Make Smarter Use of LinkedIn

Have you taken a close look at LinkedIn? Facebook and Twitter get more attention but if you want to make business connections and not hear much about others’ cats, trips to the mall or their relationship dramas, give LinkedIn a chance.  I’m not knocking Facebook or Twitter for their business value but LinkedIn has a more professional face to it.

The Richer. Smarter. Happier.com post “27 Ways to Make Smarter Use of LinkedIn,” shares some quick and easy ways to ramp up your LinkedIn presence.  A few of my favorites are:

Respond to questions that highlight your expertise. Provide a link to your blog or website where they can get more information. That’s a good way to broaden your reach and spread the word about your site and business.

Make it a point to add at least five new connections per week. Ask others to introduce you to their contacts. This will force you to get out there and meet others, even if you’re sitting in your home office in your pajamas.

Conduct market research using LinkedIn polls. Share the results. After you tally your results, you can turn them into a news release.  Stats always appeal to the media.

Link to interesting articles or to articles you’ve published. That’s a great way to drive traffic to your site.

Update your status at least once per day during the workweek. You can link your updates with Twitter and Facebook so you’re not spending all day updating three accounts.

Improve your Google PageRank. LinkedIn lets you make your profile information available for search engines to index by creating a public profile and selecting “Full View.”