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:

1. Log into LinkedIn or create an account

If you’re new to LinkedIn you’ll need to create an account. Here are tips for how to create a stellar profile, built your network, and more. If you’re already a LinkedIn member, log in as usual.

2. Add the application

Click “Applications” in the left sidebar. Scroll down and click on the Wordpress application. On the next page, check the boxes next to “Display on my profile” and “Display on LinkedIn homepage.”

3. Set up your blog feed

Enter your blog’s URL, not your feed URL (so for example, http://ustandout.com). Select “Show all recent posts from your blog” to show your entire blog. If you only want to show certain posts, tag them “LinkedIn” in your Wordpress editor and select “Show only recent posts tagged LinkedIn.”

4. Configure your privacy settings

To make sure that your blog updates appear on your LinkedIn newsfeed:

• Click “Account & Settings” at the top of the page.
• Click “Profile and Status Updates”
• Make sure that in the “Publish profile updates and recommendations” section, you select “Yes”

That’s it! Your wordpress feed will now appear on your profile under your summary section.

Now if you have, for example, 150 connections, your blog updates will appear in 150 people’s LinkedIn newsfeeds. And if you make an effort to network by participating in groups or answers, other Linkedin members will see snippets of your most recent entries without having to navigate to your blog. This is an easy way to get your blog more exposure.

Have you linked your Wordpress blog to your LinkedIn profile yet?Related Posts:

Before Networking on LinkedIn, Makeover Your Profile
How to Build Your LinkedIn Network in 5 Easy Steps
How to Network Beyond the 2nd Degree on LinkedIn

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.

These are four simple ways to optimize your profile and your website at once.

1. Create your own permalink

View your profile, and change the custom URL. Change it to your full name, your company name, or targeted keywords if they are still available. You might only want to use the company name if you own the company or know you’re there for the long-haul.

You can gear your LinkedIn permalink toward your website or blog. For example, if dianafreedman had already been taken, I might have chosen dianasocialmedia, dianafreedmanweb20, or dianaustandout. Something that incorporates name + keywords or name + company.

2. Link to your websites using anchor text

Linking to your websites will not only give Linkedin users more insight about you, but you’ll also be improving your websites’ SEO. Anchor text links that contains relevant keywords is something Google looks for when ranking your website. So by using your name, site title, and/or relevant keywords will actually improve your site’s SEO since LinkedIn is already ranked so high.

Instead of listing websites as “My Company” or “My Blog,” choose “Other” so you can choose the name of the link. Make sure that your website links appear on your public profile.

Before:

After:

3. Modify your headline

Your headline is the tagline that appears right under your name in LinkedIn searches and on your profile. Instead of just writing your position, include more information about what you do, using keyword-rich descriptions. If you work for a company, put that name in the headline.

My headline before: Product Associate

My headline now: Product Associate, Social Media at TripAdvisor & Web 2.0 Blogger

4. Use keywords throughout your profile

There are several other places you can use keywords: summary, job descriptions, and interests. Make your descriptions are concise and keyword-rich (without overdoing it). Also put keywords in your job title; instead of just including the title, include the department or team. For example, my job title is Product Associate, and I’m on the social media team, so my job title on Linkedin is “Product Associate, Social Media.” At my last internship, I was a Design Assistant on the motion graphics team. Before, I just wrote “Design Assistant,” but after revamping my profile for SEO, it now says “Design Assistant, Motion Graphics.”

Guy Kawasaki has a great article: Ten Ways To Use LinkedIn, in which he also discusses improving LinkedIn SEO.

Making your profile search engine friendly is easier than you thought, right? You can view my LinkedIn profile here to see how I’ve used keywords throughout my profile

More on LinkedIn:

• Before Networking on LinkedIn, Makeover Your Profile
• Building Your LinkedIn Network
• How to Network Beyond the 2nd Degree on LinkedIn

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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:

1. Ask connections to introduce you to the 2nd degree

Introductions are great way to connect with 2nd degree connection; that is, a “friend of a friend.” Whether you want the inside scoop on a company, or to find someone with a particular skill set, chances are that someone you know knows someone that can help you.

Let’s say I was seeking an interview the president of at Arnold Worldwide, a prestigious advertising agency in Boston. If I go to Arnold Worldwide’s profile page, I can see exactly how many employees are in my network (in my case, 331… so there’s a good chance that at least one person will help me out).

Your closest connections appear first, so I can see right away that I have at least five 2nd degree connections, one of them coincidentally being the president. I can now go to her profile and click “Get introduced through a connection.”

