50 List-Building Tips for LinkedIn The Money is in the List Thanks for your interest in my free report! The tips are designed to help you get acclimated with LinkedIn and consider ideas you may have not used. Creating a LinkedIn list presents a unique set of challenges. Firstly, the LinkedIn platform is a professional platform. Building a professional network is very different from widening your social circle. When building your LinkedIn page, you want to begin by connecting with people you actually have a working relationship with. From there, you have the unique task of connecting with the comrades and associates of your friends. Although other mediums like Facebook, and Twitter require that you be polite and welcoming, success on LinkedIn requires a certain finesse and confidence. You must pursue the connections that will successfully build your reputation, while snubbing those with whom association might lower your rank. If Facebook were a large international convention, LinkedIn would be the elite after-party for socialites and business professionals. You must approach LinkedIn by using your slated profession as your callingcard. While, Facebook and other forms of social media are based on likeability, your friends on LinkedIn are endorsements of your professional abilities and qualifications.
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1. Invite Your Professional Connections: Don’t be shy. Invite all of your professional associates and friends to join your LinkedIn professional network. Also, be sure that you include everyone you work with from the top of the pyramid down to the bottom. In order to use LinkedIn for advancement in the workplace, you want everyone to know your name. Don’t snub people who hold lesser positions or lesser degrees. Only snub those with whom association would tarnish or damage your reputation. Although one never wants to encourage workplace bullying, by adding pariahs you may open yourself to unwanted scrutiny. Also be cautious about adding workplace gossips and other characters of ill repute. 2. Invite Close Friends and Family Members: Remember that roommate you had in college with whom you shared a close bond? Be sure to include friendships and family members in the expansion of your professional network. Close friends can provide great business references when necessary. Also, never underestimate the value of a well-connected family member. Let distant family members track your successes by following you on LinkedIn. Just make sure to let them know that you limit your public posts on LinkedIn, and use a different social media for very personal interactions. 3. Make Use of the Suggested Friends Bar: The friend suggestion bar provides you with valuable information. Pay attention to the connections that LinkedIn suggests for you, and consider each and every contact that pops up onto your screen as a viable option. Generally, it is best to stick with contacts that you actually know, before expanding your network to people who are loosely associated with those on the fringes of your contact list. 4. Create a Polished and Professional Profile: Answer all of the profile questions fully and thoughtfully. Try to use thoughtful quotes. Be funny, creative, and introspective. Avoid any commentary which might offend or marginalize groups of people. Remember that your profile is your calling card. 5. Choose the Right Photo Icon: Your photograph represents all you have to offer. Choose a photograph that has good lighting. Also make sure that your photo utilizes bright and vibrant colors. Be sure that the pixilation allows for the highest possible photo quality. Pick a photo which highlights your best features, and which accurately reflects the way you look on a daily basis. 6. Import Your Email Contacts: LinkedIn offers the wonderful feature of automatic email importing. Be sure to make use of this feature. If you choose to manually input each email contact you will lose valuable time,
and may accidentally miss important email addresses. Often people have hundreds upon hundreds of email addresses in their online email address books. Make the sensible choice by importing all of your contacts, and then deleting the connections you would prefer not to pursue. 7. Browse for Groups You May Like, and Join Them: LinkedIn offers a wide assortment of professional and hobbyist groups that members can join. You can expand your professional network by perusing these groups for friends with similar interests. Joining these groups will also help build your reputation within your field. 8. Check Group Recommendations Frequently: LinkedIn also offers recommendations for group membership to associations that may suit your personal and professional interests. Pay attention to these group recommendations and pick the ones which accurately reflect your interests and abilities. Also be sure to consider groups outside of your comfort zone. There is nothing wrong with nurturing a new interest. 9. Accept Invitations from Friends and Colleagues: Kindly accept the majority of invitations that come your way. Realize that when you decline to accept an invitation from a friend or business association, you risk that relationship. Some people are very offended when their invitations are declined. Try to avoid declining invitations whenever possible. 10. Upgrade to a Paid Profile: If you have the financial means, consider upgrading to a paid LinkedIn account. Paid accounts enjoy many benefits that free accounts do not- and each of the paid account features offer you a distinct advantage. If you can enjoy the benefits of a paid account and your adversaries cannot, you will be at a major advantage. Use your finances to advance your professional reputation, and view this as an investment in your business or brand. 11. Make Use of the Profile Organizer: LinkedIn also offers a wonderful feature which allows users to scout and subsequently bookmark the profiles of individuals with whom they would like to connect at a later date. Be sure to save profiles of individuals at the top of your field. Search through these profiles like a detective, and be sure to add the connections which could potentially yield the largest returns with regard to the advancement of your career. 12. Manage Your Groups: Do not allow your LinkedIn page to become disorganized and unmanageable. Be sure that you can follow conversation threads and that you know what is happening on both your own page, and on the pages of groups that you are a member of. Remember that by joining a group, you are essentially endorsing whatever activities that group sponsors. By monitoring and managing your groups, you lessen the
