LinkedIn is arguably the most effective Social Media networking website for business and professional people.  Like most other online channels such as your Business Blog, website and other social networking site profiles, your LinkedIn profile can be optimised. Here is how you do it:

Your LinkedIn Profile Heading

This is the most important step in optimising your LinkedIn Profile. From a Search Engine Optimisation perspective the heading of your LinkedIn Profile is similar to a meta page title tag and the description tag.  Avoid using a job title that no-one outside your organisation will understand, try to outline exactly what you do as succinctly as possible.

Do some keyword research around your job title and use the most popular keywords in your headline. Always include your contact information (an email address is usually enough) in your LinkedIn headline.

Your Profile Summary

Your LinkedIn profile summary should not just describe you, your interests and your aspirations.  It should contain industry related keywords, especially long-tailed keywords that people who are looking to find someone with your skills might use.   Don’t forget however that your profile will be read by people as well as the search engines and as such it should make sense.   Similar to all other well optimised online content your LinkedIn profile should be written with the objective of creating an enjoyable and memorable reader experience. Try and keep your profile summary to around 100 words or so in length.

Get Involved

The number of groups you belong to as well as the number of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd degree connections are also used to determine your LinkedIn search ranking. Being a member of a LinkedIn group is important and can be compared to link-building in organic SEO.  Visits to your profile by other members of your groups will be viewed as an inbound link  and will be seen as a testimonial or vote of confidence for you by other LinkedIn members.  The closer your relationship (1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd) to the visitor the more valuable the link, if they use the one-click filter option to sort by relationship.

We recommend that you join as many (relevant) groups as you can and connect with a few LIONs (LinkedIn Open Networkers) from your industry.

NB: LinkedIn etiquette dictates  that you should never connect, or attempt to connect with total strangers, other than those in yuor own idustry or in the same groups, as this is impolite!

If you would like more information about creating an effective social media profile either for yourself or your business, please leave a comment below or visit WSI IMS – WSI Internet Marketing Services for UK Business.