LinkedIn has become the accepted universal business networking tool. LinkedIn is a social network (similar to Hi5, Facebook, etc), but designed for business. Networking with LinkedIn increases your chances of connecting with the right people. Anyone who is growing their business should consider using LinkedIn.

To be able to harness the power of LinkedIn, you need to build up your network of connections. Here are tips on how to expand your network.

1. Your Profile: Spend time building up your profile. This is how people will seek you out to network with you. The more information you include about education and jobs you held, the more searchable you become and the greater your chances of making a real connection. An incomplete profile won’t serve you as you network on LinkedIn. Be sure and upload a photo.
2. Custom URL: As part of your personal branding you can setup your public profile URL to include your actual name. You can include this personalized URL in the signature of emails, on your blog, faxes and business cards.
3. Initial network: Build up your initial network with your circle of friends, customers, vendors, classmates and coworkers. There are tools on LinkedIn that allow you to view who is already on LinkedIn based on online address books such as Gmail. Use the LinkedIn Toolbar to invite your contacts found in Outlook. Invite the people you know or have known.
4. Expand: As you add people, view their connections to see who you know and want to invite to your network You will discover people that you had forgotten.
5. Invite: Each time you meet a new person and receive their business card, search and see if they are on LinkedIn. Invite them to become part of your network. This does three things, it reminds them of your meeting, it shows that you are interested in them and it expands your network.
6. LinkedIn Answers: An overlooked, yet powerful part of LinkedIn Answers. This enables you to ask or answer questions around any subject. As you engage with others in your industry or local area, you can send a personal message and invite them to join your network.

Your LinkedIn profile acts as your virtual business card that represents you to people you want to network with. Your profile helps you find and be found by former colleagues, clients and partners. Spend time searching for contacts on a regular basis to keep your network fresh and growing.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 11th, 2008 at 5:03 am and is filed under Social Media Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.