Technology
LinkedIn

17 Smarter Ways to Use LinkedIn

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

17 Smarter Ways to Use LinkedIn

SEATTLE -- In a room full of some 1,000 financial planners only about a dozen raised their hands when asked if they like their LinkedIn pages.

“Looks like they pretty much stink,” said Jill Schlesinger, a certified financial planner, CBS News business analyst and the master of ceremonies for FPA's annual conference here last week.

That blunt assessment drew one of many laughs during the final presentation featuring a conversation between avid LinkedIn user and social-media presence Schlesinger and Jennifer Grazel, LinkedIn's global head of category development.

“Your social platforms shouldn’t be tangential to your business,” Grazel told the audience. “It has to be at your core, as one of your central channels of communication.”

But for some users, doing that well can mean posting to LinkedIn just once or twice a week. Grazel, and sometimes Schlesinger, offered the following LinkedIn advice, for both uninitiated and fluent users.

1. Start with a marketing plan for the practice.

You can make the best use of your LinkedIn profile once you know who your target clients are and how you intend to reach them. One planner Grazel knows spent six months developing her business plan and studying how to use LinkedIn before launching her profile, whereas most users develop their page aimlessly and fail to optimize its potential.

2. Separate your personal and professional profiles.

Advisors should build both a personal LinkedIn profile and a company profile. Encourage everyone in your firm to interact with the company page.

3. Don't dump your website.

Keep the company’s website separate. A LinkedIn profile should never replace a company profile, but it can enhance the latter by driving traffic to it.

4. Drive traffic to your blog.

A LinkedIn profile also can drive traffic to your other social-media channels and a blog on your company website.

5. Include follow buttons.

Insert these social sharing icons and links on your website and in your emails to build your LinkedIn audience.

6. Make it visual.

Have your headshot done by a professional. “Ladies and gents, when you have your professional photo done, put a little bit of makeup on,” Schlesinger said. “It actually makes a difference. It’s a visual moment.”

7. Go multi-media.

Post photos, post videos and illustrations, both your own and those you curate from the web.

8. Use compliance-approved content.

Publish in different ways and personalize it as your own. You can be a little bit more of yourself, Schlesinger said. 'I think the neat thing about Linkedin is it gives you a little more persmission to be your authentic self.'

9. Publish, track and leverage.

Track who follows what among your followers. From there you can identify niches. Tailor your content to those niches that follow you, such as retirees, young families or single women.

10. Read LinkedIn influencers.

LinkedIn offer 48 influencer channels, showing case output from influential LinkedIn users (officially dubbed “influencers”) around various topic areas. On the home page for your profile, near the upper left, is a drop-down menu titled “interests.” Under it you can select “Pulse,” which is your LinkedIn “online newspaper,” Grazel said in an interview. There you can select which influencers and publications to follow and which channels to subscribe to. “It’s really about getting the most relevant content at your fingertips,” Grazel said.

11. Comment on news.

When a news story breaks or financial development occurs, add your perspective to the headlines. Let your followers know your take on it.

12. Get unique perspectives from others you follow.

During fast-moving news developments, keep close tabs on what those you admire think and say about it. Use their thinking to refine and develop your own. Share curated content from your news stream to your followers.

13. Be personal.

Pick snappy headlines. When appropriate, add personal details about your life. One of Schlesinger’s most-read blog posts was called simply “Father's Day Advice.” “It was a good headline,” she says. “It was a great picture. He was leaning forward wearing his American Stock Exchange badge. It was advice that your father gave you, that your mother gave you.”

14. Don't post junk.

If you can’t think of anything original to post, refrain. If you post junk, “it stays out there,” Schlesinger said. “At the end of the day, it has to be relevant or valuable,” Grazel says. “If you don't have compelling content, then don't post at all.”

15. Don't force your CEO to post.

If your company’s founder or CEO isn't a good storyteller, find someone else at the company who enjoys the job and would do it well.

16. Post regularly.

“For companies that have compelling content, we recommend posting two to three times a week,” Grazel says. For many, once a week will suffice.

17. Enable privacy settings.

On the home page of your profile, there is a small photo icon to the upper right near your email icon. Click on it to access your privacy settings, which you can configure to set up your profile to be as open or as private as you choose, Grazel said in an interview. You can set up your profile and block certain people. You can ensure that no one can see your network, none of your activities enter your activity stream and no one is able to send you invitations, among other restrictions. “You really have quite a bit of control in terms of visibility,” Grazel says. By using some of these privacy settings, you can choose to use your profile not to interact with people or share information but, instead, to monitor what is going on, she says.