LinkedIn is an outstanding social networking tool that often gets lost in the fray of the Facebook and Twitters of the world. Regardless of your current position as a business professional, LinkedIn can provide real value for you. Here are 10 ways to make sure you are getting the most out of your LinkedIn presence.

Complete your profile

It sounds simple and obvious but you’d be surprised by how many people neglect to do this. Fill in previous jobs, write a summary and explain the positions you’ve held.  We also recommend putting schools you attended as there is often a large alum networking presence on LinkedIn.

Add a picture

Again, sounds completely obvious but often forgotten. There’s a place for your picture on LinkedIn. Use it. Put something tasteful and professional – adding a picture automatically allows people to put a face with the name – and as a business professional, I’m much more likely to reach out to someone when I at least know it’s a human being on the other end.

Change your status frequently but keep your status professional

This always keeps you at the top of the “recently updated profiles list” which appears every time someone signs into their LinkedIn account.  Just remember that LinkedIn is not Facebook or Twitter!

Don’t forward all of your Tweets to LinkedIn

Some people forward all of their tweets to their LinkedIn profile.  I do not recommend this. Not only is it irritating for everyone else, Twitter and LinkedIn should be used differently and they really cater to entirely different markets and demographics. Be smart about the updates you share on LinkedIn and remember your audience – LinkedIn is primarily a professional network – people probably don’t care about what you ate for dinner last night.

Focus on portraying your personal brand in your summary.

A great LinkedIn summary is not necessarily stiff and proper. It should be an insight into YOU. Maintaining your own natural voice is critical throughout your Social Media endeavors.

Ask for recommendations

Ask former professors, employers, clients and mentors for recommendations.  Offer to provide recommendations for them in return as well.  This is a way of validating you and your work.  When people consider working with you, they will probably check your recommendations to make sure others had a good experience with you too. I make a habit of requesting this from every client I work with – it takes five minutes and can really add a TON of value to your profile.

Join groups

You can join up to 50 groups on LinkedIn.  When using LinkedIn for professional networking, consider joining groups in your geographic area, or industry, or groups that pertain to your hobbies. This is vastly underused by the majorty of LinkedIn users but can be extremly valuable to you as a professional.

Participate in the conversation in these groups!

You’d be really surprised who you will meet in a group conversation in one of your targeted groups.

Fill out your Amazon reading list

It adds spunk to your profile and sparks conversation.  You may also receive group invitations based on the books you read and, we’d all be a little bit better off if we started reading a little more (offline) these days…

Integrate your blog

LinkedIn allows you to easily integrate the RSS feed from your blog – use this to your advantage and give other professionals a way to easily navigate to your blog. I’ll be the first to tell you that a blog can be a gateway to endless opportunity.

Matt Cheuvront is the mastermind behind Life Without Pants. Take the next step by saying hello on Twitter and subscribing to his blog today!

Tags: Business, LinkedIn, Social Media, Twitter