A list of all of your mutual connections will appear, and you can select which one you’d like to make the introduction. Select the connection you’re closest with. In my case, I ran into Anand this week at a networking event, so I’d probably ask him first. Also, choose to be introduced through one connection at a time, waiting a few days between requests.

Then write a message to the target and the introducer. Don’t stick with the default LinkedIn message. Explain to the introducer why exactly you want to talk to that 2nd degree connection, and make sure you emphasize how much you’d appreciate the introduction. Also send a message to the 2nd degree connection. Keep the message brief, and state your objective clearly so that he or she isn’t wondering why you need to be introduced at all.

2. Join and participate in groups

Groups are opportunities to find people with similar interests and skills. They weren’t very appealing when groups were new because it was really difficult to search for them. Now it’s easy to find relevant groups with the search tool (I typed in social media and found the Social Media Marketing group; just what I was looking for). Then you’ll usually need to be approved by the group owner. Hence the importance of having a well-written profile.

Once you’re a member of a group, you can “share” the group with friends (which is the same as inviting them, since they won’t have to be approved). Or you can even take the initiative to create your own group.

Participate in the discussion when you have something meaningful to contribute. Don’t contribute for the sake of getting your name up there. Pose questions to the community, and thank people when the post looks like it’s not getting any more responses. You can also share news articles with your groups.

Perhaps the best feature of groups is that you can contact other group members directly. You can send them messages without being a premium LinkedIn member, and you can add them to your network without needing to know their email addresses.

3. Ask and answer questions

The Answers section is a place for you to ask and answer questions for many different topics. And when you browse through the questions, you will be surprised at how many people are at least 3rd degree connections. Although you might be tempted to ask “I’m looking for a job, know of anything????” that’s not a good way to approach this feature.

When asking questions: post relevant and interesting questions that could foster open discussion or even debate. You can use your question to share information about yourself, but don’t make it obvious that your fishing for opportunities. Try not to ask a question that can be answered by a simple Google search.

When answering questions: reply with insightful responses, and think out your answer before submitting. Also, check back later to see if anyone has responded to your reply. If you answer on a topic that you have written content on the web (an newspaper article, blog post, research journal, etc.), link to it! It’s a great way to show more about who you are.

You can strive to become an “expert” in a topic, but it takes a big time commitment. Every time the questioner chooses your answer as the best, you get one expertise point. This system has its flaws, but you can become known as an expert on your subject of expertise if you communicate often and intelligently in the LinkedIn community.Related Posts:

How to Build Your LinkedIn Network in 5 Easy Steps
How To Promote Your Wordpress Blog on LinkedIn
How to Improve Your Website’s SEO Using LinkedIn

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.

If these stats don’t inspire you to use LinkedIn, I don’t know what will! So let’s start building your network, and then later on we’ll discuss networking, job-hunting, and advanced features of LinkedIn that can help you find opportunities.

1. Invite people you know well to connect

The first step is to invite people that you know well. This can include family, friends, current coworkers, and coworkers from your past job if it’s within the past 4-6 months. LinkedIn provides several methods to easily find your connections:

• “Search people” searchbox
• Address book – enter your Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, or AOL account email address and password to see which of your contacts are already on LinkedIn. Don’t hesitate to invite close connections to LinkedIn if they’re not already members.
• Download the outlook toolbar. Not only can you find contacts easily, but you can keep up with profile updates and changes to contact information.

2. Invite people from your past to connect

After you build your core network of relatives, friends, and current/recent coworkers, start looking for past connections that you may have lost touch with. This includes past coworkers, classmates, professors, or even people you got business cards from at conferences or other networking events.

When you invite them to connect, be sure to write a personal message instead of the default message: “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.” Remind them how you know each other, ask how they are, say that you’d like to catch up; whatever you have to say to make it more personal than a random invitation.

One thing to keep in mind is that LinkedIn should not be treated like Facebook or other social networking sites. Even though it’s cool to randomly friend someone you knew in high school on Facebook, you want your connections to take you more seriously on LinkedIn, especially if you eventually want their help to network. That’s why that personal message can be so important.

3. Let others find you and invite you

Edit your public profile URL so that it reads http://www.linkedin.com/in/FIRSTnameLASTname

Having your full name in your profile is helpful if you want people to be able to find you via search engines (i.e. Google). It also boosts the page in Google’s page ranks, which is good when you want a recruiter to easily find the page if he does a Google search on you.

