Once you connect with others, you
need to do more. To build a relationship you have to go
deeper. If you just connect but
you never interact, there will be nothing for either of you to gain
from the experience. It’s critical
that you interact if you want LinkedIn to be a successful
component of your business.
You might be surprised to learn
that it is all in the timing. As soon as you make a new
connection, you respond to a
question, you are introduced to a business associate, etc. you
need to make the move to
communicate directly with this person. There are tons of ways to
bridge that gap and open up
communication. You can ask a question, show interest in what they
are saying, give advice, etc.
Make sure that you make the most
of every event. Pay attention to events and activities that are
happening in LinkedIn and that you
are involved in. There are likely a number of events that you
business could benefit from. Try
to find live events in your area, or follow web events.
Be a resource to other LinkedIn
members. If you know how to listen to other, it can be a very
valuable tool. Sharing your
expertise with others is an excellent way to build significant
relationships within LinkedIn and
these relationships are far reaching to your business and may
eventually translate to revenue.
Knowing how to build meaningful
relationships on LinkedIn will help you to create a viable tool
that can benefit your business in
many different areas.
Building Strong Business
Connections on LinkedIn
You may already have a LinkedIn
account. Are you using it in the manner that you should be to
get the maximum benefit from it?
It’s important for your profile to be complete and then you
must leverage the connections you
have made.
If you find LinkedIn isn’t doing a
whole lot for your business, you may be concentrating your
efforts in the wrong place. A
common mistake is to spend all your time building your online
connections so that you are able
to strengthen your visibility and credibility. That is important;
however, that’s not your toughest
challenge. A much larger challenge that you face is to take
the connections that you establish
and deepen them so much that those people are buying what
you are selling.
The success of all social media
relies on relationships, and LinkedIn is no different. Meaningful
interactions are a must to the
success of any business whether that interaction occurs face-to-face
or online isn’t significant – it
just must occur.
You need to pay close attention to
the connections you are making and what they are doing.
You are connected to them online,
so it’s highly likely that they will be posting the events they
plan to attend. If you see that
those events are occurring in your region, you should also plant to
attend them. If the events are
live, you should attempt to set up an appointment where you can
meet face to face. It will do
wonders for the growth of your business.
Your timing is of the essence. The
goal is to build deep relationships with the most important of
your connections. In a perfect
world, you would do this with all your connections but initially start
with the connections that you feel
can have the greatest value to your business.
Don’t be afraid to ask for advice
on LinkedIn. There isn’t anyone who doesn’t just love to get
their opinion in there. Everyone
wants to feel valued and important. You will be quite surprised
at the number of very good
responses you receive. When you reach out you are able to
communicate with one of your
connections and begin to build a relationship with that person.
LinkedIn is a powerful tool for
building strong business connections providing you understand
how to use it properly and
maximize your relationships on LinkedIn. We’ve started you down the
right path. There is plenty of
other helpful information available online – make use of it!
6 Top LinkedIn Open
Networkers you Should be Following
Open networkers can be a powerful
tool for you on LinkedIn, so let’s look at the 6 tops LinkedIn
open networkers you should be
following.
However, before we do that we must
remind that it is against the LinkedIn User Agreement to
invite someone into your network
of professionals if you do not know them personally. The
reason for this is LinkedIn was
built on the philosophy of trust, which means you need to know a
person in order to truly trust
them.
LinkedIn has added the follow
feature, which allows you to follow a group discussion, and then a
little later on you can invite
them to join your network.
1. Olivier Taupin – Linked HR is
the largest LinkedIn Group at 850,000 members and more than
350,000 professionals. Creating a
community of this magnitude is no easy task. Definitely, this
group's worth exploring.
2. Chris Brogan – Most of you
already know who Chris Brogan is, a well-known, powerful online
marketing guru. Be sure to read
the many posts Chris has on in LinkedIn blog. Chris is a very
smart networker and you would be
wise to hook up with him on LinkedIn, because you can learn
a lot.
