How to build a powerful business presence on linkedin

Are you looking to expand your sphere of influence and begin generating leads for your business on LinkedIn? About 135 million users have registered on LinkedIn, the internet's largest business-to-business networking platform, but how do you communicate effectively to these business professionals? Here are 10 steps to get more visibility and leverage its platform for your business goals.

1. Join LinkedIn and Complete Your Profile

LinkedIn is a powerful business and social networking tool that relies on the content generated by its users. After all, other users on LinkedIn will be searching for your services, products, and your name. Make sure you give LinkedIn's search tool enough information to properly index.

2. Keep Your Profile Public

Utilizing LinkedIn without maintaining a public profile is like trying to advertise a new business location but refusing to put up any signs that tell people you're there. If you want to maximize LinkedIn's potential, you'll need to go to your account settings and enable public searching for your name and business.

3. Utilize a Vanity URL to Boost Search Results

LinkedIn has a number of benefits outside of its own website including having search engines index public profiles for search results. For example, if you're searching for Acme Company and they have a public profile on LinkedIn, chances are you'll have your LinkedIn business profile show up on page one in Google or Bing.

4. Utilize LinkedIn's Applications and Third Party Tools

LinkedIn has a number of applications that can help give you more exposure and connect your content from other websites for other users to see. One easy example is linking your Twitter account to LinkedIn, which will automatically update and keep your page fresh. At Ai we utilize BeHance's Creative Portfolio Display tool, it's a great way for us to showcase our branding and design work and lighten up an otherwise boring page.

5. Write Recommendations for Others

One of LinkedIn's most powerful features is the ability to publicly recommend another user based on your relationship or work experience. This peer-to-peer recommendation is especially important for companies seeking credibility and authority on LinkedIn. After all, if so and so gave xyz a recommendation, then they must be good, That's exactly how it works in practicality. In addition, you'll be impressed by how many individuals reciprocate your recommendation with one of their own. LinkedIn also allows you to easily and politely solicit recommendations from other users.

6. Engage Users with Personality, Not Just Your Brand

Your updates on LinkedIn compete with Facebook, walking the dog, and getting that report done by 5pm. Success for any brand on social media requires the voice of that organization to have a personality that personifies who they represent. Simply, saying you're with Apple doesn't drive engagement or conversations. Be active, respond to questions, post updates, and do it with your voice not some corporate water-downed background noise. It's OK to have a little bit of humor as long as you stay positive and understand your competing with individuals who may be doing work one moment, but reading a friend's update on Facebook the next.

7. Import Your Connections to LinkedIn

Stop wasting time by searching for colleagues online when you can instead link them all with email. LinkedIn gives you the tools to import your already existing business connections from a variety of online email programs like Yahoo or Hotmail and upload excel or.cvs files with email addresses. You can easily connect with colleagues and send out invitations that will arrive branded within a LinkedIn email.

8. Use LinkedIn Groups to Grow Your Business

LinkedIn Groups offer businesses an easy way to communicate about a specific topic. You can browse and join millions of LinkedIn Groups or start one of your own. If you start your own LinkedIn Group, it gives you the ability to invite existing connections to that group, giving you an immediate audience. For example, you can start one for a local business group, on a particular marketing topic, or get a group of Alumni back together. Make sure to keep your group membership only as it gives you more control who joins and adds a cache of exclusivity.

9. Make Your LinkedIn Profile SEO Friendly

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a term that refers to using the right content and keywords to get noticed by someone performing a search. LinkedIn utilizes its own proprietary search algorithm that returns results based on the keywords listed in your profiles. For example, if you list yourself as an aeronautical consultant a dozen times, including in the title of your profile, there's a good chance that someone searching for aeronautical consultant will find you on the first page of results on LinkedIn.

10. Engage Other LinkedIn Members with Great Content

Your business on LinkedIn can gain additional exposure by sharing and linking great content for others to read. If you post a news story on your news feed, your connections will automatically see that you've posted an update. Business decision makers and influencers are paying attention on LinkedIn, so share content that is relevant to your organization. An easy example is showing off a quick presentation or information that may be useful for others to read, but also relevant to your industry. Taking just a few minutes each week will position you as a thought leader and increase the amount of individuals looking at your profile.

How to Use LinkedIn to Get Recruited in 2022.

LinkedIn.com is one of the fastest growing recruiting tools currently used by Headhunters and Professionals alike. If you are used to networking and taking advantage of business meet and greets, then you can expand your networks and your professional name by using LinkedIn. If you are still coming to grips with how to network or even what it is - then LinkedIn provides a great base on which you can build for your "offline" world. If you become savvy at using LinkedIn as a professional advancement tool then your opportunities are exponential.

Why use LinkedIn to get recruited?

Headhunters are now using LinkedIn as one of their primary tools to source new talent for Employers. Business Owners and Employers have also become aware of just how useful LinkedIn is to search for talented professionals to fill positions - cutting out the middle man and major advertising costs. Over 130,000 recruitment agents including representatives from all of the Fortune 500 Companies are using LinkedIn to source their future employees and contractors.

