Interest in Linkedin from lawyers, accountants and other professionals has taken off in recent years. And it makes sense. Despite the hype over Twitter and Facebook, Linkedin offers the greatest opportunity for professionals to make connections that lead to business.
Never one to skip jumping on a bandwagon, here are my top 10 Linkedin tips for professionals:
How to Become a Linkedin Expert
1. Make your profile client focused
The first thing people do when they join Linkedin is to create a profile. And since Linkedin has slots for your previous job roles, qualifications, etc. there’s an almost overwhelming temptation to make your profile look like your CV.
Resist that temptation.
When you first meet potential clients you don’t rattle off a huge list of companies you’ve worked for and the responsibilities you’ve had – that would bore the pants off them. Most effective introductions focus on who you help, and what problems you help them solve or results you help them achieve. Then if asked more, you say a bit more about what you do – and give a little “backstory” as to why you are uniquely qualified to help.
Linkedin is for making connections – and for the majority of professionals that means clients and business partners, not recruiters.
You need to design your profile to have the impact you want on those connections. Treat it like your introduction at a networking meeting.
Despite the ease of just uploading your CV details, most potential clients and business partners won’t get value from seeing the details of your previous roles. Job titles, main achievements and company names can help give you credibility (and make it easier for others to find you) – but don’t include all the details you would on a job application.
Don’t take Linkedin’s category names too seriously either – use whatever space you have to give the impression you want to give. I use the “Specialities” section, for example, to include a list of my services (in client focused terms, of course).
2. Get connecting – but…
Linkedin works on connections. The most powerful use of Linkedin is to find new clients and business partners through the search function or directly via your contacts connections. The more direct connections you have, the more opportunities you have to connect. I still see people who’ve made all the effort to set up their Linkedin profile – but who have so few connections that they don’t get any benefit.
The Linkedin toolbar for Outlook provides an easy way of inviting the your Outlook contacts and people you email regularly to connect with you.
However, there’s a catch…
3…Choose your connection strategy carefully
There are two very different strategies to connecting on Linkedin: “Open Networking” and “Trusted Partner Networking”.
In business networking generally, the value you get from your network is a product of the size of your network, and your ability to “convert” connections into productive business (work, a referral, etc.). You can grow the value of your network by getting more connections, or deepening the strength of each connection (getting to know people better, helping them out, etc.)
On Linkedin, one strategy for getting value is to be an “Open Networker” or LION (LinkedIn Open Networker). Open Networkers focus on growing the size of their network by initiating and accepting connection requests from as many people as possible. Open Networkers typically have many thousands of connections. This means that when they search for useful relationships (potential clients or business partners), for example looking for contacts in specific companies, or geographies or with specific interests or job titles – they are much more likely to find them (exponentially more likely because of the way Linkedin connections work).
The downside of this strategy is that with thousands of connections you don’t know each one very well, if at all. You’re essentially using Linkedin as a giant Rolodex or telephone directory rather than as a way of making deeper connections. That’s neither good nor bad – it just means that if you find someone you want to connect with through one of these “shallow” connections, you’re unlikely to get a strong referral to them.
The other strategy is to have fewer but deeper connections – a “Trusted Partner” strategy. Here you only connect to people you already know and trust. Most likely from face-to-face interaction, but possibly from online interaction too.
With this strategy you have less chance of finding someone via a search because you have less connections. But if you do find someone, it will be through someone who knows and trusts you – and they will be able to give a strong referral to you and put you in touch with the person you’re interested in connecting with.
The downside to the “Trusted Partner” strategy is that it’s a bit like going to a face to face networking event and only speaking to the people you already know. You deepen your relationship with them – but you don’t build any new relationships.
Personally, I take a “middle way”.
I don’t actively go out and connect with huge numbers of people. But if someone wants to connect with me, and their profile looks interesting – then I’m very happy to connect with them, even if I don’t know them. If they do turn out to be a “spammer” (I’ve only had this happen once with over 1,000 connections) then I can always disconnect.
This way, my network expands significantly. I meet new people who may turn out to be helpful to me, and I may be helpful to them.
I always try to take the time when people connect with me to send them a message to start a conversation rather than just accept the connection but never speak to them. That way we find out more about each other and it may leed to interesting and valuabel discussions.
4. Use Search to find potential clients and business partners
Many people get going on Linkedin but fail to use it to help their business. One of the most effective ways to gain business value from Linkedin is to find potential clients and business partners.One of the things I do in my consulting practice is to help clients get more referrals for their business. And one of the key things I teach them is to be very specific in who they ask to be referred to.
Linkedin allows the ultimate in specificity. You can search for exactly who you want to be referred to – by company, by geography, by name, by job title, etc. And you can search across your entire network at once. Or you can look at the contact list of an individual to see if there’s anyone you’d like to be connected to.
