6 Ways to Unlock LinkedIn Profits

A friend of mine, who wanted to grow his small business, had recently signed up with LinkedIn. He was excited to start, after hearing me go on and on about it.

But, once he logged on, not only was he overwhelmed with all of his options, but he was downright confused…With over 130 million users, LinkedIn is a vast resource of potential clients, referral partners, employers, investors and more. So how do you get your name out to everyone and establish your brand successfully? Here are six ways you can get known on LInkedIn.

1.  Posting in Group Discussions

When it comes to exposure, the bigger the group the better. Also, the closer the group profile is to your target market the better as well. Remember–you can join up to 50 groups on LinkedIn. And as you might have guessed, my recommendation is that you find 50 great groups and join them for increased exposure, search ability, and information sharing.

Some of these groups are what LinkedIn refers to as open, and thus the discussions will also be available in a Google search, so you just might pick up some exposure that way as well.

2.  Answers

Ask or answer a question here, and the whole LinkedIn world may see and hear what you have to say. You can search for questions by topic or industry and also set up an RSS to send you new questions that are posted in your area of interest.

When it comes to broad exposure, this is one of the best resources on LinkedIn. I personally answer at least five questions a day, and ask ten a month (the limit).

3.  Posting your own Company Status Updates and “liking” or “sharing” other companies’ Status Updates

Your Company Status Updates go to your company followers. I have just started getting followers to my company page. Think about the exposure Hewlett-Packard gets when they send out a Company Status Update; they have 373,000 followers who may see that update.

To get exposure, make sure you have a company page, attract followers, and make regular Status Updates. When you “like” or “share” another company’s Status Update, the update appears in the Status Update feed of your entire network, and this is another great way for you to gain exposure.

4.  Posting your own personal Status Updates and “liking” or “sharing” your connections’ Status Updates

Posts you make will go out to your first level connections in your network.  So the more connections you have, the more exposure you get. This is a great reason to be an open networker. I have almost 10,000 connections and I’m shooting for the max which is 30,000.

5.  Sharing information on applications like SlideShare, Blog Link, and Portfolio Display

When you choose to have any of these applications loaded onto your LinkedIn account, you are then directed to the actual website of the application to set up an account. Upon completion of the setup, you are then part of their site, and any presentations or information you post will be available to their users–giving you that additional exposure.
6.  “Liking” or commenting on group discussions

This is a very easy way to gain exposure without having gone through the effort of finding the information or asking the question. Comments on group discussions appear in the discussion feed. The amount of exposure will depend on the number of members in the group.

In summary, every day you are active on LinkedIn, the more exposure you will get. My daily activity on the site has led to many opportunities for new business and creating referral partners. Set aside time every day to work on your LinkedIn exposure and you too will see results.