In lieu of the new LinkedIn publishing feature, it is extremely important to make sure you are optimizing your LinkedIn presence, especially when you decide to share your own content. Sharing content links back directly to your profile, which displays how you portray yourself professionally. When is the last time you freshened up your LinkedIn profile?
Whether you are searching for a new career, establishing your thought leadership or simply interested in connecting with like-minded professionals, it is important to make sure your profile looks its best. Here are five tips to help you take advantage of LinkedIn to achieve your individual goals:
1. Update your profile in its entirety. Take a look at your work experience – are there more responsibilities you’ve taken on in your current position that you haven’t listed? Think about all of the things you have accomplished and participated in at work and add any missing pieces. Is your picture from the past year or two? If not, take a new one! Make sure to include your location (have you moved to a different city?) proper skill set and up-to-date summary of your current positioning.
2. Include your contact information. The amount of contact information you provide is completely up to your discretion. However, deciding to include more will only provide additional opportunities to strengthen your relationship with connections. Maybe your connections want to discuss your latest post even further or get your thoughts on a related issue.
3. Engage in group discussions. One way to interact with people outside of your network is by participating in group discussions. These are becoming more prevalent for industries across the board. Whether the group is used as a forum to answer questions, share best practices or stay up-to-date with current issues, each group has the potential to influence other users. When using the publishing platform, you can post your content in groups and start a discussion on the same post. This is a great way to get feedback and engage with others. After all social media is all about social interaction, right?
4. Ask for recommendations. Have any of your past clients, supervisors, mentors or colleagues written a recommendation on your profile? If not, just ask! Written recommendations make you look more credible and are often the first thing a user will look at when trying to get a better understanding of whom you are and what you do. Anyone can toot their own horn, but it means much more coming from someone else.
5. Follow Influencers. There are many LinkedIn Influencers who regularly post content that can serve as a resource. Following these Influencers can help you gain insight and possibly even ideas on how to position posts of your own. Since users heavily follow LinkedIn Influencers, engaging with their content will likely expand your reach as well.
What other LinkedIn tips do you have? Let us know in the comments section below!