With over 46 million members, LinkedIn has become the online social networking hub for professionals. If you aren’t yet on LinkedIn, you may have already heard that from others as a reason to join. You may have heard that getting on LinkedIn is absolutely essential if you want to keep your professional identity up to date. Many people simply use LinkedIn to keep up with their closest business contacts and to keep their professional information online. And that’s fine. But the truth is, it’s rather easy to use online social networking services like LinkedIn for a lot more. And it won’t take up a lot of time, either. Here’s a quick guide to creating a LinkedIn online social networking profile that’s optimized for maximum exposure.
Step 1: Create a Profile
The very first step of joining the LinkedIn online social networking service is to create your own profile. This is a pretty straightforward affair, and LinkedIn offers a lot of help for those who aren’t used to creating online social networking profiles and accounts. But there are a few things to remember if you’re interested in optimizing your online social networking experience. First, you want you and your business as easily-findable as possible. If there isn’t one already, you can create a separate profile for your business and include appropriate keywords. In your personal and business profile, you want to be as descriptive as possible when listing what you do. That will help your profiles rank higher when people search LinkedIn for relevant keywords.
Step 2: Connect
The first thing that most people do on LinkedIn is to connect with the people they know. That includes people you may have worked with in the past, people you went to college with and people in your area that are involved in the same industry as you. It’s a great way to keep in touch with people, but remember that you aren’t using LinkedIn for selling. LinkedIn is for making connections and exchanging knowledge and ideas. When you’re helpful and you contribute to discussions, your network will grow. If you go in for the hard sell, then you’ll likely see your network shrink.
Step 3: Find and Join Groups
One benefit of online social networking that many people ignore is the chance to join groups. And at LinkedIn, there are groups for every imaginable industry. You can join as many groups as you like, although some groups will want to approve you beforehand. If you’re a local business, you can use the online social networking advantages of LinkedIn to find locally-focused groups. You’ll also want to join groups where you’ll find potential customers. But remember that the hard sell isn’t appreciated in the culture of online social networking. Don’t comment or post anything until you’ve been a member of the group for a week or so and are familiar with what topics are popular and what ones aren’t. That will help you find more connections.
Step 4: Interact
Many professionals only spend between 15 to 30 minutes a week on online social networks like LinkedIn. Really, that’s all it takes once everything’s set up. Check in weekly and see what is new with your connections. Ask questions in groups and answer ones you can. The truth is that some people take to LinkedIn more eagerly than others. But if you’re weary of dipping your feet into the world of online social networking—you’re probably worrying too much. Once you’re profile is setup and your primary connections are made, then effective regular maintenance is a rather simple affair.