chances of accidentally associating with those who do not accurately represent your belief systems. Groups that are filled with hateful rhetoric are liabilities and should be avoided at all costs. 13. Frequently Compose Emails: In addition to a variety of other features, LinkedIn also allows members to connect through email. Compose frequent yet relevant emails, and be sure to forge personal connections. For years, social psychologists have been noting the importance of social relationships. Although professional connections can effectively advance your career, they can also make you happier and healthier. Make genuine connections with good people, and keep those connections alive with frequent contact. 14. Read the Information in Your Inbox: Be sure to read every email that you receive in you LinkedIn inbox. Often, many job and advancement opportunities are deleted, unread. Be sure that you seize every opportunity by seriously considering the contents of each and every email that is delivered into your LinkedIn inbox. 15. Provide an Accurate Work History: Although you want to be sure that you impress any potential scouts and/or headhunters, over-exaggerating your job descriptions and abilities will seriously hurt your chances of landing a good position. Be sure to accurately state your job history, and whatever responsibilities you held within that position. If you held a job in which you ended your employment on bad terms, simply don’t include that job in your work history. It is better to omit a bad employment experience than to continue the relationship by including such contacts on your resume. Reasonable people understand that occasionally employment must be terminated under difficult circumstances. You can provide this information to potential employers at an interview, if you feel it is somehow crucial. 16. Share the Groups You’ve Joined with Others: Be sure to let your associates, friends, and family know which groups you’ve joined. Personalize the experience by letting them know why you’ve chosen to join particular groups and how the groups have benefited you. Subsequently, they may choose to include you in professional networks you might otherwise be excluded from. 17. Actively Participate in Polls: Another interesting feature that the LinkedIn community has to offer is the use of polls. Not only can you share your opinions with other LinkedIn members by completing multiple choice polls- but you can also leave comments at the conclusion of each poll. Leaving comments on polls is a good way to increase your visibility and to attract like minds. If people identify with your comment, they are more likely to add you as a friend. Be sure to fill out as many
polls as possible, and to comment on each one. Make sure that your comments are relevant and intelligent. 18. Adjust Your Email Settings so that Your Inbox is Inclusive: Regardless of whatever email platform you use, be sure that you receive email notifications from your LinkedIn page. Taking advantage of this feature will allow you to monitor your LinkedIn page at all times. 19. Search through the Group Directory: Use the group directory to your advantage by searching for like minds and contacts using this feature. 20. Pay Attention to Flag Notifications: LinkedIn posts little red flags at the top of the page to notify users of anything which requires attention. Pay attention to these little flags. The flags will let you know who has recently added you, and much more. 21. Minimize Spammers: On the off-chance that you somehow manage to collect spammers on your page, be sure to delete them immediately. On a professional networking site like LinkedIn, spammers are highly offensive and you certainly don’t want to be associated with anyone who demonstrates this kind of conduct. Also, the friends on your LinkedIn page have access to your other contacts. Protect this information whenever possible. 22. Delete All Hostile Entities: Hostile individuals are always a nuisance to deal with. But imagine how difficult it would be to get rid of a hostile entity if they had access to all of your personal information- including the names and contact information for all of your friends, associates, and family members. The reason for deleting hostile individuals is because you do not want people who exhibit poor conduct to have access to your personal information. 23. Make Friends with Individuals from Your Groups: After you have determined that a person seems to have a decent personality, and has some measure of professional influence, you might make the decision to request his or her email. By requesting their email address directly, you will later be able to use the address (with their permission) to add them as a friend. 24. Join Professional Associations (Offline): By joining offline professional associations, you can bridge the gap between contacts that you would like to make and having the ability to reach out on the LinkedIn platform. Professional associations are wonderful places to meet, greet, and hand out business cards. Attend professional association meetings and be engaging. Ask many questions and be sure to hand out businesses cards which have links to your LinkedIn page printed on them.