Once you’ve identified people you’d like to be introduced or referred to, rather than try to connect them directly, give your mutual connection a call and ask them if they can connect you. That’s much more polite than going directly, and it’s much more likely to be successful.
5. Give testimonials to get them
Testimonials are very helpful to have on your profile. They’re a clear indication of the quality of your work and the relationships you form.
But begging for a testimonial isn’t a great strategy.
If you want to get testimonials, use Linkedin to give them to people you’ve worked with and who have done a great job for you. Linkedin will show them the testimonial to approve, then ask them if they want to reciprocate. They probably will.
6. Have a helpful headline
When people find you in searches on Linkedin, or when you contribute to Group discussions or in the Linkedin Answers Q&A section; the initial thing they see is a little box with your name, photo, and your “headline”.What most people have in their headline is their job title. “Owner at XYZ Company” or “Principal consultant at ABC Ltd”. By default, unless you change it manually, Linkedin takes the headline from your last job title.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t give people a clue as to whether you might be able to help them, or might be interesting to connect to.
You should treat your headline like your introduction when networking. Focus on what you can do to help people.
My headline, for example is “Helping Professional Services Firms Attract More Clients and Win More New Business”. It’s much more useful in telling people what I actually do than using an “offical” job title like Managing Director. That will get more people to click through to my profile and maybe begin to interact with me.
You can edit your Headline via the Edit My Profile option.
7. Join Linkedin Groups to connect and interact
Linkedin groups are essentially discussion forums for specific interest groups. They allow you to find out the lates news, and to join in debates on topics of interest. You should be joining groups both of interest to you professionally, and the groups where your potential clients “hang out”.
I’m a fairly active poster on the Law Marketing group for example. I try to answer questions and be helpful. It’s all part of building my personal brand as someone who’s knowledgeable and experienced in the field of professional services marketing & business development.
The same is also true of the Linkedin Q&A section. Post sensible answers or pose sensible questions and over time you’ll develop a reputation for knowing what you’re talking about.
8. Use Status Updates to subtly remind your contacts of what you do
Linkedin status updates are a nice way of helping to stay top of mind with contacts. If you were to call or email all your contacts any time you did something small but interesting, it would quickly become seen as pushy or spammy. But updating your status is an non-intrusive way of getting a gentle reminder out.
Depending on their settings, your contacts will get a regular email with a summary of the status updates of their contacts. And they will see the updates on their Linkedin homepage. Mostly it will just be “so and so updated their profile” type messages. So if your status update has something interesting in it (“Ian has just run a seminar on consultative selling skills”) it will remind them of the sort of thing you do and may even trigger them into action.
Recently, for example, I put up a status update saying I’d run a training course on Marketing for Consultants for the Institute of Business Consulting. That prompted one of my old colleagues to get back in touch and we came to an arrangement about sharing training material.
Using the ping.fm service allows you to update the status of other social networks like Facebook and Twitter simultaneously.
9. Watch others’ status updates to initiate contact
Keep an eye on status updates from others – it can be a good opportunity to get back in touch – especially if they’ve changed jobs or have set out on a new venture. Even small status changes can help give you something to start a conversation – the sort of smalltalk needed to keep dialogues and relationships going in between more meaty topics.
10. Proactively link others together who you think may benefit
Don’t wait for others to initiate a request to be linked up to your other contacts. Review your contact list regularly looking for ways to add value to them. One good way is to offer to link them up with potential clients or partners for them.It’s not super easy to do this using Linkedin functionality – I find it’s easier just to email both and suggest they make the connection themselves.
The tips I’ve outlined are for professionals who want to use Linkedin to help them grow their businesses and their careers through what is essentially the online equivalent of normal business networking.
It’s not the only way to use Linkedin. For years I used it mainly to reconnect with old colleagues I’d lost touch with.
But it’s certainly a good way to use Linkedin that can deliver real business results.
More Linkedin Tips
Update: I’ve recently written a more in depth article on my top Linekdin Tips for winning clients. You can read it by clicking here:
Linkedin Tips: The Real Secrets of Linkedin
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Thanks for the great post, Ian. As a social media follower myself, kudos for pointing out the things that we should be focusing on.
I thought this was a great post, particularly the bit about networking strategies. It’s something I had been thinking about and experimenting with as I explore social media more deeply. I have pretty much decided on the trusted partner approach, even going so far as to ‘un-connect’ from 2 or 3 people who I felt didn’t fall into my trusted partners category. The way you’ve written it up makes it much easier to explain.
