7 Things You're Doing Wrong on LinkedIn
From INC
Flickr/Coletivo Mambembe
Today, LinkedIn is the No. 1 social media platform for
professionals. Estimates of professional participation in LinkedIn are
as high as 83%.
But when I talked to one of my friends--social media expert Alexandra
Gibson from OttoPilot Media--she told me that she sees too many
professionals making a lot of mistakes. Here are the seven she sees most
often.
1. You only use it if you need a job. I can usually tell when
my friends are on the job prowl because all of a sudden, a barely
existent LinkedIn profile is revived. The truth is that you'll be much
better served by keeping your profile and connections current, rather
than just reaching out to people when you need something.
2. You have an incomplete profile. A bare-bones profile does
not do you (or your company) any favors. Add all important companies and
a description of the results you achieved in the past. Don't forget to optimize your profile for search--creating a keyword rich profile will help people find you and your company.
3. You don't belong to the right groups. There are more groups
out there than there are seconds in a day, so it can be difficult to
decide which are most important. If you join no other groups, join your
alumni groups (college, prep school, grad school, fraternity or
sorority). Industry groups--both for your own company and your major
customer market segments--are a clear next step.
4. You're not sharing valuable content. When you publish a great blog post or your company creates a valuable white paper, share it on your LinkedIn feed.
Also, share content in your feed from other sources besides your own.
Post in your groups to judiciously share articles and links if you feel
that it would be of interest to that audience. This will help show you
as a thought leader--and, if the content is on your site, can generate
quality leads directly from LinkedIn.
5. You're not building out your connections. Again, don't wait
till you need something: You should be constantly adding and accepting
connections from people you know professionally or personally. I do not
recommend trying to connect with people that you don't actually know:
You want this to be your real professional network, so if
someone says, "Hey, I see you know Jim Smith," you can say that you
actually worked with him at a project at a previous company and not that
you were just padding your connections number.
6. You're not utilizing LinkedIn Answers. The underutilized LinkedIn Answers section is another valuable place to show your expertise and provide value.
People ask questions and, if you know anything about the topic, you can
answer in a forum. Add links to important content that backs up your
answer, especially if it's content from your site that fits with the
question. One of the best things about LinkedIn Answers is its staying
power--unlike other social media sites (think Twitter), the section gets
visited by people with similar questions over time, so it can generate
leads even a year later.
7. You haven't brought your team/staff along. Sure, it might
be a bit much to require your CFO to join Facebook--but since LinkedIn
is a professional network that focuses on individual, professional
connections, it you should emphasize its importance to your entire team.
Think of the power you could tap into if, the next time you go to pitch
a company, you check LinkedIn and see that Mary Ellen in accounting is
already connected to the chief marketing officer.
