How to use LinkedIn Effectively

1. How to Use LinkedIn Effectively

3.  LinkedIn (LI) is a database of professional profiles,
including background information and contacts.
 It facilitates sharing intellectual capital and other news
and information with contacts, select groups and LI’s
broader membership.
 As of March 31, 2012, more than 161 million people
are on LI

4.  LinkedIn operates the world’s
largest professional network in
over 200 countries and
 LinkedIn started out in the living territories.
room of co‐founder Reid
Hoffman in 2002.
 More than 61% of LinkedIn
 It took 494 days to reach the first members are located outside of
million members, and now, on the United States.
average, a new member joins
every second of every day, or  On track for nearly 4.2 billion
approximately one million every people searches on LinkedIn in
12 days. 2012.
 Went from 1,000 employees in  LinkedIn is currently available in
2011 to 2,447 currently. seventeen languages.

6.  It’s a small world after all – relationships drive business
development – one of the best ways to get and retain
clients
 We have limited time to maintain a large traditional
network of people.
 LinkedIn mixes Old School salesmanship – handshake
relationship building with New School salesmanship – use
technology to stay in touch in between handshake events.
 LinkedIn keeps us up‐to‐date. Each person keeps their
information accurate.
 Social networks like LinkedIn let us see who knows whom.
LinkedIn is the leader for business.

7.  Manage contacts
◦ Safe place to “collect” a lifetime of business connections
◦ Maintain contact with important people over time, even the most
transient
◦ Interface with Outlook to import contacts’ updates
◦ Connect to prospective hires to stay in touch
◦ Use tags to organize your connections into groups (send content, events
and queries only to those you specify)
 Research & intelligence
◦ Research prospective clients to identify possible introductions into the
organization
◦ Look up referral sources and others to see common connections and
learn about them
◦ Be more visible to others who search by having many contacts

8.  Deepen relationships
◦ Network Updates continuously provide opportunities to engage your
contacts
◦ Join groups to expand reach and participate in group discussions
◦ Explore and register for events and participate in related discussions
◦ Share status updates to stay front‐of‐mind and disseminate information
non‐intrusively
◦ Recommend others, remembering the previously mentioned guidelines
◦ Demonstrate expertise by pointing people toward answers to their
questions

9.  Profile
 Contacts Inbox
Email‐style system where LI users can message
 Whether you’re looking for people you may want
one another privately
to connect with or researching employees from a
specific company, search here for individual Companies
profile If you want to follow or learn more about a
company, start here.
 Groups News
 Industry, field, interest, hobby or any other type Articles and news posted by your contacts
of group will be found here; groups can be open,
meaning no approval is required to join, or can More
require approval, but the purpose is to network Add on features, Answers and applications
within a targeted group of professionals
 Jobs
◦ Search all job listings in a central location
◦ Jobs are also found under the career tab on a
company page

10.  Groups – access and manage your groups:
◦ Directly access groups to which you belong
 Home – your hub, where you update your status and see ◦ View discussions you’ve marked
a summary of the following: ◦ See some contacts’ recent group activity
◦ Recent Inbox messages ◦ Find new groups to join
◦ Questions posed that you might answer ◦ Create groups
◦ Upcoming events
 Jobs – find jobs or post job openings (paid version
◦ Job openings
 Inbox – manage your Inbox:
◦ Automated contact suggestions
◦ View messages, requests and invitations sent to you or by
◦ Recent viewers of your profile (available with paid
you
version)
◦ View/manage InMails (paid version)
◦ Your contacts’ recent status updates and activities
◦ Updates from groups you belong to
 Companies – access companies:
◦ Directly access companies where you’ve worked
 Profile – edit and view your profile
◦ Access companies you’re following
 Contacts – access and manage your connections with the
◦ Search by name, location, industry, connectedness, size or
following options: job opportunities
◦ See and edit invitations
 More – additional opportunities on LI, including:
◦ Manage imported contacts
◦ Answers – pose a question, browse by category
◦ Add new connections
◦ Learning center – learn more
◦ Navigate/search connections
◦ Upgrade my account – upgrade to a premium
◦ Tag connections membership
◦ Access contacts’ profiles ◦ Applications directory – select applications that interact
◦ See network statistics with your LI account
◦ Access profile organizer (paid version) ◦ Installed applications – manage third‐party applications
you’ve installed

11. Next Level Marketing

12. ADVANCE PROFILE

13.  Write your profile in the present tense; people prefer “is now”
over “has done”
 Use the first person
 Spell out credentials and organizations as well as using their
acronyms
 If your browser doesn’t have spell check, use Word and paste
into LI after proofed
 When there are more than a couple of lines of text, use bullets
and lists
 Set your profile to be visible to all
 Set your contacts to be visible
 Use a current photo in which you appear approachable; a tightly
cropped head shot is best

