For business, LinkedIn has quickly become everyone’s online resume.

But it’s much more than that. If you use it, you’ll find it’s actually a very powerful new medium for evangelizing your business and your most precious brand – yourself!

So, the first step is to get over to www.LinkedIn.com and set up a profile if you don’t have one already. Next we’ll share a whole bundle of tips on how you can get the best results from using it.

An incomplete profile looks weak. It makes you look disengaged. You spend a ton of time working on your career. But if you don’t fill out your profile, it could give people the impression that you aren’t doing much at all.

Join groups.

It’s easy to join groups and it’s a great way to connect with lots of people in your field. Who knows? One of them could deliver that new lead
you’ve been waiting for to grow your business.

Once you’ve engaged with people in your groups, seek to connect with them directly. But don’t rush into this – no one likes the person on a mission to gather the highest number of useless LinkedIn connections. Seek out people you could truly help – not just people who can help you. You have to give to get.

Answer questions. If you can answer questions on LinkedIn, you’ll gain a reputation as an expert in your field. That’s good PR for you
and your business!

But one note of caution: Only answer questions if you have a REALLY good answer. Don’t rehash other people’s answers or say “I agree with the previous answer!” That’s not helping anyone and could actually downgrade people’s impression of you and your firm.

More on LinkedIn advertising, widgets and advertising in the next post.  Stay tuned!