How to use LinkedIn with business savvy

Howes says LinkedIn is so powerful for a number of reasons, including:

• You can export your contact list into a file that you can keep and analyze.
• You can have an unlimited number of contacts.
• Its members are largely business professionals, many of whom are decision-makers.

Like any powerful tool, though, you have to put some thought into how you use LinkedIn, starting with your profile. And every profile, says Howes, must start with a keyword or two.  For Howes, the word is “sports.” For you it could be “kitchen contractor,” “tax expert” or “French chef.” What’s important is that it gets at what you are all about.

That keyword needs to appear in five places in your profile:

1. Headline
2. Current experience
3. Past experiences
4. Summary
5. List of specialties

Putting the keyword in those five places will help move you up in LinkedIn searches and help people who are looking for experts in your field find and connect with you, says Howes, who is often at the top of searches for “sports.”

In addition to putting your keyword in your summary, he says, you need to be sure that summary answers three important questions:

1. Who are you?
2. Who do you want to help?
3. How are you going to help them?

Answer these questions and write them in a narrative format, not in formal bullet points as you would in a resume, Howes says. He gave more good tips and referred SMSS participants to check out free instructional videos on his website for more information.

I’ll admit that I often neglect LinkedIn for multiple reasons, but it’s still an important part of a balanced social media presence — especially where I live in Northeast Wisconsin! I believe it’s a more popular tool in some parts of the country than others. What do you think?