Linking Together - How To Use LinkedIn Initially and More Effectively

In my last post I talked about the business reasons for having a presence on LinkedIn. This time I'm going to give a point-by-point how-to on creating that presence.

Step one is to establish a credible presence on the site. To do this, basically enter all your Curriculum Vitae details on your profile. Use the Edit Profile section for this. You can upload an existing CV but this process is not perfect so make sure you go back and check your profile afterwards and correct any errors. LinkedIn rates your profile on a percentage scale so get it up to 100%. This is not particularly difficult to do and the site itself will make suggestions as to what sections of your profile you should work on next.

Step two is to upload your existing contact details and C.R.M. into LinkedIn. You can import your existing web mail contacts from the Network / Add Connections option and you can also upload a spreadsheet of contacts by going from there to the Any Email option and entering details under the More Ways to Connect / Upload Contacts File heading. The spreadsheet must be in one of a number of specific formats. I suggest the format that is exported by Microsoft Outlook. Once you have done this, you can instruct LinkedIn to contact these people and request to connect with them. Tip: Never use the standard LinkedIn connection request message as it looks lazy. You can use a fairly generic message, just make it original to you.

Step three: Join groups. There are three main types of groups you should join initially:

1. Specialised groups that relate to your industry or interests.
2. General business related groups where the people in your community do or are likely to congregate. Groups related to networking, events and link-building are good examples of these.
3. Groups that specific leads, people you are interested in connecting with and existing connections have already joined. You should only join groups that you have at least a passing interest in. In the case of the first two, to do anything else is rather blatant pandering and in the case of the last you are only using your existing contacts as a source of interesting or useful groups.

Remember that you are limited to a total membership of fifty groups so choose which ones you join wisely. Don't worry about this too much initially as you can leave groups and churning your group membership should be part of your strategy anyway, as we shall see later.

Step four: Engage and converse with other LinkedIn members. You will probably be mostly doing this via groups but you can also privately message people you meet through groups, your connections, people you follow individually and those you search for. In groups, you can take on a number of roles. You can be relatively passive, only responding to points in which you have a direct interest, you can start conversations or topics, you can ask for or provide advice, you can form mentor and/or protégée relationships or you can simply be a general source of information or conversationalist. You can take on any or all of these roles in different groups or in the same ones.

Step five: Moving outside. You can link to or from your LinkedIn in profile or other activity via your website, blog or other social media or forum. You can promote your events, white papers, e-books and other publications as well as your products and services. These can also reference your LinkedIn presence, if appropriate. Caution should obviously be used when promoting yourself, as always. The administrators of some forums have a lower tolerance for self-promotion and overt marketing than others, as do users of those venues. You should also reference your LinkedIn presence as part of your conventional networking and check to see if people have a LinkedIn presence as part of your follow-up. Tip: use Google for this rather than LinkedIn's built in search as this will give you a more general picture of a lead's online presence. The LinkedIn search is biased towards those with whom you have an existing connection, which is not always helpful.

Step six:  Have a policy for who you connect with. It is very tempting to connect with anyone who is willing but you will soon lose track of their significance, if any. Have some form of sensible limitation on who you are willing to connect with. I personally only connect with people that I have met at least once or have a specific interest in. Tip: Many recruitment agents use LinkedIn as a general pool of potential candidates. If someone you don't know asks to connect with you, check their profile. If they work for a recruitment company or have over 500 connections, be cautious about accepting their request.

Step seven: Use your LinkedIn presence as a social media platform. Use SEO terms in your profile and posts. Link back to specific sections of your website and blog, using those terms, where appropriate.

Finally: Rinse, wash, repeat. Add more detail to your profile, increasingly use LinkedIn for C.R.M., join more groups, converse more, engage in and reference more activities, and refine your connection policy. Refinement is the key here. Always remember: it is very important to remove those profile details, online and real world activities, groups, connections and policies which are not helping you, either on LinkedIn or outside of it. Some activities may have a positive effect outside of LinkedIn but may not be appropriate to refer to in that context. LinkedIn has become the de facto site for publishing your professional credentials, so make sure that every action you take leads back into step one; establishing and enhancing your professional credibility. Also remember that refining your LinkedIn presence is a constant and ongoing process, to be performed organically, and you will achieve the best results from the site, both for your business and for whatever other purpose you choose to use it.

[Edit 19/07/2013]
You can now download the Linking Together - How To Use LinkedIn article as a printable PDF file.