LINKEDIN TRAINING MANUAL PART 1

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1 LINKEDIN TRAINING MANUAL PART 1 Sitrick & Associates, LLC Certified Public Accountants Your Dollars Making Sense Why be LinkedIn? As we become more and more of a global community, LinkedIn provides businesses the ability to find customers, business partners and employees inside and outside of their local environ. It also helps those out of work to find needed employment. As of February 3, 2011, there are 26,644 LinkedIn members within 25 miles of the QCA. On a national basis, over 49% are decisionmakers. The potential is tremendous. LinkedIn not only helps you find and communicate with decision-makers, it also helps you form long-lasting relationships. This helps reduce competition, increase your margins, and bring more opportunities forward. People on LinkedIn are there to help other members on LinkedIn. One of your contacts might know someone that may benefit you, and that contact might know someone and so on. LinkedIn goes three levels deep in terms of people who know people who know people. The problem is that most people don t know how to get started and how to use it effectively. It all begins with your Profile. A few rules before we start: 2543 Tech Drive Bettendorf, IA Don t try to do too much at once Gather the information you want to use in your profile Have someone you trust look over and comment on the material Use Word or some other word processing software when you develop the wording of the profile sections. Use spell check and when you are satisfied, you can copy and paste each section into your LinkedIn profile. Save the Word document in the event you choose to use the same wording for other purposes mtb@sitrickcpa.com 2009 Sitrick & Associates, LLC First you must join: Go to and either log in or sign up. Fill out The basic information requested. If you are logging in, you can go to your profile and begin editing the information you have Previously entered. You will find that you will continuously change, update and improve your profile information, what works and what doesn t work in terms of finding the right kind of opportunities.

2 Think of your profile in terms of your business, not your personal side. Your profile will identify who you are and what your reputation is. It is not an on- Line resume. It is a 3-dimensional view of you: your personal brand. As a member of LinkedIn, you are telling people you want to be FOUND. Therefore, to be most effective in this endeavor, write down all the key words and phrases you think people will use to find you. This is the same process one goes through when setting up a web site. Use a thesaurus to find similar words you could use in your profile. Check to see what key words others in your in dustry use. Work on one section at a time. Let s begin: Headline : Most users put their title and company name in this area. However, with 120 characters available, this is a perfect opportunity to describe yourself in terms of the key words you have just written down. The idea is that people might be searching for someone who can provide a service you offer, so use this opportunity to describe yourself in those terms. If you are using Word to develop this section, you can insert symbols to divide the titles. When you have the wording perfected, copy and paste it into the LinkedIn headline section. If you are typing directly into LinkedIn, you can only use the symbols available on your keyboard. See which stands out more. Example of a headline without symbols: NYC Online Marketing, SEO, PPC, Digital Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Online Branding, Speaker, Blogger, NYU Adj. Example of a headline with symbols: NYC Online Marketing SEO PPC Digital Marketing Social Media Marketing Online Branding Speaker Blogger NYU Adj. Your Photo: Upload a photo where you are smiling. And use a professional looking one. Nothing goofy. Summary: (2000 characters available) The summary section should reflect where you are now and where you want to go; what services you can offer people now and in the future.

3 Be concise. Lead with the type of business you want to do. Then explain why someone should do business with you. Lastly provide some unique qualities about what you do that would entice someone to want to contact you; what you do now that matters to your target audience Specialties: This is the section below Summary that recruiters, customers, and suppliers will use to search and find your profile by using the LinkedIn key word search tool. Don t repeat what you have described in the Summary section. Use key words here to describe your areas of expertise, particular products or projects you have worked on, additional certifications, etc. The keywords can be your past titles, your skills and names of companies, applications, industries, countries etc. that you have experience from. Applications: Applications are the latest craze. LinkedIn has kept their applications offering very small and tight. This actually helps in business collaboration as it is very clear what application will be used for what purpose and allows each application the opportunity to build a strong following so that it is easy to find consistency between connections. Some applications have common functions, but each has different features. Applications are added to your homepage and profile enabling you to control who gets access to what information. LinkedIn Applications bring extra attention to your Profile and to you. They help you stand out from the crowd. Applications DO NOT automatically appear in your Profile or on your home page. You must manually ENABLE this capability. And don t worry, if you change your mind, you can remove the application as well. Here is a current listing: Company Buzz by LinkedIn Ever wonder what people are saying about your company? Company Buzz shows you the twitter activity associated with your company. View tweets, trends and top key words. Customize your topics and share with your coworkers.

4 Lawyer Ratings by LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell Are you a Legal Professional? Showcase your Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Ratings and Client Review Ratings to further validate your stated credentials and help you make the right connections. Google Presentation by Google Present yourself and your work. Upload a.ppt or use Google s online application to embed a presentation on your profile. Huddle Workspaces by Huddle.net Huddle gives you private, secure online workspaces packed with simple yet powerful project, collaboration and sharing tools for working with your connections. SlideShare Presentations by SlideShare Inc SlideShare is the best way to share presentations on LinkedIn! You can upload & display your own presentations, check out presentations from your colleagues, and find experts within your network. SAP Community Bio by LinkedIn Display your certified SAP expertise on LinkedIn. The SAP Community Bio application allows you to add your SAP contributions and credentials to your professional profile.

5 Portfolio Display by Behance Showcase your creative work in your LinkedIn Profile with the Creative Portfolio Display application. Free, easy to manage, and supports unlimited multimedia content. Events by LinkedIn Find professional events, from conferences to local meet-ups, and discover what events your connections are attending. WordPress by WordPress Connect your virtual lives with the WordPress LinkedIn Application. With the WordPress App, you can sync your WordPress blog posts with your LinkedIn profile, keeping everyone you know in the know. Tweets by LinkedIn Access the most important parts of the professional conversation with Tweets, a Twitter client you can use right on LinkedIn.

6 My Travel by TripIt, Inc. See where your LinkedIn network is traveling and when you will be in the same city as your colleagues. Share your upcoming trips, current location, and travel stats with your network. Blog Link by SixApart With Blog Link, you can get the most of your LinkedIn relationships by connecting your blog to your LinkedIn profile. Blog Link helps you, and your professional network, stay connected. Legal Updates by JD Supra Get legal news that matters to you and your business. (Lawyers, upload your articles and other content. Be found for your expertise on LinkedIn.)

7 Real Estate Pro by Rofo Access your local real estate and office space market. Follow active brokers, agents and professionals. Track new property listings and available spaces and stay informed of completed deals in your area. FT Press Delivers by FT Press FT Press Delivers provides essential insights for your business and career from today's leading business minds. Polls by LinkedIn The Polls application is a market research tool that allows you to collect actionable data from your connections and the professional audience on LinkedIn. Projects and Teamspaces by Manymoon Manymoon makes it simple to Get Work Done with your LinkedIn connections. Share and track unlimited tasks, projects, documents and Google Apps - for free!

8 Box.net Files by Box.net Add the Box.net Files application to manage all your important files online. Box.net lets you share content on your profile, and collaborate with friends and colleagues. Reading List by Amazon by Amazon Extend your professional profile by sharing the books you re reading with other LinkedIn members. Find out what you should be reading by following updates from your connections, people in your field, or other LinkedIn members of professional interest to you. You can find the applications you have installed on the navigation menu under More. When you are in Edit mode, you can also scroll down and click on Applications which will take you to a landing page where you can select, install and configure the applications on your Profile and/or home page. Applications show up on your Profile in the order in which you grant them access from the top down, so be careful. This ends Part I of our Training.