If you’re not familiar, LinkedIn is like Facebook for professionals. You display your professional experience, connect with current and past coworkers, and even meet new connections. It’s a great online networking opportunity. If you’re a professional blogger and want to boost your credibility as an expert in your field, you should consider putting your blog on your LinkedIn profile.

In the spirit of research, I put U Stand Out on my Wordpress page, which you can see on my LinkedIn profile page. Here’s how to do it: Read the rest of this entry

If you’re planning to use LinkedIn to find job opportunities, optimizing your profile will help you stand out. But did you know that you can also use LinkedIn to improve the SEO of your website or blog?

Here’s how it works: if high ranking websites link to your website, it will improve your website’s page rank, so you’ll appear higher in organic Google searches. LinkedIn profiles have a fairly high Google Page Rank, so if have good profile SEO and link your website to it, your website’s SEO will also improve. I’m not claiming that your page rank will shoot through the roof (you need many, many backlinks for that to happen), but it will help a bit, and if more people click on your LinkedIn profile, they may also click on your website. Read the rest of this entry

LinkedIn is a great place to keep track of all the people you’ve worked with, and maintain connections you’ve already made. But it can also be seen as a huge conference where everyone’s invited, it’s free to attend, and it never ends. And it’s not as intimidating.

LinkedIn has some features that let you connect with professionals that are usually hard to reach. Here are three ways to effectively network on LinkedIn:

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Now that you know how to write a strong LinkedIn profile, it’s time to start building your network with people you know. This should come before networking with strangers so that you build your credibility and 1st degree rapport before branching out.

It’s also important to have contacts when using your LinkedIn profile to find a new job. According to How To Change The World, you’re 34 times more likely to get approached with a job opportunity if you have more than 20 connections, as opposed to just 5 connections. That’s huge! And according to an HR rep at the company I work for, he uses LinkedIn for 90% of his engineering head-hunting.

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If you haven’t yet been to LinkedIn, it’s like the professional version of Facebook. Instead of listing your favorite movies and music, you list your past jobs and skills. Instead of a wall, past employers and coworkers can write public recommendations for you.

Your LinkedIn profile should be more than just a duplicate of your print resume/CV. You have the room to elaborate, and it’s a great opportunity to network with individuals who were nearly impossible to reach before. I’ll talk about utilizing the networking opportunities of LinkedIn in a separate article.

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