Leveraging LinkedIn: Free tips to prospect and engage

Leveraging LinkedIn presented to the Newport County Chamber of Commerce

This presentation was coupled with live demos and lots of Q&A from the packed room at the Newport County Chamber of Commerce. LinkedIn demo included:

How to optimize your profile

• Make sure your photo shows you professionally and recognizably
• Be sure it’s recent

Use plug-ins to enhance your profile

• TripIt
• SlideShare
• Blog Link
• Reading List

Engage via Groups

• Share articles of interest
• Connect to people in your Groups who you find interesting
• If you’d like to connect with someone you don’t know, try engaging via Groups

Other LinkedIn tools

• Posting and encouraging attendance with Events
• Showcasing your expertise and adding value with LinkedIn Answers
• Prospecting by looking up and following companies and following individuals

With only a free account, you can leverage LinkedIn to gain clients. This has worked for Designated Editor using Answers and Groups. And we harnessed Events to help promote Newport Interactive Marketers gatherings.

LinkedIn posting tips

Post at least once per week.

One way to stay active on LinkedIn is to post articles you’ve read and commented on to LinkedIn (can also select to share with Twitter) and share with Groups and Individuals. Please note: LinkedIn is not like Twitter, and people are more likely to become over-saturated with your posts if you’re contributing multiple times per day.

Thanks to the Newport County Chamber of Commerce for hosting and don’t miss a Facebook Seminar at the Chamber on Feb. 9, 2012.