LinkedIn 102 – 5 Advanced Tips.

I have previously attended many Social Media training sessions and most of them spoke to the statistics of why you should use Social Media and the major Social Media sites that a business should start on.  In every instance, I see the audience’s eyes gloss over with trying to figure out where to start and then there is an onslaught of questions about how to start.  I reached out to the Greater El Paso Chamber of Commerce and explained the problem.  People come to these trainings because they recognize the need to be on Social Media; they just don’t know how to get started. The Chamber has asked me to provide a presentation on a certain topic every once in a while.  You can go to my LinkedIn site, http://www.linkedin.com/in/steveduplessis , and see a couple presentations that I have given.

The first step to LinkedIn is fully completing your profile.  It is like your resume in that you can’t just provide your last job; you need to share a summary, your skills, your relevant experiences, your affilations, your accomplishment and your references.  It as close to 100% completion as you can.  However, once that is completed how do you use this tool?  Most often, the question is growing your network but how do you use that network and how do you motivate people to want to be part of your network?

LinkedIn like all Social Media tools is changing to meet the needs of their customers and to understand how they can monetize their tool to provide a return to their shareholders in the near future.  I researched and found several articles and presentations and discovered some tools have either changed or been removed, however here are the few free tidbits that are worth mentioning.

1.  You grow your network using your colleagues and different people you have crossed paths with in your life.  Did you know that you could open that person’s network and send invitations to their connections?  What about if you joined a group that you can invite members of that group to join your network?  I find these two ways beneficial as it normally doesn’t have a lock.  I am able to meet people outside my circle at all different levels for no cost.  LinkedIn Premium, a pay for service, will allow you to find people to add to your network by searching on location, function, seniority level, or company size if you want to cut down on time.

2. Be a thought leader!  You should join a group that is tied to your interests or job and do a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly post.  Clearly frequency plays a role, but so does quality.  You can crowdsource, gain information from people, by posting a question or you can gain credibility by demonstrating subject matter expertise.  This can grow your network and your knowledge base.

3. Join groups!  If the two previous didn’t convince you, then you are missing the mark.  Groups provide knowledge that is outside your circle of influence.  This can stem off group think.  You can control access if security if you worry, but personally I perfer subjects that aren’t confidential to allow the free flow of ideas.  Hit the folder icon and select groups and type in an interest.  Join the one that most closely resembles your interest, if nothing populates, then you have an opportunity to start a group.

4. Customize and Organize with Tags!  Any course on marketing with speak to target and segmentation.  This provides that ability as I can assign certain tags to my contacts.  If I find and article or I am writing a post that is specific to an industry, function, or position, then I can pick who I send the message.  A quick way to kill the value of LinkedIn is to inundate all you connections with every post that has no relevance to them.

5.  Proliferation!  It is very important to find ways to share your content over multiple venues.   We are rarely in the same place everyday and content is everywhere, so how can you ensure your material is touched.  Content, Time, and Frequency!  You must create content that brings value.  You must create metrics and use them to manage when to send them.  It may be important to share good content mulitple times, so that it doesn’t get lost in the shuffle.  Careful with this one as I am not suggesting sending something everyday for a week.  If it has value, then I might consider sending it 2-3 times over a 2 week span.  I may use different ways to send (Aggregator, RSS feed, Different Social site) as to create the perception that it is being shared.

Thank you for reading my first article on Social Media and please subscribe as I will be publishing more in the future.  I like Social Media Examiner and SlideShare and my LinkedIn groups for learning.