If you’re on LinkedIn, and even if you have an impressive number of connections, you might be making critical mistakes that are robbing you of the ability to make those connections work for you.
The Business2Community blog lists its Top 10 Self-Defeating LinkedIn Practices, such as a boring or outdated profile, using the site to spit out nothing but free commercials, or asking vendors for recommendations.
Here are three more of my favorite self-defeating practices:
1. Failing to use Advanced Search.
This is where the sales leads and the gold are buried. Wayne Breitbarth, a LinkedIn expert, demonstrates how to use Advanced Search to find CEOs:
2. Failing to optimize your profile for the search engines.
Don’t use the generic “My Company” link in your profile to link to your website. Edit it and replace “My Company” with keywords that will give you more Google juice. For example, on my own LinkedIn profile, rather than using “My Company,” I use the phrase “PR and Social Media Tips” to link to my website.
3. Failing to use LinkedIn to pull more people to your Twitter profile or Facebook Page.
This video discusses more about numbers 2 and 3 above:
For more tips on how to use LinkedIn, check out the 70-minute webinar I hosted with Wayne: Your LinkedIn Power Formula: How to Make Killer Contacts, Pull Crowds to Events & Track Down Leads Like a Bloodhound.
Do you see people missing opportunities on LinkedIn? If so, what else are they doing wrong?
I love the idea about customizing your LinkedIn website link. I customized it to my business name, but your idea of having it tell people what they will get is brilliant as usual!!
Thanks so much!
To be honest I’ve never had much luck with LinkedIn and always wondered what all the hype was about and what I was missing out on. Now I can see why – I didn’t know any of these tips and tricks.