Three Things No-one Ever Tells You About LinkedIn
ISSN 1649-8127
Publication Date 4 August 2008
As you might recall, I highly recommend that you create a personal profile in LinkedIn as a great online social network. You can find previous articles I have written about LinkedIn HERE.
However most of us don’t attend a training programme on how to establish a professional profile online and how to nurture your online network for prospects and profits and we then say that ‘online networking’ is not for us.
I want to share three ideas today with you about areas that few people tell you about in relation to LinkedIn as a great online network for business. And these tips are not widely shared so please take note…
1. WRITE YOUR CONTACT DETAILS IN YOUR TITLE
Especially if you are not easy to find online, perhaps you work in a large corporation and you don’t have a blog or website that is at the top of the search engines, LinkedIn is a great platform for developing a profile and even with the no-cost profile, you will find your public profile will be found in the search engines.
Perhaps you have looked for someone’s contact details online because you want to send them an email? It’s sometime difficult to find that person’s information and especially if you are using the free service of LinkedIn, you have limited access to contact someone direct in LinkedIn so you really need to know their email address.
An example of how you can make it easy for people to contact you is something I saw recently. A member of LinkedIn added their contact details to their title in LinkedIn – for example:
Rather than reading = = > Krishna De
It reads = = > Krishna De (connect at bizgrowthnews.com)
This would mean that my profile really stands out online as they make it easy for people to contact me – and my contact details (which is what many people may be searching for online) are very easy to access.
2. GIVE ENDORSEMENTS BEFORE ASKING FOR THEM
A great feature in LinkedIn that is not found in most social networks is the opportunity for people to write endorsements – in other words testimonials about you.
I was recently approached by someone asking for an endorsement but I didn’t really know of their work, therefore that request has remained unanswered.
A more effective approach is to offer an endorsement before you ask for one. Recently I started working through my LinkedIn network contacts and each week I am providing an endorsement for several of my connections.
And guess what? Without asking I receive endorsements from others.
Providing an endorsement is also a great way to remind people that you are alive and kicking. You know what they say about being ‘out of sight’ is ‘being out of mind’. What business opportunities might arise just be getting back in contact with someone, offering an endorsement – and your contact remembering how terrific you are.
3. BACK UP YOUR PROFILE AND CONTACTS
In the last couple of weeks the social network ‘Twitter.com’ has had problems and many people ‘lost’ members of their network. I wrote about this in my blog – you can find the article here and see what I have done to overcome this problem.
You might also recall my article about people being banned from Facebook.com
‘LinkedIn’ on the other hand has two ways you can ensure you won’t be caught out if this happens to you…
You can download all your contacts into an Excel™ spread sheet with all their details so you never need lose your contacts from ‘LinkedIn’.
And you can export a PDF copy of your profile with all your endorsements.
Both actions I highly recommend you do on a regular basis so you need never worry that you may ‘lose’ contact with members of your ‘LinkedIn’ network.
THIS WEEK’S ‘BIZ GROWTH’ ACTION STEPS
If you’re using ‘LinkedIn’ as your preferred business social network why not review your current online practice to further build your personal brand online:
1. Check how easy it is for people to contact you and consider how you could change your ‘LinkedIn’ profile to make it even easier for people to connect
2. Offer three members of your ‘LinkedIn’ network an endorsement and put time into your calendar each week to write three further endorsements for your network
3. Make sure you’ve backed up a copy of your network contacts from ‘LinkedIn’ and have saved a copy of your profile – then add that to your weekly or monthly back up process.
TERMS OF REPRINT: You are welcome to publish this article in your own online ezine, blog or news letter, providing the article is printed in its entirety and is left unedited and you include the copyright notice and the following statement:
©Krishna De, 2008. All rights reserved. Reprinted from ‘BIZ GROWTH EXPRESS’, a Oneocean Ltd publication. If you would like to receive more articles just like this and enjoy access to free Masterclasses where you will discover how to bring your brand to life through traditional and social media platforms, then subscribe today at http://www.bizgrowthnews.com
