Can LinkedIn status updates be effective for your business? I believe the answer is YES. I think it comes down to understanding a few best practices that I have discovered over the last couple of years.  These are just a few of the top tips for success using LinkedIn status updates.

1.       Post updates Monday through Thursday during working hours.  This will give you the best opportunity to be read.  Why? Most people are not as active Friday through Sunday on LinkedIn.

2.       Include a link for people to click through to learn more or receive some valuable resource for free.

3.       Use the 12:1 Ratio, by offering 12 great pieces of valuable information before you try to sell our brand or service with 1 status update.

4.       Load your status updates with “keywords” and buzz words that are noticed by your target market.

5.       Track the effectiveness of your status updates using “tracking” URLs.  Once you have identified the most effective status updates you can then build around those formats and themes.

To learn more on Status Updates read this article, “How to Create Killer Status Updates”

That’s was five tips to success with LinkedIn Status Updates. What tips might you add that have been helpful for you?

This article is taken and updated from my article last year “The Seven Habits of Highly Successful LinkedIn Members”.

So what makes a highly successful Linkedin member? Here is what I have discovered as not only habits, but also “secrets” of the treasure chest on Linkedin.

1. They invest their time strategically by putting fresh content on Linkedin when it’s the best time to do so. Let me explain, for me weekends are times to prepare Linkedin content, but as you will notice most collaboration does not take place on weekends. So hold the great Q/A’s, the awesome discussion topics, or the great status updates until Monday and never late Friday. Think about what your audience is doing and be strategic.

2. They use their status update to post something new every 24 to 48 hours and 80% of those updates include a link that gives a call to action. Such as signing up for your next webinar, promotions to visit your blog, or visiting your corporate website etc…

3. They answer target specific questions that are related to their target market. This is great exposure for your business that Linkedin Pros are doing everyday!

4. They change their Picture profile every two months. This creates dialogue and interaction with your network. This is another way to keep your brand in front of everyone. Pictures are worth a thousand _ _ _ _ _ (fill in the blank).  You can keep the same picture up, but make sure it’s professional.  I would still recommend changing it or even alternating it between two picks every six months to create engagement.

5. They answer every Linkedin email/inmail. Maybe not timely, but they never waste an opportunity!

6. They post their company events on the events application provided by Linkedin and use this as a way to measure interest and involvement for such things as conferences, webinars, or seminars. The events application has only been recently used by Linkedin Elite, but many are beginning to wise up to its amazing potential.

7. These highly successful members have identified their target markets on Linkedin, their goals on Linkedin, and are executing their plan every single work day. Social Media can be measured, but most don’t understand how to begin measuring their Social Media efforts because they have never identified their goals for using the Linkedin space. Once you have identified your goals then you can build a measurable matrix to anaylize your efforts.

So what habits have you found to be useful?

Who Has Viewed My Profile

What is the ‘Who has viewed my profile’ module?

This is a list of the people who’ve recently viewed your profile. Many times instead of seeing exactly who viewed your profile, you’ll see anonymous profile characteristics such as industry and title. As a profile owner it is understandable that you would want to see exactly who has viewed your profile. However, as a profile viewer you may want your privacy protected. To respect your need for privacy, you can control what is shown to other LinkedIn users whose profile you have viewed by taking the following steps:

1. Click on ‘Accounts & Settings’ link found in upper right area of home page.
2. Click on ‘Profile Views’.
3. Select one of the following:

1. Show my name and headline.
2. Only show users my anonymous profile characteristics (default setting).
3. Don’t show users that I’ve viewed their profile.

Sometimes an anonymous viewer will show only as a position and company name while others display with the viewer’s job function and the industry and location they are in. This is because we may have to modify the verbiage to maintain the anonymity requested by the viewer (e.g., we don’t want to display that the viewer was a ‘Vice President at company XYZ’ if that company only has 1 or 2 Vice Presidents). Clicking on viewer names or descriptions will take you to a People Search results page showing all members that meet that specific criterion.

You may notice variations in the time frames. One day it might say ‘you have been viewed 10 times in 15 days’ and then another it switches to ‘you have been viewed 7 times in 8 days’. This is because the timeframe changes dynamically as people view your profile. The module tries to get a minimum of 5 views over any timeframe and so based on profile view activity it will change. Members may not see the module if no one has viewed their profile.

A subscription upgrade from a free account might allow you to receive a greater number of results for ‘Who’s Viewed My Profile’ (if there are additional viewers). However, you will not receive more in-depth information about the viewers if they have chosen to hide their identity in their privacy settings.

(this information comes from LinkedIn's website, but it's hard to find so I figured we would provide it for you)

So you know LinkedIn is a powerful business tool, but you’re not sure how to capitalize on its business capabilities. LinkedIn can be used for some many reasons such as business development, sales, marketing, hiring, recruiting, advice, job hunting and much more.

I have put together some practical resources that will help you in learning some key LinkedIn strategies:

• LinkedIn Questions and Answers Section of the LinkedIn site, you can get expert advice from people around the world right at your fingertips.
• Linked Strategies Group on LinkedIn this groups membership is in the tens of thousands for one very good reason. You learn very practical LinkedIn strategies. You can join the group here.
  
