LinkedInBest Practices for Personal Branding and

Business Development

by

Dimitri G. Mastrocola

Partner, Major, Lindsey & Africawww.linkedin.com/in/dimitrimastrocola

LinkedIn OverviewWhat is LinkedIn?

World’s largest online professional network -- really a huge database of professionals

Connects you to your trusted contacts

Helps you exchange knowledge, ideas, and opportunities

Standardizes information entered by users into predefined categories: “Profile Headline”, “Summary”, “Education”, “Company”, etc.

Powerful search tool to pinpoint the person you are looking for

Great tool for both business intelligence and business development

LinkedIn OverviewWhy Should You Use LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is a superb tool to help:

Create, develop and maintain business relationships

Create awareness of yourself among potential clients and candidates (aka “personal branding”)

Demonstrate your competence and expertise to establish the trust upon which business relationships depend

LinkedIn OverviewLinkedIn = The Social Media Site of Choice for Professionals

Maintaining a LinkedIn profile is one of the important steps you can take to manage & control your online reputation

LinkedIn’s high Search Engine Optimization means your LinkedIn profile page often appears at the top of search engine results

The higher on the screen positive search results appear (e.g. professional public LinkedIn profile), the lower the likelihood that the public will find negative information about you

LinkedIn Overview Facts and Figures

Over 70 million members in over 200 countries New member joins approximately every second Executives from ALL Fortune 500 companies

are LinkedIn members About half of all members are outside the U.S. Lawyers represent 1.5 million of the 70 million

users Almost 600,000 U.S. members categorized in

the "Law Practice" industry

LinkedIn Best Practices1. Find Who You Know

Start with your existing contacts Let LinkedIn scan your email address

book to find out who you know is on LinkedIn

LinkedIn will NOT automatically send connection requests to your contacts; you choose which contacts to invite

LinkedIn Best Practices2. Personalize Your LinkedIn URL

Change your LinkedIn profile URL (web address) from the default setting to www.linkedin.com/in/"yourname"

E.g.: www.linkedin.com/in/dimitrimastrocola Helps people find you when they search for your

name within LinkedIn, Google and other search engines

LinkedIn Best Practices3. Email Marketing

Include your LinkedIn URL in your email signature

LinkedIn Best Practices4. Add a Photo to Your Profile

Photographs personalize your profile and give you social media credibility

Keep it professional

LinkedIn Best Practices5. Ask to Connect at Every Opportunity Whenever you have business interactions

with people, ask them if they’re on LinkedIn and if they’d like to connect

Send connection requests after meeting with candidates and prospective clients

LinkedIn Best Practices6. Acquire Enough Connections

The more work experience you have the larger your network should naturally be

The more connections you have, the more LinkedIn search results you will appear in (i.e. makes you easier to be found)

Rule of thumb? Multiply your age by 10 and that is the minimum number of connections that you should aim for

LinkedIn Best Practices7. Have a LinkedIn Profile Headline That Properly Brands You

The space underneath your name is your “Professional” or Profile Headline

This is the single most important piece of real estate on your LinkedIn Profile, and you need to brand it as such

Appears in search results next to your name It’s your elevator speech in a few words Be creative! Can you think of something appealing

other than your title and company name?

LinkedIn Best Practices8. Fill Out As Much of Your Profile as You Can

By providing more information, you’re creating more opportunities for people to find you

Include former employers and the colleges you attended on your profile

You never know how an ex-colleague or ex-classmate can help you (and vice-versa)

LinkedIn Best Practices9. Make Your Profile Rich with Keywords

Put yourself in the mind of the people by whom you want to be found

What keyword searches would they perform on LinkedIn in order to find you?

Your profile must include keywords people will likely use in searching for someone with your expertise.

LinkedIn Best Practices10. Don’t Hide

Change the settings on your profile to “Full View” so your profile can be fully indexed by search engines

Why? Search engines like Google and Yahoo love to index LinkedIn public profile pages

LinkedIn Best Practices11. Link to Yourself

LinkedIn lets you include links to three Web sites on your profile – take advantage of it

You can link to corporate or law firm website, a blog, a Twitter profile or other business-oriented social networking profile

LinkedIn Best Practices12. Recommend

Give, and ask for, recommendations Be sincere and authentic when giving

recommendations (the recipient will often return the favor)

When you recommend someone and when someone recommends you, that fact is displayed on your profile

Ask people who you think have high regard for you for a recommendation – e.g. a candidate you just placed or a client for who you've just made a placement

LinkedIn Best Practices13. Update your Status Regularly and Strategically

Going to an event? Attending a conference? Read something interesting that is relevant to your brand? Launched a new project? Share it via Status Update !

