LinkedIn is heralded as the online social community for business professionals and entrepreneurs. What sets it apart from social sites like Facebook and Twitter is the understanding that people join LinkedIn with the goal of expanding their business in some way. Here it’s accepted to let your business cards show, so to speak.

1. Understanding LinkedIn
The Social Network for Business Professionals

2. What Is LinkedIn?
 A social media network where business people grow
their networks and expand their business connections

3. The Benefits of LinkedIn
 Talk directly with decision makers
 Accessible from any computer, any time of day
 Identify, research, contact, follow up, engage &
maintain your prospects all in one place

4. Creating Your Profile
 Your profile = resume, business card & elevator speech
all rolled together
 What type of image do you want to project?
 What type of prospects do you want to reach?

5. Creating Your Profile
 How will you position yourself and contribute your
expertise?
 How are other leaders using LinkedIn?
 Check out your competitors’ profiles
 Adjust your profile as necessary

6. LinkedIn Leaders
 Do some research about who’s a leader using LinkedIn
1. Go to Google.com
2.Type in the search string site:linkedin.com “your
keywords”
3. Replace the phrase “your keywords” with terms related
to your specialty

7. LinkedIn Leaders

8. LinkedIn Leaders
 How are the top 3 profiles using their keywords?
 A high-ranking profile is important to be found by
others
 Goal = be listed in the top 3 results for your keywords

9. Setting Up a Free Account
1. Go to LinkedIn.com
2. Select “Join Today”

10. Setting Up a Free Account
 Enter your name and email address you want
associated with your profile

11. Setting Up a Free Account
 Input details about your professional experience

12. Finding LinkedIn Contacts
 Contacts can be imported from your email address
 OR you can skip this part for now by choosing “Skip
This Step” at the bottom of the screen

13. Finding LinkedIn Contacts

14. Finding LinkedIn Contacts
 Manually enter your contact email addresses to send
invitations

15. Writing Your Profile
1. Click the “Profile” menu from the Navigation toolbar
2. Choose “Edit Profile” from the drop-down menu

16. Writing Your Profile
 Enter your experience
 Click on the blue links
to add more information

17. Writing Your Profile

18. Uploading a Photo
 Profiles without a photo are less personal
 Choose photos wisely – you cannot edit once it’s
uploaded
 Remember what type of image you want to project
with your profile

19. Uploading a Photo
1. Select “Profile” from the navigation toolbar
2. Click “Edit Profile” from the drop-down menu
3. Once on the editing page, choose “Add Photo”

20. Uploading a Photo

21. Uploading a Photo
 Upload your image

22. Uploading a Photo
 Crop your photo, if necessary

23. Uploading a Photo
 Decide who can see your photo

24. Creating Your Headline
 LinkedIn headline = your elevator speech
 Elevator speech = short summary used to define a
product, organization or service and its value
proposition
 Strategically use keywords when writing your headline

25. Creating Your Headline
 To update your headline, from your profile’s editing
area, choose “Edit” next to your name

26. Creating Your Headline
 Your “Professional
Headline” displays as the
primary tagline at the
top of your profile and
returns for internal
search results

27. Public vs. Private Profiles
 Private = some aspects of your profile will be hidden
from non-members
 A well-crafted headline could get people excited about
you and become a member of LinkedIn to network
with you.

28. Public vs. Private Profiles
 Public = all aspects of your profile will appear in
searches
 People can research you without becoming a member
of LinkedIn

29. Public vs. Private Profiles
1. Clicking “Profile” from the navigation toolbar
2. Choose “Edit Profile” from the drop-down menu
3. Scroll the page until you see the “Public Profile” field
4. Select the “Edit” link to the right of the website
address

30. Public vs. Private Profiles

31. Public vs. Private Profiles
 The next page gives you
the option to un-select
areas for public view

32. Importing Contacts
 Looking for contacts individually can waste time
1. Choose the “Contacts” menu from the navigation bar
2. Select “Add connection” from the drop-down menu.
There you’ll find several choices for importing data.

