Nielson Online called LinkedIn, “The world’s largest audience of affluent, influential professionals.”  In fact, you will find more than 80 million of them from more than 200 countries. LinkedIn’s population is highly educated; more than 80 percent have bachelor or graduate degrees.  

With that being said, LinkedIn provides the greatest opportunity to create business relationships, partnerships and highly refined / qualified leads. Most of the research I’ve done on this topic is fairly straight forward and easy to do.  Here are just a few suggestions - check out the links below for specifics:

1.     Don’t assume your LinkedIn profile should be a quick thirty second sell – this is an opportunity to layout your personal and company information in a way that says ‘let’s create an ongoing dialoque’ --- and  by the way, I’m an expert with information I want to continually share with you…

2.     Have a complete profile - include polls, videos, your blog feed and PowerPoint presentations. Using the new publications application, post your e-books, books, articles and other publications.

3.     Connect via groups – not only sign up but participate on an ongoing basis. Share information and begin creating relationships.

4.     Create a community on LinkedIn – one that is authentic and consistently shares pertinent and relevant information to the group. 

5.  Lastly – don’t forget to optimize your profile – that is, insure that you are using relevant keywords within all rich media links that will get your profile noticed on search.  

To learn more – check out these must-have resources: 

LinkedIn Cheat Sheet by my favorite Hubspot Certified Partner Kuno Creative:
http://www.kunocreative.com/linkedin-cheat-sheet/ 

How to optimize your profile with keywords by Linked Strategies:
http://www.linkedstrategies.com/linkedin-keyword-optimization-video/

View Denice's Linked Profile:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/macdonaldconsultingservices

Good luck!
Denice

[LinkedIn photo image from http://technorati.com/]