• Linked Strategies Webinar, this is a complimentary webinar that teach power user strategies you can learn in a ninety minute presentation and live Q and A.  Currently this webinar happens every Thursday at 4pm EST with playback for those who can’t make it. You can grab your reservation here:

If you are considering paying for expert LinkedIn advice then I recommend you get the book on the upper right of this page, you may find all the answers you need right their.

If you have a great tip or tool please share.

I have pulled together a few videos to help answer this very question. Many business owners, managers, and decision makers are asking this question and instituting policies to keep employees from using LinkedIn. Without the full understanding of the scope of LinkedIn’s capabilities for your business this type of policy making is extremely linear.

Watch these videos:

To learn more about being a LinkedIn Power User, join this complimentary Webinar this coming Thursday at either 4pm or 7pm EST, can’t make it? Register for the playback. Grab your spot here: http://bit.ly/3wzq9Q

If your are business professional, manager, or owner and would like to learn more about how your company can capitalize with LinkedIn email us at support@mycorporatemedia.com  to request a personal presentation.

Three Little Known Ways To Use Linkedin

Here is what we will cover:

1. Advanced Search- Building a targeted network & finding decision makers
2. Events-generating buzz for your tradeshows, presentations, public events, etc…and track interest.
3. Get expert advise to you’re most pressing business questions at “no cost”!

By using the advanced search you can grow a targeted network by entering one of these simple terms LION, Opennetworker, or Toplinked. Next you can choose to only search through groups you already belong to for your search. These search terms stand for people who are open to accept invites, by doing an advanced search you can then identify those people in your target groups (market) that you would like to be directly connected to. This allows you to still build a massive network, but extremely more targeted. You can also use the advanced search to find key decision makers in companies by entering title specific keywords and the company.  I use this tool all the time to get new business.

The events application can be a powerful tool and resource to drive attention to your next public event along with the opportunity to measure interest. What I love about this application is that you can promote events on your Profile, in Linkedin Groups, Status Updates, Emails, Websites, and Blogs with a direct link tied to this application.

Next, when it comes to needing expert advisors. I have found no better place than in the Linkedin Question and Answer section. As long as you truly utilize this resource and post your questions with as much detail as possible you will often find a long list of experts in your field standing ready to offer their advice. Here is the best part, it does not cost you a dime!

3 Bonus Resources:
~ Get your free copy of the Fast Start Guide to Linkedin Success: Grab it here
~ Join me on the Linked Strategies Group on Linkedin to access more tips. Join Here
~ Join us for one of our “Complimentary” Linkedin Power User Webinars: Count Me In

Linkedin can be an endless source of leads, job opportunities, referrals, and multiple income streams. However, none of that matters if you have not optimized your efforts both with your network and your profile.

Optimizing your network: First key step to optimizing your Linkedin network is to build a network based off the target market you are after and want to penetrate. In order to do this write a list of potential industries and titles you are targeting. Then identify those you have interacted with in the past and invite them to connect with you. You can also target those on Linkedin within the advanced search option, who are open networkers. Using such search terms such as LION, Toplinked.com, and opennetworker can generate a long list of members whom provide their email address readily to accept connection invites. In addition you can add the keywords of your target market in the search allowing you to find those open to connecting within your target audience.

The next key to optimizing your network is to add tags or categories to your connections so you can effectively manage which target market they fall within your connection base.
(Learn more on this by joining us for our Linkedin Strategies Webinar this Thursday with Q & A at “no cost”.)

Bonus Network Tip: Now that you have the right target people in your network be sure to reach out to them and keep them updated via email or by updating your status in your Linkedin profile on a regular basis.

Optimizing your profile:

Your Linkedin Profile is your online professional brand, just google your name and see what pops up. More than likely your Linkedin profile showed up near the top.
I often tell people “Your Linkedin Profile is Your Resume”, so how well does yours read?

1. First of all is your profile complete? Things such as work history and education are critical.
2. Have you written a compelling headline?
3. Do you have a good profile picture loaded? Preferably a nice headshot professionally done.
4. Think about your list of specialties and make sure they are keyword rich so you appear in more searches and are found easily within Linkedin for your target audience.

The first key is completing your profile. I cannot stress enough how an optimized profile is critical to measurable success on Linkedin.

Bonus Profile Tip:

Take a look at my profile and in the summary you will see I noted common misspells of my name. Why have I done this? Because someone may misspell your name searching for you on Linkedin and never find you if it’s not within your profile.

~Randy Schrum

*Linkedin Strategy Group: Learn more Linkedin Strategies and Tips at the most collaborative Linkedin Group available within the Linkedin space.

*Linkedin Strategy Webinar: “No Cost” Series, Join us every Thursday different times every week (4pm EDT or 7pm EDT “subject to change”). Don’t worry if you can’t make the live webinar, sign up anyway to gain access to the recording.

*Profile Optimization: Not sure if your profile is optimized at its best? Need the help of a professional who has helped countless others? Email support@mycorporatemedia.com  For $300 get your profile professionally revamped, in the email subject please put “Profile Re-vamp”.

 
***LinkedIn is a networking tool that helps you discover inside connections to recommended job candidates, industry experts and business partners.