Are you using LinkedIn to it’s fullest capacity?  I know I sometimes tend to forget about it although it has a lot of cool new features that Viveka von Rosen told us about recently.

Here are some cool tips that you can use to immediately start taking advantage of LinkedIn in a bigger way.

#1.  Add Skills to your Profile.

Many of you may know this but I had to drive this point home since LinkedIn’s new Endorsements has made this feature even better.  Make sure you have your specialties listed prominently by adding Skills & Expertise.  Find this selection under the More menu.  Then start doing some keyword searches to add these skills.

 

#2.  Watch your LinkedIn Connections

Everything is a bit of a numbers game.  While you shouldn’t only focus on amassing a huge following, thousands of fans, or whatever the term is for the network you are looking at, there is no denying that numbers help.  In the case of LinkedIn, a larger network will mean that you come up in the Search Results more often.

Once you get to over 500 connections, your profile will say 500+.  But you can always see exactly how many connections you have from your Connections page.  There used to be a feature to see how big your extended Network was on LinkedIn but they recently discontinued that capability.  UPDATE:  You can see that information on the right sidebar of your LinkedIn Home Page!    Hat tip to Kevin Knebl for that one!

The big take away is to make sure you are regularly going into LinkedIn and connecting with people you have done business with or have connected with on other social sites so that you are coming up in the searches more often.

 

#3.  Use LinkedIn Signal to monitor your mentions.

This is my favorite tip.  See who is talking about you, your company, or sharing your articles by going to Signal under the News menu and doing some searches.    You can then thank people for sharing your post, connect with those people, or just give the post a Like.  The more shares and Likes and comments your articles get, the more likely they are to show up in LinkedIn Today.

 

 

So those are some hot tips to help you use LinkedIn to it’s fullest capacity.  How about you, what are your favorite LinkedIn tips?  Let us know in the comments!  You can also see some of my other LinkedIn posts here:  https://www.andreavahl.com/linkedin