How to effectively use:

LinkedIn for Your Organisation

Contents
Linkedin for your business .................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.1 The purpose of Linkedin ......................................................................................................................... 3 SEO opportunities ................................................................................................................................... 4 Creating a profile, bio, keywording, SEO, privacy ................................................................................. 5 Improving your chances of getting found by other Linkedin contacts, and on Google search results ....................................................................................................................................................... 7 Applications on your Linkedin profile ................................................................................................... 9 Creating new connections .................................................................................................................... 10 Finding more connections .................................................................................................................... 10 Setting up a company page on Linkedin .............................................................................................. 12 Create a Linkedin group for your niche ............................................................................................... 15 Promoting your Linkedin group........................................................................................................... 16 Linkedin group strategies ..................................................................................................................... 18 New Personalised LinkedIn Profiles..19 LinkedIn Success Checklist..20

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What is the purpose of LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is the largest and fastest growing professional social network in the internet with over 140 million users. Its effectively a Facebook for business, allowing business people to get to know other professionals in their industry via word of mouth, first, second and third degree connections, and search facilities. Keeping in touch with and learning about past and present clients, associates, co-workers, etc. is simple and effective with LinkedIn. On LinkedIn, unlike Facebook, you can instantly see whos who, but more importantly whos worked with whom. LinkedIn offers various groups to concentrate professionals by niches and locality. The professional network also provides opportunities for companies and organisations to create branded pages for their organisation. Finally, advertising and recruitment facilities are offered, to tie in with the other functionality of the network. The original concept of LinkedIn was to create an all-in-one networking tool that professionals can use to offer and accept opportunities using concise key line profiles. A strong presence on LinkedIn can be a major asset for any business or organisation.

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SEO opportunities

One of LinkedIns biggest strengths is brand exposure - most specifically that of personal branding, or demonstrating your organisation's professional prowess. In that respect, LinkedIn might be the webs most powerful networking tool. LinkedIn has excellent SEO effects, as a users LinkedIn profile contains high validity and a strong PageRank. Google trusts LinkedIn and is ready to share the information on the site with the masses. Using a profile, and linking to that profile either by hyperlink or a widget can boost not only your other social networking profiles, but your blog or website. Since a LinkedIn profile is almost a dead cert to appear on page one of Google search results for your name, or the name of your company; for reputation management purposes it is very beneficial to create and keep up to date a LinkedIn profile.

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The ultimate LinkedIn Profile in 10 steps.

1. It is crucial that you achieve 100 percent completion of your profile. Doing so will make your name more likely to appear in searches, or on a someone you may know list. Also, profiles which are complete, concise, professional and easy to read are far more likely to get noticed. A photo which is appropriate for your role and profession, and a well structured text relating to your CV and interests will help your profile stand out. 2. The Headline for your profile is crucial. There is space for 120 characters so your headline needs to be compelling, accurate, and relevant and attention grabbing in order to be memorable. It needs to leap out on a page full of other peoples headlines. Define your organisation simply and eloquently. Perhaps state your company mission and/or vision, or your elevator pitch. Dont be afraid to throw in a buzzword or two to ensure SEO effectiveness. 3. Your professional social network is built by mapping out your work history. View your LinkedIn page as much more than an online resume it should echo the sentiments of your professional ambitions and that of your organisations. List your current position, and at least two of your previous positions. While building your job history, be as action-oriented as possible. Be sure to use present-tense verbs to express how each position or client has enriched you professionally and improved your craft. Ensure you describe not just your roles, but key achievements in each position. Also consider how these might be relevant to connections you are now seeking. 4. The summary section should be used to describe briefly what you can offer to other people, and what makes your services unique and worthwhile. Avoid writing in the first person. I could come across as egotistical and We makes you sound like the Queen or a racing driver. Best to avoid pronouns altogether sometimes bullet lists can help. 5. Make sure you complete the specialities section of your LinkedIn profile. The search facilities of the site place a heavy weighting on this section. Therefore if you ensure you use keywords which those seeking your services might use when searching, your profile is much more likely to appear towards the top of search results. Try brainstorming what words and phrases you think people might use, and
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then ensure these are included in the specialities section. Think carefully about your background, experience and service offerings and how they can get you noticed and stand out from the rest when you write your specialities section. Every skillset should serve your ultimate professional or corporate goal otherwise youre just wasting profile space. 6. Recommendations really enhance your profile, both perceptually, and in terms of your profile appearing high up in search results. The best way to receive a recommendation is to give one first. Recommendations often result in a reciprocal action. For your LinkedIn profile to be deemed complete, you will require at least three recommendations. The completeness of your profile is key to ensure high search result visibility for your profile. 7. Ensure you complete the groups, associations and interests sections. Each of these sections in hyperlinked and improves your search result visibility. Also, if your profile is included in LinkedIn groups and associations, the groups pages are also indexed both internally and by Google, so this will again improve your SEO and result in your name appearing higher up on LinkedIn searches, and Google searches for that niche. Finally, ensure you list the companies you have worked for they may have their own LinkedIn pages.

