LinkedIn Best Practices

LinkedIn Best Practices for Personal Branding and Business Development
by
Dimitri G. Mastrocola
Partner, Major, Lindsey & Africa
www.linkedin.com/in/dimitrimastrocola

LinkedIn Overview What is LinkedIn?
World’s largest online professional network -- really a huge database of professionals
Connects you to your trusted contacts
Helps you exchange knowledge, ideas, and opportunities
Standardizes information entered by users into predefined categories: “Profile Headline”, “Summary”, “Education”, “Company”, etc.
Powerful search tool to pinpoint the person you are looking for
Great tool for both business intelligence and business development

LinkedIn Overview Why Should You Use LinkedIn?
LinkedIn is a superb tool to help:
Create, develop and maintain business relationships
Create awareness of yourself among potential clients and candidates (aka “personal branding”)
Demonstrate your competence and expertise to establish the trust upon which business relationships depend

LinkedIn Overview LinkedIn = The Social Media Site of Choice for Professionals
Maintaining a LinkedIn profile is one of the important steps you can take to manage & control your online reputation
LinkedIn’s high Search Engine Optimization means your LinkedIn profile page often appears at the top of search engine results
The higher on the screen positive search results appear (e.g. professional public LinkedIn profile), the lower the likelihood that the public will find negative information about you

LinkedIn Overview Facts and Figures
Over 70 million members in over 200 countries
New member joins approximately every second
Executives from ALL Fortune 500 companies are LinkedIn members
About half of all members are outside the U.S.
Lawyers represent 1.5 million of the 70 million users
Almost 600,000 U.S. members categorized in the "Law Practice" industry

LinkedIn Best Practices 1. Find Who You Know
Start with your existing contacts
Let LinkedIn scan your email address book to find out who you know is on LinkedIn
LinkedIn will NOT automatically send connection requests to your contacts; you choose which contacts to invite

LinkedIn Best Practices 2. Personalize Your LinkedIn URL
Change your LinkedIn profile URL (web address) from the default setting to www.linkedin.com/in/"yourname"
E.g.: www.linkedin.com/in/dimitrimastrocola
Helps people find you when they search for your name within LinkedIn, Google and other search engines

LinkedIn Best Practices 3. Email Marketing
Include your LinkedIn URL in your email signature

LinkedIn Best Practices 4. Add a Photo to Your Profile
Photographs personalize your profile and give you social media credibility
Keep it professional

LinkedIn Best Practices 5. Ask to Connect at Every Opportunity
Whenever you have business interactions with people, ask them if they’re on LinkedIn and if they’d like to connect
Send connection requests after meeting with candidates and prospective clients

LinkedIn Best Practices 6. Acquire Enough Connections
The more work experience you have the larger your network should naturally be
The more connections you have, the more LinkedIn search results you will appear in (i.e. makes you easier to be found)
Rule of thumb? Multiply your age by 10 and that is the minimum number of connections that you should aim for

LinkedIn Best Practices 7. Have a LinkedIn Profile Headline That Properly Brands You
The space underneath your name is your “Professional” or Profile Headline
This is the single most important piece of real estate on your LinkedIn Profile, and you need to brand it as such
Appears in search results next to your name
It’s your elevator speech in a few words
Be creative! Can you think of something appealing other than your title and company name?

LinkedIn Best Practices 8. Fill Out As Much of Your Profile as You Can
By providing more information, you’re creating more opportunities for people to find you
Include former employers and the colleges you attended on your profile
You never know how an ex-colleague or ex-classmate can help you (and vice-versa)

LinkedIn Best Practices 9. Make Your Profile Rich with Keywords
Put yourself in the mind of the people by whom you want to be found
What keyword searches would they perform on LinkedIn in order to find you?
Your profile must include keywords people will likely use in searching for someone with your expertise.

LinkedIn Best Practices 10. Don’t Hide
Change the settings on your profile to “Full View” so your profile can be fully indexed by search engines
Why? Search engines like Google and Yahoo love to index LinkedIn public profile pages

LinkedIn Best Practices 11. Link to Yourself
LinkedIn lets you include links to three Web sites on your profile – take advantage of it
You can link to corporate or law firm website, a blog, a Twitter profile or other business-oriented social networking profile

LinkedIn Best Practices 12. Recommend
Give, and ask for, recommendations
Be sincere and authentic when giving recommendations (the recipient will often return the favor)
When you recommend someone and when someone recommends you, that fact is displayed on your profile
Ask people who you think have high regard for you for a recommendation – e.g. a candidate you just placed or a client for who you've just made a placement

