I frequently encourage members and Society staff to
blog on Connect (as I am right now) about subjects that are meaningful or important to them. But just as frequently I hear this response: I don't know what to write about.
Hard to argue with that. Even the most prolific writers occasionally suffer through blank page (or screen) syndrome. It's natural. So I like to tell people that a good blog can originate in the most unlikely of places -- a casual conversation, an email, or even at the tail end of a webinar. Actually, I've never said that part about the webinar, but it happened to me last week so I threw it in.
On Thursday of last week,
Rachael Bell and I were finishing up our latest LinkedIn webinar. As Rachael was wrapping up her last segment, I decided to jot down my closing remarks, five points that I wanted everyone to remember. I'm not sure why. I'm not much of a jotter and I've never done that before. Maybe it was because we had some technical difficulties during the webinar that I decided to leave nothing to chance.
When we were done and I returned to my office, I was about to toss my outline and impromptu notes into the trash when it suddenly dawned on me -- this list could make a decent blog post. A little fine tuning and editing and voila, a blog.
So here we go. My top five tips to get the most out of
LinkedIn:
- Have a purpose - If you don't know what you're trying to accomplish, then LinkedIn will be a useless tool.
- Update your profile with your purpose in mind – Seeking new clients? Looking for a new job? Trying to position yourself as a subject-matter expert? Make sure that your headline, summary and experience reflect your goal. And you MUST have a photo!
- Make connections that will help you reach your goal – You should be constantly adding and accepting LinkedIn connections from people you know professionally or personally, but remember that adding connections is not a competition. Making 50 connections who can help you reach your goals is better than having 500 connections who you don’t really know. You want quality, not quantity.
- Provide valuable content that shows off your expertise - LinkedIn can be a great tool to share information with others. Use the “Share an update” box to share articles, start a discussion or just to let people know what you’re up to (in a professional sense of course). P.S. If you don’t know what “sharing an update” means, please call Rachael or I.
- Join groups that will help you reach your goal - Start and contribute to group discussions, but make sure what you post provides value and isn’t just a sales pitch.
Need more information about LinkedIn or other social media tools? Check out our
Social Media Webinar Series or our
social media tips on YouTube.