Add LinkedIn to Your Social Media Strategy

Top 5 ways to drive traffic to your website using LinkedIn

Since LinkedIn is known as the professional network,  you may not be utilizing it fully as part of your social media strategy.  Here’s why you should – LinkedIn will generate free, organic traffic to your website.

Here are a few simple ways to improve website traffic using LinkedIn and make it more social.

Complete your profile. I am amazed at how many incomplete or outdated profiles I see on LinkedIn. Here are some ways to improve your profile:

Up to date – Make sure everything is current: your title, employer, websites, summary and blog.  A few new sections recently added include certifications, skills, languages, patents and publications.

Increase your connections – Obviously, the more connections you have, the more people will have access to your profile.

Customize the website links – When you update your website links, select the title “other” and create a name for the link.  It’s a pet peeve of mine to look at a profile and see the generic title “My Blog” or “My Company”. Being generic doesn’t help with branding either.

Twitter – If you use Twitter, add your username. It’s one more way to connect with others.

Vanity URL – You can change your public profile’s URL to anything you want (if it’s not already taken).  Request a vanity URL, preferably your name.  This improves your Google rankings too.

Spell Check – Need I say more.

LinkedIn Profile for Don Nicholas

[text_ad]

For step-by-step profile makeover, check out Guy Kawasaki’s article LinkedIn Profile Extreme Makeover.

Update your company profile. Similar to your own profile, your company should have its’ own profile page. Have you seen all of the new company features, including a “Careers” tab with a job board? There are some great company statistics added too. Plus, the “follow” feature which notifies you of any updates to a company’s profile page. Of course, you can still add a summary or mission statement, website link and company logo. Check out our page.

Change your status. Nothing worse than viewing a profile and the last status update was over 1 month ago! It says, “what are you working on now?”… not last month or last week. Keep your status current with links to your blog entries, a call to action or even a question.

Add your blog to your profile. Many online publishers still have not added a blog application to their profile. It’s the easiest way for viewers to see what you do, so add the WordPress or BlogLink application to your profile.

Answer questions. With LinkedIn, the more questions you answer the more opportunities you create. You also improve your ranking, since other readers can vote on your answers, you may be deemed an “expert” in that particular subject. Which means your profile will be viewed more often.

Does everyone in your company, including yourself, have an up to date profile? Have you added a company profile page yet?

Do you have any other suggestions for fully utilizing LinkedIn as part of your social media strategy? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.