LinkedIn can be a very powerful tool in developing and enhancing your career or helping you build your business. There are, however, common LinkedIn mistakes that even the most competent professionals make – and then they wonder why LinkedIn isn’t working for them.

Here are six common LinkedIn mistakes you need to watch out for.

1) Not using keywords properly

This is perhaps the most prominent LinkedIn mistake people make when crafting their profiles. They focus so much on polishing their profile’s looks that they totally forget to to put keywords in their profile headline and summary.

If you do not enrich your LinkedIn profile with keywords, you will never appear on the site’s list of results when a prospective client or employer types in their needs. For example, if you are a marketing consultant, then the phrase “marketing consultant” needs to be placed in your headline and profile summary in order for people searching for that phrase to find you on LinkedIn.

2) Joining groups but not participating

Another very common type of LinkedIn mistake is to join a myriad of professional groups but never taking the time to join in the discussions.

Groups are one of the most powerful tools available in the LinkedIn networks. They allow professionals to share their ideas and opinions about things, and users are empowered to display their professional competence in these  discussions. Join a group and take the time to share your own professional thoughts on the topics at hand.

3) Trying to sell yourself on group discussions

LinkedIn is NOT the place to explicitly advertise your products and services, although you can do so in a subtle and unobtrusive manner.

People bluntly promoting their wares are not welcome in LinkedIn. Advice and professional feedback are the topics of discussion, and these are your primary tools for marketing your products and services. Help out potential employers or give some advice to prospective clients and you are already marketing yourself.

4) Emailing people you don’t know

Some of the more common LinkedIn mistakes involve emailing people out of the blue. This can quickly get you kicked off LinkedIn if people report “I don’t know this person.”

Emails are closely guarded on LinkedIn, and are meant to be used by close contacts and professional associates. If you want to contact someone you don’t know on LinkedIn look for connections on the network who might be able to introduce you.

5) Not using a custom URL

LinkedIn allows its users to create a customized URL in place of the default URL, and this feature is often ignored by newer users.

Not taking advantage of this tool greatly reduces the chances of prospective clients and employers finding your account. You can change your URL where it says “Public Profile/edit.” Use your name, if it is available, as this will greatly increase your profile’s uniqueness and visibility in the network.

6) Not focusing on results in your profile

Aggrandizing yourself will not work in LinkedIn, but your achievements will work wonders in influencing others. One of the most common LinkedIn mistakes users make on the network is being too general and abstract in the work history portion of their profiles. Be as specific as possible about your accomplishments in your work history and you will do a much better job selling yourself to potential clients and employers.
If you want to take advantage of Linkedin and boost your web profits, don’t miss this free webinar – “How to Cross the Bridge from Linkedin to Web Profits.” To register, click >> http://www.yourlaptopbusiness.com/free-linkedin-webinar.html

Recommendations are some of the most powerful factors that influence a buyer or employer’s decision to do business with an individual or business entity. LinkedIn realizes this, and has created the LinkedIn Recommendations section to highlight a user’s existing connections that can vouch for his or her professional capabilities.

The people you have already worked with in the past can become valuable references to your professional skill and talents. LinkedIn Recommendations allows these references of yours to personally voice their experiences with you on your profile. This makes it a much easier for your potential clients or employers to verify your capabilities, since the contact details of your recommenders, as well as their feedback about you, are available on LinkedIn.

So how exactly does LinkedIn Recommendations work?

1) On the right side of profile you’ll see a link called “Manage my recommendations.” Click the tab “Request Recommendations.”

2) From the dropdown menu you must select the company where you worked with or for the person who is recommending you. If you were hired as a freelancer or as a consultant, you can select your own company

3) Select who will write the feedback for you. It doesn’t have to be one of your supervisors. LinkedIn Recommendations considers feedback from all directions of the corporate ladder. Consider getting some feedback from your peers on the job, as well as any other subordinates you have worked with in the past.

4) Send a personal note to your reference. Do not use the default text for requesting a reference. Adding a personal touch, such as reminding the person of your work together, is more likely to elicit a good recommendation.

Keep keywords in mind when formulating a personal note to your reference. If, for example, you’re a copywriter, you might request a recommendation about your copywriting skills in order to ensure your chosen keywords will pop up a few times in the recommendation.

Focus on quality, not quantity. LinkedIn requires a minimum of 3 recommendations for your profile to be picked up by the search engines, so have at least 3.

The recommendations of colleagues and business partners will carry more weight than what you say about yourself on your profile. So track down the best recommendations you can gather.  If you are not happy with what someone wrote for a recommendation, you can ask for  changes. If you are still not happy with it, you have the option of deleting it from your profile.

If you want to take advantage of Linkedin and boost your web profits, don’t miss this free webinar – “How to Cross the Bridge from Linkedin to Web Profits.” To register, click >> http://www.yourlaptopbusiness.com/free-linkedin-webinar.html

When it comes to driving business-related blog traffic it isn’t even close, according to 
a recent Blog-off contest, involving 12 marketing and social media sites, held by the Community Marketing Blog.

Of the 2,350 directly referred urls, 55% came from Linkedin, 13% came from Facebook, while Twitter referred 11%.

Since Linkedin clearly has so much potential to drive business-related traffic, the question for marketers is how exactly to take advantage of that. That will be answered in a FREE webinar, entitled “Crossing the Bridge from Linkedin to Web Profits.”

To register for this free webinar on attracting more business using Linkedin (space is limited), go to http://www.yourlaptopbusiness.com/free-linkedin-webinar.html

For details on the blog -off contest, go to http://communitymarketing.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/06/linkedin-drives-more-direct-blog-traffic-than-facebook-twitter-or-google.html

 

If you haven’t been improving the quality score of the landing pages in your Adwords campaigns, this should get you started on that immediately.

The price advertisers pay is determined by the formula P = (B2 X Q2)/Q1, with P = price paid by the advertiser, Q2 = Quality score of the next highest-placing ad, Q1 = Advertiser’s quality score, and B2 = the next-highest-placing ad’s bid.

In order to stand out blog posts must  offer valuable information to its target audience and, better yet, do it with a style and personality that stands out. One of the ways to accomplish this is to write a somewhat outrageous blog post. Not outrageous just for outrage sake – but a post that makes a point in a provocative and entertaining way.

One method of course is to court controversy.  Works well – but it’s not the only way.

Another way is to begin your post  with a provocative analogy. Done well it can make even the most mundane topic interesting. And few topics are as unexciting as PCI compliance in the credit card industry. Yet, the Merchant Maven finds a eye-grabbing analogy that practically compels you to read – and presents its information in an unforgettable way.

I won’t give it away, but I’ll just mention it draws on one of the most famous Seinfeld episodes. One with George Costanza, cold water, and manhood. See for yourself…

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