So, let me guess, you’ve signed up to LinkedIn but need some LinkedIn Tips on how to use the damn thing?
Where do to begin? With numbers reaching over 400 million globally, how do you find the right connections and methods that resonate with you?
Let’s have a look at 5 tips to help you get going on LinkedIn.
1. YOU
LinkedIn is a professional networking site. It’s used for people and business to make connections. As such, you need to change the way you portray and market yourself and what you have to offer. Think of yourself as a brand. Take a step back and consider how you would market yourself as a brand. What message do you want your brand to convey when someone views your profile? What are the key skills/ aspects that your brand can offer? How are you different from other brands?
2. GROUPS
Join some groups. This is an excellent way to meet the kind of people you want to meet. Based on your profile, LinkedIn will automatically generate groups it thinks you should be interested in. But try and expand beyond that. Find groups that reflect not only your profession, but also your interests, causes you believe in, alumni networks, and your hobbies. The list of groups you are a member of should correspond with what your brand is. For example, if you are a freelance creative writer you should join writing groups, literature groups, groups that promote literacy in children, groups about language. You could also consider joining publishing groups or groups for magazines. There are limitless possibilities. Find groups that have a lot of members. Being a member of lots of lively and active groups means that you can reach out to the people within them. Currently, to reach out to someone who isn’t linked with you, means you would have to upgrade to premium, doing this through a group is a way to over-ride this.
3. ENDORSE
Get your skills endorsed. Ask people to endorse your skills. If you have multiple endorsements it’s a magnificent way of looking professional and standing out. You don’t have to ask people through LinkedIn, email or text if they are willing to do this for you and ensure only your top skills are endorsed. What I mean by this is, only get the skills endorsed if they represent your brand. Reject those that don’t fit in with your brand’s skill set. So, taking the example of a freelance writer, you get all the skills you need endorsed. These could be skills like editing, writing, proofreading etc. You don’t need to have clay modelling, even if you’re good at it, as it doesn’t add anything to your brand. You only have a limit of 50 skills to add, so use them wisely. Put your main ones at the top.
4. PROOF READ
An obvious but useful LinkedIn Tips, is to proof read everything. Is your name or title misspelled? Have you recently changed your name? Is your summary full of spelling mistakes? Perhaps you’re regularly posting articles – are they being double checked? A great tool for checking spelling and grammar is a site and app called Grammarly Whilst it may only be a couple of errors on your profile, it could potentially put some people off connecting with you.
5. INFORMATION OVERLOAD
There is really no need to include every detail of every job. If it has nothing to do with your brand, then consider either cutting it, or, create a post about what your very early jobs were. Having too much detail will water down the message that your brand is trying to deliver. Every detail that you put in has to reinforce this again and again.
If you need additional LinkedIn Tips, information and training, I’m offering the opportunity to sign up to LinkedIn Made Easy– a Free 7 Day eCourse delivered to your inbox. You can choose to implement the tips you learn immediately, or refer back to them at a later date. The choice is yours. The course is designed for those of who have a LinkedIn profile but are unsure how to utilize it and actually use it to grow your business. Sign up for my Free 7 Day LinkedIn Course !