Episode 225: Five Tips for Using LinkedIn

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Synopsis

LinkedIn is the top site for online business networking. There’s an official BNI group there, where members can share ideas with each other.

Here are some ways you can get more out of LinkedIn.

1. Connect with more people through your second and third level connections.
2. Participate in groups, which allow you to communicate with people you aren’t directly connected to.
3. Capitalize on the search engine optimization value of LinkedIn in your profile
4. Connect LinkedIn with Twitter for cross-promotion.
5. Build and enhance your credibility with recommendations, publications, and work history.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 225 -

Priscilla:
Hello everyone and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. I am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, CA. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan, how are you and where are you?

Ivan:
I am doing great and I am actually back in town this week. I travel a lot but this week I actually get to be here at BNI headquarters.

Priscilla:
That’s great. What are you sharing with us?

Ivan:
Today I am going to talk about five tips for getting the most out of LinkedIn. I have said for a long time that social media and BNI- it’s not an either or. It’s and. Being active in online networking, there is a lot of value to that. I am a fan. I am also obviously a fan of face to face networking. I talk a lot about face to face networking, so today, I thought I’d talk about online networking, particularly LinkedIn.

If any of you out there have any lingering thoughts that social media is kind of a fad, you want to let those go- especially in light of LinkedIn’s IPO, where they had a valuation of $4.3 billion USD. It’s just amazing. When an IPO says- well, you know, a public offering. So they are here to stay.

I have been following the development of online business networking for some years, particularly the inception of some sites like ecademy.com, which is one of my favorite online sites. It’s based out of Europe. I know the founders there really well. LinkedIn, which I am going to talk about today. Of course, Facebook and Twitter. There area lot of competitors out there to LinkedIn. It’s certainly for now, at the top of the sites devoted primarily to online business networking.

I use a variety of social networks to interact with colleagues and friends, but LinkedIn has some features that I think are really strong. A lot of my members use LinkedIn, so I wanted to talk about that. LinkedIn has an official BNI group. And I think it’s a great way for BNI members to stay in touch. We recently had a call about BNI Connect. Obviously, BNI Connect is a great way for members to stay in touch. LinkedIn is another and I do recommend it. Sometimes a person gets in that 500+ connections category and then they don’t know what to do. They have a lot of connections. Now what do I do?

Here are five tips that I want to give people. One is connecting with more people. I have spoken to countless entrepreneurs who have increased their business because of connections they were able to make on LinkedIn. With the ability to view detailed profiles, which is what we do with BNI Connetc, and the ability meet via a shared acquaintance and then to be able to post updates about one’s business or career- these are things that are really valuable and important. I think it is something that LinkedIn offers that members should take advantage of.

LinkedIn is also known as a source for job seekers and recruiters. I think that’s probably one of its biggest advantages and opportunities. Most of my BNI members have a job, so they are not looking for anything else, but you might have friends or associates who are looking for jobs. Or you might be looking to hire somebody. LinkedIn is well-known as a great website for job seekers. As an employer, that might be of value to you. Or if you have friends who are looking for jobs, clearly that would be of value to you.

So the first is connecting with more people. The second is participating in groups. LinkedIn’s groups features a wonderful way to meet others with a shared affinity, whether it is a cause, an employer, an organization like BNI- BNI has an official group on LinkedIn. Being an official member of the same group as someone else removes the barrier that LinkedIn ordinarily imposes, that you have to personally know someone to send a message or invite them to connect. This gives you a way to communicate with people.

I am on several groups in LinkedIn and I have found it invaluable, particularly as an educational element to talk about different topics. LinedkIn’s group feature might be its most valuable feature, especially when it is used effectively to build connections, participate in a group by asking questions, suggesting topics or recommending another member’s answers is a way to build a more personal connection. I see this as a thing that as BNI Connect grows and grows and grows, we are going to do more of what LinkedIn is doing but within that walled garden where it’s only BNI members mentoring and supporting each other.

Again it’s not either or. Don’t do one and not the other. I think both are great and have opportunities. Something that I recommend is capitalizing on the search engine optimization. LinkedIn profiles show up high in search results. The more links you have, the higher up a profile might show in the search engine results. Obviously, search engine results- if you have a BNI member who is a social media expert, talk to them. BNI allows you to incorporate very important links: to your websites, blog- when you incorporate these things to your profile, it not only builds your profile link, but it adds to your site. I use that feature to highlight my blog, businessnetworking.com. So I do a lot of promotion as well with my blog.

The fourth thing is tying that with a Twitter connection. LinkedIn easily dovetails with Twitter. Indeed, you can really integrate with Twitter and with several social networks using Twitter’s programming social interfaces. I cross promote content that I have written across various social networking accounts. Every article I write can be seamlessly shared in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. You can even have an article about your local BNI group. What a great way to promote that in LinkedIn. Typing your twitter account into your LinkedIn profile allows you to connect your Twitter profile easily through LinkedIn.

One more. Building and enhancing credibility could very well be one of the first places that some people who don’t know you outside of BNI may look at to determine a little bit about you and get your business profile, which is again, one of the things that we talked about with BNI Connect recently. Finish your profile so people can find out about you. But LinkedIn allows a professional to showcase their works, their publications, recommendations from other LinkedIn users, company affiliations, work history, etc.

So the more you can have about yourself online, the more credibility that you have in business. There is really, I think, a lot of value in that. So the five things that I recommend for getting the most out of LinkedIn- and many of these overlap into other social media networking including BNI Connect are:
connecting with more people, participating in the groups, capitalizing on search engine optimization, tying in with a Twitter account and building and enhancing your credibility. I think these five things will help our members get more exposure though LinkedIn. Of course, when you are on there, you should put that you are a member of a local BNI chapter. That would be great to see more and more people do that.

So that is what I’ve got for today, Priscilla. Are you on LinkedIn?

Priscilla:
Yes, yes. I’m on LinkedIn. I read your article on this topic and I did something that I hadn’t done before., which is there is press release that came out today in SF Gate, which is a San Francisco Chronicle website, about the studio and one of my clients. I posted it on LinkedIn, which I had never done before. That was kind of cool. Anyway, I see the value of it and I appreciate that you pointed out all of these different tips for us.

Ivan:
I talk about in networking that it’s really a multitouch program. You have to connect with people in many different ways and this is one of the ways that I think is valuable. I have a LinkedIn profile. I recommend it to others. It, along with other forms of connecting and building credibility, can help other people build a powerful personal network. Thanks Priscilla.

Priscilla:
Okay. Thank you, Ivan. I think that is it for this week. I would just like to remind the listeners that this podcast has been brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. Thank you so much for listening. This is Priscilla Rice and we hope you will join us next week for another exciting episode of The Official BNI Podcast.