How to Create a Profile on LinkedIn

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I have started to use LinkedIn more and more recently as it’s a great tool to connect and engage with other business owners, especially if you’re like me and offering B2B services.  However, as I mentioned in my previous blog “10 Tips on Using LinkedIn”, a lot of people don’t understand how to use LinkedIn effectively.

One of the first things that you need to do is to ensure that you set up your profile correctly. If you want to know how to create a LinkedIn profile that looks professional and will get found in search results when people are looking for businesses such as yours, then watch the video below which will take you through the different sections of a LinkedIn profile and how to complete them properly.

Feel free to leave any comments or let us know how you use LinkedIn to promote your business.

10 Tips on Using LinkedIn

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I met someone at a networking event the other day and we were chatting about social media and how addictive Twitter and Facebook can be!  However, when I asked if they were on LinkedIn, they said no because they had never understood how LinkedIn could benefit their business.

I find that this is the case for a lot of people; however, if you’re marketing to other businesses then LinkedIn is an invaluable tool to help you promote your services and connect with valuable contacts.  I’d even go as far as to say that it can be more valuable than either Twitter or Facebook.

So here are 10 tips to help you get started using LinkedIn.

Share your interests. Complete the interests section of your profile with keyword rich content so that you appear in search results.

Keyword rich links.  When adding links to your website, name the link with keyword rich content rather than using “My Website”.  You can also use these links to link to any external site such as your Facebook page.

Job headings.  One of the main components of your profile is your work history.  Rather than using the job role description in your job title heading, make it more descriptive with keywords.  So instead of using Personal Assistant, you could say “Providing administration support and creating dynamic PowerPoint presentations to Senior Director”.

Build connections.  Start building your connections by connecting with people that you meet at networking events.  However, when sending out your invitation to connect, ensure that you personalise it to the recipient rather than sending out the default request.

Add a Company page.  If you run your own business, then you can add a Company page to your LinkedIn profile.  This lets people know more about your services or products and they can follow your Company page.

Get introduced.  If you want to be introduced to specific people, then you can do this by seeing who your own connections are connected with.  Search for them on LinkedIn, see if they’re connected with anyone in your network, and then ask for an introduction.

Get involved with Groups.  A great way of building engagement on LinkedIn is to get involved with Groups – either joining ones where your target market hang out, or setting one up of your own.  Add to discussions by asking questions or linking to an article with valuable content and inviting comments.

Organise your connections.  You can organise your connections into groups by using criteria such as tags, companies, locations and industries.  This is a good idea if you want to send a message to a specific group of people.

Enhancing your profile.  You can enhance your profile by adding applications such as a Poll, Events, WordPress blog, Amazon Reading List etc.  You can find a list of applications under the More tab.

Questions and Answers.  A great way of displaying your expertise on LinkedIn is to use the Questions and Answers section.  This is where you can post questions for other users or answer questions that have been posted.

If you use LinkedIn already, then drop a line in the comment box below to let us know how you use it and what benefits or business you have got from it.

Want to Connect on LinkedIn?

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LinkedIn is a great tool to use to promote your services especially if you are a business owner who markets to other businesses.  I use it to connect with people that I’ve met at networking events and to join groups and take part in discussions to raise my profile.  I’ve gradually built up my connections over time but I’ve found that as this number has grown, I’ve increasingly started to get asked to connect with people that I’ve never heard of.

At first I was puzzled by this as I didn’t know why people wanted to connect if they didn’t know me.  I then read that some people may do this so that they can then get access to your connections.  However, I didn’t want to make my connections private (there is an option to do this).  Alternatively, some people just want to get as many connections as possible – these people refer to themselves as LION on LinkedIn (LinkedIn Open Networker).  That’s fine if they declare themselves as open networkers then I understand the reason for their request to connect.

What I don’t understand is why people request to connect when they don’t know you and they give you no indication why they want to do so.  You just get the standard default invitation text with no explanation – and it drives me mad!  Why do people think that you’re going to connect with them when they give you no explanation why you should do so?

So if you want to connect with me or anyone else on LinkedIn, remember to edit the standard invitation and give people a reason as to why they should connect with you.  That could be because you’ve met at a networking event or belong to the same LinkedIn group, or you perhaps feel that there could be an opportunity of working together in the future.  These are all good reasons to connect and will stop your invitation requests from getting ignored!