LinkedIn 101 for entrepreneurs and business professionals

Last night at a meeting of the Halton-Peel Communications Association, several members ran table-top discussions and demonstrations of various social media and new media tools. Rob Clark talked about blogging, Sue Horner covered Twitter, and Joan Vinall-Cox showed audio and video for the Web. (Here's a link to Sue's blog post on her presentation. You can  see Joan's resources on this wiki.)

My topic was LinkedIn. Although I agree that it’s a powerful social network for entrepreneurs and business professionals, I wouldn’t call myself a power user. Still, I was able to show the basics, while learning a lot from the attendees. Here is a recap of the discussion.

LinkedIn for beginners

Build a better profile

• List your current and past positions and education. This helps people and opportunities find you.
• Be sure to add a profile photo!
• Add a summary paragraph and keywords.
• If you don’t have a Web site, you can use your public LinkedIn profile as your URL. (You can add a custom URL with your full name.)

Be sure your connections reflect your real-life network

• From Gmail, Outlook, Palm, or Mac Address Book, you can import the names of all the people you know who are already on LinkedIn. You can then select those you want to invite to join your network. (Connections are by mutual agreement.)
• You can also see colleagues and classmates who are already on LinkedIn.

Leverage your network

• Post a question in the Answers section and tap into the experts you’re connected to and even the entire LinkedIn network. Remember that asking a question can be just as valuable as answering one.
• Write recommendations for people whose work you admire. Many will reciprocate.
• Look up someone’s profile before you meet them. Learn their background and see who you know in common to get off to a fast start.
• Search for jobs, and use your connections to introduce you to the people who already work in your target organization.
• Add LinkedIn to your browser tool bar to make it easier to visit the site.

Bonus

During our discussion, I learned more about LinkedIn applications, where you can add things like “Company Buzz” to your LinkedIn home page, helping you to keep up with news about people in your organization or your clients, for example. The Amazon Reading List is a nice way to share your favourite books with colleagues.

To learn about LinkedIn, I suggest visiting the Learning Center at LinkedIn, which is well hidden at the bottom of the home page. On that page, also look for the special user guides.

 
And check out these blog posts:

Ten ways to use LinkedIn to find a job

Five steps to a fantastic LinkedIn profile

How to build your personal brand on LinkedIn

33 ways to use LinkedIn for business

100+ smart ways to use LinkedIn