54 LinkedIn Tips – My First Gift to You

This is my first official article for Career Confidential. I am excited about joining this site to share my LinkedIn insights, best practices, tips, tricks and guidance with you.

If you have never read my stuff, heard my webinars or met me in real life, I have to warn you:  Strap in, Buckle up and Hang on – I’m different and love to have fun while I do what I do best, guide people to get value from social media tools.

I look forward to sharing and engaging in conversations with you. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn YouTube and a few other places you may discover Teddy. If you want to keep aware of my articles beyond Career Confidential follow my blog – Success Using Social Media

To kick this all off, here is a gift for you. It’s rather long – so save it and read over it as you have time. I promise you there are a ton of great nuggets in this list.

54 LinkedIn Tips that can improve your LinkedIn experience

(if you want to share these on Twitter, please tag @TLBurriss)

Use these LinkedIn Tips and get more value out of your time invested on LinkedIn.

1. Why use LinkedIn for Business? – LinkedIn provides opportunities for connections that become relationships, then maybe potential clients.
2. Why use LinkedIn for Career? – It can be a bridge for new connections to people who can help you discover what you could do & who to meet.
3. Why use LinkedIn to Connect? – LinkedIn members know that mutually beneficial connecting is critical to success in life, career & business.
4. Why use LinkedIn for Knowledge? – LinkedIn members share ideas, philosophies & links to content that can help you in life, career & business.
5. Most LinkedIn Headlines say your Title “at” your Company – This is so boring. Have your Headline say “WHO YOU ARE”, not what/where you work.
6. A boring LinkedIn Headline is a waste of digital space. Use your LinkedIn Headline to Proudly, Boldly & Positively tell everyone WHO YOU ARE.
7. A LinkedIn Headline needs to be all about YOU, WHO YOU ARE & WHY YOU ARE DIFFERENT. Don’t be like everyone else – be different, be better.
8. Your LinkedIn Summary should be a great story about who YOU are, what YOU are skilled & trained at & what great accomplishments YOU have.
9. Your LinkedIn Summary should be Bold, Powerful, Positive & an easy to read story. It is not a bucket to dump your resume stuff into (YUCK).
10. LinkedIn Experience isn’t your resume. Use the description area to tell an interesting story about your experiences & accomplishments.
11. Your LinkedIn Experience section is your public statement of skills, experiences, accomplishments and work enjoyment. It’s not your resume.
12. The words you use in your LinkedIn Experience section needs to be the same bold, powerful, positive words you use in your Headline & Summary.
13. You’ll be more successful in life if you are accessible. Add all of your contact info to your LinkedIn Profile for you’re contacts to get to you.
14. Your LinkedIn Profile contact information shouldn’t include your home or office address unless you want to invite your connections there.
15. Your LinkedIn Profile Skills must support Who you are, What you can do & Want to do–Not, who you were / what you did in the past.
16. Use your LinkedIn Skill words in your Summary & Experience sections as well as in your recommendations & other online content.
17. LinkedIn Endorsements are a feel-good activity. Imagine when you make a LinkedIn contact feel good & it helps grow your relationship with them.
18. LinkedIn Recommendations are powerful testimonies of your skills, accomplishments & experiences when specifically asked of targeted contacts.
19. Do not give a LinkedIn recommendation just because someone gave you one. Only give recommendations to people who you can honestly recommend.
20. In LinkedIn, only connect with people you know. Never send a LinkedIn invite to someone who does not know who you are. Repeat NEVER.
21. Make meaningful connections on LinkedIn. Being meaningful when connecting on LinkedIn, will make the relationship grow better & improved the value.
22. Connecting on LinkedIn is a great way to grow your circle of connections. Focus on making and accepting broad & relevant LinkedIn connections.
23. LinkedIn Groups are useful for learning new ideas, making new connections & discovering useful knowledge regarding focused topics/content.
24. When you engage in discussions in LinkedIn Groups, you co-create conversations that can be mutually beneficial to you & other Group Members.
