Developing strong relationships on LinkedIn can be very important to career
and business success. LinkedIn has over 150 million registered users and is
still growing. It is the most powerful professional networking site on the
internet.
“Social
Networking” sites allow users to mix business with pleasure. LinkedIn is a
purely professional networking site. Therefore the ultimate goal of using
LinkedIn is to develop strong relationships that help you to advance your
professional objectives.
The first step to developing powerful
relationships on LinkedIn is to fully
complete your profile page. This will give your profile a better chance of standing
out to potential connections. The key to any good relationship is that it be
mutually beneficial. It should be clear
to potential contacts when they look at your profile why they should want to
build a professional relationship with you.
The Most Important Sections of your Profile to
complete are the:
·
Summary
·
Experience
·
Education
·
Honors and Awards
Also, it is important that you emphasize
results and skills, rather than dates and titles.
To start with you will want to add contacts
that you know well and who know you such as:
·
Former Employers
·
Co-workers
·
Professors
·
Classmates
Each time that you add a new contact, you
should write them a recommendation and
then ask for one in return. Having recommendations will make your profile stand
out to potential new connections more than anything else.
After
you have acquired some contacts and recommendations, you should then join
LinkedIn Groups. Make sure that you
join groups in the specific areas of interest that you want to build your
network. Now that you’ve joined the right groups, you share a common interest
with some of the top people in your field. This will make it more likely that
they will accept your unsolicited connection requests.
The best way to make a good connection is to
be become a resource to them. Promote your contacts businesses. Put links to
their sites on your websites and blogs. Write recommendations for them.
Comments on their posts and answer their questions and polls.
Becoming a valuable resource to your LinkedIn
connections creates a reason for them to want expand your relationship or to
interact with you “offline”. Escalating your relationship with influential
connections beyond LinkedIn can be the key to landing your “dream client”,
promoting your business or landing a lucrative new project. By creating a powerful Profile, strategically
joining the right Groups, acquiring the right Connections and Recommendations
and becoming a resource rather than just a contact, you can build powerful
LinkedIn relationships that can dramatically enhance your professional success.
This article is a companion to the “Business Success” Video Series presented by Vince Rogers for eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/videos-on_12239455_business-success.html
Learn about the Keys to business Success with help from the Principal Change Agent at Vince Rogers & Associates www.vincerogers.biz
How to Develop a LinkedIn Relationship
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