LinkedIn: How to Polish Your Profile for PR, Connections, Clients, & Jobs

Apr
2009

posted by susanharrow on Social Networking PR

There are currently 37 million people on LinkedIn with a projected 70 million users by end of calendar year. Chris Muccio LinkedIn expert told me that there were many subtle things LinkedIn members can do so people can find them. There is also a strategy to get connected so they can achieve their goals. Which brings us to his first question. What do you want to use LinkedIn for exactly? Knowing your objective will then drive how you create and manage your profile and how you interact with other LinkedIn users.

It will also dictate your strategy. More about that in another column.

The real opportunity for LinkedIn users is how to leverage their connections and profile for business. In essence you’re setting up a 24 hour persona. We’re not just looking at the return on investment (ROI) with social media, explains Muccio. We’re also examining the impact of relationships (IOR). This includes generating awareness, credibility, a path of participation and making subtle tweaks to build a foundation for relationships.

Muccio and I decided that we’d make my profile an ongoing case study — perhaps the first one of it’s kind. So this will be a first in a series for my LinkedIn make-over.

For my profile Muccio recommended I make some small tweaks that would have big impact. We started with some of the easiest as I have a low tolerance for technology. For some of you these changes might seem too basic or obvious, but for me, a LinkedIn Luddite, they were a revelation.

Change #1.

Muccio informed me that the “Specialties” area of my profile is best used for…Read the rest here.

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