25. Include Your LinkedIn information on Your Business Cards: When printing a business card, consider a card that is highly professional and beautiful. In printing your LinkedIn information on that card, be sure that the font is not a distraction. Generally, it is best to use a font like Times New Roman, or Calibri. A good font ensures that the information on the card is easily read by a person with average vision. Most people won’t strain themselves in order to make out the information on your business card. You might even want to consider printing business cards that are a little larger than the standard. 26. Use a Professional Basic Email Address: If you know that people will be looking for you on LinkedIn via your email address- be sure to use an email address that is highly professional and straight to the point. I recall a study that was conducted during my undergraduate career in which professors where asked to rate student’s abilities based on their email addresses. Our small scale study concluded that professors overestimated the abilities of those students who had email addresses which included only their names and professions. Avoid using words like “chick”, “sunshine”, or even “baby” in your email address in order to leave the best possible impression. 27. Include Links to your LinkedIn Page on Your Other Pages: If your goal is to increase your numbers, you’ll have to let people know that they can reach you on LinkedIn by leaving links to your page all over your professional pages. Generally, the best place to leave these links is in the biography or “about you” sections. You can also place links to you LinkedIn page on your contact page. 28. Attempt to Be Outgoing: Attempt to appear as though you are an extrovert. Even online people prefer to have relationships with people that are communicative. Be sure to make others know that you are an active listener, by participating in conversations around the globe. Learn to love socialization. Even if you suffer from some form of social anxiety or phobias, experiment by talking to people in unfamiliar settings. 29. Limit Your Posts to Professional Communications: LinkedIn is not the place on which to post photographs of your breakfast or thousands of vacation photos. Although I’m sure you have the most adorable child known to man- LinkedIn also isn’t the place to gush about the accomplishments of your children. LinkedIn is for adults. LinkedIn is all about professional networking and adult communication. If you’d like your audience to know you in a more informal and casual manner, invite them to add you on your linked Facebook page. 30. Never Ramble: When posting to LinkedIn, never ramble. Posters who go on and on about the same things are generally a great nuisance to those
who use the social medium to find work. Be direct and to the point. Don’t become a person that others feel they need to delete. 31. Uphold a Professional Image: Your professional image and reputation will be upheld based on the information you post to LinkedIn. Posting angry and inappropriate comments can get you deleted and blocked. Be sure that you conduct yourself as a professional, courteous, predictable, and stable entity at all times. It is okay to have a variety of interests, but make sure that your personal interests do not eclipse your professional interests. 32. If You Encounter a Problem- Contact LinkedIn if you encounter any complex difficulties like stalkers or just basic system usage issues. The wonderful people of LinkedIn are there to help you, and you can easily write an email describing your problem, and then send this off to the proper authorities. Furthermore, if you do have any difficulties with a stalker- be sure to thoroughly save and document all communications. Generally, the more evidence you can provide with regard to harassment or hostile usage of the website- the more likely you will be to see results that are in your favor. 33. Regard LinkedIn as a Different form of Advertisement: LinkedIn is your billboard. LinkedIn allows you the opportunity to advertise everything that you have do offer. The catch is that you have to do so in a succinct manner, and by utilizing your image. Use every post to your advantage. 34. Nurture Professional Relationships: Rather than just focusing on expansion for the sake of expansion, develop a genuine interest in people and relationships. Connect with the people around you. People are far more likely to help individuals that they like. Be both friend and colleague. The best way to nurture a professional relationship is by developing a sense of trust. You can build trust by being loyal, caring, reliable, and responsive. 