How to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile

With more than 60 million members, LinkedIn has become the best resource for developing your professional network. It’s a great place to meet, post and find jobs, answer questions and join groups. Once you’ve created a basic profile, here are some tips to get the most out of LinkedIn.

First, and without question, your profile should be 100% complete. School, work, past work and other relevant information assists others searching for contacts, and helps build your own network. Next, add a profile photo. Your picture triggers recognition and makes networkers feel like they are connecting to a real person. Then optimize your summary section with relevant keywords. Use Google’s Keyword Tool or Wordtracker for your research. This particular section of your profile is often indexed fully by major search engines.

Potential SEO Benefits?
Take a look at this screenshot, which is a portion of my public LinkedIn profile. There is speculation (and some confirmation) the items in this section helps with organic search engine optimization.

• Add your website, link to your blog and link to your company. Make sure you further “edit” each by giving it a name other than the defaults provided by LinkedIn. As you can see from my list, I’m hyperlinking phrases such as “Marketing Blog” and “Consulting Services”.
• If you’re on Twitter, be sure to add your Twitter profile, and connect the accounts together. Under your profile, click on Edit and look for your Twitter settings. You could also try this link when logged in to LinkedIn.
• Always choose a real name or variation on your name over the default format LinkedIn provides for you. This certainly feeds your organic name optimization and enhances your online reputation. As you can see, my profile link is my full name “brianjfarrell”.

Connecting with Twitter
This image below shows my Twitter settings — my account name (@findtheclient), my privacy settings, and the most important section, whether or not all or select Tweets should show on my profile. When I first set this up, I sent all Tweets to LinkedIn. Since I’m on Twitter often, this amounted to sometimes a dozen or more updates in a single day. When friends said they couldn’t keep up with me, I changed this to show only Tweets with the “#in” hashtag. Much better results, and I can leave up new blog posts or polls for a longer period of time.

Build Your Connections
Once you’ve done the above, it’s time to build your network. Start with people you know, such as co-workers, clients and colleagues. Also look for connections by company name, under the “Companies” tab. Once you’ve built up this initial base of connections, ask for and make recommendations. But before you do this, read as many as you can. You’ll quickly see what makes up a good (or bad) recommendation. It also helps to personalize your request for a recommendation rather then sending out the canned form letter provided by LinkedIn.

Finally, updated your status often, since it appears on LinkedIn as well as in network updates to your connections. Updates should be considered a professional status, not what you’re eating for lunch. And if you haven’t done so, let’s connect on LinkedIn!

Real World Networking Tips

Everyone’s a buzz with Internet networking on sites such as LinkedIn, Plaxo and Facebook. But let’s not forget the power of in-person networking. It’s much easier to form a bond with someone when you meet face to face. Online networking is somewhat anonymous, since we can hide behind our computer screens. See and be seen, take pictures, and record videos (so you have good fodder for your blog!).

First, find relevant events within your industry or geographic locations. Chambers of Commerce mixers, seminars and other local business networking events are found in nearly every community. Get over the initial inertia and just go introduce yourself to someone. Move past the small talk and ask open-ended questions with substance. People actually like being asked about their business, and what they do for a living, so ask questions such as:

• Why did you become a lawyer (doctor, salesperson, etc.)?
• How can I help you?
• How would I know if a prospect is right for referral to you?

What’s the biggest mistake you can make?
Don’t think of networking as a sales opportunity. Everyone at the event knows why you’re there, so think of it as a mission to learn something. Your sales and referrals will come later. And don’t be the one who holds up the wall and doesn’t talk to anyone. But the biggest mistake you can make is not following up with people you’ve met. Forget this, and you’ve wasted time, energy and money.

In person networking is a fun, change of pace from the frenzied world we live online (and real food tastes a whole lot better than virtual food!). Go in with a plan, have genuine conversations with the people you meet, and let networking flourish from there.

Photo credit by Murielle.

Use Public Speaking to Boost Your Business

Afraid of public speaking? My unscientific research shows the fear of public speaking more common than the fears of spiders, heights, darkness and flying. Learning to speak well is a surefire way to boost your business. But first, you’ll have to promote yourself as an expert in the field. I started out speaking and presenting to small, city- and county-based Bar associations, in front of as few as 4 lawyers. My pay was prestige, and I used these early events as currency for larger, more regional opportunities, such as Beasley Allen’s Legal Strategies, where I presented just before Thanksgiving to more than 1,000 attorneys. In your market, there are countless organizations welcoming new presenters and speakers. Volunteer whenever you can. Most won’t or don’t have a significant budget for professional speakers, and you’ll get valuable experience (not to mention making great business contacts).

Once you get to speak in public, make sure you know your material. During one seminar, the person manning my laptop not only disconnected my slideshow mid-stream, but then skipped over my most important slide! But since only I knew it was missing, I kept going, shaken, but not completely off track. If it wasn’t for my preparation, and for rehearsing over and over again, I would have been sunk.

Here are a few more tips to get better at public speaking. We all know smiling and eye contact are important, but if you want to make the best connection with your audience, show your passion and enthusiasm for the material. Move around purposely on stage, instead of pacing nervously back and forth. And if you make a mistake, only you know it happened, so keep your cool.

There are so many benefits to better public speaking — recognition from your peers and potential clients being a few. Public speaking even helps you conduct better sales and client meetings!

If you want to see me in person, I’ll be speaking later this month on “Inbound Marketing for Lawyers” in Oklahoma City and presenting a brief search engine marketing slideshow at a networking event in San Antonio. Send me an email () or DM on Twitter (@findtheclient) and I’ll be sure to recognize you in public!

Photo credit by neosiam.