LinkedIn is often regarded as the Facebook for professionals. If you sell to businesses then you really do need to be on LinkedIn. For many people their involvement with LinkedIn is simply to sign up and make a few connections, but if you put more effort in, you can get a lot more from it.
10 Tips for getting to grips with LinkedIn and building your online network.
- Complete your profile. When you have signed up at www.linkedIn.com, ensure you complete as much as possible
- Use the search tool on LinkedIn to find your old colleagues and make connections with them
- You can import your Outlook contacts to LinkedIn. These are the people who are more likely to connect with you. Simply choose add connections and then link to your Outlook contacts
- Dig out your stack of business cards and search for these people on LinkedIn.
- Look through your initial connections and search for connections to add that you may already know
- Use a customised URL – This can be set in your LinkedIn profile
- Include your new customised URL in your email signature so that it encourages people you email to connect with you
- Add all of your past employers to your profile. This enables your old colleagues to find you more easily
- Make sure you promote your Website or Blog in your LinkedIn Profile
- Include your email address so that people can contact you easily