I believe there are three kinds of opinions about LinkedIn, a social networking tool that seems more transactional than Facebook or Twitter.
1. There are those who heard about it, posted a basic profile and aren’t sure what to do next. They get the occasional invite to “connect” and they accept, but that’s about it. After a while the dustballs and cobwebs gather, no one visits them anymore and they decide (with disgust or disappointment) that the darned thing doesn’t “work” or they are so VERY unattractive that no one would want to connect with them anyway!
2. There are those who live and breathe LinkedIn. They attend networking meetings with other LinkedIn users and may become a “Lion” (superuser, highly connected individual). They search profiles, participate in groups, connect others, answer questions, request recommendations and seek introductions to those who will hire them or buy their products.
3. Then there are some who swear they will never, EVER, waste their time on something quite so silly. They’d rather do the “real” work. Those people are probably not reading this post! Ha!
Oh and then there’s me! While I wouldn’t say I’ve discovered some magic formula for LinkedIn, I have developed a strategy that works well for what I do. So here’s how it goes…
I want all my social media tools to connect, as appropriate. I don’t want to spend more time than necessary posting to each one individually. For that reason, I’ve filled in the little boxes on my profile where you can link over to your website and blog(s). You do not have to limit yourself to the language from the basic drop-down options that say, “my website” or “my blog” or “my company” etc.
At the bottom of that drop-down box is another option entitled (coincidentally!) “Other”. If you select that option, you get to type in terms that are more compelling. For example, instead of “my blog” you can insert “humorous blog posts” or “daily stock pick blog”. The trick here is to make the language work FOR you. Make it sales copy, not something boring. Also, you may wish to include keywords like “social media coach” or “Colorado accountant” to attract the search engine gods. (NOTE: only relevant if you set your profile view to full view)
I keep my profile fresh. I might add a brief description of a recent project I’ve just completed. That way people know what I’m working on. I ask clients who find me on LinkedIn to tell me what was it they saw on that profile that attracted them. Typically, these are folks I have known for years, but they discover something new I’m working on that they weren’t aware of. People change, the projects we do will change and not everyone keeps up with your transformations and growth. They remember you like you used to be!
I post updates often. When you post updates, you show up on the weekly announcements email – ’nuff said! When appropriate, I might also check the little box underneath the “network updates” box to feed my update into my Twitter account. While you can manage your LinkedIn settings so that every update is sent to Twitter, some are just not relevant. The same goes for Twitter in reverse. You can change your Twitter settings so that every “Tweet” gets posted to your LinkedIn updates, but again, my tweets are not always relevant for my LinkedIn friends. The demographics are different, the people are different and what is helpful information for them is also quite different.
I use LinkedIn differently than Twitter or Facebook. Each one of these tools can become a favorite for different types of people depending on the function or reasons why they’re using it. AND each one of these tools will change rapidly depending on whether or not they monetize, what features they add or delete, etc. So I’d look at each one of them as fulfilling a very different role for you as you promote yourself, your career, business, council, commission, church, club or cause!
QUESTION: Which one of those three categories do you fall into? Have you found LinkedIn helpful for your business or job search or do you feel it’s just a colossal waste of time?
. Here’s what makes him an industry expert:
