Top Secrets for Using LinkedIn to Promote Your Business or Yourself

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

INTRODUCTION

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

PART 3: USING APPLICATIONS

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

OTHER BOOKS BY THE AUTHOR

AUTHOR CONTACT INFORMATION

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