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For more details on editing your profile, click here.

Improving your chances of getting found by other LinkedIn contacts, and on Google search results
8. Once you have completed your LinkedIn profile there are various tweaks which can be made to optimise your account. Firstly, it is well worth choosing a custom url (page address) for your LinkedIn profile. If you choose, for example, www.linkedin.com/in/your-name, then your profile is much more likely to rank highly in search results for your name on Google.

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For more details on creating a custom url, click here.

9. In the websites section of your profile you can insert up to three urls. These could be links to your website, blog, or other social networking profiles. Using such links will boost the SEO to these external websites. When describing these external sites, using the other option, consider giving these sites a more descriptive explanation, using keywords for your niche, and not simply a website title. Also, there is a facility to include your Twitter profile(s). This is useful since LinkedIn will cache the bio text from your Twitter profile and embeds this into your LinkedIn profile a definite SEO benefit regarding Google search results. 10. Finally, ensure your LinkedIn profile is visible to everyone. This will maximise the effectiveness regarding SEO and vastly improve chances of people finding you. There are no effective privacy restrictions on LinkedIn and it is not possible to block people on this network therefore there are no benefits to restricting the visibility of your profile.

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For more details on promoting your LinkedIn profile, click here.

Applications on your LinkedIn profile

There are various application options that can add colour, SEO optimisation and help make your profile more engaging. The Slide share application can import and embed slideshows or presentation notes into your LinkedIn profile. One particular benefit to this is that audio can be embedded into your slideshows, and if an audio embedded slideshow is added to your LinkedIn profile, then the audio will start to play whenever someone views your LinkedIn profile. For example, you could set up a Slide share slideshow on LinkedIn, which features you welcoming whoever is viewing your profile. This certainly makes your profile stand out. The Reading list gives you an opportunity to showcase your interests and add colour to your profile. It can also be set up to use affiliate links from Amazon associates. The my travel and events application also gives a flavour of your business lifestyle, locations and availability. The events section can be used to track who will be attending and may result in you picking up connections in person.

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The Word press / blog application allows the user to place excerpts of recent blog posts onto their LinkedIn profile. This inserts relevant content into your profile and also creates a real time link to your website or blog. The polls application allows the user to create a useful market research tool right on their profile. This can raise engagement and influence from the LinkedIn profile and the poll questions will be available to anyone within that users network. Ensure your polls is concise and intelligible and will engage and appeal to your audience in order to ensure a worthwhile response. For more details on managing your profile, click here.

Creating new connections

Creating your first connections and building your first degree network is a crucially important component of your initial activity on LinkedIn. Ensure you upload all business contacts from Hotmail, Gmail, yahoo or your Outlook account. The LinkedIn profile manager will guide you through this process. LinkedIn will filter your contacts into those who already have a LinkedIn account marked with a IN logo and who you can request a connection with immediately, and those without a LinkedIn account who you can send an invitation message. Try to customise the invitation greeting to something more personalised than the generic LinkedIn message.
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For more details on importing contacts, click here.

