LinkedIn is the Social Media Network for professionals and businesses. Facebook is for keeping up to date with your friends and family, but LinkedIn is to keep up to date with your colleagues (past, present and future!).
I signed up to LinkedIn while in my previous job, but didn’t have a profile. I often received invitations to connect but I didn’t have a clue what I should use LinkedIn for. That is until I started my own business and found that LinkedIn was a great way of showcasing your CV online and connecting with people you wouldn’t necessarily meet in real life.
LinkedIn for me is one of the ways I network with potential clients. Being based in France and not speaking the language means I don’t get out and network in a traditional sense. For me in particular I can work with people all over the world, why limit myself to network with just those in the UK (or France if I could speak French well enough)?
To understand LinkedIn you need to get involved… the same rules of interaction for other social networks apply for LinkedIn. Here are a few ways you can get involved and connect with people:
- Join groups you’re interested in, as a business or personally
- Connect with your colleagues, past and present
- Ask for recommendations and endorsements
- Create a company page for your business and include your services
- Share articles in the same way you share on other networks, but more business related
- Sign-up to LinkedIn Ads and run an advert (I have had great success with these)
With any social network you need to get involved, LinkedIn has evolved a lot since I first started my profile nearly two years ago. I find I interact more on there now than I did in the past. I have connection requests on a regular basis and enquiries about my business.
One of the most important things you need to do on LinkedIn is have a super profile, it’s your online CV/Resume. You need to ensure your profile is SEO optimised with the correct keywords, put the effort in as much as you would you’re own website. Above this though is to make sure you have the perfect headline so people can easily search for you, make sure the skills you are selling are included, for example my headline reads:
☆ Professional Virtual Assistant ☆ eBook Formatting ☆ Social Media ☆ WordPress Web Design ☆
Why not connect with me on LinkedIn?
I have chosen some great articles about LinkedIn, check some of these out for some more tips:
