The Dolphin Report

Six Things You Should do on LinkedIn

1. Have a complete profile.  When I am interested in a person and I go her profile and it just lists a couple job titles with no dates and no information about what she did in that role, I lose interest quickly.  Likewise, if there is no education information nor any groups & associations nor honors & awards, it just doesn’t seem like the person is very serious about what they do.  Take some time and make your profile complete – just like you would if it was your résumé.
2. Solicit recommendations.  When I see a profile with 50 or 60 recommendations, I can’t help but be impressed.  There is no reason you can’t get at least 10-15 recommendations on your profile – you just have to ask your connections.  Most people are happy to help out their friends.  If someone is too busy, they may ask you to write it for them, which is ideal because you can have the recommendation say exactly what you’d like it to say.  So, be prepared and have a couple recommendations for yourself written up and ready to give to your busy friends.  You may even want to consider making the offer to write it for them up front if you are comfortable with that.
3. Use applications.  Prior to LinkedIn allowing applications, LinkedIn profiles were very static and often somewhat boring.  Applications allow you to publish new content to your profile on a regular basis and give people a reason to return to your profile.  If you have a blog, be sure to use either the Blog Link or WordPress application to import your blog onto your profile.  Do you read about your industry?  Share your favorite titles with the Amazon Reading List application.  Have you created slide presentations (like Powerpoint) to describe your business to potential customer, investors or other stakeholders?  Share those presentations with the SlideShare or Google Presentation applications. If you travel a lot, consider the My Travel by TripIt application to find other contacts that may be in the same city you’ll be going to and arrange a meeting.  If your company gets talked about on Twitter, use Company Buzz to show Tweets about your company.  Post brochures, flyers, pictures, videos and other files with Box.net.  Solicit feedback from your contacts with the Polls application.  You don’t have to use all the applications, but you really should be using some of them.
4. Create a company profile for your company.  If you click on your company name and get search results for people who work or have worked at that company instead of a company profile, you should create a profile for your company.  It’s easy – just click on “Companies” at the top of the screen, and then “Add a Company” to the right in the blue title bar, then just follow the prompts.  Having this short profile come up when someone clicks on your company name (or even cursors over the company name) gives your company more credibility.
5. Join groups.  This is the single best way to grow your network of contacts and it’s a great way to show you know your stuff.  Most groups have discussion boards where you can comment on any number of subjects relevant to the group.  These discussions are searchable and are a great way to establish expert authority in your field.  Even if you don’t have time to engage in the discussion boards, just being a member of a number of groups (LinkedIn limits members to 50 groups, so you should try to find close to that number of groups to join) makes it a lot easier for other people to find you to connect with you or to inquire about your business if they are interested in what you have to offer.
6. Have a plan and execute it.  You may decide to regularly participate in the Answers section of LinkedIn (look for more on this in future posts), or you may decide to be active on group discussion boards, or you may decide to focus on your blog and use LinkedIn to drive traffic to that blog.  Whatever you decide to do, create an action plan and stick to it.  While some people get very quick results from LinkedIn, most of us find that it takes several months of regular activity before we see any tangible results, so don’t get discouraged, just keep working your plan.  You can tweak your strategy along the way, but give it at least six months before you move on to other things.

Please add your comments – as always, your opinions are wanted and valued.  Have a wonderful Independence weekend everyone!!!