I first wrote this post for the SAS blog Conversations and Connections. SAS has been awesome enough to let me repost it here.

As many know, LinkedIn is a social network focused solely around professional purposes. With more than 50 million users, it’s a great resource to help you network, find a job, and learn from other professionals in your field…if you have a profile.

Although the set up of your profile is pretty easily done, it can be a little overwhelming at first to figure out how to effectively use your profile to promote not only yourself, but your business as well. (This post is about individual promotion. You should start here. If you’re interested in using LinkedIn to promote your business, check out this post by Jeffrey L. Cohen: 12 Ways to Leverage Your LinkedIn Profile for a B2B Company.)

A list of my resources, including links, is at the bottom of this post. But you came here for the information. So without further ado, and to make sure we’re all on the same page, let’s start from the beginning.

Getting Started – Complete Your Profile

LinkedIn is designed to lead you to success. When you create your profile, there is an info box on the right of your editing page letting you know what you still have left to do on your profile. Each item shows a percentage representing how much more effective your profile will be after its completion. This can help you prioritize if you can’t complete your profile all at once.

But that’s just a to-do list. How do you make your profile more accessible and interesting?

• Personalize your URL: This helps with searches (on LinkedIn, Google and other search engines), and makes it easy to remember.
• Add a picture to your profile: LinkedIn is focused on the individual, and as such, you should personalize your avatar. This also helps people to recognize you, so make sure it’s recent and a good representation.
• Use keywords that people will likely be using in their searches: Use keywords throughout your profile—headline, summary and job descriptions. These are your best friends in terms of SEO. Also, make sure your profile settings are on “Full View”, making your entire profile public. This will allow all of your information to be indexed for searching purposes.
• Link to yourself: LinkedIn lets you add up to three websites and a link to your Twitter account to your profile. Use them to get others connected to your brand in other places. When adding these sites, choose “Other” in the drop-down menu so that you can title the link yourself—such as naming the link to your blog using the title of your blog. This will help your search rankings for that phrase.
• Forget about making your summary section a summary of your profile. Take this opportunity to talk about your passions and professional abilities. This way, connections (and prospective connections) can get a glimpse of you as a person and not just a work history.

Participating Effectively

Once you’ve completed you’re profile, you’re ready to start participating. LinkedIn offers several resources to do so. But how do you participate in a way that will market your personal brand?

• Make connections with people you know: An easy way to start this process is to allow LinkedIn to search your email contacts for profiles. It will then let you choose who you connect with. You can also search for people by name.
• Give and request recommendations: Recommend people you know and can vouch for. On the other side, don’t be afraid to ask for recommendations from trusted individuals who can vouch for you. For more information check out Chris Brogan’s “LinkedIn Recommendation Tips”.
• Join groups relevant to your industry: LinkedIn offers an enormous collection of professional groups where you can network and exchange industry-related information. To find quality groups, check out the ones your connections have joined.
• Participate in groups: Once you join a group, get a feel for how to participate. If the group has a list of member guidelines, be sure to read and follow them or you could be removed. Share information by commenting in discussions, and start relevant and interesting discussion groups.
• Try to help: Answering question in discussion groups, giving recommendations, and helping others network can all come back to help your cause as well.

Promoting Your Profile – Cross-link Your Presences

To get the most out of your efforts, be sure to attach your profile to all the platforms where you participate.

• Install applications: Although there aren’t many applications that LinkedIn offers, the ones they do—Blog Link, Amazon Reading List, etc.—can be very helpful in making your profile effective. Among other things, they can automatically pull in your blog posts, and help you connect with others by sharing what books you’re reading.
• Link to your Twitter account: There are two ways you can link tweets and LinkedIn status updates. The first is to click the Twitter check box in your update field on LinkedIn. This will make all your LinkedIn updates appear in your tweets. The second is to use the #in hashtag in a tweet. This will automatically send that tweet to your LinkedIn profile as an update, as long as you’re signed into both.
• Market through email: Add your personalized LinkedIn profile URL to your email signature. This will help you passively network through the conversations you have on a daily basis. Post your URL in your other online presences as well—blog, Twitter background, Facebook page—to drive traffic back to your profile.

Just like completing your profile, don’t feel like you have to tackle all of these suggestions at once. Each one will do a part in making your LinkedIn presence more effective. Good luck!

Resources:

To get the best information for this post, I took what I’d learned and compared it to information I acquired from others—including my greatest resource, a post by David Erickson called “LinkedIn Best Practices for Business”, which has a lot of great information. He really knows what he’s talking about. I also started a discussion on LinkedIn and tweeted a question, both asking for tips on effective participation in LinkedIn. Thanks to everyone who responded on LinkedIn and Twitter with best practice tips: @Postgrad, @Malchew, @KarlSakas, Matthew Shepherd, Eric Jan van Putten, Heli Rajasalo, Keith Stewart and Bill Strawderman.

Photo by nan palmero