Leveraging LinkedIn: Why does it matter? How do I use it?

LinkedIn is one of the most powerful social networking tools available to lawyerpreneurs, executives and professionals.

I’ve found that many people are not maximize the power of LinkedIn simply because they do not know how to do it. So, this article is designed to give you an overview of why and how LinkedIn can help you build a powerful referral-based business.

1. A completed LinkedIn profile will add to your Google currency and improve your Google rank. The LinkedIn website has a high Google page rank and when you make your public information available to search engines, you can benefit from this high ranking. This is a terrific technique to utilize for showing up pretty high in Google search for your name. To fully benefit from your Google currency increase: (i) create a public profile and customize your URL so it reflects your full name.
2. Increase traffic to your company website or blog. By listing your company website and blog (“virtual real estate) on your LinkedIn profile, you are promoting your virtual real estate to your connections and your connections’ connections. Change the default “company” “blog” setting to the actual names of your company website and blogs to get the most value from Google’s love affair with LinkedIn. You can change the names by typing the name of your company website and blogs into the “other” field on the “edit your profile” page on the LinkedIn site.
3. Increase your visibility. Complete your profile by listing past jobs and associations and increase your number of connections for a great chance of being a LinkedIn suggested contact for friends and colleagues with whom you have not yet connected but have listed similar information to that in your profile.
4. Locate key contacts within a company. LinkedIn provides a wonderful way to identify key contacts within a company. Type your targeted company name in the search field for a list of current and former employees who have identified themselves with the company. Click individual names to determine if you have a direct or indirect connection with the person selected. Once you have identified your ideal contact within a company, you can build a strategy for connecting with that person.
5. Construct a more powerful job search. Use the advanced search feature to find out where people who have a similar work history and educational background are employed. Simply enter keywords that are relevant to your experience and your background into the search field and see what comes up.
6. Make deeper connections. LinkedIn provides wonderful background information about prospective employers and employees. Use the information contacted on a person’s LinkedIn profile to make “small talk” more meaningful. User the information that a person has provided on LinkedIn to launch conversations about hobbies, community interests and recent updates.
7. Ask for Advice / Provide Advice. Use LinkedIn Answers to broadcast your business related questions to your network and the greater LinkedIn community. Both posting and resulting to questions are great ways to increase your visibility.
8. Notify your connections about new programs, products, services and events in your business. The “status update” feature is a powerful tool for letting your connections know about new happenings in your company is an effective, yet non-obtrusive way. Changes to your status update appear on the home page of your connections, automatically letting them know about your current event. This eliminates the need to send business updates in mass. Use the status update bar for messages to be delivered in mass, save inbox messages for personal connections.

Now that you know why LinkedIn is important for your accelerated success and how to get great value from this tool, go forth and put this information in action.

Carpe Diem!

T.C. Coleman