Other sources of contacts worth exploiting are former classmates there are many LinkedIn alumni groups for schools, colleges and universities, and former work colleagues. Again, many companies have their own pages on LinkedIn which will provide you with a list of current and past employees. It is important to ensure you have completed the relevant sections of your LinkedIn profile regarding education and past employment in order for LinkedIn to place you in the relevant networks for alumni and companies. On the add connections tab, you will notice additional tabs for colleagues, alumni and people you may know. Check the colleagues and alumni tabs and add any other names you recognise. Again, it is worth personalising the standard LinkedIn greeting message. Finally, look at the names suggested on the people you may know tab. LinkedIn generates lists of potential contacts by looking at your first, second and third degree connections and the connections in your networks. The more connections you build, the more accurate this list will become.

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Finding more connections

Once you have completed your profile and created an initial set of connections, it is worth exploring your current network of connections to find potentially useful contacts. This can be done is a variety of ways. Try browsing the connections of one of your current contacts, or a LinkedIn user who works in the same niche. If you find a potentially useful contact, invite them to connect with your profile. The advanced search option is a good way to target profiles of people who might be useful for you. You might also be able to share mutual connections or third degree connections. Consider joining one of the many LinkedIn groups. These accumulate profiles for particular niches and localities and are a fertile ground for finding relevant connections. Ensure you are subscribed to LinkedIns email updates. These will provide daily digests of your contacts new connections and activity on the groups which you have joined. This information includes a wealth of information regarding potential new connections.

Setting up a company page on LinkedIn

Launching a company page on LinkedIn has multifaceted usefulness. A company page will collate the profiles of all the current employee profiles and past employees who list the company under previous employment on their profiles. A company profile, properly completed and key-worded, will also appear on searches for that particular niche and location. Company pages can also be followed, allowing the company to send out announcements and updates which will feature in users email bulletins useful for marketing the company and disseminating relevant news.

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For more details on featuring employees on a company page, click here.

When completing your company profile, ensure that the text and description is in line with your company website, but avoid simply copying and pasting chunks of your company website. Google will consider this to be scraping and any SEO benefits to either site could well be lost. Be sure to complete the specialities section, using appropriate niche keywords, since this has a heavy weighting in the LinkedIn search engine process. Ensure the industry listing closely matches your niche. The location field allows you to input up to five locations useful for search results and also Googles local search listings. It is also possible to feed your company news RSS feed or blog posts through to your company LinkedIn profile allowing for near real time updates via your website. This is also a good way to generate inbound traffic to your website from a high page rank source.

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For more details on creating a company page on LinkedIn, click here.

For more details on creating company status updates, click here.

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Create a LinkedIn group for your niche

Creating and controlling a LinkedIn group is a great way to get potential contacts to come to you and form a network with which you can take the lead regarding interactions and influence. A group can become a haven of mutual interest and a place for like minded professionals to talk shop and compare ideas. For more details on groups, click here.

A LinkedIn group will contain a number of useful features to further target the already niche demographic you will capture. The discussion board is a powerful free feature, and comparable with jboards or php bulletin boards which can end up being very expensive to host. The polls feature is another powerful asset to your network interactivity. While not as configurable as for example poll daddy, it still offers good free functionality and a way to engage with users who are already in the honey trap of your group. The group system also allows free messaging to anyone who is subscribing to your group. When setting up your group, remember that you are trying to attract like minded professionals within your niche to discuss issues related to that niche. Therefore, dont use your company name on the group. Advertise the niche, not the company. The idea of using a group to promote your social marketing is to become an influencer, rather than a sales
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rep. Consider the name of the group carefully. It has to attract your niche demographic and leap out on a page of twenty other groups. Also, make sure you pick an engaging image or logo for the group profile picture. Groups with logos tend to have far more members than groups without. Avoid using your company logo, but you might want to brand the group logo to match the feel of your company logo, for example in terms of colour or typeface.

