One competitor to LinkedIn, Ryze, was launched a few years ago with a lot of fanfare, and it claims to have more than 500,000 members in 200 countries. Since then, it has lost momentum. Like the early days of LinkedIn, it seems people don’t know what to do once they log in. The idea behind Ryze is that you “rise up” through quality networking. I see some current postings on the site, but it has disabled the ability to create new accounts, so it looks like Ryze’s days are numbered.
Xing is the most popular business networking website in Germany and has a strong following in Europe. Xing is free to join and offers premium accounts for about $10 per month, which let you see who searched your profile, filter your searches for better targeting, and send messages to people you are not connected to. Xing has a lot of the same features and tools as LinkedIn, including groups, jobs, events, apps, and company pages. It’s very user-friendly and a great business networking community for Europeans.
Occasionally, I receive invitations to join new business networking websites like Dock and Referral Key, but I don’t bother signing up because I know I won’t use them as often as I use LinkedIn. Some people prefer to network on these other sites for various reasons, but I think they’re missing out by not focusing on LinkedIn. Maybe they have a niche network on another site that’s working for them, but there is so much opportunity on LinkedIn that they’re crazy not to build a network there, too. LinkedIn is exponentially larger than Xing (500 million users, compared to a bit more than 7 million, primarily in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland), so you can belong to both and expand your reach significantly. But at the end of the day, LinkedIn reigns supreme. Why be the salmon swimming upstream when you can easily ride the wave to success?
CONCLUSION
There are other business networking websites, but none come close to the power of LinkedIn for growing your professional network. At this point, you’ve established your reason for joining LinkedIn and your networking strategy is beginning to take shape. In the next chapter, we’ll create your LinkedIn account, start creating your optimized profile, and begin expanding your professional network.
If you already have a LinkedIn account, you can skip the next chapter and jump to Chapter 4, where we will optimize your LinkedIn profile.
For additional updates and how-to videos, visit https://tedprodromou.com/UltimateGuideUpdates/.
Chapter 3
Creating Your LinkedIn Account
When you create your LinkedIn account, you will be prompted to answer some questions as you populate your profile. Filling out your profile completely will help you connect with others faster than if you leave out important details.
First, create your new account by entering your first and last names, your email address, and a password, as shown in Figure 3–1.
FIGURE 3–1. Creating Your LinkedIn Account
Next, select your Country/Region and enter your postal code. See Figure 3–2.
FIGURE 3–2. Selecting Your Country/Region
You will be asked to enter your Most Recent Job Title and Most Recent Company or to select Student. You will then be led through a custom wizard, as you see in Figure 3–3, which is tailored to your selection so you can easily build a profile optimized for your objective. After you enter your country, zip code, job title, and company, click Create My Profile and your profile will be created.
FIGURE 3–3. Enter Your Most Recent Job Title and Company/School
Next, confirm your email address to accept LinkedIn’s privacy policy. LinkedIn will email you a code that you need to enter to verify your identity. See Figure 3–4 on page 17. You should also review the LinkedIn privacy policy so you understand their terms of service for using the website and who owns the content you publish on the website. As of this writing, LinkedIn says individuals still own any content they publish on the website, but it reserves the right to use the content any way it sees fit.
FIGURE 3–4. Confirm Your Email Address and Accept Privacy Policy
Next you will be asked if you want to import your contacts into LinkedIn. If you choose this option, LinkedIn will automatically import all your contacts from Outlook, Gmail, or whichever other email program you use. LinkedIn will tell you which of your contacts are already on LinkedIn so you can send them invitations to connect. If your contacts are not on LinkedIn, you can send them an email inviting them to connect with you. This is an easy way to quickly connect with your existing network on LinkedIn, as shown in Figure 3–5.
FIGURE 3–5. Importing Your Email Contacts
Personally, I do not like using automated connection tools. I feel it’s impersonal almost like spamming your current network. LinkedIn sends a canned invitation to your contacts, and you can’t customize the message for each person. I prefer to reach out to my existing network manually and choose whom I want to connect with on LinkedIn. That way, I can build my LinkedIn network with a small number of quality contacts instead of with everyone in my address book. I may have met someone at a networking event and exchanged contact information a few years ago, but that doesn’t necessarily mean she’s a good fit for my LinkedIn network today.
I do have clients who successfully used the automated connection tool to quickly build their network. They feel they’re already connected to their contacts from previous business ventures, so it’s fine to send the standard LinkedIn connection message. This approach allowed them to quickly grow their network, but only a small percentage of the automated emails resulted in LinkedIn connections. They had to reach out personally to connect with the rest of their email address book.
I’ll leave it to you whether you want to use the automation tools, but most professionals prefer the “quality over quantity” method of building their network.
