Is your business signed up on LinkedIn? Good for you.
LinkedIn is the professional equivalent to Facebook and Twitter. It is it largest professional social media networking site with more than 100 million users.
The primary purpose is to connect professionals based on their experience, education, similar career interests and other serious aspects. It is one of the most resourceful tools on the Web to help you build your brand and professional network.
How to Build Your Brand Using LinkedIn
For some, LinkedIn is just a way to find your past and current co-workers, for others it is a way to find a job. One thing is a definite: LinkedIn can be utilized as a solid tool to help you build your brand, whether personal or business. Here’s how:
1. Strong Profile
You need to make it crisp and with an impressive headline summarizing your professional worth: one that compels users to scroll down and read more. Everything on your profile should be professional, including your profile picture.
Make sure that you complete the profile to 100% and include as many skills and relevant keywords. That way, your profile will show up in the search results when companies, recruiters or other interested parties are searching for a matching prospect. A profile that stands out is the first step to help you build your brand using LinkedIn.
2. Recommendations
Recommendations are one of the surest ways to build your brand using LinkedIn. Many employers and potential business partners place significant emphasis on recommendations. Make sure that you request endorsements from past superiors and peers. Making these recommendations visible is another critical element. Recommendations written by your superiors, peers and business acquaintances provide instant visibility and add instant credibility to your profile.
3. LinkedIn Groups
This is another great way to build your brand on LinkedIn. Create or Join a group specific to your profession, industry, or expertise. Such a group will not only increase your indirect connections but it will also attract potential prospects who could hire you or whom you could hire.
If creating your own group, be clear about your group’s mission and state it as a headline on your group profile. For instance, Moomkin.com group on LinkedIn is: Community for Entrepreneurs, New Startups and Business Professionals.
Secondly, participate in the other groups that are relevant to your career or business purpose. Submit to you posts and comments to various groups and broaden your reach to other associations.
4. LinkedIn Answers
This is one feature of LinkedIn that most people are not aware of but it opens up a very interesting section. Utilize this feature to gain insight and perspective from the experts in your field of work or study. In contrast, become a frequent contributor to other questions and make best effort to provide your input. This is a great way to establish yourself as a SME (Subject Matter Expert) and use Answers section as a way to help you build your brand.
5. LinkedIn Events
Another way to build brand using LinkedIn is by adding the Events app. This allows you not only to add your own events but you can also track events which your connections are attending or plan to attend. Make sure to refer to others’ input about a particular event and also contribute your own feedback about an event that you have attended.
6. LinkedIn Connections
Building and expanding your professional network on LinkedIn is an effective way to create awareness and build a brand. Explore various Groups and look for top Influencers and attempt to connect with them as a Member of the same group. Use the Network Statistics option to gain insight to global networking statistics and gain insight into how many users you can reach through a particular network.
LinkedIn is a solid and effective tool that can help you build your brand, land a dream job and stay connected within your professional network. For a lot of people, LinkedIn remains unexplored.
Original article: http://workawesome.com/goals/build-brand-using-linkedin/