LinkedIn has an array of powerful resources that you can use to market yourself online. The variety of tools available can be used to help you;

to sell more of your products

With so many people being focussed on receiving something for themselves from the LinkedIn community, start by giving to others first. Don’t ask for a recommendation until you have given some for others. Recommend without being asked for a recommendation. Give to others by making introductions, bring together people who you think can help each other achieve their goals in their businesses.

Getting your message across to a wider network requires you to connect with everyone. If you restrict yourself to a network that only contains people you know, you are missing out on opportunities that will arise from connecting with new people. A small and restricted network will not spread your word or help you reach your marketing goals. Widen your circle and spread the word.

Add your personal LinkedIn link to:-

When you start receiving invitations daily, to connect, you have marketed yourself successfully.

Personality – In the main, people want a relationship with others that they know, like and trust. They don’t want to connect with a person but want interaction with a human, so make your interactions personal. When extending an invitation to connect make it personal, people will remember you and are more likely to follow up when you connect in the future.

Add a personal element to your profile, telling people who you are and who you help, sharing your personal voice, will encourage people to connect with you.

LinkedIn is a powerful tool that helps you add value to your network by finding new customers, partners, experts and suppliers. To find these various types of people LinkedIn offer several different ways but it is important that you have defined clearly your target groups. Once your target groups are defined then you can use the following strategies to help find them.

Immediate Network – browse by visiting a profile and looking at the connections on the right-hand side of the page. If you notice someone of interest, invite them to connect.

Advanced search for people – If you find someone you would like to connect with check whther you have any mutual connections. If there are, then ask if they can make an introduction to this new person.

Browse your immediate network – Visit a profile and again look at the connections on the right-hand side, if there’s someone that interests you, invite them to connect.

Groups- join groups that your target market joins. This gives you the opportunity to interact with others in the group and help increase your visibility so people will begin to contact you.

Your searches for people can be saved within LinkedIn and alerts sent out. (3 alerts can be saved but more than 3 require account upgrade) Email will be sent to you via LinkedIn with new prospects weekly or monthly.

Updates and Interactions – follow your network to see if there are any opportunities for you to build valuable relationships. If someone mentions an interesting person ask for an introduction.

LinkedIn is a great tool to grow your business , meet new contacts and advance your career but remember you need to have completed all the sections for it to work successfully and help you build your network. If your profile is complete people can be sure they have the right person or company.

As you find people that are valuable to your network, Linkedin informs you of mutual connections you have with them.
There is incredible value in not only mutual connections but also in second and third degree networks and where we may have problems keeping abreast with our first degree network, LinkedIn tracks all of these connections for us. This information is accessible and very powerful.

Building you Network – First Degree

Upload your contacts from your various mail accounts and any other address books you have using the ‘add connections’ tab.
Log in to your email and LinkedIn users have a small blue icon with ‘in’ next to their name. Select these names and write a semi-personal message to them. Tick ‘Add a personal note to your invitation’ and replace the standard note with one that relates to how you know them. (Not too personal as it is going to several selected names.)

While waiting for these people to accept you can add to your network by using the LinkedIn tool for retrieving colleagues and classmates.
Again, first select the people who are already members as they will be the most responsive to your invitation.
Since LinkedIn uses the information in your profile it is important that you have completed fully about companies you have worked for and schools, colleges and universities you have attended.

You can either look up current and past colleagues on the profile search or using the same menu, click ‘colleagues’ tab and this will show all the companies you have listed on your profile and the number of people who are already LinkedIn members.

Clicking on the any of the companies listed will provide a list and from that select the people you know. Write a personal message to them either individually or semi-personal one if sending out a batch of invites. Repeat for all other companies that you have worked for.

Classmates – follow the same procedure as that for companies but using the ‘classmates’ tab.

Using the relevant keywords that your market may search with is important when completing the various sections on your profile. Using the right keywords lets new contacts find you easily.

Some top tips for optimisation

Your public URL edit this to show your name or business (rather than a number) then when people search the main search engines your LinkedIn profile will show in the results.

Website listings in this section of your profile you can list up to 3 URLs. Choose ‘other’ option when setting up these links. Use descriptive keywords and relevant terms to result in more opportunities for higher ranking in the search engines.

Twitter – You are allowed more than one twitter account so provide links to them here giving people other ways to connect with you.

Visibility – ensure your complete LinkedIn profile is publicly visible to everyone. You need other professionals to be able to contact you at anytime, if you are invisible it will be very difficult to build your network.

LinkedIn Applications

To build an influential and vibrant LinkedIn profile there are many applications available to help. Have a look around and choose the appliccations that are best suited to you and your brand.

Slideshare

This app allows you to upload presentations and visually show your expertise. Video and audio can also be embedded into a presentation which can be an effective way to make your profile stickier.

Amazon – Reading list

This is an opportunity to review and show your latest reads, sharing your passions and interests with people. Similarly, when you are searching for connections and introductions on LinkedIn you can gain insight into others passions and interests, if they too have this app installed.

Travel and Events

Allows you to share with your connections where you are travelling and what events you are attending and can lead to opportunities to connect face-to-face with other LinkedIn members.

Wordpress or Blog Link

These applications allow you to pull blog posts into your profile. When you have taken time to create a blog, this is a good way to share your content.

Polls

The polls application allows you to conduct research either within your own network, or to a targeted audience of professional people. Polls can help you understand your audience, but do ensure your survey is easy to understand, and questions are interesting so you have a good response rate.

With 135 million users and a target audience of business professionals on LinkedIn, if you haven’t a fully functioning profile you are missing out on some incredible opportunities. Over the next few weeks we will cover settting up your profile to obtain the best from your LinkedIn presence for you and your business.

LinkedIn Profile

Your profile needs to be completed fully – it is the foundation on which you will begin to build your influence.
A profile will showcase your talents,experience,background, interests, expertise and passions. Additionally you will appear competent in the use of the LinkedIn Network.

A fully completed a profile may lead to new networking/business oppportunities. Without it people do not know enough about you and you cannot move on to the next phase, to grow your influence and build your business.

Professional Image – First impressions count – it is essential to upload an image that will atttract connections.
This is your best opportunity to make a great first impression, and it is essential to attracting connections.

Headline – 120 characters at the top of your profile are there to describe what you do. Use brief but descriptive keywords to create a compelling headline, so professionals in your sphere can find you.

Position – complete your current position and at least two more previous positions that you have held

Summary section – Using the third person, this section lets you expand your description of who you are and how you help people.

Recommendations – for LinkedIn to class your profile as completed you will need at least three recommendations.
Give before you receive. If you first give a recommendation then you may ask for one.
This can then be displayed on your profile

Specialities section – use customer-focused keywords in this section, then when people are searching you will show in the results. To find these keywords, consider what words and phrases people in your target market might use to find someone with your background, experience and service you offer.

Interests & Group Associations - in these sections each of the terms will be hyper-linked, thus taking you to users with the same interests in the network.