Linked In Tips

Linked In is the world’s largest professional network with over 400 million users.  When utilised correctly, Linked In can help grow both your career and your business in a number of ways :

• Generate leads and potential clients
• Increase traffic to your personal or business website
• Enable you to be found by people looking for the exact services you offer
• Increase both your Visibility and Credibility
• Help you be seen as an Expert in your field or niche
• Provide the opportunity to engage with your ideal client

So, without spending countless hours on the task at hand, here’s some quick, actionable Linked In tips to make your profile stand out and get noticed.

9 Quick Linked In Tips

1.  Use your Linked In profile as a personal website – not just a resume holder!

– If someone searches for your name on Google, odds are your Linked In profile will show up but does it measure up?

2.  Upload a Professional photo

– It’s a total no brainer this one, a professional platform needs a professional look.  Remember this one photograph is the first thing your would-be connections will see and possibly form an opinion on so lose the Hawaiian shirt & flip flop look already.  Also, if you’re taking the pics yourself, which is totally fine just be cognizant of your surroundings and background.  Remember that guy on Skype that one time?  Yeah, just sayin’…

3.  Share your professional Story and Passions in the summary section

– Linked In gives you lots of space to write your personal summary here so fill it out.  Use your own real voice and express your passions, your story and your talents in an authentic way.  If you don’t have that much real world experience, just tell us about your goals and what you hope to achieve in the future.  More than anything, let the reader see the real you.

4.  Use the Experience section to highlight your Accomplishments

– This is where you get to honestly brag about your past achievements.  If you were involved in some really cool or innovative projects, let’s hear all about them. Be sure to include a little volunteer work or personal interests in there too and once again, use all the space your allowed.

5.  Join industry Groups, associations or Regional Networking groups

– This one again should go unsaid but in reality nope!  So many people just use Linked In to browse the newsfeed or post updates which is akin to barely scratching at the surface.  The real power of Linked In comes from the personal connections and specifically the Groups.  Remember it’s a community so show up and join in!

6.  Post Regular status updates

– So you know that guy that hasn’t been active on Linked In for the last 4 years?  Uh yeah, don’t be that guy.  Get in the habit of showing up and posting even a few times a week but keep active on the channel. 

7.  Ask for Recommendations

– If you don’t ask….  It stands to reason that recommendations are important on a professional peer-to-peer social platform but remember to give as well as receive on these.  Recommendations actually help both parties out and we consider them to be a collective gain that increases your exposure.

8.  Write a Personal Message when sending invitations to connect

– This has to be one of the top 3 worst Linked In mistakes out there!  If you honestly want to connect with someone (not just mine their network) then take two minutes and add a personal note to them in your request.  Even if it’s just a line or two)  Never click the automatic Hi I’d like to connect with you on Linked In links, it makes you look casual, insincere and frankly, lazy.

9.  Review and Update your Profile regularly

– If your profile pic still has your 70’s hair or your Grad pic then yup, it’s time to rethink things.  Same exact deal for your profile information, if you’re still listing a “current” position you had once upon a time 5 years ago … Need I say more ?

Linked In Tips & News

Linked In has been making some big moves of late in the business networking world.   In April 2015, the platform acquired Lynda.com the highly regarded online learning community.  Then late last year Microsoft finally closed its deal to acquire Linked In no doubt to further embed their own Office 365 and Windows product lines.

So what does all this mean for the end user?  Well, there’s no doubt about it, the Lynda acquisition was sorely needed.  Linked In has long had a very niche group of professionals on the platform.  So providing in-house professional development and training is a huge win-win all around.

With Microsofts’ new ownership too, it looks like things are primed for some real growth and development on the platform for  a good many years to come.  So, really Linked In has increase it’s value proposition to users exponentially coming into 2017.  Maybe now is a perfect time to take a second look and perhaps even a Linked In profile make over?

*Oh and if you’d like to view more of Eric Laignels amazing Linked In HQ pics and their Ikea influenced decor, see this OfficeLovin’ post.  [**Image credit: Eric Laignel]