You can also use this link to let people know you’re on LinkedIn by adding it to your:

• E-mail signature
• other social networking profiles
• personal website
• blog
• signature on relevant blog comments and forum posts

4. Ask for recommendations (and give them eagerly)

Recommendations give you tons of credibility when you start networking outside of your 1st degree connections. Any insight into your work ethic and personality will be helpful to someone who hasn’t met you before.

So who should you ask for a recommendation? You can ask anyone; bosses, supervisors, co-workers, employees, classmates, friends, anyone. But remember that quality is much more important than quality when it comes to recommendations, so try to ask people that you’ve had closer connections with, because they will be the ones to write the stellar comments. Also, don’t send the generic LinkedIn request. Personalize your request so your connections know you haven’t just asked all 500 of your connections to write you a recommendation.

If you’ve asked a bunch of people to write you recommendations, and you’re frustrated because people just aren’t responding, it might not be because they don’t feel you worthy of their words. The might have their email settings restricted, or just be generally lazy about this sort of thing. So go ahead and write THEM a recommendation. Then they’ll be much more likely to write you one in return, even it’s the guilt-factor that’s motivating them: “Wellllll I shouldn’t be lazy about it, Bob just wrote me this awesome rec, and I didn’t even ask him to…”

5. Maintain your 1st degree connections

Once you start building your network, you should maintain it by reading the daily newsfeeds to see what your 1st degree connections are up to. If you see that someone got a promotion or a new job, congratulate her. If someone is now working at a company you’re familiar with, tell him to say hi to John Doe, and that he’s a great person to go to for feedback. If you see that someone is seeking employment, notify them of any opportunities you know of.

Offer support to your 1st degree connections in any way you can. There may come a day when you need to ask for more recommendations or for them to introduce you to a 2nd degree connection, so they will be more inclined to help you out.

These are the essentials of building your core network. If you have any more suggestions, feel free to comment. Next, we’ll discuss networking with strangers and CEOs, job hunting, and increasing your overall LinkedIn visibility.Related Posts:

How To Promote Your Wordpress Blog on LinkedIn
How to Network Beyond the 2nd Degree on LinkedIn
Before Networking on LinkedIn, Makeover Your Profile

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.

Creating an account and profile are pretty self-explanatory, so I’m not going to elaborate on the technical details. For those of you with LinkedIn accounts, you should already know the basics. I’ve created a LinkedIn account for an imaginary “Marion Appleby” so you can see the sections I’m referring to.

LinkedIn Profile Summary

This is your elevator pitch. It’s important to add substance to this section because it’s the first block of text people will see, and then they might skim over your work experience. Don’t only summarize your past experience; discuss your goals, what type of work you’re passionate about, and what your biggest accomplishments have been.

Specialties

Highlight the specific skills you have in keyword form, separated by commas, like this:
marketing, branding, quality analysis, website design, media buying, recruiting, graphic design

Experience

Don’t just list the companies you’ve worked for here. For each job you’ve had briefly describe what the company does and what you did there. This includes the job you currently hold. The content here should be similar to what you would write on your resume, except you can elaborate more because you don’t have to fit it onto a 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of paper.

Education

List your relevant coursework in this section if it’s relevant to the types of jobs/opportunities you’re looking for. For example, if you’re applying for a graphic design job, you might want to list the advanced-level graphic design courses you completed. In the activities and societies, don’t list every extracurricular you were part of. List the ones where you had a leadership, or at least a very prominent role. Employers a few years from now won’t really care that you wrote a couple articles for the school newspaper freshman year (because really, who hasn’t?).

Other LinkedIn tips to keep in mind:

1. Get a URL

Modify your public profile URL to be: http://www.linkedin.com/in/YOURNAME

2. Add everything

Unlike your resume where you might only include relevant positions for the job you’re applying for, I like to add everything to my LinkedIn account. I use LinkedIn primarily for networking, so if I find someone I haven’t spoke to in a coworker at a past job in a couple years, I can jog their memory with a description of what I did at that company.

3. Be 100% complete

You will appear more frequently in search results if your profile is 100% complete. You need to include three positions, add a photo, and get a recommendation. If you don’t want to display a photo, you can add one and then use privacy settings to block people from seeing it. You can’t get a recommendation until you make connections, which you shouldn’t do until you fill out your profile anyway.

4. Be professional but friendly

It’s important to be professional and concise when it comes to your work experience, but LinkedIn is also a social networking site, so let your personality come out (especially in the summary section) as much as you can.

5. List websites

Don’t leave the section of websites blank if you can help it. Even if you don’t have a personal website, list the URLs of the company you work for so people can instantly get a better grasp on your experience.

For more tips, check out the article Make Your LinkedIn Profile Work For You.Related Posts:

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