Post interesting information (and URLs) and people in your network will be more likely to pay attention to your updates

This keeps you top of mind & positions you as an expert in your area (key part of your branding exercise)

Don’t worry about posting long URL’s in the Update box – LinkedIn now automatically shortens them for you

LinkedIn Best Practices14. Watch Others’ Status Updates to Initiate Contact

Keep an eye on status updates from others (e.g. change of job, new venture, etc.)

Good opportunity to get back in touch Status changes can help give you

something to start a conversation and keep the relationship going

LinkedIn Best Practices15. Learn Advanced Search

LinkedIn’s Advanced Search is extremely powerful – get familiar with it

Helps you find very targeted audiences

LinkedIn Best Practices16. Join Groups

Search for and join industry-related LinkedIn groups Group icons show up on your profile which tells people

you are involved in your industry Creates a connection between you and other group

members (e.g. potential clients and business partners) Easy to connect to a potential client if you already share

membership in a group If the group is active, join in the conversation where

appropriate (opportunity to demonstrate expertise)

LinkedIn Best Practices17. Post News within Groups

Many groups allow you to post links to news articles intended to spark conversation

Like Status Updates, this function can be used to position yourself as knowledgeable in your field.

Only post content that you sincerely feel will be of value to your fellow group members (otherwise will be viewed as SPAM)

LinkedIn Best Practices18. Ask Questions Strategically

You can use LinkedIn’s Answer feature to attract a new connection by posing a question to the LinkedIn audience

Think about the type of person you want to reach and

Formulate a question for which you think that person you would have an opinion about that they’d like to share

LinkedIn Best Practices19. Answer Questions Posed by Others Yet another avenue to demonstrate your competence Only answer the questions for which you know the

answer intimately Actually answer the question that's asked – and be

helpful(don’t just reply merely to show off your knowledge)

If you are truly helpful, the person asking the question may assign your response as the "best answer"

Your answer, as well as the fact that it was the *best answer*, will be displayed on your profile

LinkedIn Best Practices21. Install Applications

WordPress and BlogLink apps allow you to send your blog posts automatically to your LinkedIn profile

Google Presentation and SlideShare apps let you embed PowerPoints (and other documents) you’ve created into your profile.

MyTravel app lets you know your network’s travel activity so you can see when your contacts are in the same place

LinkedIn Best Practices21. Install Applications – cont’d

Amazon Reading List app lets you list the books you’ve read, the books you’re currently reading and those you’d like to read and it connects you with others who are using the app

Polls application (like the Answers feature) can be used to attract a specific audience by carefully crafting the right poll question

LinkedIn Best Practices22. Use the New “Follow Company” Feature

The new “Follow Company” feature allows you to receive notifications of Company activity in your email inbox – i.e. Updates on New Hires, Recent Departures, and New Job Opportunities.

You get a very good snapshot as to the hiring trends in any company on your target list

Gives you up-to-date (user generated) information that can make it easier for you to discover valuable business intelligence about the people within a company

Additional ResourcesGeneral LinkedIn Information

LinkedIn's Tutorial Page: http://learn.linkedin.com/

How to Get Started on LinkedIn: http://www.bnet.com/2403-13070_23-219860.html

Twenty Ways to Maximize Your LinkedIn Use: http://webworkerdaily.com/2007/06/15/20-ways-to-use-linkedin-productively/

Outstanding Blog by LinkedIn/Social Media Strategist Neal Schafer:http://windmillnetworking.com/blog/

Additional ResourcesLawyers and LinkedIn

LinkedIn & Lawyers: Why You Should Be on the Site: http://www.jaffepr.com/about-us/industry-insight/white-papers/lawyers-and-linkedin-why-you-should-be-site

A List of Articles to Help Lawyers Make the Most of LinkedIn: http://scoop.jdsupra.com/2009/12/articles/law-firm-marketing/linkedin-for-lawyers-a-how-to-reading-list/

Additional ResourcesHow To Use LinkedIn

Using LinkedIn to Find a Work as a Lawyer: http://tinyurl.com/UsingLinkedInforLawyerJobs

LinkedIn SuperGuide -Tutorials, Tips and Tools: http://www.interactiveinsightsgroup.com/blog1/linkedin-superguidetutorials-tips-and-tool/

Etiquette for LinkedIn and the Professional Networking World: http://www.intuitive.com/blog/etiquette_for_linkedin_and_the_professional_networking_world.html