If you think LinkedIn is just an online version of your static résumé, then think again. It is a way to search and connect with a much wider network than possible in person. Keeping connections alive through LinkedIn is much more passive than traditional networking since the service delivers updated and timely information about your contacts. You can easily see if someone in your network received a promotion, switched employers, posted information on a blog or Twitter, and recently had a birthday.
Do not let this be the extent of your LinkedIn use, however. Start becoming an active participant. First, make sure you build out your profile: upload a professional looking profile photograph, add any blog or Twitter accounts, and tweak privacy and other preferences. Actively search and follow companies that you are interested in doing business. The serious LinkedIn users learn to maximize and interact with the groups and answers sections to shared and find information from people with shared interests. Use the search bar to find groups of all types such as social media, printing, graphics, public relations, etc.
Find groups whose members are active and you want to join. Create a discussion topic or respond to one already started. As with all social platforms, remember to give plenty of contact information and external links in your correspondence. A lot of users remember to put this information on their individual profile and history, but fail to linkout when it matters most – in discussions. Create a customized signature and save it into a text (since LinkedIn does not allow HTML code) file for easy reuse such as the one below.
••••• M-BOSSED Print Media Blog •••••
- [email] – me@me.com
- [twitter] – @mbossed | http://twitter.com/mbossed
- [web] – http://www.m-bossed.com
- [address] -100 Find Me Street | New York, NY 00863
Right now there are 1,138 group found under a "print" group search. (Use this webpage for a useful list of print related LinkedIn groups.) Interestingly, the top 5 print groups memberships dwarf (45,000 vs. 5,000) the amount of printers listed on Twellow.com, a Twitter yellow pages type directory. The Print Production Professionals group, cultivated by Deborah Corn, currently has roughly 10,500 members and sponsors a vendor listing service where printers can post their capabilities and contact details. The vendor listing is roughly 290 companies on 16 expanding pages, yet only 28 companies display social media links on their homepage and only four listed their Twitter name in their contact details (@gsbnewmedia, @kpcorp, @jflynn, @cathygraphicsys). Cross linking between your social media platforms and back to your home base is an important consideration. Twitter lists links to LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, and your blog and vice versa. Ideally all roads lead back to your active blog as this is the only social media platform fully in your control. This cross pollination is exactly where a thoughtfully constructed signature can pay dividends.
Tips for LinkedIn Signature
- List all possible contact methods!
- Write out the entire URL including "http://" for any links.
- Consider creating a contact form to include as a link to compliment written e-mail address.
- Use special characters (#, *, >, <, |, etc) to make it visually interesting.
Happy linking! Share any other tips in the comments below.
photo credit: Mario Sundar, smi23le
