by Audrey Julienne, Raison d’Etre

What LinkedIn can do for you
There are four ways LinkedIn will add value to your professional life:

• Take control of your online identity – prior to you blog or company website, your LinkedIn profile is the first result on searches
• Find a dream job/client/business partner
• Maintain & foster relationships with colleagues (past, present & future), peers you meet at events, etc…
• Provide value to your professional network by recommending peers, answering their questions (LinkedIn Answers), giving introductions…

Developing a business headline or tagline
To stand out from other vendors, you need a unique market position. It should send a message as to why the public should employ you & your services. It should be interesting and should include value statements that attract the person to you and your profile:

• Define your unique market position
• Define your target audience
• Define the goals for your LinkedIn page

The importance of adding a photograph
Whether your target audience is restaurant owners, buyers or managers, it’s important to add a photograph. Anonymous profiles do little or nothing to project a professional image or to instill confidence in the person who is viewing your profile. Remember that LinkedIn is a professional business networking site. Accordingly, leave the family, pet photos offline or on other social networking sites.

Why and how to enter your education and employment information

• Enter all work positions. The public enjoys those “janitor” to “owner” stories.
• Enter the complete company name. If the name of the company has changed, include the former companies name (formerly…)
• Be open and honest with the information you provide. Do not exaggerate the position or your duties.
• When preparing the description, describe your duties accurately. Even if the job is not relevant, the skills learned may be.

The importance of keywords
Whether it’s Google, Yahoo or LinkedIn, search engines love good keywords. Before you enter your description, define your keywords.

• Identify your keywords.
• Expand your keywords looking for synonyms
• Analyze your keywords

Testing the effectiveness of using your keywords
Before you complete your description, test your keywords by searching for people on LinkedIn.

Setting up and driving traffic to your website
Do not use the LinkedIn tags like “My website” or “My blog.” Instead, use “Other” and write your own description. If you desire more traffic to your website, use less of a description and more of a call to action. Even if you don’t have a blog or three different websites, send prospects to three different landing pages.

Setting up your summary and other interest sections
The Summary section allows you to restate your background, skills, experience, areas of expertise…. Again, it should be a description that is keyword laden and consistent with your profile.
The Other section is the only area where you should disclose personal information such as interests, hobbies. It allows a more personal connection and your viewers to get a better sense of who you are.