Mike O’Neil & Lori Ruff, “The Linkedin Rockstars” Held an all day session at the Seattle Online Marketing Summit. They had some great advice, If you need Linkedin consulting, check out their site http://www.integratedalliances.com/

Using Linkedin To It’s Full Potential.

Linkedin uses a 3-layered Network (3 degrees of connections)

Your “Eligible Network” = Your Connections + Their Connections + Your Groups

This creates your total eligible ‘keyword search’ for whom you can invite to connect with and who can find and connect with you.

Lori and Mike use a cool strategy of personalizing the first line of direct invites to connect with others, followed by a strategic follow up thank you for accepting message with an offer or CTA to their cause. This is the true way to harness the power of Linkedin.

The approach to take on linkedin

First step to conceptualize Linkedin is to remember it is one big networking event put online. You still start with a handshake (the invite) and BUILD RAPPORT. People want the metaphorical small talk first, which happens when you find common interests. So establish you personality quickly and make your range of business interested easy to figure out.

As far as SEO. Linkedin is only SEO’d for search within Linkedin. Currently Google does not give huge page rankings for Linkedin link distribution. The focus should really be to rank high for internal Linkedin searches for your profile, and utilize invites and groups effectively to network.

Here is a section-by-section break down for my key take aways for using Linkedin as more than just a business rolodex.

Using the Search Feature

You can use ‘NOT AND OR’ to filter your searches. For example I could search for “Fleet Manager” NOT Sales. To ensure I don’t contact people who sell fleets, when I really want people who manage them.

Your Profile Page (this was the focus of the day)

The header is the most important section. Utilize the entire 115 characters in the description. Your goal is to STAND OUT in a search page of 10. So use creative symbols and dividers | · ? ? | to separate things.

Optimize your profile picture for 400 X 400

Your summary is like your 2 minute elevator pitch with multiple call to actions for everything you do. This can be 2000 characters so use them. Treat this like an introduction at the bar.

Specialties: use keywords, commas, bullets to make it readable by people and machines.

Experience – include all positions in each role.

What the company did
Who they did it for
Where
What made you special

Education – include continuing educations and even seminars if relevant

Websites: use 3 links and don’t leave the default names. (Additional information – select other and override my site,)

Interests – these should be 90% personal and maybe 10% business. You have 1,000 character. When you use commas you create links for each interest.

Groups and Associations – same with clickable links

Awards and Honors – your 15 seconds of fame

Personal Information – this is only visible to your immediate contacts. You might be better set by putting your email address as your address.

Contact Me – to contact me for….. call or email ……

Skills – include the years of experience with each skills.

Your Keyword Focus- Think this through and make sure you are targeting the right searches for your personal and professional goals. can have multiple options. For myself I would likely target my corporate goal of attracting rockstar salesman who want to gain control of there destinay through a Nero Global Franchise, and my personal goal of motivational speaking.

Scripting and preparation. Use WORD to prepare everything. That way you can spell check properly and always have a copy on your computer. Save your copy’s as versions to track the changes and updates over time.

Your headline is what ‘opens the paper and gets it read’

Remember you can show 3 current and 3 past so use them all. Make each title keyword rich and descriptive as possible.

Company Profile (the focus should really be on the profiles more than the company page)

Make sure the tone and voiced used on your company profile match your desired persona of your company. The info you put should be designed for others to reference when describing your company.

You can share your company profile with existing clients. You can also add a follow us on linkedin tab at the top of your page.

Describe your products and services. You can also use a video to show your products and services.

Recommendations can either be a simple thumbs up, or a client testimonial. This should be utilized.

Make a CTA for a linkedin recommendation.

Some interesting linkedin Apps

box.net – lets you share documents, PDF’s, and white papers.

Slideshare – lets you share presentations

Groups

You can send a direct message to someone the same group. So if you want to make a specific connection, see if you can join the same group, after your are ACCEPTED, than you can send an invitation.

You can be in 50 Groups so choose wisely.

The recipe for success on linkedin is to find people to

Invite -> Get Accepted -> Send a personalized note with a genuine CTA

Status Updates:

The Power of A youtube video in “Attach a link”. When you attach a link – and insert the youtube video URL. This give you the standard 120 character update, plus a eye appealing and watchable youtube vide, with an editable title for the video, and full description of the video.

You can only invite 3,000 people to connect with you over the lifetime of your account. However, if you go over you may request more by contacting customerservice@linkedin.com

Linkedin Answers

This is an opportunity to establish a position of authority on your specialty. Make sure you search for your question, and ensure it has not been asked in the last 6 months. If someone has, than contribute to that conversion. If no one has asked, than you can ask. You can sort answers by unanswered questions. This gives you the opportunity to be first to respond. Often the first will be picked as bet answer. You gain a total count for the amount of best answers you provide.

An interesting strategy for groups is the creation of an exclusivity group, in which only members may enter. This gives interested party the opportunity to access the value of your membership group and potentially join if they are a fit.

Make sure you customize your auto responder settings which can be found at Manage Groups -> templates on the left side bar.

Toplink.com is a good resource for maximizing your invitation sending

Paid Ads

Min $10 per day and Min $2 per click

You can do split testing with multiple variations of the same ads. See what gets more clicks, than stick with the winners.

From the notebook of:
Shaun Frankson,
VP of Business Development

Nero Global Tracking
http://neroglobal.com
http://shaunfrankson.com