Are You Taking Advantage of Your LinkedIn Profile?

Changes are coming to LinkedIn, again. This morning I found it possible to upload a background cover photo in the same way we do for Facebook. I imagine I'll play with it for a while until I'm completely satisfied.

But it reminds me to ask -- are you making good use of your LinkedIn profile page? Is your profile completely filled out? Have you optimized it for referrals and Google?

No? Why not?

LinkedIn is a bit of a different animal from Facebook. It's meant to put you in touch with colleagues -- who are potential referral sources. It's not meant to attract direct clients.

The LinkedIn profile encourages substantial description of your skills and experience. It's best to write these in outcome-focused ways that help readers see that you can do for them.

Once your profile is fully fleshed out, don't forget to use LinkedIns newsfeed for promoting your blogs and events. These promotion posts won't get much engagement, typically, but they will be see by your network, and can be simultaneously posted to Twitter as well.

But the groups on LinkedIn is where the action is. Find some that are discussing your areas of interest and lend your wisdom. This is where people get to know you, like you, and trust you. Establish a presence in at least one.

There are more ways to maximize the use of LinkedIn. I'd be happy to talk you through them in a marketing consult.