LinkedIn: More Than A Connection

LinkedIn is more than a job search tool or a way to connect with professionals. It is also a place to share ideas, celebrate career accomplishments, and to establish oneself as an  expert in his or her career field. Recently LinkedIn was the focus on the Jaimee Designs Web Studio #ASKAWEBDESIGNER MeerKat Show as Melissa and viewers helped Jaimee understand the benefits of LinkedIn for her blog.  So, what did Jaimee learn?

How to Enhance Your Profile for Better  Results

• People like to know they are connecting with a person, so make sure the profile picture is one that matches the business persona you possess. Now you can even add a background picture.
• Put business on the map! In the event you own your own business, go under the Interests Tabs, select Company, look on the right side where it says create new company and make sure to put a logo and the information in there. This puts your company on the map and allows employees to connect with it.
• Make sure your contact information is up-to-date and include the best way for people to connect with you. If not, they may assume because your phone number is on there they can just call you.
• Choose a tagline to go under your name that is catchy and sums up who you are as a professional in a few words.
• Write a Summary of what you’ve learned on your career path to inspire others or to establish credibility.
• Fill in the experience section including jobs, what your successes were in each position, schooling, professional societies, awards and certifications. This section backs up your Summary and shows prospective clients/employers why you are the perfect person they need.
• Add published works and projects. Have you been published, were there certain projects you worked on during previous or current employment? Put the information in there. Make sure to add any of your connection who worked on the project with you.
• Make a list of your skills and put them in the skills section. This way people you’ve worked with and connected with can endorse you in those skills. Don’t forget to endorse connections back.

Once the profile is complete and looking awesome, then it’s time to get into the “Nuts and Bolts” of Why LinkedIn is relevant.

How to Utilize LinkedIn

LinkedIn is not just about an awesome profile. To really get benefits out of the platform, you have to connect and engage. Start by connecting with people you’ve worked with in current and previous careers. As you connect, start looking at their connections to see if there is anyone you might be interested in networking with in the field. Try not to connect with people you don’t know and don’t share a connection with currently.  In the event the person is a public figure, you can follow them to keep up with what they post and try to find ways to connect with them through comments.

Once you’ve connected with a few people, start sharing updates or something interesting happening in your field today. Share articles relevant to what you are working on. If you are a blogger, then create links with images to your posts. Created a great video or have an inspirational meme, post it to LinkedIn. Don’t forget to put in a few tags so they can be put into categories under Pulse. Pulse is a news curator feed that allows you to see news from your current connections, the top posts on LinkedIn and a place to discover new information on topics that interest you. A great thing about publishing post on LinkedIn is it allows you to “review stats for your published posts, which helps you refine messaging, target the right audience and directly engage with the people who interact with you”.

Find groups who converse on the items you are interested in and join them. This opens you to a community of people to network with and sometimes they include the people you really want as a connection.

LinkedIn is an untapped and sometimes forgotten about platform that actually is more robust than you may think. Did you know they also have paid premium plans available? The plans available can help you land your dream job, increase and nurture your current network, unlock sales opportunities and help companies find and hire talent. The best news, they even have a free trial.

After going through LinkedIn and participating with the MeerKat audience, Jaimee now sees the possibilities available to enrich her blog www.jaimeedorris.com.