Promoting your LinkedIn group

Use you other social media profiles to promote your LinkedIn group. For example, set up an automated tweet with key wording and hashtags to promote the group, or place a link to your group in the website or bio section of your Twitter profile. Feature a link to the group on your Facebook page, and/or in the info tab of your Facebook page either in the text description or under the websites section. Place a link and/or a widget for the group on your company website or blog. This also will create a useful backlink from the high page rank LinkedIn pages back to your site. It is also worth including a link to the group in any weekly email newsletters or subscriber digests if you run a blog or news section incorporated into your website. For more details on promoting your group, click here.

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For more details on adding your group to the groups directory, click here.

For more details on group member settings, click here.

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LinkedIn group strategies

It is well worth creating a LinkedIn group policy to ensure your group does not become filled with spam advertisements or dubious phishing links. The policy, if not adhered to, will give you the option of removing such posts and the members who created them. LinkedIn provides good resources on how to run, build and maintain an effective group and best practice guides on how to engage with other users, click here.

Consider developing a strategy to develop discussions and raise current issues within your niche. Focus on areas which will generate discussion and debate rather than provide definitive discussion ending answers. Schedule times to initiate discussions or provide feedback, or send or group announcements. Possibly hold live discussion events or integrate webinars into your discussion area. Perhaps link the discussion area into your company blog, with the blog providing stimulus for the discussion, or a recap of the outcome of the debate. The announcement feature on the group settings is a powerful feature, but best practice is not to overuse it. It is better to schedule announcements for specific events or issues, at most once a week, and ideally a couple per month. Strategic events, whitepapers, free webinars, trade show stands, or invitations to download resources or materials are possible reasons to send out a group wide announcement.
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New Personalised LinkedIn Profiles

Whos Viewed Your Updates and You Recently Visited are small, yet useful new features that can help optimize your LinkedIn profile by providing you with more personalized insights on your engagement and activity, and that of your network. The new You Recently Visited feature includes highlights of recent profiles you have viewed, searches youve done and group discussions you have viewed or participated in. This makes it easier to retrace your steps, re-engage in conversations or follow-up with that old colleague you intended to connect with. Whos Viewed Your Updates lists what youve shared over the past 14 days on LinkedIn, an overview of who saw the content and if anyone liked or shared it. This feature tracks the engagement of up to your 3rd degree networks, providing you instant feedback into what your network values. It provides you with an insight into your networks common interests and professional discussions, allowing you to mold your profile accordingly if you wish to better serve and grow your network. This feature might seem unimportant, but it could quickly become a significant part of organisations social media marketing plans. Additionally, whos viewed your updates feature can be a powerful conversation starter, if used in conjunction with the equally new Call Out Your Connections feature on LinkedIn. If a connection of yours likes or shares content youve posted, you can mention them in an update much like that of Facebook to get a conversation started with them on your profile. This can attract interaction from other people in your network as well, causing your profile to be viewed virally amongst your connections. This type of shared content happens less on LinkedIn happen a lot less than on Facebook for good reason, though so if youre going to mention someone in your LinkedIn update, make sure youre providing that person with valuable information.

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LinkedIn Success Checklist

If you forget everything else weve taught you in this guide, remember these ten steps. Theyre vital to your success with LinkedIn. 1. Answer as many questions, solve as many problems, and participate in as many discussions as you can. If you dont have the answer - one of the best things you can do professionally is to point your connection in the direction of someone who does. 2. Recommend and endorse professionals you admire. Introduce past and present colleagues, associates. Dont expect them to endorse you back, though. It doesnt always work that way. 3. Learn as much as you can about your professional where they work, their interests, what you can do for them, etc. 4. Import your existing address book. LinkedIn can find your collages and associates and professional friends for you just by using their email address. 5. Your profile should have a flattering, professional headshot. 6. You must provide a detailed; action oriented Work History describing your current position and one or two past positions. 7. Make sure your headline contains the key words you or your organisation would like to be known for. 8. Browse all the pages of the People You May Know section - add the ones you know! 9. Join LinkedIn Groups - theres even a Groups You May Like tab, theyll suggest some based on your headline, resume and experience. 10. Participate in a group at least twice per month - offering a link to your blog if applicable.

Credits:
Text by Zoe Olsberg www.dragonfly-associates.co.uk, Jason Sander & Tom Tolkien www.tomtolkien.com .

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