Prioritizing and Executing Activities
Where do you begin with implementing your LinkedIn marketing plan? It can feel overwhelming, but the trick is to remember that every additional minute you can spend on your social media activities, in this case your LinkedIn efforts, can only help you get closer to reaching your goals. Inaction is the worst thing you can do, so dive in and get going!
You can create a daily plan to keep yourself organized, or you can set weekly or monthly goals to stay on track. If your goals allow it, you can take a more casual approach to using LinkedIn and participate as your schedule allows. The choice is yours and truly depends on your objectives.
Jump-Starting Your LinkedIn Efforts
If you want to get going quickly and become an active member of the LinkedIn community sooner rather than later, then there are some specific steps you can take to jump-start your LinkedIn efforts. These steps aren’t written in stone, and you can modify them to best meet your own goals and preferences. However, they provide a great framework for developing your LinkedIn presence and network quickly.
Following is my 10-step LinkedIn jump-start plan:
1. Create a comprehensive LinkedIn profile and make it public.
2. Connect with people you already know on LinkedIn, including former and current classmates, colleagues, and friends.
3. Add useful applications to further tell your story. Link your varied online profiles such as your blog, Twitter, SlideShare, and other accounts to your LinkedIn profile and automatically update and cross-promote your activities.
4. Add LinkedIn Share and Recommend buttons to your blog and website, as well as social media icons or LinkedIn plugins, to invite people who visit your blog and website to connect with you on LinkedIn. Also add an invitation to your email signature.
5. Start publishing useful updates on your LinkedIn profile activity stream. Comment on and share updates published by your connections.
6. Write and request recommendations from appropriate people within your LinkedIn network.
7. Join groups related to your area of expertise or the industry where you want your career to grow. Actively participate in those groups.
8. Search for questions related to your area of expertise and answer them. Be sure to include links to your related content on your blog or website.
9. Expand your LinkedIn network by searching through your second- and third-degree connections, and through the members of groups that you belong to. Send connection requests to people who share your interests or whom you can learn from.
10. Use InMail or request introductions from your connections to meet people who aren’t in your network whom you want to connect with on LinkedIn.
These are just 10 easy steps that you can implement quickly. Within a week or two, you’ll be amazed by how much progress you can make in terms of building your network and establishing your expertise on LinkedIn if you follow these 10 steps.
Sample Activity Checklists
Once you’ve ramped up your LinkedIn profile and connections, what should you do each day to stay active? It’s hard to prioritize tasks, but if you use one of the checklists offered below (or a version of it based on your personal LinkedIn goals), it will be easier to stay focused.
It’s easy to get lost on LinkedIn. You might sit down at your computer expecting to answer a few questions, and the next thing you know, two hours have passed! There are simply so many interesting things to see and links to follow. Here is a daily checklist to make sure you don’t lose two hours without first accomplishing your goals for the day:
• Read through recent updates by your connections and comment on at least two updates.
• Share a blog post or interesting content that you find online related to your area of expertise.
• Read through recent updates in at least one group that you belong to and post your own update or comment on another member’s update.
• Review your Inbox and respond to any messages or invitations.
For some people, using LinkedIn every day isn’t reasonable. If you fall into that category, then use the following weekly checklist to organize your efforts:
• Do all of the activities listed in the preceding daily checklist at least once. The more frequently you can do those activities, the better.
• Search for questions related to your area of expertise and answer at least two.
• Send connection requests to new people of interest using the People You May Know feature.
In addition to the daily and weekly activities suggested in the preceding checklists, use the following checklist monthly to make sure you don’t forget to do these less common activities:
• Review your profile and make sure it’s up to date. This includes updating the information in all sections and through applications you use.
• Write at least one recommendation and request at least one recommendation.
• Search for groups to join.
• Search for companies to follow.
• Ask and answer questions.
• Search for people to connect with.
• Update the information on your Company Page as necessary.
Again, you can modify these activities to meet your own needs. The intent is to make using LinkedIn seem less overwhelming by breaking it down into smaller activities.
Going Mobile
LinkedIn offers a mobile-optimized site at http://touch.linkedin.com. It’s also very easy to use LinkedIn on the go thanks to handy mobile apps. Just click the Mobile link in the LinkedIn footer to open the LinkedIn Mobile page shown in Figure 12.9.
Figure 12.9: You can download LinkedIn mobile apps for a variety of mobile devices.
Just choose your phone from the list provided to download a mobile version of LinkedIn. At the time of this book’s writing, free LinkedIn mobile apps were available for the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Android devices, BlackBerry devices, Palm devices, and the HP TouchPad. Be sure to check the LinkedIn Mobile page for a current list of compatible devices and mobile applications. You can also search the Apple App store, Android Marketplace, or corresponding app download center for your device to access mobile LinkedIn apps.
With mobile versions of LinkedIn, you can update your status, answer questions, participate in groups, and send messages anytime and from anywhere. It’s easier than ever to use LinkedIn to reach your business, brand, and career growth goals.
The Least You Need to Know
• LinkedIn tools and widgets save you time and help you more efficiently reach your goals.
• It’s important to integrate your online and offline marketing efforts to effectively build your business, brand, and career using LinkedIn.
• Search engine optimization can make your LinkedIn profile and Company Page easier to find, giving you more exposure to larger audiences.
• Break your LinkedIn activities down into manageable chunks using daily, weekly, and monthly checklists.