6 Things You Never Want to Do on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a very different social media site than most, and there are plenty of practices used on Facebook and Twitter that simply don't come across so well on a professional site like LinkedIn.

Here are six tips on what not to do on LinkedIn and how you can take the extra step to stand out on the site:

When you're on LinkedIn on your desktop, you're given the option to send a personalized connection request when you add a connection. Utilize this feature. If you're connecting to someone that you maybe saw speak at a conference or even someone you went to high school with, let them know how you know who they are.

Make sure you're providing value, commenting on other people's posts, engaging in discussions. It's a great way to share the different blogs and sales you have but you'll get way more of a response from people if you have also been commenting on their posts. Then, when you post about your business or the different things that you do, people will see your name, remember it, and be way more interested in what you have to say.

About 70% of the time you spend in those groups should be adding value to others' posts, not just about you.

Your LinkedIn profile picture has such a different standard than any other social media site holds. Set aside your selfies, pictures of your cat or your kids, and nature photos for Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. LinkedIn is about your business and you as a professional, so you really want to come across that way.

Maybe it's time to get together with a group of your friends and have a headshot party. They can be SO much fun and you will acquire a photo much more suitable for your LinkedIn. 

This is your personal brand that you're selling, make it count. 

This is where you can tell your story, where you can intrigue your followers, where you can share a call to action. All of the words you use in your summary are searchable by Google, so make sure you're throwing in some keywords that really summarize you and your business so that when people go searching, you're the first to come up. 

This is a way for your LinkedIn to work for you while you're sleeping.

Keep it clean, relatively short, and feel free to keep a lot of white space in your summary so it's easily read and skimmed.

This is such a simple fix that can easily slip by. If your profile is private, that is not helping you be seen by the masses.

Make sure you set your profile to public. Go right now and just double check, this is another incredibly simple way to increase the traffic on your page.

Of course, it's great to write a review for your hairdresser or your personal trainer, but don't be afraid to write recommendations for people who can write one back for you. 

If you collaborated with someone and you think that partnership went really well, write them a LinkedIn recommendation – more than likely, they'll write one back for you.

Recommendations are gold on LinkedIn and they really make you stand out from your competition. Customers are much more likely to trust a professional that has been recommended by plenty of people that they have worked for or with.

If I speak at an event and someone running it comes up and says "Hey, thank you so much you really did a great job and everyone seemed to love it" I'll come right back and say "Of course, thank you and would you mind writing me a recommendation on LinkedIn?" and 9 out of 10 times it I come out with not only another speaking gig under my belt, but a glowing LinkedIn recommendation as well.

And that's about it – six easy tips that ,I swear, can totally turn around your LinkedIn game. 

This post originally appeared on Karen Yankovich's blog

View the original article here

Original source: 6 Things You Never Want to Do on LinkedIn.
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