5 Tips for Getting the Most Out of LinkedIn

You’ve signed up for a LinkedIn account because you heard that was where the professionals mingled, and now you don’t know where to begin. Using LinkedIn effectively may require some extra time, but the benefit in the end is well worth the effort.

With over 60 million members, LinkedIn has proved to be a viable network.  A b-to-b social media strategy wouldn’t be complete without recommending using LinkedIn as a medium to communicate.  But, most people fall short of getting the most out of LinkedIn. Here’s a five tips to point you in the right direction.

Setup a Company Profile

Every company needs a profile.  There’s a large number of business owners that are active on LinkedIn, yet fail to have a company profile.  It’s nice that a link to your website is on your profile, but people want to know what your company does immediately after they see your profile.  Take a few minutes to setup a company profile, write a paragraph or two about what you do, follow the rest of the prompts and be sure to include your blog feed for the ‘news’ section.

Use Third Party Applications

Apps like HootSuite and TweetDeck are perfect for monitoring your LinkedIn network activity.  If you use HootSuite or TweetDeck to monitor your Twitter account, adding the extra tab, or column, is worth it.  Not only are you able to see status updates, but you also see what questions people in your network have asked, what groups they may have joined, any articles they submitted and what new connections they’ve added to their network.

Get Involved

If you are serious about social media, then you need to get involved.  Look at what groups people in your network are involved in, or, search for groups relevant to your business and join them.  Participate in the discussions or start a discussion of your own.  Don’t be afraid to use LinkedIn’s Q&A forum. You’ll be surprised how many people are willing to give you some advice.  Looking for blog ideas, browse through some group discussions, you’ll never know what you may come across.

Network in Person Too

People get so caught up in social networking that they forget about going out and meeting people.  Use LinkedIn Events to find out what networking events are coming up in your area.  Contrary to what you may think, people do attend these events.  If anything, it’s fun to see how many people recognize you from your LinkedIn profile picture.

Follow People

When LinkedIn added Twitter updates to their list of features, they quickly added a ‘follow’ option.  You can choose to follow people the same way you can on Twitter.  It’s a great way to keep in touch, and see what they are doing if you don’t use the available third party applications.