LinkedIn is well known as a place for business professionals to network with like minded people. It’s easy to use and with a few extra steps beyond creating an account you can find new opportunities for your business.
Here are five steps to get you started after you create an account.
1. Make sure that your Summary is descriptive of what you’re looking for & what your company offers. Chris Brogan recently had a great list of ideas to pay attention to when creating your profile.
2. Connect with people that you know. You can use your email address list to see if those people are on LinkedIn. You can also search by name or company. When you find people that you know, you can connect by using their email address. They will appreciate a quick note about why you’re connecting.
3. Find a group to join. There are many! Groups offer many opportunities to meet new people. They range from location specific to topic specific
*tip – if you want to connect with people & don’t know their email address use the Group option & select one of yours. Then write a personal note telling them why you want to connect.
4. Answering questions is a great way to meet new people & establish yourself as knowledgeable in your subject area.
5. Asking a question can also introduce you to new people as well as provide you with expert advice. I recently asked a question that resulted in saving me a lot of research time.
So LinkedIn can be used to connect with like minded people, share ideas and answer questions that you have about your business. It’s a perfect place for the busy professional!
Bonus tip: You can also download all of the email addresses to create a mailing list. For example if you created a group – you could do a mass email.
For further reading:
articles at My Solution Spot
articles on SCORE Chicago
What tips do you have for using LinkedIn?
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