I think the real benefit on LI comes from community and that’s why 7 (get involved in groups) is so important. Participating in conversations creates a platform to connect with like minded people which means LI is really becoming a tool to grow one’s own professional ecosystem.
Thanks David.
As you probably guessed from the post, I pretty much follow a “trusted partner” strategy on Linkedin (I’m rather more promiscuous on Twitter!).
Having said that though, I think in the future it’s going to become rather difficult to keep a relatively closed network. Primarily because your own networking preferences are interlinked with the preferences of the people you network with.
It’s something I’ve experienced recently: people I know quite well and who I consider trusted partners are open networkers themselves. So if I connect with them my network is “exposed”. If I don’t, I’m kind of insulting them.
Similarly, as my public profile grows – thanks in no small part to this blog – I get requests to connect from people who feel connected with me because they’re readers, or subscribe to my newsletter. It’s not easy to turn down those requests. They’re made in good faith from people who feel a connection.
So perhaps in the future we’ll all be open networkers whether we want to be or not.
Ian
At the heart of your post is one constant; technology changes, but people do not. Social networking on the internet has made quantity an easy trap to fall into. Your post diplomatically presents the values of developing Linkedin relationships of both quality and quantity, the different actions that lead to each, as well as how to become proficient in your choice.
Thank you for a wonderful post.
Hi Ian
As a relative newcomer to social networking and in particular LinkedIn I have found your comments thought provoking to say the least.
I must thank John Hotawka for kindly sending me the link to your blog.
Obviously your advise is aimed primarily at the professional people and companies you help. I just wondered if you have any advise to those of us, like yourself, who provide goods or sevices to those professionals and other companies and are looking to expand our network of contacts generally. Would you still advocate a “Trusted Partner” approach.
Like you I have already experimented with Twitter and I also use Facebook, both of which I will agree to link with virtually anyone as long as they do not use inappropriate language etc.
I look forward to your comments.
Regards
Simon Fredrick
Hi Simon,
I’d follow the same rules for service providers as I give to professionals.
A proviso though – my feeling about “trusted partner” vs “open networker” have changed a bit recently.
Firstly, I’ve found that since my profile has grown I get a lot of requests to connect from people who I don’t really know – but who are subscribers to my newsletter or regular readers of my blog. I feel it would be a bit arrogant to refuse to connect – after all, they’ve invested in me.
I’ve also come to see that if you think about it, one way of regarding open networking is they are using linkedin to start relationships – just like you would if you went to a networking meeting. At a networking event, it’s fun to talk to people you already know – but the main purpose is to start relationships with people you don’t. Asking to connect to people who you don’t really know can be viewed a bit like that. It’s all dependent on the intent. Do you intend to start trying to spam/sell to them – or are you looking to build a genuine, helpful relationship. If someone asks to connect with me I assume the latter. I can always disconnect later if they abuse the link. And if they ask for a referral before I really get to know them I can say no then. I don’t have to reject the connection in the first place.
So personally I rarely ask to connect to anyone – my network is big enough that it’s difficult to manage already But if people ask to connect to me I will often agree even if i don’t really know them.
Ian
Really enjoyed that blog. Been looking for a decent LinkedIn post that covers areas of important, not just the obvious and this achieved it.
Do you find people use the status update like Twitter now that you have a large network or are the messages of use?
Thanks
Ian, this article came right on time! I was looking for ways to use LinkedIn more effectively and found your site (via Google). Not only did I enjoy this article but I have read several more of your articles and thoroughly enjoy them. I’m loving what I’m learning
I’m going to go work on my LinkedIn profile now!
Ian-
I had not seen this post before but came across it after seeing your videos on the topic. Very thoughtful and helpful. I too have been a “trusted partner” type person but have found myself moving to a more open network approach as technology has moved on. I find that people began to develop a relationship (so to speak) with your public persona. Put in marketing terms you are establishing a brand.
As long as you are careful that your brand represents who you really are, I suppose it is a good thing to do. From a personal perspective it feels right. From a business perspective, I find that we are getting new prospects and clients that feel that they already know who we are. That also feels right, at least at this point.
Thanks for another useful post…lwf
Hi Lee,
Over time my views on trusted Partner vs Open Networker have changed. I see Linkedin now as more of a networking event. I’m happy to meet/connect with anyone who looks interesting and who wants to speak to me.
If, down the line, they ask me for a referral or a recommendation that I don’t yet feel comfortable giving I’ll tell them. I don’t need to avoid that scenario entirely by avoiding connecting in the first place.
After all, what’s the point of networking if you’re only going to talk to people you already know.
Ian
Hi Ian,
Thank you for wonderful tips and information provided, the first thing I did is changed the professional headline.
