LinkedIn - build your professional network

Correct me if I’m wrong, but there is no marketer who is not using social media in his work. This is a

great space to share your content, reach customers, promote your brand or build strong relationships.

In this article, I would like to focus on making a professional network in one of the social media tools –

LinkedIn. I will tell you what should be concentrated on and how to do that.

LinkedIn is mostly known as a social networking site designed especially for the

business community. It’s an easy place to share our work or to communicate with other people

from the SEO industry. Members of the platform can join groups, research companies, look for jobs

and network with fellows from their niche.

LinkedIn gives us professional, business opportunities and new ventures. You can also consider

LinkedIn as a search engine for business professionals and check what professional background and

experience other people from the industry have.

TAKE A LOOK AT SOME LINKEDIN STATISTICS!

LinkedIn is also a great tool to create personal branding. You can show yourself off from your best site.

I would recommend focusing on the areas below.

General description

Consider it as your business card or professional brochure. Fill it out with your contact information

and customize your public profile URL. By default, your LinkedIn profile URL consists of a string of

random characters. Fortunately, you can have your own, special URL by going to Edit Public Profile ->

Customize Your Public Profile URL. Choose the name you would like to displayed as your private URL.

And don’t forget about choosing the right profile picture. The truth is that everyone says you shouldn’t

judge a book by its cover, and then they go and do just that anyway. Do you know that your LinkedIn

profile will get viewed 11 times more with the inclusion of a profile picture? Do not underestimate

it! Source.

Main information

Contact information

To customize your your public profile URL click EDIT

And simply customize your public profile URL

Enter your desired public LinkedIn profile URL name

Create a media profile – go beyond text alone.

LinkedIn is cool – it gives you the opportunity to create a multimedia resume. This is something you

could never have on paper, so take advantage of it! Make your profile as awesome and professional as

you are. Add photos, videos, PDFs, links, presentations, and even screenshots. You can include your

certificates, diplomas and other documents that prove your achievements. If you make great videos,

infographics or take nice photos, why don’t you show that off on your profile as well? You have a few

options to choose from: add a link or upload an item straight from your computer.

Write an awesome summary.

Have you ever read a book jacket summary before you decided to read the whole book? Of course you

have. We all like to get more information about something before we make the decision to get a bit

more acquainted with it. Most people will only briefly glance at your profile. A killer summary gets

people’s attention and keeps it for long enough for them to find out just how great you are at what you

do. Be sure to include all of the most important information about yourself and get the attention you

deserve from people in your industry.

Don’t forget about media items! Use that option to make your profile interesting. Think about

keywords which are related to your niche. Use them in your summary, but also in other places like:

skills, job titles and description or interests. Keywords help others find you on LinkedIn, but also on

search engines too. What does this mean for you? Greater range of your content!

Build your social network

Social networking is time consuming and requires effort. LinkedIn makes it easier for you and offers

you plenty of interesting groups that you can join. People with similar interests to yours, or people who

work in the same or similar fields get together to discuss and exchange knowledge. Join them! Share

your experience and opinions, ask for help, answer questions, meet new people and have fun!

What I find very important - don’t spam on discussion groups or even on your wall. Sharing little

valued content, particularly when you do it very often, may consequently get you removed from

discussion groups or somebody even get deleted off people’s contacts. When you share a post, provide

relevant information to your audience or group.

It’s strongly recommended from an SEO point of view to join groups. Linkedin search results depends

from your network with friends, business contacts and groups you belong to. Be active in your groups

and give mindful responses to the interesting discussions. LinkedIn allows us to join up to 50 groups

– find the best math for you as it would boost your visibility.

Look for contacts

To attract more business opportunities, look for your friends on LinkedIn and people you may know

and use them to build your professional network. When you send an invitation, remember that a

personalized LinkedIn email request looks so much better than the default message. And what’s more,

it shows that you have put some actual effort into making contact, and you are really interested in

being in touch with that person.

My advice - before you send the invitation think! Do you know that person or is there any professional

connection between you and him or her. You can send the invitation to someone you don’t know – but

there must be a sensible reason. Before you ask for a connection, get information about the candidate.

Be ready to explain why they should accept your invitation.

Don't send the default message - write a personalized and interesting one!

You can disagree with me but I don’t think having thousands of LinkedIn connections shows

somebody in the glory light. On Twitter yes - billion of followers - make you a king. But on LinkedIn –

I’m not sure that it looks professional. I believe “Less is more.” Being connected to many people who

you don’t know or have anything in common with us is not cool at all. It’s better to have less, but

engaged contacts, who really are your friends, colleagues or people from your industry.

Having somebody as a your contact gives you warranty that he or she would see the content you’re

sharing. Isn’t that what every marketer cares about? Another great LinkedIn option is the opportunity

to check who’s viewed your profile. Check out analytics to see details about the people who have

viewed your profile. When you have the free basic version you can see the five most recent viewers, and

keywords that led them to you. If you would like to see more - upgrade to the premium version.

Give and ask for recommendations. Confirm and ask for your skills to be confirmed.

When you get a recommendation from an expert in your industry or a satisfied customer, you will be

seen as a professional and reliable person. Take the initiative and give people whom you have worked

with: your associates, co-workers or friends your recommendations. If you give recommendations to

others – I believe they will repay you with the same. However, don’t be discouraged if not all of them

pay you back.

Use the “Projects,” “Publications”, “Honors & Awards” and “Interests” sections.

This is a great place to show yourself off! I’m currently working on some projects which I will definitely

add to this section. I believe it’s worth telling everyone about your accomplishments and other

achievements that you couldn’t present in a regular resume. In this section, you can add multimedia

object as well. Let people know how interesting you are. Have you been a part of any student

organization or worked as a volunteer? Or perhaps you have unique hobbies? That is so cool! Let the

world know all about it!

To add projects, publications etc. click EDIT

And here you can add additional information like project, certifications etc.

Do you have, for example our SEO DONE RIGHT certyficate? Why don't you show it off?

Don't forget about interest secion - you can find it at the bottom of the LinkedIn profile

An existing, but empty Linked profile is like a random website. No one knows it exists. Or perhaps it

would be better comparing it to an un-optimized website—so of what point is its existence, if nobody

ever sees it anyway? Use the great potential of LinkedIn to prove your professionalism to the world.

This professional community gives you an opportunity to share your experience and knowledge and

build an awesome network! I strongly recommend it as your content marketing tool. Are you running a

blog? Share your valuable content on discussion groups and present it on your wall. By making

contacts with other professionals,you may get a proposition to join some interesting projects or find

some great contacts. Consider LinkedIn as virtual place for marketing – use accurate keywords and

make your profile visible.

My profile is currently not a hundred percent complete as you might notice; Yet, it is already rated as

an "All Star". I also do believe it is already visible in search engines and LinkedIn searches. Thanks to

that, I have received a few messages from people requesting professional advice. Also, I received an

offer of employment via LinkedIN. At the moment, I am considering what changes I will see, upon the

completion of my projects.

How are you at using LinkedIn as an inbound marketing tool? What new features do you find most

useful? If you have a different point of view I would be happy to hear your opinion.