3. Gerald Haman – This is a man
who is known as the ‘solution man,’ on LinkedIn and he is also
the creator of tons of ‘innovator’
LinkedIn groups including “Innovative Marketing, PR, Sales,
Word-of-Mouth & Buzz
Innovators with more than 100,000 members. Gerald Haman is a
professor at Northwestern
University, and he has also helped clients generate more than 2
billion dollars in revenue from 3
million ideas.
4. Thubten Comerford – This is a
man who has a deep spiritual connection, and who has been
ordained as a monk in the Tibetan
temple in the past. He also has an incredibly successful track
record in his business ventures.
He is a social media consultant and you should definitely have
a look at what he offers.
5. Jay Deragon – This may be a
name you are familiar with since he was one of the social
media bloggers for 2011 that was
mentioned a number of times. Jay’s goal is to have us all
become part of his new ‘Social
Flights’ venture. Jay is a very smart and business savvy man
and most of us could earn a lot
from him.
6. Gary Zukowski – Here is another
one of the top connectors. If you have the opportunity to
hear the story of Gary Zukowski’s
company TweetMyJOBS be sure to do so. TweetMyJOBS is
the largest job board and
recruiting station on Twitter. Gary is a very savvy person when it
comes to the twittersphere.
Top Ways to Maximize Your
LinkedIn Profile
Your LinkedIn profile can be an
excellent tool that can help you to grow your business and
ensure increased sales. LinkedIn
groups are a great place to start your focus. Find groups that
are relevant is a good place to
start.
No matter what your industry, your
business, or your profession, there are groups that are a
great match, and that will benefit
you. There are benefits to both joining and then participating
in these groups. There are many
really powerful groups with thousands of members. The
largest is 32,000. These powerful
groups can be a real help when building your business.
Take it one-step further and
connect your LinkedIn and Twitter accounts. That way both
accounts can receive an update.
When you sync from Twitter it tends to stay on top longer than
it usually does in a Twitter
stream. The more interaction that occurs the more people that see it,
which can be very helpful. So, be
sure to connect your Twitter account to your LinkedIn account.
Next, you want to add your company
profile. LinkedIn is always improving its platform and until
just recently, the company page
section has been lagging. Now you can share information on
your products and services, you
can add a video, and you can provide insights on the people
who work for your company, and on
your company itself.
Take the time to perform search
engine optimization. People are always searching for other
people and/or companies on
LinkedIn. They might be looking for freelancers, employees,
industry experts, employee
candidates, and so many more. Just imagine how happy you would
be if suddenly you were being
continuously contacted for the products and services you offer.
By taking the time to do your
search engine optimization so that you place better in the search
engines you, open up these doors.
Finally, take some time and add
some advanced applications that can help you. One of the
biggest improvements on LinkedIn
has been that they have added a number of useful
applications. It does not matter
what your industry is, there is at least one application for
everyone that will help to get
your messages across faster and more efficiently improving the
LinkedIn experience. Take
advantage of the applications and tools that are available to you. It
can make your LinkedIn experience
that much better.
Now that you have some of the top
ways to maximize your LinkedIn profile, what are you
waiting for?
Adding Admins to Your
LinkedIn Company Profile
There is a lot of buzz around the
LinkedIn site. If you do not already have a LinkedIn account,
the time has come to set one up.
LinkedIn now allows you to ‘add Admins’ to your LinkedIn
company profile. This is a handy
feature that was certainly needed. Some businesses have a
dedicated employee that
administers the LinkedIn company profile, but others share the tasks
and it makes it much easier when
each person can have their own admin log in.
LinkedIn used to be that when you
created your profile for your business or organization you
were the only one that would be
able to edit that profile. Then they added another feature that
allowed anyone with a company
domain email to access the profile. Finally, now you can add
people in your network.
You will still maintain total
control of the profile because you are the creator of the profile.
However, this is a great feature
for those that hire a consultant outside of the organization to
manage their social media. You can
now manage that account without having to have access to
your account.
