Social Media Series LinkedIn Setup

By: Neil Chitel

Why LinkedIn

MySpace & Face Book more Social, LinkedIn is for business !

Good source to find qualified Employees / Jobs / Prospects and Leads

Designed for business use

Great place to establish your expertise and gain trust

Over 39 Million users can access your information, Growing 1M / Month

Remember to Link your Web Site, your Blog to your LinkedIn, Facebook

Fan page and other social media sites together

Hierarchy of LinkedIn

Setup your Free LinkedIn account

What you want LinkedIn to do and how do you want to be found

Shooting for 100% Complete Profile

There are several steps you need to complete to achieve 100% Profile completion. We have asked you to bring most of this information with you so we can get as close to 100% today.

Let LinkedIn guide your way to 100%

The Column on the Right shows you items that you still need to complete.

Column on the left shows you which Category you still need to complete.

Simple huh?

Setting up as a Real Estate Broker

For today’s example I will set this account as a Real Estate Broker.

If your company has a vision statement use this as your description for your company.

Be concise not too wordy, and most of all be accurate, remember your going to be the expert in you’re field, so every thing has to be correct.

Once your first Position is added your now at 25%

In no time we will be getting you close to being 100% complete!

Need at least two past positions

LinkedIn uses your past positions to link you to former co-workers. This can be of great importance if someone at your last position worked with people you are trying to connect with today If you have only worked in 1 or 2 positions then put your education establishment in because your college buddies and also be of great help in a pinch. Just keep adding past positions that apply. We're adding a mortgage clerk position here. We're not showing it, but we're also adding a mortgage broker position as well. That will make a total of three positions, one present and two past in this profile.

Education information

Here LinkedIn will sort your education information to group you with Like degrees, schools and classmates. Go all the back to High School, little jimmy may not have been your friend then, but now he could be running that big prospect company you want to get into! Add any education you may have, and use multiple forms for different schools, trade schools or colleges. Be thorough in commenting on your majors, subjects and special training.

Just adding Education and Jobs you have 75% done

Now we see that we have entered three positions and one educational item. And, we're at 75% completion. Note the next two items on the list are Summary and Specialties. We'll add those in one step next. See on the Right hand column, we are following the Profile complete tips. Remember to keep your profile updated, check it quarterly to keep it fresh.

Enter statements of your

professional qualifications.

Include specialty areas of expertise. Also speak about your goals for your business.

Remember that Google also indexes these pages, and other LinkedIn members also can search the network for keywords. Here is a major resource for entering information that can help people to find you. If you specialize in multi-family properties, say so.

Almost done with your information!

With all of our self-entered information, we're sitting at 85% completion. This is important, as LinkedIn has proven that complete profiles bring the most business. Notice that the only thing left is to Ask for Recommendations. ASK! Your clients to Join your LinkedIn and ask them for Recommendations! See that I've arrowed down to the Summary section that we just completed. However, just above it, note the blue box with "Customize Your URL." You will nave a code number at the end of your URL until you click on that box link to make it your name. That's our next step.

What is public and what is not!

Most people believe that using your name to customize your URL is best, but do what you want here. Be sure, as changing it later will kill links people saved in the past. Choose the items you want to show in your Public Profile. This is the profile that shows to everyone, whether a member of LinkedIn or not. Members can view your complete profile. Remember, this is searched by Google and the other search engines.

Your public profile

Based on our elections, this is the way the profile looks to the public.

LinkedIn Add-ons

On your Home page, one of the links for editing is the "Applications" link. It takes you to the page in this image. We're interested in three of them right now:

1. WordPress - If you use a WordPress FREE blog, this application will display your latest posts on the profile page. It does not work with hosted WordPress blogs.

2. BlogLink - For your hosted blogs, use this application. It will display your latest posts. If you entered website links in your profile, it will automatically find those blogs.

3. Google Presentation - I use this one also, as it allowed me to do a PowerPoint presentation of my services and area and have it display like a movie on the profile page.

Applications should grow, and they are very helpful in making a professional presentation.

This is the step to get a whole lot of people into your network quickly

Using the buttons in this image example, as well as the Web email import, you can get a lot of contacts into your system quickly. Linked in will go get them and then let you select which you want to invite to connect with you. LinkedIn will also go out and locate past and present colleagues and classmates, allowing you to select which you'd like to connect with again.Those you select will be sent an invitation to connect with you if they are LinkedIn members. You can also send those who aren't an invitation to join. These will become the nucleus of your network, and some of them will be who you'll ask for recommendations, which well see in another tutorial.That's it! Your profile is set up, and once you get some recommendations, you'll get to 100% right away.

LinkedIn Daily Maintenance

If you use Outlook get the LinkedIn dashboard Installed saves lots of time

Work smarter not harder, See what your contacts are doing each day, keep informed

Read Questions posted that you have an expertise in; twice a day. If you want to be an expert you have to answer questions

The way I see using social media, I would rather spend 20 min. a day at my desk than 2 hours in 120 degree heat, cold calling.

Any Questions?