By Wendy Moore, Speaker, International Best-Selling Author, Social Media Expert
There’s no doubt that LinkedIn is a top networking site for business professionals with more than 80 million members. Many people all over the world involved in any type of business have set up an account in LinkedIn including Fortune 500 companies’ executives and if you’re not one of them, you are missing a lot.
LinkedIn requires members to provide as much information as possible about themselves to attract more connections whether potential business partners or clients. This social networking site values relationships the reason why it encourages members to promote their educational background, job experience and other valuable assets in the best way they can. Here then are some cool ways you can maximise your LinkedIn account.
Highlight your skills. This is a new section in LinkedIn which you need to fully utilize. Include your speaking and other communication skills as a way to let people know about your expertise.
Join or create groups. To connect with more professionals as well as local and international speakers, you can choose groups within or outside your industry that you like to be a part of. Otherwise, you can create your own group and invite others to join you.
Post an update. Similar to other social networking sites, you can post an update on LinkedIn. You can do this on your home page in the Network Activity box. You can even attach a link and share the update with your Twitter account.
Request recommendations. You can ask for recommendations on the various positions you’ve held from former and present colleagues, clients, managers and employees you are connected with. You can check this from one of the drop down menu items in your profile.
Give recommendations. You can recommend people such as business partners and colleagues in the speaking industry as well as companies in return. Recommending them will help build relationships, gain clients and speaking activities and help people get hired for the skills and services that they offer.
Include a message in invites. If you want to connect with people you know or you may know in LinkedIn and other women speakers, make sure to include a message in your invite. This will help them recognize you better and be more interested in connecting with you than merely clicking on the invite button.
Post events. For women who are into speaking and organizing events, the best way to promote what you do on LinkedIn is by posting an event. Go to the More section on the topmost bar and a drop down menu will appear one of which is Events. Click it then go to Add an Event and provide all the details plus your photo.
Q&A section. Should you have issues with using LinkedIn, you can always ask a question on the Answers page which serves as the site’s discussion board. You can find this in the More section’s drop down menu. If you find interesting topics or questions such as those pertaining to the speaking industry, you can provide answers as well. Just click on the question to share your answer. This is a great way to promote your expertise as each week, a list is provided with the top experts and the corresponding number of answers they have provided. You can view this below the questions portion.
So strive to get more business connections and speaking engagements by being on LinkedIn and maximising its features. And try to be there on a regular basis so as not to miss on any updates.
Wendy Moore is the founder of www.savvywebwomen.com and creator of the Savvy List Building Blog – the information packed resource that shows business owners and entrepreneurs how to get in front of an audience that wants to buy what they are selling. To receive your FREE Special Report and weekly how-to articles to expand your online List Building toolkit, visit www.wendymoore.net