Maintain and Optimize Your LinkedIn Personal Profile

So, you've set up your LinkedIn personal profile. Now how do you make the most of it? Here are some tips, gathered from LinkedIn itself, some shared web resources, and our own experience.

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Maintain and Optimize Your LinkedIn Personal Profile (68 KB)

Maintaining Your LinkedIn Personal Profile

Frequency of Status Updates

You should update your LinkedIn status once a day, but not more often than that. Too many updates can be seen as spam and you may lose connections as a result. In addition, LinkedIn's status updates feed does not work in the same way as Facebook's and Twitter's - it is not in realtime.

LinkedIn Status Update Topic Ideas

If you are at a loss for what to post as LinkedIn status updates, here are a few ideas and suggestions:

• News
• Useful tips
• Tools
• Links to pages on your website
• Resources and links to other websites in your industry
• Events

Refrain from posting anything that could be interpreted as a sales pitch. If you have a new product or a limited time special offer, it's OK to announce it. But adding text like "Buy now" or "Contact us" with any regularity will generally turn off your followers. Your posts should be focused on sharing good information, not selling wares.

Other Places To Find LinkedIn Status Update Topic Ideas

Find blogs in your industry. Use Technorati.com, AllTop.com and Blogs.com to find blogs in your industry. You should pick a few blogs to follow (this is outside of LinkedIn itself). When appropriate, leave comments on their recent blog posts, and then post a brief comment about this to LinkedIn (preferably with a link to that blog post).

Use Twitter's search. Find Twitter accounts of other people in your industry. Follow them and see what they are talking about. Then use these topics as idea generators for your LinkedIn status updates.

Search LinkedIn for questions related to your business' industry (see below). Answer these questions (briefly!) in your LinkedIn status updates (and also answer them on LinkedIn Answers itself, with a link back to your website).

Twitter Updates

LinkedIn offers you the option to link a Twitter account to your LinkedIn profile. This will enable you to post LinkedIn updates to Twitter, as well as vice versa (publish Twitter updates to LinkedIn). If you decide to use this option, make sure that if the Twitter account you link is your personal account, that you do not publish any unnecessary personal Twitter account updates to LinkedIn. You can use LinkedIn's hashtag #li to accomplish this.

Blog Updates

LinkedIn offers the option to post your recent blog entries to your LinkedIn updates automatically. To enable this, add your blog's RSS feed to the list of websites in your personal profile. Choose RSS feed from the website dropdown, then type your RSS feed in the adjacent box.

Recommendations

You should request recommendations from people that you have worked with. In addition, you should leave recommendations for other people. If you leave a recommendation for someone, they may reciprocate in kind.

To ask for LinkedIn recommendations, click on "Ask for a recommendation" on the Edit Profile page, or hover over the "Profile" menu, click on Recommendations, then click on Request Recommendations. You may also decide that instead of using LinkedIn's request recommendations feature, that you would rather send a personal email, or talk to your colleague in person.

LinkedIn Answers

Find time to search LinkedIn Answers for topics in your field. To do this, hover over the "More" menu item in LinkedIn's main menu and click on the Answers submenu item. Search for your industry by typing in a search term in the Answers search box found in the top right area of the LinkedIn website. You should aim to find questions that you can answer. Once you find a question that you can answer, leave a brief answer, with a link back to your company's website. You can also use this feature of LinkedIn to ask questions of your own.

Finding Connections

Even if you added connections when you first set up your LinkedIn profile, you should update your list of connections regularly as you meet and connect with new people. To add connections, either click on "Add connections" on the Edit Profile page, or click on "Add connections" in the Connections dropdown menu at the top of any LinkedIn page. There are (at least) four different ways to add new LinkedIn connections:

a.            Fill in your email address and password, and LinkedIn will access your webmail contacts. You will be given the option to select which of your webmail contacts you'd like to connect with.

b.            Upload a contact list file from your computer by clicking "Import your desktop email contacts."

c.             Enter email addresses in manually in the box under "Enter Email Addresses. Enter email addresses of people to invite and connect. Separate each address by a comma."

d.            Search for your colleagues by typing in a name in the search box in the top right of the page. When you find someone you want to connect with, click on the "Add [name] to your network" link on their LinkedIn profile.

Joining LinkedIn Groups

LinkedIn Groups enable you to connect with people in your industry, grow your network, share information, and find support. To find a Group to join, hover over "Groups" in the main menu and click on "Groups Directory" in the drop-down menu. Type in a search term related to your field (or even a term such as "small businesses") and click Search.

When you see a Group that you'd like to join, click "Join Group." You will be notified whenever there is new activity in each Group that you are a member. To customize how often this happens, edit your "Group Settings" and how you'd like to receive messages. When you are done, click "Join Group." If the group you have elected to join requires approval before joining, you may have to wait for a confirmation email from the Group manager.

Keep your LinkedIn Profile Up To Date!

Don't forget to keep your LinkedIn profile up to date. If you gain a promotion, acquire a new skill, or receive an award, don't forget to update your LinkedIn profile. You should try to update your LinkedIn profile once every three months.