If you would like to use this
option for your LinkedIn company profile, just click on the ‘edit’
button, which you will find on the
right corner. Then under the ‘Company Pages Admins’ section
you will need to choose
‘Designated users only.’ Here you will type in the box the name of the
person you want to add. It says
“Start typing a name.” If you are adding more than one ‘Admin’
person than you will just need to
repeat the process.
Having other administrators
ensures someone is available at all times to answer questions, post
commentary, and follow what’s
going on in the groups. Not only does it diversify the workload, it
also diversifies the posts,
different ideas, different dialogue, and different ways of discussing
things.
LinkedIn is a social media tool
for businesses, professionals, and entrepreneurs of all sizes. No
business should be without a
LinkedIn account, in this day and age. Don’t worry. It’s relatively
easy to set up an account and to
use the site. LinkedIn itself provides you with tons of help and
there are all kinds of information
available online as well.
If you have a LinkedIn account,
why not add another administrator to take some of the pressure
off of you. If you are just
setting up an account then be sure to share the administrator
responsibilities.
Top 5 LinkedIn Marketing Tips
for Business
LinkedIn us such a useful business
tool, and yet far too often its true value is overlooked. This is
by far one of the best tools
available so make sure that you take advantage of it.
1. Complete your profile – Your
profile is at the heart of your online business branding. Your
LinkedIn profile will almost always
rank very well in a Google search. You want to have a solid
profile because first impressions
can make or break you. Make sure your profile is completely
filled out with no missing
information.
2. Connect with all – You should
connect with as many people as you can. Begin with those you
know and trust and then you will
be able to make recommendations to other users when they
are looking for an introduction.
If you want to find the opportunities that are out there, you need
to keep your communication lines
open on LinkedIn. The more connections you make the more
you will be able to grow your
business and improve your sales.
3. Create a call to action – It is
easy to do and so important. You need to create a call to action
on your profile. When people arrive
and read what you have to say they’ll feel inspired and
much more likely to click through
on your links that will take them to your website.
4. Make sure you are compelling –
Most LinkedIn profiles will put you to sleep. Yawn – they are
so boring and show nothing of the
personality of the individual. Make it interesting and
compelling. Tell people who you
are, who the people are you help, what you offer for sale in
services or products, and anything
else that could be important to making you interesting for
those that find your profile.
5. Recommend Others – Give and you
will receive. If you recommend then you will be
recommended. When you recommend
others without them asking you to do so, they return the
favor and this will help to
improve your profile and build credibility, which will improve your
business.
How to Brand Yourself in
LinkedIn
LinkedIn has become a key business
networking tool, and it can be an incredibly powerful
resource when you want to develop
your personal brand. To maximize LinkedIn take advantage
of all the features it has to
offer and make the most out of your LinkedIn branding campaign.
1. Edit your LinkedIn URL – As
part of developing your brand, you can leverage your name.
Click on ‘Profile,’ then click on
‘Edit Profile.’ A blue box appears. Scroll down to the bottom to
‘Public Profile.’ Click ‘Edit,’ and a page comes up. Enter your
name in the box on the right hand
side.
If you have a more common name,
you can try using your ‘first name + middle initial + last
name.” This will let you expand
your name brand. Your LinkedIn profile will appear higher in
Google search rankings, which
means if someone is looking for you, they are much more likely
to find you.
2. Modify your Headline – Modify
your headline and take advantage of the branding power
LinkedIn can offer you. If you are
attempting to position yourself to advance your career, you
should not overlook the power of
the headline. LinkedIn defaults your last job title in the
headline. However, you can modify
this, simply by going to ‘Profile,’ then ‘Edit Profile,’ and then
click ‘Edit.”
Use a keyword or keywords that
potential recruiters are likely to search. If you were most
recently a Director of Marketing,
you could create a headline that supports that.
3. Create a Flawless LinkedIn
Profile – Consider hiring a professional writer to create copy
that’s compelling and engaging, as
well as keyword rich. Make sure that it is 100% free of
errors.
4. Ask for Recommendations – Ask
former or current superiors, subordinates, or colleagues for
recommendations. Click ‘Profile,’
then click ‘Recommendations.’ Type a short note asking for
the recommendation. When hiring
managers and/or recruiters see the positive comments in the
recommendation they care more
likely to look to you.