14.  “Professional Headline” – highly visible, displayed by name
◦ Personal tagline that should describe what you do and for whom in 120
characters
◦ Default is populated by your current job title and company name, but this is
usually insufficient in describing you
◦ Convey your specific value and market
 Summary
◦ “Professional Experience & Goals” section – 2,000 characters (about 330 words)
 Tell your story: Describe why you’re in business as it relates to the customer, the results
you deliver and your qualifications for delivering them
 Reinforce the industries or business types you serve – be specific
 “Skills & Expertise” section
◦ LI wants “keywords” here – it’s important for search; use commonly searched
words or phrases
◦ Consider bullets, commas or hard returns to separate 1‐3 word descriptive
phrases
◦ Use alternate terms, e.g., “long‐term care facilities” and “assisted living”

15.  Experience
◦ List all current and past positions – this will help LI suggest people you may know
◦ List key board terms, charity involvement and other organizational leadership roles
◦ Job descriptions don’t need to be detailed – a sentence or two
 Additional information
◦ Include all associations and organizations – it demonstrates character and helps people
find you
◦ Use organization acronyms as well as full names; don’t forget to show years involved
◦ List all honors and awards, the organizations that bestowed them and when
◦ Consider bullets or > marks and hard returns to separate multiple items
 Education
◦ Include years and activities because it helps people find you
 Websites
◦ List your website by clicking “Edit” by “Websites,” choose “Company Website” on the
dropdown
 Public Profile/Personal URL
◦ A default link is assigned to your profile, but you will want to customize it so it’s easy to
remember and share

16.  Upgrade your basic Profile and utilize advance
functionality of LinkedIn to create a more impressive
and effective Profile.
◦ Post Files such as company brochures or How To Papers
◦ Post Presentations such as your most recent seminar
◦ Link your Blog
◦ Post Events

17.  Moving components around  Companies pages
 Adding applications  Experience linked to Companies
◦ My Files pages
◦ My Work  Answers
◦ Google Presentations
◦ Lawyer Rating
 Polls
 Recommendations  Events
 Skills  Introductions
 Publications  Groups
 Summary
 Achievements and experiences
◦ Certifications
◦ Languages
◦ Patents

18.  Adding Events to Your Profile
◦ Adding upcoming industry‐related events to your profile will
help increase our attendance. Here’s how to add events:
1. 1. Under “More” on the toolbar, select “Events”
2. 2. On the right‐hand side of the page, click on “Add an
event”
3. 3. Fill out the necessary information and double‐check for
accuracy
4. 4. In the organization field, type: Company Name
5. 5. Publish your event
6. 6. To view events on your profile, choose “Edit Profile,” “Add
an application,” “Events,” check “Display on my profile” and
then click “Update Settings”

19. ADVANCE PROFILE

20. Building Your Connections

23.  Sending Invitations
◦ Try to always personalize your invitations
 Remind people of where you’ve met – it’s considerate to help them with context
 Don’t add sales pitches in your invitation; it’s inappropriate
 Be gracious: When you’re notified that someone accepted your invitation, take a
moment to view their profile and send them a “thanks for connecting” message; you
will stand out
 Responding to Invitations
◦ When someone invites you to connect, take a moment to thank him or her for
the invitation; few people do this, so you will stand out
◦ If you don’t recognize the name, check the person’s profile or see who your
mutual contacts might be.
◦ It’s okay to ask, “Can you refresh me on where we met?” Or you can simply
archive the invitation.
◦ Don’t click “I don’t know this person” unless you want to mark them as a
spammer to LI – there’s a penalty to them for this.

25.  Bulk uploading to LI is safe because when you upload,
nothing happens until you manually select people you
wish to invite
◦ Upload from common email programs or .csv, .txt or .vcf file
formats
◦ Contacts will appear with checkboxes beside each so you can
be selective in your invitations
◦ Only select people with a LI logo beside their name indicating
they already use LI; inviting nonusers of LI causes confusion
and should be avoided. Invite directly and individually with
personal messages.

29.  CardMunch App for iPhone
◦ iPhone users can use this app to place all the cards they
receive into their phone for easy access. LinkedIn acquired
Cardmuch and now you can also connect to these people in
LinkedIn with one click.

30. Staying In Touch and Information Sharing

31.  There are a number of ways to interact with people
with LinkedIn.
◦ Broadcasting information – Share an Update ‐ updating your
status located on your Home screen
◦ Signals – See what your connections are up to. Located under
News
◦ Messages – Send messages to your connections or to those
you want to know (limited quantity each month)
◦ Invitations to events or groups – Invite people in your network
to events or groups and communicate through this process.

