Join a group, connect with peers and share links to your own blog or site. Find out the latest industry news.
2. Answer and Ask Questions
The “Answers” section of LinkedIn, where people go to ask their business-related questions and where business takes place. Avoiding answering questions is a missed opportunity to establish your self as an expert or find potential new customers. By asking questions you learn (for example about your customers needs). Set up to receive LinkedIn messages in your inbox so you can respond right away.
3. Don’t Overly Self-Promote when Answering Questions
Give honest and valuable guidance, don’t sell. Building a relationship takes time and trust. Let them contact you directly if they have more questions.
4. Complete Your Profile
Make sure your profile is complete, so people can learn all about you and gain trust and establish authority. Describe your role at your current and previous companies, and provide links to your website and any relevant profiles (i.e. Twitter).
5. Complete Company Page
Your company page has the potential to gain LinkedIn followers who will see your blog posts, company profile updates, and job openings in their LinkedIn newsfeed. If your company description isn’t filled in, it might prevent people from following you, or finding you. Optimize your company page by including relevant keywords and links to your website.
6. Optimize Your Profile for SEO
Optimizing your LinkedIn profile for SEO will only a few minutes. By adding custom anchor text to the website links on your profile, the links will pass higher-quality SEO authority. To optimize these links:
▪ Click “edit” next to the website link
▪ In the Choose dropdown, click “Other”
▪ Enter the name of your website
▪ Enter the URL
7. Promote Your LinkedIn Page on Your Website
Use widgets and add a LinkedIn icon to your website to increase awareness of your presence on LinkedIn. Make it easy for your visitors to find out how to connect with you in social media.
8. Do Market research
Gain knowledge with polls, share survey and poll results with your contacts. Research your prospects before meeting them.
9. Don’t Ignore Connection Invitations
Once you provide value in Answers and Groups, people will start inviting you to connect with them on LinkedIn. Don’t just ignore these invitations and feel the need to personally know everyone that you connect with. LinkedIn automatically sorts your connections based on how you know them; whether through a current or previous job, or through a group.
10. Keep your profile current
11. Share useful Information
Useful articles and resources that will be of interest to customers and prospects. Post your presentations on your profile using a presentation application. Link to articles and content posted elsewhere, with a summary of why it’s valuable to add to your credibility.
12. Share your updates (also on other social media accounts)
LinkedIn is a more professional social networking site than Facebook and twitter, so it’s likely that you’ll have different followers here who will benefit from seeing your updates. Re-purpose content across all of the social channels, but don’t not duplicating the content.
13. Recommend
Write honest and valuable recommendations for your contacts. Request LinkedIn recommendations from happy costumers willing to provide testimonials.
14. Connect
Ask your first-level contacts for introductions to their first-level contacts. Import cards and contacts from other applications to find more connections. Export your contacts into other applications.
15. Find
Prospects, potential business partners or services you can use. Post job listings to find qualified talent. Find experts in your field and invite them as a guest blogger on your blog or speaker at your event.