35. Avoid Public Disputes: Have you ever seen two people screaming at each other on the side of the street? Have you ever watched the way in which bystanders react to these individuals? More often than not- people walk faster and cross to the other side of the street, in order to avoid confrontation. Online relationships can work in the same way. You don’t want people to symbolically cross the street when they hear you speaking- or view your posts. Keep public disputes to a minimum. If someone attempts to engage you in a public dispute, be polite and try to end the argument by simply withdrawing. If they continue to hound youmake use of the friend deletion feature. 36. Guard Your Online Reputation: Your online reputation is your greatest asset in a forum like LinkedIn. When people attack you (and strangers
especially, sometimes do this) respond in a professional manner. If someone is trashing you on his or her page, address the problem. Be direct and professional at all times. If the problem gets out of hand, contact the great people at LinkedIn and provide evidence to support your claims. 37. Choose Trusted Associates Wisely: Carefully choose the people that you confide in. You don’t want to confide something in someone and then wake the next day to see that information plastered all over LinkedIn. Therefore, be cautious about what you post and what you say. Choose trusted associates that have a proven track record of stability. Surround yourself with people that are problem solvers, and innovators. Although there may be nothing wrong with the occasional word of gossip- know that those who constantly indulge in gossip are always thirsty for a target. Avoid them- or eventually, you too will be targeted. 38. Emulate Successful Brands: Every successful brand has an image. Emulate the image and behaviors of successful brands. Make a note of the things that they which set them apart from the rest. 39. Adopt a Marketing Strategy: A LinkedIn marketing strategy can go a long way to increasing your friends list. Just remember that with this social medium, a lot of your strategizing and implementation will occur in real-life. The best strategy involves using other platforms like Youtube to increase your following, and then encouraging these individuals to add your LinkedIn page. 40. Emulate Successful Business People: Successful business people learn by trial and error. Be sure to learn from the trials and errors of other people. Befriend an older businessperson and pick his or her brain. Ask for suggestions. Ask for opinions. 41. Know Your Goals: In order to develop a plan, you must have an end-goal in mind. Map out your goals, and take time developing a sensible plan that will allow you to meet each and every one of your expectations. In knowing your goals, get familiar with your weaknesses and shortcomings too. 42. Create a Mission Statement: Create a mission statement for your LinkedIn page. This mission statement is for your eyes only. Keep this mission statement in mind whenever you log on. 43. Be Persistent: Success rarely happens quickly. Be sure to persist when things get tough. If you aren’t seeing any results, change your strategy.
44. Don’t Dwell on Rejection: Social media websites like LinkedIn are filled with opportunities for rejection. At some point, you will certainly experience rejection. When this happens, learn from your approach and move forward as quickly as you can. 45. Show Your Best Side: Always Show your best side. Show off your flair for writing, and your humanitarian spirit. Exploit all of your best qualities. 46. Write Posts Confidently: Know your field and write posts with the ease and command of an expert. Build confidence by posting frequently. 47. Be Truthful: Tell the truth. Don’t lie in your posts. Be trustworthy at all times. 48. Believe in Your Abilities: Believe in yourself and what you can accomplish both on LinkedIn and in life. Don’t doubt your abilities or debase yourself. 49. Make Use of LinkedIn’s Job Search: Confidently search for jobs using the job search tool. Only apply for jobs for which you are qualified or passionate about. 50. Embrace Your Success: Celebrate your LinkedIn success with close friends and family. Take pride in all of your accomplishments and hold your head high!