32. To change the “Update”
information that your connections
receive, click Profile and then click
Edit Profile or
Click Post an update.

33. Signal lets you see and filter updates from LinkedIn professionals who choose to
make their updates visible to anyone. From the Updates section of your home
page, click the Search Updates link to see and use some of the following Signal
features:
• Browse real‐time updates with content summaries and direct links to the full
content.
• Filter updates to show only those that you care about.
• Search for keywords, topics, companies or people across the updates stream.
• Save your search and check for updates later.
• Find trending links and Industry top headlines.

34. LinkedIn Messages get opened!
If you use InMail services
available for paid subscribers,
LinkedIn guarantees it is
opened in 7 days.

35.  You can use LinkedIn to
invite your Connections
to events or groups that
you are involved in.

37.  Click on Contacts
 Introductions let you contact people who are  Choose a contact of yours and go to their
two or three degrees away from you. Profile
 You ask a person you are connected to  Under their base information you will see
introduce you to someone they know. Connections followed by blue text showing
 Your connection can forward (at their how many connections they have. Click this.
discretion) the introduction request with or  Find the person you want to meet and click
without comments. on their Name to go to their Profile.
 The number of open introductions per  On the right in blue text you will see Get
month is limited by the account type. Introduced Through a Connection. Click this.
 If more than one of your contacts know this
person, they will be listed. Choose who you
want to ask to make the introduction.
 Fill in the information about why you want to
be introduced and hit Send.

38.  InMail allows you to send  LinkedIn charges and limits
messages directly to the number sent per month
LinkedIn users who are to prevent spam.
second or third degrees  LinkedIn guarantees a
away from you or outside response. If you don't get a
your network. response in 7 days, LinkedIn
 Sending InMail is a paid will give you another InMail
feature that is part of a to send.
premium account or can be  Great for people looking for
purchased individually. a job or salespeople who
 Depending on your account cannot otherwise connect
type, you can send up to 50 to an important decision
InMails a month. maker.

39. Group Discussions
 LinkedIn allows users to create
and join groups based on  Click on Groups, Click on Your
interest. Groups
 Groups are an important venue  Choose a group to start a
for increasing your profile discussion.
visibility.  Enter the information and hit
 The Groups tab contains: Share.
◦ Your Groups  Be sure that the discussion is
◦ Groups You May Like relevant to the group.
◦ Groups Directory  Don’t ever sell in these
◦ Create A Group
◦ List of Groups You Follow
discussions. Instead add value
and become a resource or
 Many Groups require that you expert people can turn to.
apply to be a member and have
membership eligibility rules.  The sales will come only after
people trust you and identify
you as someone who can help
them.

40.  Periodically check your groups’ discussions and add
comments
◦ Your comment will include your name and picture as well as allow
others to view your profile, which increases credibility and links to
your company page
 Participating in discussions
◦ Your primary goal when participating in discussions should be to
help others
◦ Don’t sell or overt in selling
◦ Share news and articles, but do not limit this to only your articles
◦ Be relevant and helpful, which will increase your credibility and
build trust

41. Creating A Group
 Creating a group is an
 Click on Groups, Click on
excellent way to gather
information and ideas: Create A Group
◦ Customer groups  Enter the information and hit
◦ Influencers either Create an Open Group
◦ Networking groups or Create a Members‐Only
 As the group leader you will Group.
need to be an active
participant in the
discussions and help
facilitate participation.
 Be sure not to sell in these
groups or people will leave.

42.  You know a
company that you
want to get into
but don’t know
anyone within the
company.
 Use LinkedIn to
find the key
decision makers.

43. If they have a LinkedIn Company page
created, LinkedIn shows you that page
including the employees of the
company.
LinkedIn also shows you your
Connections who know these
employees.

44.  When there is no
Company Page in
LinkedIn, you can also
look for people who
work for a company in
LinkedIn.
 For example:
◦ I want to find a contact
at the law firm of Nagle When I typed in the company name
& Higgins, P.C. in People Search, LinkedIn found two
people. Both know people I know
for an introduction.

45.  LinkedIn has a function  For example:
called Answers under ◦ Someone might ask a tax
the More tab where question relating to 1040
people can ask any tax filing.
◦ You could choose to
question they want and
answer the question.
members of LinkedIn
can answer the
question for them.

48. Prospecting and Recruiting

49. LinkedIn is becoming
one of the best and
most widely used tools
for recruitment.

51.  LI is a third‐degree connector and research will show you whom
you know – or could know – and through whom.
◦ The value is enormous. Search people or companies. Search industries
to identify targets in a geographical area. Clicking on the companies
pulls up mutual contacts.
 Research can include:
◦ Looking up prospects, referral sources and clients before meetings for
info that might help you connect.
◦ Look for mutual acquaintances, schools, causes or common interests.
◦ Viewing competitors’ mutual connections. Are they schmoozing your
client? Or might you be schmoozing theirs without realizing it?
◦ See what groups your competitors, peers and clients join. Learn what
events they attend and articles or books they read. Should you as well?
◦ Search prospective hires’ past employers to see if you know people
there who can be references.

