If you’re on LinkedIn, you’re a member of the world’s largest business networking site for professionals.

With over 200 million people using LinkedIn you need to find ways of building relationships with the right people so that you can make good use of this platform.

Of course, the first thing you need to do is to decide who you want to engage with: prospective clients, your next employer, strategic business partners, professionals in your industry etc. Once you who you want to attract you will need a plan to make sure you don’t waste your time and your efforts when you’re using LinkedIn.

Incorporate the following strategies into that plan and you’ll stand more chance of success.

# 1. Make A Good First Impression

You don’t get much time to make a first impression on LinkedIn or anywhere else. When people find your profile via a search or by accident they will look at your photograph and at your professional headline. In two to three seconds they will have decided whether or not to read further. You have one image plus 120 characters to inform the reader of:

• Your role
• The level at which you work
• Your industry sector
• The value you deliver.

Here’s how I use my 120 characters.



With your image and your professional headline you’re trying to show that you’re a professional person. You want to help the people viewing your profile to decide that they want to connect with you, to contact you, to read more about you and so on.

Spend time getting your message right and practise squeezing more information into your 120 characters.

You will be rewarded for your efforts.

#2. Use Relevant Key Words

Before you start writing your summary and the information about your career, your company and your work think about the key words you intend to use as you write your profile. You will use these words in the job title fields, in project headings, in your list of skills and expertise and in the text that you write – just like when you’re writing a web page.

Be specific. If I’m looking for an EU VAT Taxation Specialist on LinkedIn (and I recently sourced such a person for a client) I would not have found you, if you had just called yourself an accountant in your profile.

Likewise, if you describe yourself as an executive coach, I won’t know that you’re an expert in conflict resolution, dispute resolution and employment tribunal avoidance unless you tell me.

LinkedIn is the place to be specific with the terms you use about yourself and your abilities.

Write in the language of the people you want to find you. Explain, for example, that you help newly appointed executives to transition from management roles to board level responsibilities and include several references to what you do so that your expertise will show up in LinkedIn searches.

Use the skills and expertise area, too. Use key word terms that you hope your target audience. They will find you more easily if you work in this way.



#3. Be Visual

LinkedIn is nudging us all to be more visual in our approach to using the platform, whether we’re producing company pages or working on individual profiles. Follow the advice.

Upload images, videos and presentations to supplement the text you write. This will help to build your credibility on LinkedIn.

You’ll demonstrate that you know what you’re talking about and that you can deliver. For example, if you’re a professional speaker, video clips of you delivering a presentation will underline your abilities.



#4. Use Updates Effectively

Even if you have a great profile and a fantastic company page, you won’t engage with enough of the right people on LinkedIn, if you wait for them to find you. What you need to do is to post updates that will be of interest to your chosen target audience.

Don’t simply post a link to the latest article in a newspaper or other authoritative source. Write something about the update. Offer an opinion about why it is important. Ask a question. Explain why you’re taking the position you’re taking in your blog post. Make the news story part of your communication. Don’t just repost something you have read elsewhere.

Don’t stop there. Use the “like” function and the “comment” function to show you pay attention to the updates of people in your community. Share relevant content on your profile and in the groups to which you belong. Again, make a point with your update. Show that you are an interesting person with well-thought-out opinions that are worth listening to. Don’t just join in the conversation. Start one, and because you’re on LinkedIn, make it a meaningful conversation.

…Finally

The majority of people on LinkedIn don’t use the platform well. Their profiles are badly written and they don’t know how build, or to engage with, a professional community. If you follow any of the strategies here, you will get ahead of a lot of people on LinkedIn. You’ll also be starting to make LinkedIn work for you.

I know LinkedIn works for me and for my business. See how you can use it to help you. Which of these strategies do you think will help you to make a big impact on LinkedIn quickly? You’re welcome to share your thoughts and your plans below.









































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Which would you rather give up for a weekend — sex or your iPhone? 15% of respondents to one study said they would choose a romance-free weekend rather than go without their beloved device.


A recent survey conducted by Gazelle.com (the company that buys your old iPhone) asked 1,000 people who have used the service to trade-in an old device if they’d rather go without sex or iPhone for a weekend. Yes, 15% of people chose sex.

This isn’t the first time smartphone owners admitted they would give up sex over their smartphone. In a related survey by another company, smartphones tied with intimate relationships as two things business professionals said they couldn’t live without.

But there’s another relationship between iPhones and people’s sex lives — nearly 4% of respondents to the Gazelle survey reported having used their iPhones while having sex.

A spokesperson for Gazelle said they were even more surprised at how many people said they would choose their device over Facebook.

“When asked which device or platform they would not be able to live without, a majority (65%) chose iPhone, while only a few (1%) report not being able to do without Facebook,” the press release for the survey states.

The survey was open to Gazelle customers for about one week. A spokesperson for Gazelle told Mashable they wanted to make the survey available for iPhone owners because the questions related to that device.

Check out some other highlights from the survey:

• Consumers want an iPhone with a larger screen. Nearly 40% of respondents report a bigger screen is the feature they would most like to see added to the next version of the iPhone.
• Thanks to iPhone, consumers have been able to reduce the number of devices they own. Nearly 70% of survey respondents report waving goodbye to their iPod or mp3 player since purchasing an iPhone. Fifty-five percent have ditched their camera, and over 40% have gotten rid of their GPS unit since buying an iPhone.
• iPhone is ruining our manners and we love it anyway. More than 25% of survey respondents report that they “almost always” use their iPhone while in a social setting such as during a meal or while at a party. iPhone hasn’t just changed how we communicate and access information – it’s also completely changed live social interaction. A combined 58% of respondents say they use their iPhone in a social setting either “usually” or “occasionally,” while only 17% of respondents report using their iPhone in such a situation either “rarely” or “never.”
• Think twice before you reach for a friend’s iPhone – you don’t know where it’s been. Nearly 85% of respondents report having used their iPhone while in the bathroom.

Are you an iPhone owner, and if so, can you relate to any of these survey results? Tell us in the comments.
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