Linkedin will help you establish your professional profile online, and make you an expert in your field. In the real world you are likely to carry out your professional networking by going to business networking clubs and meeting other professionals. There you will exchange business cards and information about your profession and meet other people who you can do business with.
Why not have your business profile available to everyone all the time? With a Linkedin profile you can do this and take advantage of the networking features it offers without having to go anywhere. Set up an account for yourself as the Manager, Director, Marketing Manager or CEO of your business. Make sure you add the links back to your website and your blog. Fill in the company profile for your businesses, and any further information you want to add about yourself. Make yourself approachable, and make it clear what it is you do.
You can then search for people you know and link to them and their networks. You can find other people who you would like to do business with and introduce yourself. You can join business groups in your line of work, or which have similar interests and interact with a further group of people.
Linkedin is a great way to network with other professionals. Research shows that you are more likely to go to someone you know for business, a service or a product, than someone you have no relationship with. Linkedin also uses recommendations that are highly sought after so if you or your business are recommended it will be seen by other business professionals who are then more likely to consider you for your service or product. If you are writing your own blog, you can share links back to your blog on Linkedin to provide useful information for your network.
Don’t be put off by the ‘professional’ image that Linkedin can have. As the founder, Reid Hoffman of Linkedin has said, ‘Linkedin is for everyone.’ Everyone should have a profile on Linkedin to further their careers and help with new networking possibilities. It doesn’t matter what your job title is, or even if you have just left university, starting a Linkedin profile can be very important in the professional world.
A final thought on Linkedin. Although it has a minor share in the social media scene compared to Facebook, it has been documented that pages shared on Linkedin are more likely to produce click backs to the shared website, than pages shared on Facebook. Because it’s a professional networking tool, people care about what they share and read on Linkedin, more so than what they share on Facebook. It could be good for you and your business to have a profile on Linkedin.
This is part eighteen of a twenty four part series of tips provided by cannedSunlight Web Design Costa Blanca to celebrate the run up to Christmas. You can view the other tips here: Tips 1-16, Tip 17. Come back tomorrow for further tips and advice on how to get a great website that works for you or your business.
