LinkedIn is among the top 10 most-visited social networking sites in the world, boasting over 200 million registered members. LinkedIn has changed the dynamics of professional networking in the recent years. There's no way you can ignore the rising statistics, increasing visibility, and demand of the things that LinkedIn provides as a social media platform, in order to create revenue and increase awareness of your brand. There's a good reason why it is the largest professional networking site in the world: it works. Read this report to learn how to use it to your best capacity, and see your profits and connections soar high with relatively low time and effort spent on your part.

1. April 2013
The Ultimate Guide to Using LinkedIn for Business

2. Dealing with Negative Behavior – A Guide for Administrative Professionals, Copyright ©, All Rights Reserved 1
Introduction
As the number of professionals in the world keeps growing, there's a need to benefit from
mutual connections and cooperation. The age of the internet has literally brought a world of
information to our desktops, and has made connecting with people from across the globe an
easy and viable task. The success of various social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter,
and LinkedIn is testimony to the effectiveness of making connections online.
LinkedIn has emerged as one of the top social media and networking sites in recent years. Its
phenomenal success can be attributed to its effectiveness in bringing professionals across
industries and from around the world on a single platform. In fact, it is widely considered the
best networking site for B2B leads and sales.
LinkedIn is among the top 10 most-visited social networking sites in the world, boasting over
200 million registered members. It is somewhat like an online resume of yourself, your
company, or your group, which can be accessed by your connections. Using this site, you can
apply for jobs, post jobs, look for professional connections, get recommended, make groups,
promote your company page, establish your authority, and more.
The advantages here are limited only by your ability to make use of LinkedIn. Millions of
professionals and businesses around the world have leveraged this platform to reap benefits in
a number of areas. Regardless of your industry or line of profession, LinkedIn can be helpful to
you. You can make connections in groups, stay updated with the latest industry news, or
demonstrate your level of expertise – anything that can help you stay ahead of others.
LinkedIn can be a boon for businesses, which is evident in the number of businesses using it for
their professional needs. The following chapters will list the various benefits of having a
presence on LinkedIn and explain how you can optimize it to your best capacity. If you follow
the guidelines and use the correct approaches on LinkedIn, then you are bound to go a long
way in your professional endeavors.

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Chapter 1: Building an Effective Profile on LinkedIn
To start off, you must first create your profile on LinkedIn. Your profile is the first thing that
your prospective connections will see. It is your face to the world. The way you present your
profile largely determines how people will respond to your presence in the corporate field.
Savvy employers and recruiters use it for recruiting new and promising talent. Business owners
use it to make connections and enhance their brand’s visibility. Professionals in most domains
can make use of this professional networking site to research companies, build connections and
identify employment opportunities.
You have to optimize the use of LinkedIn to get the most out of it. The profile should be true to
your identity while also showcasing your skills and experience to make a good impression. You
can follow the steps given to make your profile more visible to your connections. The tips given
below will guide with this:
Picture
The first thing to do is to get a decent headshot of yourself. You should have a professional,
clear, and friendly-looking photo of yourself. Most of the LinkedIn profiles have photos of the
respective users. People without photos tend to present a view that they are too lazy to upload
one, don’t want others to see them, or don’t know how to upload one.
Pictures help in establishing trust due to their transparency. They help validate your
authenticity. Also, if you are active on other social platforms, it is best to use a common photo
for all such profiles, as people are likely to recognize you easily.
Headline
The headline of your profile should be meaningful. By default, your last job title is displayed as
the professional headline in LinkedIn. If you don't want to be recognized for that, then just edit
the profile. Besides the photo, the headlines are the most visible things on the page, and if you
lack a good headline, you risk losing visitors’ interest.

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Summary
Your summary compels visitors to take more interest in you. In most places, you could do with a
cut-paste summary version from the resume. In LinkedIn, however, the social networking
element makes people want to know more about you. Try to make the summary personal by
writing it in first person. Avoid making it too personal though. Write it in a way that describes
who you are and what you do, without unnecessary fluff or private details.
The keywords
Use the right industry jargon in your profile summary. Don’t simply write “hardworking,
trustworthy, and dedicated” – add industry terms directly related to your core job profile.
Status update
Give status updates on a regular basis, as this makes the network aware of you. This also helps
in building a reputation for yourself. You can give status updates related to events you're
attending, and post articles regarding your occupation, interesting and share-worthy news
about your network, or other targeted content that makes you out to be an engaged industry
professional.
URL
Mention the link to your LinkedIn public profile on your business cards, resume, or email
signature. If your URL doesn't have your full name, then you may be missing out on a great
chance to have your public profile come up in the first few searches on Google. To change your
URL, select the ‘edit’ option on your profile page, followed by another edit option on the public
profile feature. Change the URL in this page by again selecting the edit option.
Experience
Do not simply list out all your past jobs in detail. Focus on jobs that are related to the current
position you're working in, or the position that you're looking for. The simplest way of achieving
this is by using information from your resume.