53.  Status Updates on Profile
 Articles of Interest
 Links of Interest
 Seminar Invitations
 Announcements
 Review Connections of Others and Ask Them to Introduce You Over
Lunch
◦ In return your reciprocate by bringing a Connection of yours to the same
lunch.
 Online Introductions
 Become an Expert and Answer questions.
 Send messages with LinkedIn.

54.  Group Participation
◦ Group Leader
 Post Content on Profile and Direct People to It to Retrieve the Content
◦ Guides
◦ Articles
◦ Newsletters
 News Signals
◦ See the latest profile postings of your connections. Stay abreast of what’s going on with
each one quickly and easily.
 Use InMail (Paid functionality) to contact decision makers in targeted
companies.
 Research companies and competitors

55. Let’s see if Chip has any one that I
would like to meet?
I start at his Profile and click his
connections.

56. One of my Connections
Looks like Chip knows the
attorney, George Bradshaw
who I would like to meet.

57. I simply send Chip a
message inside LinkedIn
asking for the introduction
over breakfast, lunch or
coffee.
I simply send Chip a message asking
for an introduction over breakfast,
lunch or coffee.

58. I want to meet Jim Flickinger. I see that
Gwen Henry knows Jim. I can ask Gwen
online to make an introduction.

59. Looks like I have a number
of connections that can
introduce me to Jim
Flickinger.

60. Simply enter the information
you would like to share with
both your connection and the
person you want to meet and
click Send.

62.  Don’t feed a personal Twitter account to your profile
 Don’t discuss polarizing topics, e.g., politics, religion, etc.
 Don’t make derogatory comments about competitors; let your
professionalism speak for itself

63.  Don’t recommend without experience
 Recommendations can be a powerful tool—which is why they must only be
offered under the right circumstances.
 If you have personally worked with someone, you can recommend them for the
services they provided by sharing your personal experience, e.g., “John Smith of
John Smith Law Firm provided assistance with a recent computer forensics case.
His services were highly professional and efficient.”
 Going beyond your personal interaction and referring someone with whom you or
the firm have had no personal experience (“He’s the best attorney around!” or
“I’ve heard …”) could open yourself or the firm to potential legal issues if someone
follows that recommendation.

65.  Invite new contacts and reply promptly to invitations
to continuously grow your network
 Update your status with information on what you’re
working on so your connections know that you’re
engaged and connected
 Post links to outside articles related to your industry
that can be useful to your contacts—but be careful not
to offer direct advice (see “Activities to Avoid)
 Post information about an upcoming event
 Look up prospects, referral sources and clients before
meetings for info that might help you connect.

66.  Join groups, but only if they interest you enough to be
participatory
 Periodically check your groups’ discussions and add
comments
 Use LinkedIn to meet new people
◦ Look at the connections of the people you know and ask for
introductions

67.  Timeline View your connections across the timeline of your career.
 Swarm An eerily beautiful visualization of popular company search queries on LinkedIn.
 Year In Review The most popular email in LinkedIn history. A visual representation of everyone in your
network who changed jobs in a given year.
 Infinity A beautiful visualization of your professional network, built using the LinkedIn Javascript APIs.
 TextIn Access the power of LinkedIn through text messaging! (US only)
 SpeechIn Get your personalized LinkedIn Today headlines read to you on your mobile phone. Requires Safari or
Chrome.
 NewIn This application shows new members joining LinkedIn from around the world. (requires Google Earth)
 InMaps Visualize your professional network, clustered in realtime based on their inter‐relationships.

68.  Why Social Networking is Important  How to Meet New People
◦ What Is LinkedIn ◦ Introductions
◦ Why We Need to Use LinkedIn ◦ InMail
◦ How LinkedIn Is Organized ◦ Groups
 Making Your Best Impression By ◦ Finding Contacts at Targeted Companies
Enhancing Your Profile ◦ Answering Questions/Becoming an
◦ Reorganize Profile Expert
◦ Add‐ons to Add Extra Content  Researching on LinkedIn
 How to Build Your Network of ◦ Recruitment
Connections ◦ Prospects
◦ Outlook ◦ Competition
◦ Colleagues  Business Development on LinkedIn
◦ Classmates  Activities to Avoid
 How to Stay in Touch With Your  Suggested Weekly Activities
Connections  Paid vs. Free Accounts
◦ Posting to Your Profile
◦ Messages
◦ Signal
◦ Invitations

69. Any Questions?