High Quality LinkedIn Tricks and Tips

Professionals all over the world are signing up for LinkedIn accounts at the rate of nearly one a second as LinkedIn boasts more than 200 million members and counting. That means that after they sign up they will need to learn the best ways to use their brand new business tool. Here are some of the high quality tricks and tips that can help business people use their LinkedIn accounts to their best advantage:

Act like your LinkedIn profile is a website

What this means is that just like a business website, a LinkedIn account needs to be optimized so that it is formatted correctly, easy to read, has no grammatical or spelling errors in the postings, and that you are using the right keywords and phrases to attract the attention of the search engines.

If you create a LinkedIn account and then treat it like it is just another social media venue, then you will be making a grave error since LinkedIn is a more professional and more serious venue made for the professional who wants to make business contacts and get, as well as share, information relevant to his field.

Make Sure To Fill Out Forms Properly

This may sound like something no one would do wrong, but you’d be surprised. For instance, when filling out your profile be sure to put only your first name in the “first name” box, and your last name in the “last name” field. Otherwise if you instead put something like “Jones, PhD” in the last name slot then it may make in nearly impossible for someone to find you using the LinkedIn search feature.

Profile Photos Must Be Professional

Your profile is the first thing anyone sees when they look at your LinkedIn page. That means your photo needs to be one that represents you professionally. That means men should likely wear a suit and tie (or whatever uniform represents your niche) and women should dress in a business-like manner. Don’t post a picture of you in shorts and a T-shirt, unless perhaps that is what you are selling!

Don’t Neglect Making Frequent Posts

Some think that after they create their LinkedIn account and pages that they are home free. That is far from the truth. In order to get any real value out of your LinkedIn pages you have to go on them and post things on a regular basis, at least weekly. This gets you engaged with other people in your groups, passes on some new tip about your business or helps you to make another connection in your field, etc. This is especially true if you are in charge of your own Group. You must be proactive and think of important, relevant and up-to-date things to share with your fellow group members.

Be Sure to Join Several Groups

Speaking of groups, don’t neglect becoming a member of several groups in areas in your niche and that you are interested in. Making connections via groups helps you in many ways such as helping you to gain more credibility for your brand, giving you brand new and up-to-date information in your field, letting you meet other business professionals that can help you do things like find new employees, solve problems, etc.

Plus, if you create a group you can attract like-minded professionals who can help you in similar ways with you being the one in charge of what is going on in the group.

Be Helpful to Other LinkedIn Members

No one likes a know-it-all or a smart mouth jerk and that goes for LinkedIn members as well. If you want to gain followers, learn more about what is going on in your field or find new employees then you need to learn to treat other people on LinkedIn as you want them to treat you. Be polite when you ask for something, say “please” and “thank you.”

Don’t send out SPAM or bombard people with requests to buy your products and services. Learn to use LinkedIn and have respect for your fellow professionals and you will go far in getting the most out of this special social network platform.

Don’t Forget to Create Company Page

Be sure to create a Company Page for your business. It is separate from your personal LinkedIn account and can help your business to grow in many ways. It will help it to build credibility, get involved with other businesses, and much more.

Bottom line? LinkedIn is something that you can’t live without if you own a business and want to get ahead in today’s fast paced world!