- It 's
often more important to be found than to find. It's also very
important that, when you are found on LinkedIn, your LinkedIn
Profile page is up to date. So take the time to make sure your
profile is complete, regularly updated and reflects who you are
and what you are currently doing. And don't forget to sprinkle
your profile with the keywords that somebody looking for you
might use when searching for you.
-
Remember You are your brand. Google your own name, strive for
consistency in your online image and try to have the same
message whether somebody finds you on LinkedIn, Facebook,
MySpace, or any of the other networking sites. By the way, if
you don't find yourself on Google, or your name is not as
prominent (i.e. front page of Google) as you would like, it
could be time to think about promoting yourself better online.
- Gain
visibility and branding by participating in the new LinkedIn
Answers. You can ask questions of your own network, or the
entire LinkedIn network, as well as offering answers where your
special knowledge and information will help others - and in the
process add to your visibility. It's not only good karma to help
but gives you the stamp of expertise and special knowledge. It's
essential to be genuine in framing the question. If you try and
game the system by framing a blatant self-promotion as if it
were a genuine question you won't have to wait long for someone
in the network to flag your "question" as spam. But genuine,
interesting questions are bringing people great, positive
exposure.
- Connect
with power networkers or 'hubs' in your industry, company or job
function. You can be confident the ones near the top of any
search when sorted by connections are in the thousands, and
their 2nd degree is hundreds of thousands, which now becomes
part of your 3rd degree network.
-
Install the Outlook toolbar and consider joining Plaxo.
http://www.plaxo.com
. The new Plaxo 3.0 not only works with PC's and Mac's but
offers automatic synchronization with your address book of
choice, various web mail systems and now LinkedIn.
Bill has written a new book about
recruiters who bill over $1 million per year. You can learn more
about it here.