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Recommendations
Recommendations are a good way to appreciate someone you have worked with in the past.
The more recommendations you get, the higher your probability of getting noticed.
Recommendations can be given by teachers, colleagues, managers, and so on.
Links
You can add links of up to 3 websites in your LinkedIn profile. To make the most of it, you can
add the link to your blog, website, or even Twitter account.
Once you have made a decent profile, you have to regularly update it. Set some time aside
every week for LinkedIn activities, by interacting with your connections and posting new
information. Be sure to make your updates as relevant, interesting, and concise as possible.

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Chapter 2: Networking and Professional Connections
Networking
You should now have an immaculate and compelling profile on LinkedIn. Next, you have to
begin developing your network. This network is mostly about the professional network graph.
This means that your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd level contacts are displayed and can assist you in getting
career opportunities. You can follow the steps given below to successfully develop your
LinkedIn network.
Import contacts
When starting out on LinkedIn, you can make use of the “import contacts” feature to get your
known contacts in your network. This feature can import contact details of your connections
from Hotmail, Windows Live, Gmail, AOL, and Yahoo Inc. There is also the option to look
through the profile pages of your college or workplace to add contacts you have known in your
school days, or colleagues you've worked with in the past.
Availability
A major part of this site is the messaging system. Almost everyone uses it and you should try to
make the best use of it by being open to continuing conversations and accepting contact
requests. Being open and available will be helpful in building lasting and productive
relationships.
Email
There's no way people can connect you to their networks if you don't mention your email
address in your profile. You can either put your email address in the contact field while labeling
it as public, or leave it at the bottom of your summary area.
Promoting URL
Copy the distinct URL of your LinkedIn profile page and use it everywhere so that it can help in
promoting your profile. You can place this link on your website, email signature, traditional
resume, blog, presentations, or even on the business cards you give out to acquaintances.

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Status updates
Status updates are not simply about sending out messages on a regular basis. The material
should be good enough to generate interest in your network. In LinkedIn, you don't have to use
the status bar every time you want to update something. You can use resources such as
HootSuite.com to update your status for all the social networks you are a part of. Also, be sure
that the status messages on LinkedIn are of an extremely professional nature, as the audience
comprises mostly hiring managers and career-minded individuals.
Professional connections
LinkedIn is a great site for making potentially rewarding business connections. It offers you a
simple way of gaining credibility, and being a part of various networks related to your particular
business field. You can view LinkedIn as some sort of internet calling card that lets people know
who's behind the business or who you really are. They can either search for you on LinkedIn or
try to find your profile by using search engines. Given below are a few things that you should
know about making business connections:
 Your business and you are intertwined. Having a suitable profile and proactively
participating in LinkedIn conversations can help promote your business.
 Do not spam just to promote yourself. Contributing and participating in the community
and showcasing your expertise can give far better results.
 Keep track of competitors’ activities on LinkedIn and find out about their networks.
A key point here is that unlike social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, people visit
LinkedIn with a business-oriented mindset. The following points will tell you how LinkedIn can
be of immense use to you when making business connections.
Business relationships
The primary reason you're on LinkedIn is to build lasting business relations. These relations can
be with investors, partners, media members, suppliers, potential employees, sales prospects,
and so on. The twist here is that LinkedIn also allows you to view your connected network
online, and most importantly, the people with whom your contacts are connected. There's a
good chance that your connections know other people who may be considered as valuable
contacts from your point of view.

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Business Intelligence
This site can be used as a source for collecting business intelligence related to your industry,
your competitors, and other such factors that might affect you and your business. Currently,
there are close to 3 million pages of companies on this site and the number is steadily
increasing. You can use LinkedIn to check if an important employee left the job to join your
competitor, or analyze the opinion people have formed about you and your competitor. The
Signal, Job Notifications, Company Pages, and other similar features give you this kind of
information.
Becoming more visible
Having a LinkedIn account also improves your visibility and credibility. In today's world, sales
professionals first look into your LinkedIn profile before initiating business with your company.
Therefore, making a good impression becomes imperative.
Time optimization
LinkedIn puts you in a position to get the most out of your networks, and so it can save you a
lot of time. If you have a clear idea of what parameters you're looking for when making a
connection, then you can make use of the site's search functionality to find people by location,
company, name, title, education, industry, and so on. LinkedIn can even help you save the
money and time required to attend a networking event by giving you the chance to make
targeted searches on future prospects.
Better decisions
Profiles on LinkedIn give you a 3D view of the candidates, which is lacking in resumes. You can
easily get a sense of candidates’ full professional experience. You can also request references
on a candidate from your network and connections to make more informed decisions about the
person.

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Making professional connections has never been this easy before. You can do the following to
make the best use of this site:
 Mirror your offline and online business networks on LinkedIn.
 Tag your expertise and skills.
 Personally acknowledge and welcome new connections.
 Add a video clip related to your business to make your profile more authentic.
 Note the opportunities and important details for successive actions.
 Filter and tag connections to build and organize relationships.
 Use a context to get business intelligence.
 Regularly update your customer relationship management (CRM) with information from
LinkedIn.
Professional connections make this site all the more important. So, choose the best strategy to
take advantage of this feature and make your network a wide and diverse one.

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