Maximizing LinkedIn

One of our Marketing Mentor clients (and an enthusiastic and frequent contributor to this blog), Dani Nordin of Zen Kitchen (here's her web site and her blog), has posted a great article over on Biznik about how to make the most of LinkedIn -- and any online networking site.

Here is my favorite of her 10 tips:

Have a great summary. The summary is the first thing that appears below your basic profile information on your LinkedIn  profile, and it's often going to be the first (and perhaps only) thing that your potential contact will look at. Make sure it's complete, and focuses on the types of people you work with (your ideal client) and the great things you can do for them (what you do). This is also a good place to list awards, publications, and other "Go Me!" type of stuff.

Here's Dani's LinkedIn profile here. You can read the rest of her tips here and be sure to post your own comment.

Comments

[James Currie]

Hi Ilise, I've been part of linked in for several years, but I've never found anyone who's contacted me through it. I've honestly never found anything useful out of it. I've had more people hit my web site from facebook, which I just joined, than LinkedIn. It just seems like a tool to show others how many business contacts you have.

Have you ever gotten any leads from LinkedIn, or know anyone who has?

[Dan McComb]

Hi James,

Have you taken a look at Biznik.com? It's specifically designed for small business owners, and features a lot more community features that you may be looking for. Biznik can also drive significant traffic to your website if you upgrade your account. We measure every clickthrough from Biznik to member websites, and what we've observed is that for every click that a basic member gets, Active members get 8 clicks, and Supporting members get 26 visits to their own site. Also, Biznik does wonders for your SEO - for free.

[Leif Hansen]

It's true about Biznik, the SEO is amazing - many of us Bizniks found that our name and/or business floated straight to Google's top ten within days of creating a profile there.

In addition, its an excellent place to grow your business through the support of other like minded people, excellent articles like the aforementioned Dani's, honest discussions, and much needed face-to-face educational and networking events. And did you know that "business networking" in Google brings up Biznik before LinkedIn? Look me up when you get there!

[Dani Nordin]

Thanks for the mention, Ilise. I just realized, of course, that I have to look at my own profile summaries again soon.