• LinkedIn Goes Beyond Your Online Profile: To Image and Reputation Management
• Re-connect | Power Your Career | Get Answers: The 3 Main Advantages of LinkedIn

LinkedIn Goes Beyond Your Online Profile
...To Image and Reputation Management

Most of us are guilty of letting our LinkedIn accounts site idle. Other than "View Invitation" and "Accept / Reject Invitation", we do little else with it. Creating a LinkedIn profile brings within its fold, a set of unwritten roles and responsibilities, which deliver great results when followed.

Before we get to that, ask yourself this one important question  is your LinkedIn profile complete, professionally done and updated often? If you answered "no", then you've got to start at the very basics! There is no point in having an online profile page that does not truly represent who you are, what qualifications and experience you bring to possible business associates and why other LinkedIn members should invite you to their network of connections.

Presenting a professional image of yourself is critical and a LinkedIn profile is a great tool you can use for this purpose. By getting recommendations from well connected members in your network, you can manage and build a strong reputation as well. It is also a great way to showcase testimonials from happy customers!

It is not complicated, though, perhaps a tad time consuming in the beginning to set up a good profile page on LinkedIn. Take the time to follow the steps on how to build your LinkedIn profile and you can't go wrong. Register for our webinar "LinkedIn: Networking and Lead Generation Tool in 2010". There are two times available:

• Thursday, February 25, 2010 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM EST
• Thursday, February 25, 2010 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM GMT

According to LinkedIn, over 60 million professionals use this leading professional online network to exchange information, ideas and opportunities. You can use it to:

• Find the people and knowledge you need to achieve your business / professional goals.
• Better manage and control your professional identity online.
• Stay informed about your contacts and industry using LinkedIn Updates.
• Reach out to contact hiring managers and placement consultants directly using the InMail feature and enhance your career opportunities.
• Browse the Jobs Directory and LinkedIn Job Postings.
• See a full list of who has viewed you profile -- not everyone who has some professional interest in you may contact you immediately, but if you are keen and get in touch, you may uncover some great hidden opportunities!
• Ask questions and seek advice -- take advantage of the experience and expertise of this vast professional community online!
• Answer questions to don your "expert's hat" and give your reputation another shining touch!
• Use direct advertising with a LinkedIn ad that will be viewed only by the target audience you specify.
• If you have a blog and are strapped for good content, find possible guest bloggers on your LinkedIn network and invite them to post comments to your blog.
• Improve your Google page rank by making your LinkedIn Profile available for indexing by search engines.
• Use the search feature to find people by company, industry and city. This way you can research your prospects before meeting or contacting them. These are only a dozen advantages of utilizing the power of LinkedIn; there are many more and growing by the day!

One last piece of advice, publicize your LinkedIn URL on every possible touch point -- on your marketing collateral, your business card, in your email signature, sign-off line in your email newsletters, on your website(s), flyers and brochures, and anywhere that customers, prospects, potential employers, business associates and partners can learn more about you.
Your local WSI Consultant is trained in LinkedIn best practices and can help you leverage your LinkedIn profile in a variety of ways to your business advantage -- get in touch today!