My Media Magnet’s Favourite 10 Social Media Sites – LinkedIn (4 of 10)

LinkedIn is one of what we refer to as ‘The Big 3′ of social media. It is an amazing tool for professional networking and enables you to go beyond traditional networking. It’s another one of those sites that if you aren’t on it you should be. I often Google people and the first search results for their name is their LinkedIn profile. You want to ensure that when someone does a Google search on your name it’s your LinkedIn profile that pops up and gives them information.

Some of the major reasons we love LinkedIn are:

• LinkedIn is a network of experienced professionals from around the world representing 170 industries and 200 countries
• A new member joins LinkedIn approximately every second
• They have over 50 million users as of October 14th, 2009; a jump from 45 million users since August 12th, 2009.
• Linkedin saw a 5.68% growth in traffic for the month of September alone
• Executives from all Fortune500 companies are LinkedIn members
• LinkedIn truly is international with 50% of their users being from outside the U.S.
• They won two Webby awards in 2007 for services and social networking

All of these statistics can work for you if you use LinkedIn as a tool in the most effective way for you and/or your business. When you first get on LinkedIn, work on getting your profile to completion. The system will more or less guide you through this process of uploading an image (important for establishing your online identity!), uploading your resume, filling out profile information, adding relevant applications, etc. When you get to adding applications, choose carefully. Showcase only your strengths on your profile as recruiters are now using LinkedIn more than ever to find potential job candidates.

Your next step and level of involvement goes beyond status updates on LinkedIn. I’ve found the true value of LinkedIn and the place to get networking done is in Groups. Groups on LinkedIn are AMAZING resources! Try searching your interests and find out who is saying what and where they are saying it about the interest of your choice. This is a great way to get involved in conversations with like-minded individuals and start networking! You can also start your own Group on an interest and establish yourself as an expert through vigilant maintenance and innovative discussion topics.

As with all social media, the possibilities with LinkedIn are literally endless. The bottom line is to get online and get active! Each time you make a post to LinkedIn or participate in a group, not only are you growing your network but growing your Social Media Optimization (SMO). The more active you are, the more ways you direct people to your name and your site, the more successful your overall social media campaign will be. If you need help getting started or just want some more information on social media in general please visit our Contact Us page.