Five Key Tips to Smarten Up Your LinkedIn

Harnessing the power of LinkedIn is something many business professionals continue to try to undertake.  With social media platforms improving their services what seems like monthly, even the savviest can be stumped at times.  Sometimes all you need to know is where to donate your limited amount of time.

Here are five key tips to smarten up your LinkedIn:

Tip 1 – Improve your Google Search PageRank.

LinkedIn gives users the opportunity to make the information in your profile available for search engines to index.  Since LinkedIn profiles receive fairly high PageRank in Google, so you have the ability to influence what people see when they search for you.  To do this, create a public profile and select full view.  Also, make sure your URL is customized to be your actual name.

Tip 2 – Make new business meetings, interviews and introductions go smoother.

You can use LinkedIn to find the people you are meeting and review specialties, interests, past employment, accomplishments and credibility.

Tip 3 – Ask for Advice.

Linkedin answers gives you the opportunity to ask business-related questions and receive input from other experts in your industry.  It also allows you to give guidance and answer questions asked by others in your industry or about your particular field.

Tip 4 – Bring yourself to top of mind.

Update your status with useful articles you have read or informative details about your industry.  If your company is doing something newsworthy, this gives you a great avenue to broadcast it to your network.  Updtae your profile at least once a month or participate in the Q&A section.  These all allow for you to be included in your network’s weekly LinkedIn update email, showing you are active in the community.

Tip 5 – Harness the power of recommendations.

Ask your current and recent clients to recommend you on LinkedIn.  Recommendations are viewed by professionals looking to work with your firm, offering an additional stamp of credibility from people who were happy with your products or services.  Many firms pay for ads with testimonials in trade publications, and LinkedIn offers this for free.

JustRED it here.

“A networker likes to meet people. I don’t. I like accomplishing things in the world. You meet people when you want to accomplish something.” – Reid Hoffman