LinkedIn Success In Five Minutes A Day

How can you harness the power of LinkedIn and, more importantly, how do you find the time? My column in today’s Northwest Herald talks about how you can achieve LinkedIn success in just five minutes a day if you follow these guidelines:

• Prepare
  If you save inspiring quotes and links to interesting articles in a file, you can quickly copy and paste them into your LinkedIn status. Your status can be anything as long as it’s concise and relevant to your industry.
• Schedule
  Make a five-minute window in your day. Dedicate that time only to LinkedIn and, other than that, forget about it.
• Prioritize
  Responding to invitations and messages should be first, posting new status updates second, and managing recommendations third. Don’t forget thank yous! They go a long way toward building relationships.
• Respond
  If John Smith posted that he has a new job, send congratulations. If Mary Jones shares a link to an article, respond with your viewpoint. It only takes a moment and it increases your visibility.
• Integrate
  Do you have a blog? If you’re manually posting updates to LinkedIn, you’re wasting time. You can integrate LinkedIn with blogs, Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare and other social networking sites.
• Explore
  Take one minute out of your five to familiarize yourself with LinkedIn. Try searching for events, participating in group discussions, asking or answering questions in the Q&A forums. But don’t share too many personal details, because criminals use LinkedIn and other social networking sites to glean information about potential victims.
• Revise
  Every few months, expand your five minutes into a half hour and review your LinkedIn profile. The most important parts are your “headline” or title, your status, and your summary. We are all evolving as professionals, and your LinkedIn profile should evolve with you.
• Relax
  LinkedIn isn’t a contest. There’s no reward for getting 500 contacts or answering a million questions in the Q&A section. The way you reap the rewards of LinkedIn is by using it to expand your horizons.

Join me this Thursday for Leveraging LinkedIn, sponsored by the Cary Grove Chamber Of Commerce. More seminars on blogs and social networking available this summer, keep an eye on my Upcoming Events page or subscribe to the Tech Tips e-newsletter for details as they become available.

Leveraging LinkedIn
Cary Grove Chamber Of Commerce
Thursday, May 26, 2011, 12pm-1:30pm
Fox River Grove Village Hall, 305 Illinois St., Fox River Grove IL

Discover how to get the most out of LinkedIn. We’ll explore the features of LinkedIn and how you can best use them to market yourself or your business. To register, contact the Cary Grove Chamber Of Commerce at 847-639-2800.