Next you will be prompted to share on Facebook and Twitter that you just joined LinkedIn. When people click on the link, you will be connected to them on LinkedIn. Again, I don’t like this method of connecting with people because you are sending a blind invitation to all your Facebook friends and Twitter followers. I like to keep my Facebook personal life separate from my business life on LinkedIn. As I mentioned in Chapter 2, Facebook is becoming a great venue for business, but I still use it primarily for personal posts. With Twitter, I have no control over who follows me, and I may not want them to be part of my professional network on LinkedIn. Again, I’ll leave it up to you if you want to share an open invitation on Facebook and Twitter, but I don’t recommend it.
The next step in the registration wizard will ask you if you want to sign up for the premium, paid version or use the free, basic version of LinkedIn. I’ll go into greater detail about the premium version later in this book, but I highly recommend staying with the free version for now unless you have an immediate need for LinkedIn’s advanced features, such as InMail and Advanced Job Search.
The wizard will now prompt you to enter your current job information, including your hire date, details about the position, past job titles, responsibilities, and the dates you worked at that position.
As you enter your job information, the wizard will ask you, “What did you do as [your job title]?” Enter the details of your job responsibilities, and remember to include your skills when possible. Some people write a brief description of their responsibilities in the first person, while others create a bulleted list of responsibilities. An example of a first-person job description would be: “I was responsible for search engine optimization and online advertising for our regions around the world. I was also responsible for email marketing campaign development, brand development, and website traffic growth.”
Other people write their summaries in the third person. An example of a third-person summary would be: “Ted is responsible for search engine optimization and online advertising for the company’s regions around the world. He is also responsible for email marketing campaign development, brand development, and website traffic growth.”
I prefer the first-person voice for my profile summary because it sounds more personal.
To me, third-person narrative sounds like it was written by someone else, so it’s not as friendly as a first-person summary. I know there is an ongoing debate about which style works better, so I suggest trying first person for a few months and then switching to third person to see which gets the best results.
Another way to phrase your summary would be the bulleted list:
A dynamic online marketing manager with more than ten years of experience, including search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, and search engine marketing (SEM).
■ Thrives in chaotic environments, coolheaded in stressful situations, able to manage multiple projects concurrently and get things done
■ Excellent communicator; often serves as the liaison between other departments, customers, and offshore teams
■ Flexible and resourceful, applying exceptional organizational, time-management, and planning skills to deliver projects on time and on budget
■ Drives adoption of new technologies and innovative solutions
Here’s another example of a bulleted-list job description:
Responsibilities included:
■ Search engine optimization (SEO)
■ Online banner advertising for regions around the world
■ Creating and managing pay-per-click (PPC) ad campaigns internationally
■ Email marketing campaign development and management
■ Brand development
■ Website traffic growth
Notice how the list contains keyword phrases and three-letter acronyms where appropriate. I added “(SEO)” after “search engine optimization” so the LinkedIn search algorithm can find these keywords and related acronyms in my profile. Now I’m easily found when someone searches for SEO or search engine optimization.
That’s how I set my profile up, but there is no right or wrong way to create your profile summary. The main objective is to use your keyword phrases so you’re easily found and people can get a quick overview of your skill sets as they scan your professional profile.
Once you’ve entered your current and past jobs, the LinkedIn wizard will prompt you to enter your education. Here, input the school you attended, the degree(s) you earned (if any), and the dates you attended the school. If you are a current student, you can use your expected graduation date. If you didn’t graduate from that school, you can just note the dates you attended and the courses you studied. The wizard will continue to prompt you to enter more schools until you’ve entered all the ones you attended.
A lot of people who have college or advanced degrees ask me if they should also include their high school in their education profile. If you enter your high school, LinkedIn will show you people who also went to school there so you can add them to your network. If you think it would be valuable to have people from your high school in your professional network, then you should add your high school to your education profile.
After you complete the education portion of your profile, the wizard will move on to your skills. It’s important to use keyword phrases in the skills section (as you did in your job description) so your profile is search-friendly. You can add up to 50 skills to your profile, which will dramatically increase the chances of people finding you when they search for that skill set. As you start typing, the system will suggest skills that are already being used on LinkedIn. Select as many variations of your keywords as possible to optimize your profile.
At this point, you should have a basic LinkedIn profile, and you will start seeing new items appear in your sidebar. LinkedIn is reading your profile and building a list of recommendations based on the keywords in your jobs, education, summary, and skills. The People You May Know feature will begin recommending new, targeted connections you may want to add to your network. As you add connections, your LinkedIn network will update automatically. It will tell you how many connections and how many new people are in your network. You will also see recommended jobs and Groups you may want to join based on your profile and network data. You will also see a list of companies you may want to start following so you can keep up with industry trends or see if you may want to work there someday.
