LinkedIn: Five Must Do’s To Drive Your Success

Really Only Five

It seems unusual to be able to call this blog post: Five Must Dos To Drive Your Success because I can think of at least fifty tips that would be worthy of being on such a list and perhaps even before mentioning them we can begin by saying that LinkedIn's potential is best highlighted by the fact that you can literally have ten lists of five great tips, and it would be one person's opinion against another as to which list is better. But for what it's worth here is one list that I hope will help position, promote and ultimately drive your LinkedIn business further.

 1. Complete your profile 100%

LinkedIn keeps a careful eye how complete your profile is at any given point. Ideally your aim should be to totally complete your LinkedIn profile. Within this, you should include all your past and present work history, a summary of all the key professional skills you have, detailed information about which qualifications you have and the educational institutions you have attended to receive those qualifications. LinkedIn will suggest to you what else you need to further fill out your personal profile to get it to 100% and All Star status.

2. Post a professional image of you in your profile

On Twitter and some other more playful platforms you can have a casual photo or even animated avatar but not on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is the preeminent white collar, professional networking site in the world and positions itself as a serious site for serious people. Not surprisingly then, a serious shot of you adds to your credibility and makes your profile look more professional and in keeping with the tenor of the site so remember to only use a high resolution and professional image. This is defined as a head and shoulders portrait of you or something in a serious pose that may come from the work setting such as giving a presentation. 

3. Continue to drive quality new contacts within your network.

And in keeping with this third point, never be lazy enough to use the default invitation as it’s cold and impersonal and shows you have put absolutely no thought or effort into approaching someone that you want to add to your LinkedIn network. Alternatively if you can do some due diligence and add what you have learned into your note asking for them to join with you, not only will you have a far greater chance of success but it will also position you as someone that has taken the time and effort to find out more and by extension someone worthy of greater consideration and respect.

4.  Complete your specialisations

Specialisations should answer the question- what makes you unique from everyone else.  Now with well over three hundred million active users on LinkedIn, it is becoming increasingly important to differentiate yourself from others that may have a similar background to you with comparable qualifications, skill sets and documented professional experiences. One way to highlight this difference between yourself and others is to take extra time to fully flesh out this section that explores additional skills and abilities you developed over the journey that may not necessarily be typical or common within the various role you have undertaken in your career.

5.   Join a group

Join key groups on LinkedIn is a wonderful way to meet and connect with large numbers of people that may be members of your ideal target audience and by inference, key prospects for your business.  AS well as customers and prospects, you also have a real opportunity to meet other businesses that may be complimentary to yours where there is the potential to form strategic alliances as well as meting businesses that operate either before or after you in the distribution channel, where you may supply them or visa-versa.  It goes without saying that as well as joining existing groups you can also start your own group and try to act as a key opinion leader in your field.

Take Action

Regardless of  which steps you decide are most important for you in your current situation on LinkedIn, the key is to take action. Start now and even if you commit to only one of these a day you will have done all five within a week of starting which will surely start to drive high levels of engagement and potentially business development for you and your business brand.

As always if you'd like to learn more about LinkedIn or any of the key social media platforms, just sign up for  a free Digital Enterprise Workshop here on:  www.vecci.org.au/dep/workshops
and sigh up for any of the seven workshops which will also qualify you for a free four hour coaching session specifically focused on your business needs.  

So until next time, good luck and good marketing.
Regards,
Daniele.