Brandswag held a seminar yesterday entitled Beyond the Profile: Maximizing LinkedIN. We had a sold out crowd and it was a great discussion surrounding the better uses of LinkedIN. We are holding a seminar next Wednesday (the 24th) from 8-9:30am on Integrating Social Media into Your Marketing plan. Below you will find the slide deck from the seminar. I also wanted to briefly discuss the 10 different ways to maximize LinkedIN. It is extremely important to use LinkedIN for lead generation, job search, and professional networking. Let’s get to it.
1. Take Full Advantage of Your Profile
It is extremely important to maximize the use of your profile on LinkedIN. When you are communicating with other individuals.. on the site.. your profile speaks for you. Be very sure you upload a good photo and bring your profile to 100% completion. When I say upload a good photo… I do not mean an 80′s glamor shot or your company logo.
2. Uploading Your Initial Contacts
When you are first joining LinkedIN it is important to build your initial contact base. Check out this easy to use tutorial from Dave Taylor. It is also important to connect to past/present colleagues and alumni from your college or university.
3. Recommendations
It is my opinion that recommendations are one of the more powerful tools within in LinkedIN. Why? People know recommendations are sincere and other individuals had to write them for you. It is extremely hard to fake recommendations on LinkedIN. Check out this post on writing better LinkedIN recommendations. You should always recommend first!
4. Using Groups
We discussed using groups in three different ways:
1. Lead Generation
2. Personal Development: Learning from others in your industry
3. Increase Your LinkedIN Profile development
6. Using Your Status Updates
The status updates on LinkedIN are underused but have been changing slowly with the integration of Twitter into your LinkedIN profile. I try to update my LinkedIN profile with relevant news, blog posts I am writing, or information about my Twitter Marketing for Dummies book.
7. Using Applications
Check out the LinkedIN Learning center about Apps: Click Here. Here are my top 4 applications to use on LinkedIN: BlogLink, Reading List by Amazon, Events, and Tweet.
8. Networking for a Job or for Lead Generation
LinkedIN is extremely powerful when using the tool to connect with individuals who are looking to hire individuals in the corporate community. If you are using LinkedIN the right way it is extremely easy to get connected through a 2nd degree individual. Honestly though… who better to tell you about using LinkedIN for job search than Dan Schwabel and Chad Levitt.
9. Search Functionality in LinkedIN
10. Using LinkedIN for Lead Generation
Have you heard of the six degrees from separation concept? This is fundamental to using LinkedIN for lead generation. It is possible to use LinkedIN to turn a cold lead into a warm lead by sending a request for an introduction. Check out the slide deck to find out how.
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My social networking advices:
"Grow your network while you don't need it" http://bit.ly/Xamvv
1st advice "Grow your network while you don't need it"
2nd advice "know why you want to network"
3rd advice "get recommendations from current and past colleagues posted on your profile"
4th advice "make heavy use of the Q&A feature (on LinkedIn) or post on forums"
5th advice "never use standard boiler plate templates" when inviting people to connect
6th advice/fact "The more connections you have, the more time you must spend"
7th advice "join yahoo networking groups. You will learn a lot"
8th advice "Read other 2 cents advices"
9th advice "Do not forget other ways of networking"
Excellent advice. I would like to add one thing: optimize your profile with keywords. LinkedIn profiles rank very well on Google and it is a good idea to include the right keywords in your profile in order to be found on relevant searches. Be sure these are long-tail keywords that give you a chance of being found in less-competitive niches.
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Absolutely! See slide 6.
Aha! I should have clicked through