In our last feature we gave you some best practice advice for using Facebook for business, today we will taking a look at the more business focused social network - LinkedIn.
If you haven't used LinkedIn before, you are missing out on a fantastic resource which can help develop your own business network and connections. We will give you a few tips on how to build your network and how to gain interaction from your connections.
Remember people like to deal with people, don't hide behide your company logo. But please remember this isn't Facebook keep your profile image professional with a nice head shot.
When writing your profile, show off your skills. Treat your profile as if it's your CV - let the LinkedIn world know your achievements and display the skills and experience that you have to offer.
Once you have completed your profile, your email address book will become your biggest friend and your gateway to opening new contacts. You can import your address to LinkedIn and it will invite your contacts to join you on the network.
Don’t worry; LinkedIn will never email these contacts without your permission. LinkedIn will allow you to select or edit everybody in the list, you can then batch invite everyone you selected.
Just like Facebook and Twitter you can post updates, we'd recommend that you keep these useful and business related, such as updates from your business or links to useful articles.
Ask questions, there is nothing wrong with asking for help or a referral. If you need to meet somebody or you are after a contact in a industry sector we'd recommend that you just ask: "Does anybody know any good ______". There's a whole army of people out there with address book and connects.
Something that a lots of of LinkedIn users forget to take advantage of is groups, these are little communities which can become very useful resources. There are a few great groups for those doing business in the Liverpool City region, we would recommend that you join Linked Liverpool, Liverpool businessconnect and of course the Your Business eZine group.
You can also search for dedicated groups for your industry sector.
Like all of the social networks the biggest piece of advices we can give anybody is to be active, these online networks are just as important as your morning breakfast networking meeting or those business lunches you are dealing with people so interact with them.