Keep adding appropriate connections to your network, and this sidebar data will continue to update. LinkedIn is constantly learning and suggesting recommendations as your extended network grows. You receive targeted information automatically, which saves you a ton of time when you’re looking for people to connect with or looking for companies to learn more about.
Your personal profile should complement your company profile, using the same terminology and keywords. People like to see congruency when they view your company profile and then visit your employee profile. This helps present a more professional image for you and your company, which gives potential clients a positive and lasting impression.
CONTACT INFORMATION
I teach my clients and students to make it easy for people on LinkedIn to reach out to you. Some of my clients are reluctant to share their telephone number and email address on their LinkedIn profiles because they fear they will receive spam messages and telemarketing calls.
My view is that we join LinkedIn so people can find us and do business with us. Hiding or not sharing your contact information is like trying to run a store without putting a sign on the building or listing your phone number. How are people going to know you are in business if you don’t make it easy for them to find you?
So make it easy for potential clients to find you. You can add links to your website and blog right on your profile, which will generate lots of web traffic and help your search rankings. Links from popular sites like LinkedIn are very valuable, so make sure you take advantage of this feature.
Figure 3–6 on page 22 shows the available contact fields in your LinkedIn profile. One of the most common mistakes people make when adding their website or blog URLs to their profile is to choose one of the default options in the dropdown list, like Personal Website or Blog.
If you choose Company Website, for example, as shown in Figure 3–6, your listing will just say “Company Website” with no description. In Figure 3–7 on page 22, I chose the Other option, which allowed me to add some targeted keyword phrases. Now my website contact information displays “LinkedIn & Social Selling Tips,” adding valuable links and keyword phrases to my LinkedIn profile that help improve my Google search rankings. Look at the difference between the two profiles.
When entering your website address into your contact information, type in the URL, choose Other, and enter your company name or keyword phrases in the box labeled Type (Other), shown in Figure 3–8 on page 23.
Now your website listing will look like Figure 3–9 on page 23, and your company name or keyword phrases are clickable links to your blog or website.
FIGURE 3–6. Contact Information—The Default Option
FIGURE 3–7. Contact Information with Keywords
FIGURE 3–8. Displaying Your Keywords Instead of the Words “Company Name”
FIGURE 3–9. Search-Optimized Links to Your Website
ADDING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS
LinkedIn also lets you add social media feeds to your profile so your profile visitors can see what you’re up to on the social media front. Let’s explore some of your social media options.
Adding Your Twitter Account
Open your LinkedIn profile, click on Add Twitter Account, and enter your Twitter username. A popup box appears that authorizes your Twitter account (see Figure 3–10), then the checkbox appears. (As of this writing, LinkedIn uses a wizard tool to help you through the process.) I prefer to display my Twitter account on my profile by checking the Display on your profile? box. This allows me to tweet my LinkedIn status updates in one step.
FIGURE 3–10. Adding Twitter to Your LinkedIn Profile
Now my Twitter account is connected to my LinkedIn profile, and I can share my LinkedIn status updates on Twitter, as you can see in Figure 3–11.
FIGURE 3–11. Sharing Your LinkedIn Profi
le Updates with Twitter
You can easily see your full status activity by clicking on Me from the main menu, then Posts & Activity and Views of Your Posts, where you will see a full listing of your LinkedIn activity, as shown in Figure 3–12 on page 25.
FIGURE 3–12. See Your LinkedIn Activity
CONCLUSION
Your basic LinkedIn profile is now live, and you will start receiving invitations to connect with others. You can start reaching out to people yourself, but I recommend waiting until you are more familiar with LinkedIn and your profile is 100 percent complete. Think of this as a soft opening, so you can work out the bugs before the grand opening. In Chapter 4, I’ll show you how to optimize your LinkedIn profile so you will appear near the top of LinkedIn and Google search results for your skills and target keyword phrases.
For additional updates and how-to videos, visit https://tedprodromou.com/UltimateGuideUpdates/.
Chapter 4
Supercharging Your LinkedIn Profile
Your LinkedIn profile represents your professional image on the internet and can be found through searches on LinkedIn itself or search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo! When people search the internet for your name, your LinkedIn profile will likely be one of the top results, so you want to make a great first impression.
Think of LinkedIn as your online resume and your profile summary as the objective or professional statement. As people scan your profile, they should be able to understand exactly what you do or how you can help them.
Your LinkedIn profile provides people with a comprehensive summary of your education, work experience, and achievements. It also links people to other social media accounts and websites where you can showcase your expertise.
Ultimate Guide to LinkedIn for Business Page 4
