Clarion Hotel Social Media Seminar – LinkedIn tips from RazorCoast
Last night I gave a presentation at the social media seminar organised by the Clarion Hotel in the IFSC. The turnout and buzz in the room was excellent with over 100 people. It’s great to see that companies are starting to realise how beneficial social media can be for their business. It was also great to get lots of questions from the floor which is always a good sign.
The following outlines the top 10 tips we covered last night:
1). Fill Out your profile
There are a lot of profiles which are not 100% complete. At a minimum you should get yours to 100%. This means setting up your picture, including your employment and education background and getting at least 3 recommendations. Once you get to this stage then you can look at really improving your profile further but get to 100% first!
2). Build up your network
You are 34 times more likely to get a job if you have more than 20 connections. You may not be looking for a job but you may be looking for business so the more connections you have the better as long as each connection builds value. Don’t connect for the sake of connecting make sure you either have a relationship or can build a relationship with that person.
3). Use Status Updates
This is so important. There are so many people that don’t put in status updates so you should stand out from crowd. By putting in regular status updates your network gets to see what you are doing. I have often meet people at network events I’m presenting at and they heard about them through my status updates. I’ve also got business from my status updates as I tell people what work I’m doing and this often attracts attention. You can even include a web address in your status updates…
4). Create a company profile
A lot of people create a personal profile but don’t create a company profile. It’s free publicity, there’s nothing wrong with that! These pages are also indexed within Google so you will find if you do a search for your company name on Google you’ll see a link from Linkedin. That’s not bad is it!!
5). Use Internal e-mail
You have a much better chance of getting a response to your e-mail if you use the built in e-mail within LinkedIn. I’ve never seen any spam mail within LinkedIn so when you get e-mail you generally know it’s a serious one and respond to it.
6). Demonstrate your expertise
You are an expert in your area, make sure people in LinkedIn know this. A good way of doing this is providing help by answering questions that will show your expertise. You may not immediately get business out of this but plant those seeds and look forward to the harvest!
7). Customise for SEO
Even if you’re not going to invest a lot of time in LinkedIn you should at least create a good profile and optimise it so you get the benefit of Google ranking. In LinkedIn you have the option of putting in 3 Links. A lot of people use the default text e.g. ‘My Website’. Instead when you are entering your address don’t select ‘My Website’ select the ‘other’ option. This allows you to enter in your own text. In technical terms this is called ‘anchor text’. This anchor text helps google understand what the website is about. For example, I use the anchor text ‘social media agency’ and if you click on this you are brought to Razorcoast. The reason I do this is because I want to be ranked highly within google for the words ‘social media agency’. Having a link from a high authority site such as LinkedIn is a very valuable link.
Another thing you should do is customise your personal URL so it contains your actual name. This is useful when you are providing a link back to your profile but also useful from an SEO point of view also.
Finally be careful about your selection of keywords within you profile summary, description etc. LinkedIn has it’s own search engine so when people are looking for companies in your business area you want them to find you!
8). Create your own group
Instead of joining loads of groups pick a niche area that you specialise in and create a group in this area. As you are the moderator you will automatically be positioned as the expert. You can then promote this group amongst businesses that you are doing business with or would like to do business with.
9). Promote Everywhere
Now that you are set up correctly on LinkedIn it’s time to tell everybody. Include your LinkedIn badge on Facebook, put it on your e-mail signature etc.
10). Use Applications
There are many useful applications within LinkedIn. For example, if you have a WordPress blog you can embed your blog as part of your LinkedIn profile. When you create a new blog post this will automatically be updated within LinkedIn. Now your profile it more interesting to people. When they see the blog post if they find it interesting you will see that they will start going to your website.
The above are some of many possibilities for the use of LinkedIn. It is the same with any of the social networks if you are going to use them effectively you need to work out a strategy and goals, put a detailed plan in place and execute on this plan. Social media is all about building relationships with people online. Keep building those relationships and reap the benefits.
As mentioned at the event I am starting a bi-monthly newsletter. e-mail news@razorocast.com if you want to be put on the list. The slides from the above presentation are available on Slideshare.