LinkedIn Best Practices 13. Update your Status Regularly and Strategically
Going to an event? Attending a conference? Read something interesting that is relevant to your brand? Launched a new project?
 Share it via Status Update !
Post interesting information (and URLs) and people in your network will be more likely to pay attention to your updates
This keeps you top of mind & positions you as an expert in your area ( key part of your branding exercise )
Don’t worry about posting long URL’s in the Update box – LinkedIn now automatically shortens them for you

LinkedIn Best Practices 14. Watch Others’ Status Updates to Initiate Contact
Keep an eye on status updates from others (e.g. change of job, new venture, etc.)
Good opportunity to get back in touch
Status changes can help give you something to start a conversation and keep the relationship going

LinkedIn Best Practices 15. Learn Advanced Search
LinkedIn’s Advanced Search is extremely powerful – get familiar with it
Helps you find very targeted audiences

LinkedIn Best Practices 16. Join Groups
Search for and join industry-related LinkedIn groups
Group icons show up on your profile which tells people you are involved in your industry
Creates a connection between you and other group members (e.g. potential clients and business partners)
Easy to connect to a potential client if you already share membership in a group
If the group is active, join in the conversation where appropriate (opportunity to demonstrate expertise)

LinkedIn Best Practices 17. Post News within Groups
Many groups allow you to post links to news articles intended to spark conversation
Like Status Updates, this function can be used to position yourself as knowledgeable in your field.
Only post content that you sincerely feel will be of value to your fellow group members (otherwise will be viewed as SPAM)

LinkedIn Best Practices 18. Ask Questions Strategically
You can use LinkedIn’s Answer feature to attract a new connection by posing a question to the LinkedIn audience
Think about the type of person you want to reach
and
Formulate a question for which you think that person you would have an opinion about that they’d like to share

LinkedIn Best Practices 19. Answer Questions Posed by Others
Yet another avenue to demonstrate your competence
Only answer the questions for which you know the answer intimately
Actually answer the question that's asked – and be helpful
(don’t just reply merely to show off your knowledge)
If you are truly helpful, the person asking the question may assign your response as the "best answer"
Your answer, as well as the fact that it was the * best answer* , will be displayed on your profile

LinkedIn Best Practices 21. Install Applications
WordPress and BlogLink apps allow you to send your blog posts automatically to your LinkedIn profile
Google Presentation and SlideShare apps let you embed PowerPoints (and other documents) you’ve created into your profile.
MyTravel app lets you know your network’s travel activity so you can see when your contacts are in the same place

LinkedIn Best Practices 21. Install Applications – cont’d
Amazon Reading List app lets you list the books you’ve read, the books you’re currently reading and those you’d like to read and it connects you with others who are using the app
Polls application (like the Answers feature) can be used to attract a specific audience by carefully crafting the right poll question

LinkedIn Best Practices 22. Use the New “Follow Company” Feature
The new “ Follow Company ” feature allows you to receive notifications of Company activity in your email inbox – i.e. Updates on New Hires, Recent Departures, and New Job Opportunities.
You get a very good snapshot as to the hiring trends in any company on your target list
Gives you up-to-date (user generated) information that can make it easier for you to discover valuable business intelligence about the people within a company

Additional Resources General LinkedIn Information
LinkedIn's Tutorial Page: http://learn.linkedin.com/
How to Get Started on LinkedIn: http://www.bnet.com/2403-13070_23-219860.html
Twenty Ways to Maximize Your LinkedIn Use: http://webworkerdaily.com/2007/06/15/20-ways-to-use-linkedin-productively/
Outstanding Blog by LinkedIn/Social Media Strategist Neal Schafer: http://windmillnetworking.com/blog/

Additional Resources Lawyers and LinkedIn
LinkedIn & Lawyers: Why You Should Be on the Site: http://www.jaffepr.com/about-us/industry-insight/white-papers/lawyers-and-linkedin-why-you-should-be-site
A List of Articles to Help Lawyers Make the Most of LinkedIn: http://scoop.jdsupra.com/2009/12/articles/law-firm-marketing/linkedin-for-lawyers-a-how-to-reading-list/

Additional Resources How To Use LinkedIn
Using LinkedIn to Find a Work as a Lawyer: http://tinyurl.com/UsingLinkedInforLawyerJobs
LinkedIn SuperGuide -Tutorials, Tips and Tools: http://www.interactiveinsightsgroup.com/blog1/linkedin-superguidetutorials-tips-and-tool/
Etiquette for LinkedIn and the Professional Networking World: http://www.intuitive.com/blog/etiquette_for_linkedin_and_the_professional_networking_world.html

LinkedIn Best Practices

by Dimitri Mastrocola on Jul 22, 2010

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