Professionals who have developed their LinkedIn Profile and are working on their connections report on receiving at least a contact a week from either Headhunters or Employers who have found them through LinkedIn. This is a great tool to advertise your skills to a much larger audience and also provides opportunities for networking yourself into your Company of choice. As you familiarize yourself with LinkedIn you will start to realize how this site and your connections can provide a personal introduction to the right person at the right time.

How does LinkedIn work?

Heard of six degrees of separation? LinkedIn works on the principle that by you inviting your contacts to join you on LinkedIn, you also gain access to their contacts and so on and so forth. Firstly, this builds up membership as a lightening pace (over 25 million users currently). Secondly, this creates a huge community of people who can professionally assist each other. LinkedIn is a professional driven social networking site, so no video uploads of late night opinions or family pics - just professionals linking in to each other.

How do I get started using LinkedIn for Professional Advancement?

A Basic Membership on LinkedIn.com is free. You just need to join and fill in your profile. If you're serious about using LinkedIn to get recruited, and then take the time to set up your profile properly, in the same vain you would offer your CV to a Recruitment Agent.

The next step is to start connecting! LinkedIn operates interactive tools that can upload your address book from various email programs including Outlook and web based mail programs. These tools automatically identify any members of your address book that are already LinkedIn members. Go through and carefully choose who you want to invite to become a connection. Note: Your Connections will be visible to the rest of your connections.

You can also reconnect with old classmates and colleagues by using the Colleague Reconnect and Classmate Reconnect tools. This is a great way to expand your connections and you never know who may be working for what potential employer. Profiles with over 20 connections have an increased chance of success.

TIP: Don't just enter someone's email address or business card into your contact manager - see if they are also on LinkedIn. A few minutes a month can provide you a huge network of connections that can access your profile.

How can I use LinkedIn to get recruited?

Here are a few fast tips on how to optimize your chances for being recruited through LinkedIn. They are relevant to both individuals who want professional advancement, freelancing or consulting professionals and business owners who want to expand their reach:

1. Don't just sit on your profile - work your colleagues, former employers, clients and professional contacts for recommendations. Having recommendations on your LinkedIn profile is gold in terms of recruitment. You can also use your LinkedIn profile as a central repository for recommendations rather than having to re-contact your referees each time you apply for a job. Business can also use this as a tool to centralize their testimonials for prospective clients. You can then refer potential employers to your LinkedIn profile to view recommendations.

2. Use keywords when you are preparing your Profile, take advantage of search engine optimization wherever possible, while still ensuring your profile looks professional. For example systems analyst familiar with business intelligence software - work at getting the attention of your target audience. If you are running a professional or promotional blog, you can connect your blogs URL to your LinkedIn profile. Again - keywords - professional. You can also personalize your LinkedIn profile by customizing the URL to reflect your name and ensure you allow your full profile to be viewed by public users. LinkedIn is a friend of the major search engines - giving you the chance of a higher return on search results.

3. You can download the JobInsider toolbar from LinkedIn. If you are searching for open positions on many of the known jobsites, then the JobInsider toolbar gives you an inside track. When you view a listing, JobInsider will search for your inside connections in the prospective company. Using your connections you can gain inside information, advice and maybe even a helping recommendation.

4. Join relevant groups - you can join professional, alumni, industry and corporate alumni groups listed on LinkedIn. This is a great way to exhibit your profile and increase your connections. You can also create groups - bringing together your own major network of liked minded professionals.

5. People have had amazing results from just simply asking and answering questions using the Q & A tool on LinkedIn. Try for credibility rather than self promotion.

6. Take the few milliseconds to keep an eye on the LinkedIn notices that come into your inbox. It's useful insider intelligence to watch who's connecting to whom and what your friends, colleagues and former bosses are doing. Pretty soon with a large enough network you can start to build your connections in the right direction.

7. There are also mega connection boosting sites. Offering to help you expand your connections exponentially as long as you agree to some basic conditions, such as never declining an invitation to connect to someone referred by the site. Remember the more connections, the better opportunities for professional advancement and likelihood of getting recruited.

8. Get to know your "network statistics" under the People section of your LinkedIn profile. This will give you a summary of the industries your connections are related to. By clicking on an industry of interest, you can view the connections and how many degrees of separation there are between you and them. Using your common connections as a base, you can introduce yourself to relevant people.

9. You can also choose to upgrade your account to Premium at a cost. This offers further features for recruitment on LinkedIn. Note: if you downgrade later on, you will lose all of your connections and profile and need to start again.

10. Last word on profiles - it's not just about who you're currently working for or what you are currently doing. Each time you update your profile with a former Employer or Qualification, LinkedIn will automatically search for other people who worked or went to classes during the same time period. Your ancient history could open up the door to tomorrow's dream job!