Finally, join groups and then
participate in them. In fact, the importance of groups cannot be
stressed enough. They do a great
job of extending your reach. When you use them smartly, you
will enhance your professional
branding and that’s important. By participating in the groups your
name will become recognizable and
you will be able to build your branding, one of the most
powerful strategies around!
How to Create Your Personal
Brand Using LinkedIn
These days just about everyone has
a LinkedIn account. LinkedIn is an excellent site to
promote and sell yourself as a
professional, and your company, or organization. Follow these
steps and you will be way ahead of
the crowd when it comes to using LinkedIn for personal
branding.
Step #1 Determine what you want your
LinkedIn profile to do for you. LinkedIn is about much
more than posting a picture. It is
a chance for you to stay connected to people, showing them
who you are and what your goals
are.
Step #2 Don’t be boring. There are
40 million members. Make what you have to say interesting
enough to get read. Stand out in a
very big crowd! You can pull in other content such as your
blog, books you are reading, etc.,
to keep things interesting.
Step #3 Now it’s times to write a
summary – rock it! You can write it in the third person if you
like. It may feel strange like you
are bragging about yourself. When you write in the third person,
it gives you the opportunity to
write your full name. Of course, you can always write in the first
person too. Remember to incorporate
your company name, your keywords, and anything else
you want associated with your
LinkedIn profile.
Step #4 A photo is important. Even
if you are self-conscious about how you look in a photo,
remember this – those that are
thinking of working with you. If a person is going to pass
judgment on you by your appearance
then they might as well do it right away rather than later.
Have a headshot taken if you must.
Professional photographers can get a good shot of
everyone.
Step #5 For your URL get a vanity
URL. For example, if your LinkedIn profile looks a bit like this
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/joe-blow/3/231/438
you can make it available at
http://www.linkedin.com/in/joeblow
This is much easier to remember
than the first URL.
Step #6 Show our profile to
another person and get their feedback. Then you can tweak it. In
fact, show it to a few people. At
least once a month you should tweak your profile.
Step #7 Now it is time to start
using LinkedIn. You can begin to recommend people who you
work with, look for old co-workers
that you really liked and respected.
There you have it – Seven simple
steps to help you create your personal brand using LinkedIn.
How to Use LinkedIn to Drive
Traffic to Your Site
LinkedIn is a social networking
site for professionals and it now has more than 100 million
users. Almost 60% of LinkedIn
users are in consultant positions or at the executive level. As a
result, LinkedIn has the highest
number of decision makers in one place over all social media
networks. LinkedIn is one of the
fastest growing sites – one new user arrives every second, or
translated that’s around one
million new users every week.
Just as you would with other
social media sites, you need to use the white hat approach. Rather
than transparently advertising
your goods or services or outright asking for work, try to interact,
help, and engage people.
Your LinkedIn goal should be to
establish yourself in your niche or your industry. Take the time
to connect with colleagues, and
customers that you have already established a relationship with
and then build on that
relationship.
Groups are one of your most
popular tools on LinkedIn. You can drive traffic to your website and
reach an endless stream of
targeted professionals. There are more than 870,000 LinkedIn
groups with memberships varying
from 1 to 400,000. Most of the groups are business related,
although there are nearly 130,000
corporate alumni and academic groups.
WordPress is one of the favorite
LinkedIn groups because of its knowledgeable and engaging
members. You can easily get your
questions answered, and you can participate in a lively
discussion. Every application you
use will have a LinkedIn Group that represents it. The same
applies to every type of job you
might do, there is a group for. Whether you are a photographer,
an illustrator, a Photoshop user,
a marketer – there is a group for you.
Are you already on LinkedIn? If
you have not yet signed up to use LinkedIn now is a good time
to do so. LinkedIn members are not
there to look at their friends’ photos or to give their friends a
minute-by-minute description of
their day. Rather, it is an excellent place to make the types of
connections that can grow an
income.
