The document discusses how to effectively use LinkedIn for business purposes. It recommends setting up a complete profile, connecting with colleagues, participating in groups, and answering questions daily to build expertise. The document also provides tips on how to use LinkedIn features like events and applications to grow your business, find partners and clients, and increase your online presence and brand visibility.

1. The Language of LinkedIn & How to Drive Business Using LinkedIn Erin Blaskie www.erinblaskie.com @ErinBlaskie (Twitter) http://ca.linkedin.com/in/bsetc

2. What You’d Find Out About Me From My LinkedIn Profile I own a company called Business Services, ETC (aka BSETC) which provides outsourcing services to companies around the world. I worked at Willis College, TRM Technologies and Club Assist before becoming an entrepreneur. You could see who makes up my 500+ network. You could join groups that I find relevant and interesting. You could view recommendations from colleagues.

3. About This Session Introduce you to LinkedIn: what you need to do to setup an effective profile. Introduce you to the regular activities you should be doing in LinkedIn to really strengthen your presence. Introduce you to some of the ways that you can use LinkedIn to grow your business, gain publicity and generate visibility for your company.

4. Show of Hands - LinkedIn Survey How many of you have used LinkedIn before for business use? How many of you use LinkedIn right now to generate business, leads, joint venture partners or general visibility? What has been the biggest area of resistance for you in adding LinkedIn to your business marketing practices? For those of you using LinkedIn, what do you most often use it for?

5. The LinkedIn Landscape LinkedIn is growing by a new member approximately every second. Half of the members are in the US, 11 million are in Europe and 3 million are in India. The site uses a “gated access approach” which means you need to know the connection or have their e-mail in order to gain access.

6. The LinkedIn Landscape Most people are using it to find jobs, people and business opportunities. Employers can list jobs and search for potential candidates. Job seekers can review the profile of hiring managers. Users can post their own photos and view other photos to aid in identification.

7. LinkedIn’s Primary Features Member Profiles aka Contacts Companies LinkedIn Answers LinkedIn Groups LinkedIn Polls (alpha) Jobs

8. LinkedIn.com’s Home Page

9. Getting Started on LinkedIn Create your free account on LinkedIn Follow prompts to create your professional profile Search for your friends based on your e-mail contact lists LinkedIn will suggest people you might know - feel free to add them Send invitations to your friends and colleagues Go into your profile and fill it out to completion - the percentage complete will help

10. Important Profile Update Make sure to set your Public Profile URL to make linking to your profile easier.

11. Other Tips for Your Profile Add the e-mail address you use for your account to your last name. Example: Blaskie (erin.blaskie@bsetc.ca) Gather recommendations from family, friends and colleagues. Use lots of great keywords to sell yourself. LinkedIn is an advertisement for YOU so sell it!

12. Five Things to Do Daily (15 Mins) Check your pending invitations - accept / deny See if any new contacts of yours are on LI Review incoming messages and reply Post one question or answer a question Participate / join in one LI group

13. Pending Invitations - 2 Mins

14. Check for New Connections - 5 Mins

15. Review Incoming Messages - 2-4 Mins

16. Post or Answer a Question - 5 Mins

17. Participate In / Join a Group - 4 Mins

18. Ways to Grow Your Business Use the search function to find business partners or ideal clients

19. Ways to Grow Your Presence Answer questions in LinkedIn Answers Will expose you and your account to many new users Will allow you to position yourself as an expert Will give you the opportunity to follow-up with the question asker to offer additional support You could answer one question per day or a few questions per week

20. Building Your Business Ask strategic questions in LinkedIn Answers Do your market research here - ask people their opinions on products, services or your industry Use the questions to expose other things you are doing - example: “I’m working on a Build Your Own Widget workshop and I want to know, what would you like to learn about if you were attending?”

21. Ways to Grow Your Presence Join relevant groups and participate in them Choose 2-3 groups that are aligned with your company or industry and become active Choose a group that contains people in your target market but don’t hard sell to them Educate gently, provide resources where it feels like it fits and be an expert for the group

22. Ways to Grow Your Presence Create your own group If you can’t find a relevant group, create one! You’ll gain exposure for the group and for your profile Create lots of value within your group - make people want to join and invite their colleagues Provide LinkedIn only discounts or promotions for your group

23. Ways to Grow Your Presence LinkedIn Events Whether running virtual or in-person workshops, use LinkedIn’s events to promote your event Create event and update your connections Use the status update section to let people know that you’ve created a LinkedIn event LinkedIn can even help you process registration and payments

24. Ways to Grow Your Business Introduce your colleagues LinkedIn runs on the principle of making new connections - connect two colleagues you feel may be a good fit Connecting people will keep you top of mind for those individuals when you are looking for a connection of your own

25. LinkedIn Applications LinkedIn has introduced applications Bring in your blog as an RSS feed Add your Amazon recommended reading list Bring in your Tweets to your status update area Bring in your presentations from Slideshare.net Connect your travel with My Travel Connect your files with Box.net And more…

26. Mobile Apps & Integration LinkedIn can connect to Outlook to auto-find LinkedIn connections LinkedIn has an iPhone, a Blackberry and a Palm application LinkedIn also has a browser toolbar that you can install to any browser Connects to Lotus Notes as well

27. Engage With Me So That I May Engage With You @ErinBlaskie on Twitter www.erinblaskie.com and www.bsetc.com erin@erinblaskie.com