25. Pay attention to LinkedIn Group members. You’ll quickly figure out who’s the most informed & knowledgeable person(s) in your LinkedIn Groups.
26. Your LinkedIn NewsFeed is where all of your LinkedIn contacts noise shows up. Learn to review this info quickly & it can help your career/business.
27. There’s tons of content in the LinkedIn Newsfeed. Learn what is the good noise & what’s the bad noise so you can benefit from the good noise.
28. Once you learn what’s Good Noise in your LinkedIn Newsfeed, ignore the other stuff. It’ll just get in the way of your success and happiness.
29. The more active you’re on LinkedIn, the more often you’ll get peeked at. Learn to pay attention to who is peeking at your LinkedIn Profile.
30. Knowing who’s viewed your LinkedIn Profile can help you in life, career & business. Pay attention & then engage w/ good LinkedIn stalkers.
31. Once you know who’s viewed your LinkedIn Profile, consider the possible reasons. If there’s any value in reaching out & saying hello, do it.
32. I’m sad that LinkedIn Events have gone away. We can still share EventBrite, Doodle, Facebook & Google+ Events into our LinkedIn NewsFeed.
33. Keep your LinkedIn contacts aware of your public activities. Let them know when you are doing public work w/ useful LinkedIn Status updates.
34. When you find good content on other sites, share it in LinkedIn so your contacts can benefit from this information. This is called Giving.
35. Creating a LinkedIn Group is like having a baby. Nurture it, invite others to come visit it & watch it develop into an active living thing.
36. You can only get LinkedIn members to visit your LinkedIn Group if you consistently give great content that your members will benefit from.
37. When you engage in your LinkedIn Group, do so as to encourage your Group members to engage as well. It’s not your pulpit or lectern.
38. LinkedIn integrates well w/ other applications. Use Slideshare, Dropbox  etc with your LinkedIn Profile. It creates more content options.
39. LinkedIn’s Publication section is great for displaying your resume, business profile or other documents that support your skills & talents.
40. LinkedIn’s new visual tools for attaching images, pdfs, & videos to your Profile is great for promoting yourself.
41. Be better & different than many on LinkedIn. Customize your Public Profile URL & share it on your business card, websites & email signature.
42. Setup your LinkedIn Public Profile to show everything on your profile. Therefore, don’t put anything on LinkedIn that you don’t want public.
43. Use a nice headshot (you have one) on your LinkedIn Public Profile so you’re recognized in public. This shows you’re willing to connect.
44. Sharing transparent, relevant, useful content on LinkedIn is a great way to contribute. Contributing is a relationship building activity.
45. On LinkedIn, sharing content that you create helps to promote your skills, expertise, talents & passion. Sharing is Giving. Do this.
46. When you find useful content on LinkedIn, share it with your connections & groups. This shows that you care & want to help others. Do this.
47. Exporting your LinkedIn Contact data is a great way to stay in touch with all of your connections. Be careful, don’t Spam your connections.
48. Consider using the LinkedIn SmartPhone tools. They are great for staying aware & finding connection information when you are out & about.
49. Add your LinkedIn connections in an annual message to all of your contacts. Thank them for being a connection & ask what you can do to help.
50. There are 5 ways to find People on LinkedIn – People Search, Company Search, Group Search, Connections search & the People You May Know feature.
51. The advanced Search features of LinkedIn adds lots of search criteria that can help you fine tune your search. Use the LinkedIn search tools.
52. Create a useful search in LinkedIn & save it. Set it up to email you any updates every week & you’ll stay even more aware of LinkedIn members.
53. LinkedIn Help is full of articles regarding practically any issue you can imagine. And, if you can’t find an answer you can contact support.
54. Your LinkedIn messages are an important part of engaging w/ your connections. Keep your inbox under control so that your engagement is.

I hope these quick and simple little tips are useful to you. I have lots more where these came from.

Again, strap in, buckle up and hang on. Lots more to be shared by Teddy Burriss – your Social Media Coach

If you want some high value, direct and blunt one-on-one coaching – Let’s talk

Teddy Burriss (Career Confidential Expert)

336-283-6121