Is your LinkedIn account mostly sitting idle? You can do so much more with it than simply look up contacts: find gigs, sell products, expand your networks, grow your business and gain free publicity.
Here are 33 ways to use LinkedIn more effectively.
- Fill out your profile completely to earn trust.
- Use widgets to integrate other tools, such as importing your blog entries or Twitter stream into your profile.
- Do market research and gain knowledge with Polls.
- Share survey and poll results with your contacts.
- Answer questions in Questions and Answers: show expertise without a hint of self-promotion.
- Ask questions in Questions and Answers to get a feel for what customers and prospects want or think.
- Publish your LinkedIn URL on all your marketing collateral, including business cards, email signature, email newsletters, web sites and brochures, so prospects learn more about you.
- Grow your network by joining industry and alumni groups related to your business.
- Update your status examples of recent work.
- Link your status updates with your other social media accounts.
- Combine your social media approach: when someone asks a question in Twitter, respond in detail on LinkedIn and link to it from Twitter.
- Use the search feature to find people by company, industry and city.
- Start and manage a group or fan page for your product, brand or business.
- Research your prospects before meeting or contacting them.
- Share useful articles and resources that will be of interest to customers and prospects.
- Don't turn off your contacts: avoid hard-sell tactics.
- Write honest and valuable recommendations for your contacts.
- Request LinkedIn recommendation from happy customers willing to provide testimonials.
- Post your presentations on your profile using a presentation application.
- Check connections' locations before traveling so you can meet with those in the city where you're heading.
- Ask your first-level contacts for introductions to their first-level contacts.
- Interact with LinkedIn on a regular basis to reach those who may not see you on other social media sites.
- Set up to receive LinkedIn messages in your inbox so you can respond right away.
- Link to articles and content posted elsewhere, with a summary of why it's valuable to add to your credibility.
- List your newsletter subscription information and archives.
- Find experts in your field and invite them as a guest blogger on your blog or speaker at your event.
- Post discounts and package deals.
- Import vCards and contacts from other applications to find more connections.
- Export your contacts into other applications.
- Buy a LinkedIn direct ad that only your target market will see.
- Post job listings to find qualified talent.
- Look for connections related to a job you want.
- Find vendors and contractors through connections.
(Thanks to Frank Strong, Zale Tabakman, Robert Medak and Jon Tucker for their suggestions for this post.)