33. Importing Contacts
 Sync with your email address, input emails manually,
or import from another email application

34. Importing Contacts
 Upload contacts using .txt, .csv, or .vcf files
 Click on “Import your desktop email contacts”
 Browse your computer files and attach the document

35. Importing Contacts

36. Connecting With People
 After importing contacts, each person will receive an
invitation to connect with you
 If they accept the invitation, you’ll be connected

37. Customizing Your URL
 Customize your URL for branding purposes
 Easy to remember
 Promote your signature on your blog, Facebook pages
& email signatures to drive traffic to your profile

38. Customizing Your URL
1. Select the “Profile” menu from the navigation bar
2. Click “Edit Profile” from the drop-down menu
3. Scroll down the page until you see your “Public
Profile” website link
4. Choose the “Edit” function to the right of your link.

39. Customizing Your URL

40. Customizing Your URL

41. Your Home Page
 See status updates from your network connections
 Respond directly by using the “Like”, “Comment”, or
“Send a Message” links under each update
 Liking or commenting are ways to gain attention of
hard to reach contacts

42. Your Home Page
 Post your own updates by entering messages into
the empty conversation field

43. LinkedIn Applications
1. Click the “More” menu from the navigation toolbar
2. Or select “Add an Application” from the lower right
side of your Home page
3. Or choose “Add an Application” from the sections
area while editing your Profile page.

44. LinkedIn Applications
Tweets Application – connect your LinkedIn profile
to your Twitter stream
Events Application – let others know about your
networking agenda
Wordpress – sync blog posts with LinkedIn updates

45. Privacy Settings
1. Click your “Name” at the top, right-hand side of your
profile page
2. Select “Settings” from the drop-down menu

46. Privacy Settings

47. Email Settings
 How accessible do you want to be to your network?

48. Invitation Filtering
 Are you open to accepting all invites or only selected
invites?

49. Hierarchy of Connections
 Each connection is a bridge to forming more
connections
 Direct contacts = Level 1 contacts
 All the contacts of YOUR Level 1 contacts are made
visible to you

50. Hierarchy of Connections
 Contacts of your Level 1 connections = Level 2 contacts

51. Adding New Contacts
 Introductions – finding someone in your personal
network who can introduce you to a particular person

52. Adding New Contacts
 Inmails – paid feature allowing you to send emails to a
particular person’s LinkedIn mailbox, even if they are
not in your network
 If you don’t get a response after 7 days, you get credit
for that Inmail

53. Adding New Contacts
 Invites – can be sent to anyone at any time but if
someone responds with “I don’t know this person”,
your account can be frozen

54. Building Credibility
 Engage the LinkedIn community regularly
 Recommendations = testimonials from clients or
customers
 Social proof from a third party that you’re a solid
professional

55. Building Credibility
 As stated by LinkedIn:
“Users with Recommendations in their profiles are
three times more likely to receive relevant offers
and inquiries through searches on LinkedIn.”

56. Building Credibility
 Recommendations are
visible to your personal
network and Fortune
500 companies utilizing
the LinkedIn Recruiter
Tool

57. Building Credibility
 Ask for
Recommendations from
clients
 Satisfied clients are
usually happy to share
their experiences

58. Recommendations
1. Select “Profile” from the navigation toolbar
2. Choose “Recommendations” from the drop-down
menu
3. Click the tab marked “Request Recommendations”

59. Recommendations

60. LinkedIn Answers
 Answer questions from the LinkedIn community and
built your reputation as an expert in your niche
1. Clicking the “More” menu from the navigation toolbar
2. Select “Answers” from the drop-down menu

61. LinkedIn Answers

62. LinkedIn Answers
 Questions stay open for 7 days
 Multiple experts can answer
 Answers voted as “best” give you a green star on your
profile page, showcasing you as an expert

63. LinkedIn Answers
 To answer a question:
1. Click the question
2. Select the “Answer” button on the next page
3. Input all details necessary into the entry form to
thoroughly respond to the question

64. LinkedIn Answers
1. Click the question

65. LinkedIn Answers
2. Select the “Answer” button on the next page

66. LinkedIn Answers
3. Input all details
necessary into the
entry form to
thoroughly respond to
the question

67. LinkedIn Groups
 Strengthen connections in an exclusive forum
 Where LinkedIn members share common skills,
experiences, industry affiliations, and goals
 Private groups have the authority to accept or deny
your request

68. LinkedIn Groups
1. Select “Groups Directory” from “Groups” menu on the
LinkedIn navigation bar
2. Click “Search Groups” box
3. Enter a keyword or a group name in search box. Click
“Search”.

69. LinkedIn Groups

70. Service Providers:
 Add your service packages here
 Add a strong call to action
 Or add a coupon code or free offer here