Really a time saver, past few days I was thinking that how can one successfully, professionally network on Linkedin to seek or pay attention to the site in terms of broadening knowledge and healthy interactions. Your blog was bang on and I loved it.
Personally I feel that Open Networking would be fruitful to many of the business entrepreneurs and the likes of your too to get the deserved recognition. Similarly, it is advisable and that you righlty said, it is good to network with Trusted Partners. I am follwing the Trusted Partner strategy.
Ian, what do you think about FB, recently I gave up FB due to the fact that I felt I was wasting time by posting on the wall, addition to that I was not interested on what was happening in other peoples personal lives etc etc… do you still recommend to use FB.
I am going to post this url in my updates of Lindkedin.
Thanks again and kind regards
Sumeet
This is an excellent article and I will definitely refer people to it. In the end, it seems that many aspects of online networking are just translated from offline networking. Social media is as much about sociology as technology.
I was going to ask a question about your “trusted partner” vs “open networker” approach, but I see that you have already answered it – sort of. I think that pursuing a trusted partner approach makes sense in theory, but in practice may force you into refusing connections with people who are trying to get to know you. This could have a detrimental impact on your reputation and seems to be at odds with the more open online culture.
Your thoughts?
Great post. Great comments.
I’ve also transitioned to the stage where I’m comfortable connecting with “good” people. Here “good” is based on their profile and the connections we share. This is essentially an enhanced Trusted Partner strategy since I won’t connect to just anyone.
My number of connections is approaching the scary “500+” point, which can be perceived as a sign of quantity over quality. I’d rather that the actual number of connections always be shown since 512 connections is very different than 3,872,834.
Good point Promod – I share your wish that the exact number was displayed – I don’t really know why they don’t. My 700 and something contacts means I’m popular ;( That other guy’s 12,384 mean’s he connects with anyone!
Hi Ian,
How would you change your strategies, profile etc on Linkedin, if you are on the look out for a new job? Would you for example make this noticeable in your ‘headline’?
Thank you very much
Regards,
Dick
Jay – I think you’re spot on. In my case there are many people who ask to connect who I don’t know well – but who read my blog, or have subscribed to my newsletter or maybe follow me on Twitter. It’s a bit of a slap in the face to say “no, I won’t connect with you on Linkedin”. It didn’t feel right to me – and I think it could damage your reputation by making you seem elitist. So I changed my policy and became rather more open to this. I feel it fits better with the online spirit of networking too – I’m happy to give people the benefit of the doubt first.
Ian
Dick,
I’d certainly update my profile to be more “potential employer focused” and reflect my experience, the results I’d achieved, etc. Ideally some client/employer quotes too.
Depending on how comfortable you feel doing it – I’d probably update my headline to say somethign along the lines of “Experienced, results driven IT project manager – looking for exciting new roles”. Or something like that.
Ian
Thanks for this useful post.
Regarding point #1 “Make your profile client focused,” can we see some examples of these kinds of profiles? Or maybe some tips on how to restructure or rewrite to this approach?
Thank you.
Hi Ian
I’m not a professional, so I don’t use Linkedin as professionals do. I use it mainly to find contacts, and then verify their email addresses for direct emailing. Linkedin is the best service I know that verifies email addresses. Once I know the correct email addresses, then I add that to gist.com to build a complete social profile of the individual.
Social networks are great at intelligence gathering including our own http://www.edocr.com. End of the day, the phone and email remain the best tools.
Jennifer,
Apolgoies for the super late reply. In terms of hints for client focused profiles – check out my more recent post on linkedin profiles: http://ianbrodie.com/marketing/linkedin-profiles-my-shocking-findings/
I am going to give point 5 – Give testimonials to get them a go.
I have 0 testimonials on my account despite having requested some from previous employees previously. I’ll try this approach now and see if I have better success. Thanks for the tips.
Ian,
Very instructive. Thanks so much. Too many people waste their time on FB and Twitter and Pinterest. Like the way you distinguish between open networking and trusted partners networking.
I hope you will link up with me on LinkedIn.
Take CAre,
Jupiter Jim
I like your tips, but I think people (especially the older generation) needs to be careful about open network LinkedIn use. As more and more people who’ve more or less grown up with Facebook enter the workforce, they’ll bring their idea of social networking norms with them and will likely think your a little odd or out of touch if you go around friending or linking everyone, especially those you dont know or barely know. Unless, of course, you have something big to offer or discuss!
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Hi Johnny – I’ve not really found that to be the case – it#s often younger people who are quite open to connecting to someone they don’t know if there’s some sort of connection somewhere.
Remember – I’m not advocating either open networking or only connecting to people you know. My view is there’s a happy medium where you selectively connecting with both the people you know and some people you don’t who it could be interesting or useful to connect to.
Ian