5 Steps to Improve Your LinkedIn Presence

Launched in May 2003, LinkedIn has been a hugely popular resource for business owners and employees alike. The ability to connect closely with fellow professionals has rocketed LinkedIn to over 200 million registered users in around 200 countries.

If used correctly, and to its' full potential, LinkedIn can prove to be an extremely valuable tool in your social media kit; but how exactly can you achieve the results you want? In this article, we explore the various ways to help ensure you or your company get the most out of LinkedIn.

Upon user registration, LinkedIn has a fantastic step-by-step guide to help you get your profile complete and up to date. This process goes through adding your basic information, such as contact details and job history, to more detailed information, such as education, personal skills and attributes.

If you are a job seeker, completing your profile can really help you land that dream job. Potential employers may find your LinkedIn profile, so you want to give them the right impression by presenting a profile bulging with job landing information.

If your LinkedIn is a company page, selling your brand is fundamental. Again, making sure you have completed all the important profile fields can help people find out more about your company. Make sure you have a good, snappy and detailed header on your profile; a quick sentence or two which summarises your company, the services you provide and even your future goals and developments.

Another good tip is to change your profile URL. By default, LinkedIn will set your URL as a ghastly array of numbers and letters. Nobody wants this, especially if you want a printed address to your profile, for example on a business card. You can see your current profile URL next to the 'Contact Info' tab. To change this, simply click 'Edit' on your profile, and then 'Edit' again next to the URL.

With the new changes in the LinkedIn profile design, all of your contact details can be placed nicely at the top of your page. Once a user clicks the 'Contact Info' tab, a separate section will show, giving quick reference to all the important details you can be reached on. Always make sure this part of your profile is up-to-date and filled out to your requirements; there's nothing worse than a potential employee or customer trying to reach you on expired contact details!

But remember, only have contact details for the ways you feel comfortable with.

You may have a perfectly completed profile with descriptions, tags, contact details and website addresses, but why stop there? You want people to become interested in you when they see your profile, which is why content is king!

Regular LinkedIn updates are a fantastic way to reach out to people in your sector. Are you a web developer? Why not post development news, tutorials and resources. Have you got your own blog? Why not update your LinkedIn connections with each new article you write. Is your LinkedIn page a company profile? Why not post regular company updates, like special offers and new products?

There are endless possibilities as to what content you can have on your profile; just make sure most of what you add is relevant to your job or sector, as maintaining your professionalism is very important!

On its own, LinkedIn is a very powerful resource for any employee, job seeker or company. For best results, you should join the power of LinkedIn with other social networks, like Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

Currently, LinkedIn can only be connected to your Twitter account, so any updates you make can be automatically tweeted for your followers to see. However, you can always have links to your LinkedIn page on your Facebook company page or group, for example, and vice versa. Also, advertise your LinkedIn profile on your company website, as customers may be interested in becoming connected with you.

They say good things come to those who wait, so be patient! If you have been through these steps, by now you should have a truly fantastic LinkedIn page ready for the world to see. However, you won't become the next Donald Trump over night, so selling yourself can take some time. Stick to the steps, advertise your LinkedIn page wherever you can, and slowly you will see more and more people finding out who you are.

Good luck!