Take the time to update your
profile so it clearly and concisely explains what you are all about
and what it is you have done. Make
sure that you take the time to get at least a couple of
recommendations. The best way to
do this is to offer to write a recommendation for someone
else. Now start driving traffic to
your site.
Maximizing the Value of Your
LinkedIn Company Page
If you are looking for an
inexpensive, powerful marketing tool for your business, you will want to
read on. One of the best tools
around for promoting your business is the LinkedIn Company
Page, which costs you nothing to
set up. You just need to have an existing LinkedIn profile, and
then you can create your company
page.
Are thinking what’s the difference
between a Facebook page and a LinkedIn company page and
why is this better? The main
advantage of LinkedIn is that it allows companies to build their
brand through the use of customer
recommendations, which is an extremely powerful tool that
all LinkedIn users should take
advantage of.
There are tremendous benefits to
taking advantage of this. If a person is looking for a service or
product and they see that you have
been recommended by someone in their network, then they
are more likely to buy from you
than they might be otherwise.
The full power of the company
pages is that LinkedIn members are able to recommend services
or products on the company profile
and those recommendations will show on the personal
profiles too.
Yet another LinkedIn benefit is
the tabs. This is especially true now that Facebook has removed
the tabs from their pages. The
company page lets you feature specific services or products
using three different sizes of
banner images that will link directly to your company website.
The LinkedIn company page lets you
bring your business alive. Millions of LinkedIn members
can easily stay in the loop with
your company’s news, job openings, business opportunities, and
products/services. From a central
hub you can tell your company’s story all the while
highlighting your services and/or
products. You can easily showcase any career opportunities
and brand your company. You will
be able to use word of mouth to drive your company and
maximize the value of your
LinkedIn company.
Now is the time to spread the
word. You can do that with a company page by posting regular
status updates in the same manner
you would on Facebook. Only, here you will tell your
followers about new products and
services, make recommendations, provide ideas and tips,
and promote any career
opportunities that may arise.
Your LinkedIn company profile will
allow you to develop meaningful relationships and engage in
conversations. Your analytics will
allow you to learn who is visiting your page, what’s drawing
them there, and what visitors are
learning about your company. You can then use this
information to formulate your
status updates and draw traffic to your page.
Marketing With LinkedIn
There are many different social
networking sites. However, t when it comes to professionals and
businesses there is no question
that LinkedIn s the leading site. There are tons of opportunities
here that will let you build your
own brand, advance your career, and market yourself. Let’s look
at some of the tools that LinkedIn
provides to help you market yourself.
Your Profile
In addition to creating your own
personal brand, you should list your other qualities in the
subtitle. For example, you are a
blogger, you are an entrepreneur, or you are a writer. Make
sure you post only designations
that are relevant to the market you are targeting. You should
also make sure you list your
experience. You can list yourself as the CEO or Founder of your
company if you are the owner. This
will help promote yourself.
Use the summary section to
introduce and describe what it is you are offering. Use it to describe
your service, your product, your
blog, whatever it is you are promoting. You should also
customize all of your website
links. Turn to your external profile links to connect your profile
viewers to your blog directly or
any other offers you are sharing.
Your Groups
It is
important that you join groups. LinkedIn lets you join around 50 groups. There
are groups
from every industry so finding
groups that are relevant to what you are doing, your product, your services,
etc. There is more to it than just joining. You need to participate and openly
discuss issues at hand. Of course, we are assuming you know something about the
topic and so your expertise will bring you rewards in the form of new
customers.
Make sure to participate in the
conversations and posts that take place. Engaging in an open dialogue will help
you to build your presence. When these posts are 100% relevant, you quickly
begin to build credibility.
You might even want to start your
own group if there a niche that isn’t currently being covered.
Even if there is another group,
there may be room for your group as well. Running your own
group provides you with an
excellent marketing tool.
Marketing with LinkedIn is a skill
that once you develop can take your business far. You will
grow and prosper as a result of
the work you do on LinkedIn. That’s why all these large
companies can be found on LinkedIn
– they already know the secret and are reaping the
benefits. Now it’s your turn!
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