Articles

Using LinkedIn to Highlight Your Company & Staff by Kathy Horn

LinkedIn is a rapidly growing social media tool that focuses on professionals and businesses. Many individuals are represented within LinkedIn, as are “special interest” groups [corporate or university alumni groups, job interest groups, etc.]. Many people use LinkedIn as an online resume, representing their work history and achievements. A database of businesses is also available within the tool, allowing individuals to search on and learn more about these companies. Most large corporations have already added their information to the site, and many HR departments use the site to post open positions or to do passive searches for suitable candidates to fill openings—searching on keywords found in individual’s profiles. Basic business information in LinkedIn is added and maintained by current staff—that is, if your email address domain in your LinkedIn profile matches the company you are trying to add or change, you will be allowed to do so.

Getting Started
It makes the most sense to designate an individual or group of people to set up and maintain your company’s LinkedIn profile. That individual will need to set up an individual profile before he or she can add the business.

Setting Up Your Personal Profile
Whether you are new to LinkedIn or have been linked in for years, you will want to set up (or review) your profile with a critical eye. LinkedIn is essentially your online business persona—it should represent your professional capabilities and history clearly. Consider that LinkedIn profiles rank high in many search engines, so if someone Google’s your name your profile will likely appear. Profile suggestions:

1. Enter a brief, concise headline to describe yourself. An example: “Senior Marketing Analyst”. When your name comes up in search results, your headline is shown, too.
2. Choose your industry from the drop-down list. Read through it carefully for the best fit.
3. Add a photo of yourself. Use a headshot no more than 80x80 pixels, make certain it is professional.
4. Your summary should provide one or two short paragraphs on your background and skills. It should be grammatically correct and have NO typos!
5. The specialties section allows you to enter key words representing your areas of expertise. Don’t leave this empty.
6. Add your professional experience, including companies worked for, dates of employment and titles. If the company name is not listed on the drop-down, type in the name. [Since you will be adding your current employer to the database, use the name as it will appear on the “permanent” profile.] You may also add job descriptions for each role. This is essentially an online resume. You may wish to leave off history older than 15 years if it does not add value to your profile. Include your education and any professional certifications. Dates are not required.
7. When your profile is initially saved within LinkedIn, you are assigned a unique URL. You should edit your public profile and customize the URL to contain your name. Note that you may not get you first choice so have a few others in mind. Again—remain professional with the names! Make sure your profile is public so it can be searched. Helpful hint: put your customized URL on your business cards, resume and email signature so people can access your profile quickly.
8. Optionally, you may add up to three websites to your profile (great if you have your own business), list interests, add honors and awards, list personal information, or change contact settings.
9. Use the mobile LinkedIn feature if you have a Smart Phone. It’s m.linkedin.com. Note that you can modify certain account settings to limit access to information on your profile. You may (and should) edit your profile frequently to keep it current.

Adding Your Company
Once your profile exists, you may add your Company listing. To do so, select the Companies link at the top of the screen and then choose “Add a Company”. Type in the company name and your email address at the firm. If the company email domain already exists (i.e., vitalinkweb.com) you will be prompted to edit the current company profile. If the company does not yet exist (and the email domain isn’t there yet), a confirmation email will be sent to you using the corporate domain. This email will provide a link for you to login to your LinkedIn account. Once confirmed, you will be taken to the “Create a Company” page to add your company. Note that company information in LinkedIn is voluntarily posted and maintained by the companies themselves, so you will periodically want to update the information. Information you might provide (much is optional):
• Company description gives a synopsis of the business. This can be pulled from your corporate website, but keep it fairly short.
• Specialties—e.g., “marketing strategy, branding and positioning”, etc.
• The URL for the corporate website.
• Industry (selected from a drop-down menu)
• Type of business (corporation, proprietorship)
• Status of business (operating, closed)
• Number of employees
• Year started
• Locations
• Financial information
• RSS/URL for a company blog
• Related companies
• Company logo (file size must be less than 100kb)

Getting Employees LinkedIn
The next step is getting your staff members added. Each will need to set up a profile (or you might do it for them using their individual email addresses and setting passwords). When they each enter their current positions, the company name should now appear on the drop-down menu. Selecting the company will tie them to the company profile; however employees will not be linked to each other until connection requests are sent/accepted. Much of the information provided on the biographies page of the corporate website may be used in LinkedIn. When employee profiles are completed and the customized URLs are available, you may wish to add these to the biography pages within the corporate website.

Add Connections
To add connections, search people for current employees. Once located, use the Invite to Connect feature. Only one of you needs to send the invitation to create the link. Choose how you know the person (in this case “colleague”). Note that in some cases to protect the individual’s privacy you must enter their email address. A default message appears (shown below), but you may wish to customize the note. After the invitation is delivered, the recipient may choose to accept, decline or just ignore it. If they do accept, you will receive notification and their profile will be viewable under your contacts. Each individual may then add other connections, searching for people he/she knows using the quick search feature in the upper right corner or choose the advanced search option. Advanced search allows you to set location parameters, current or former employers, education, etc. If you worked with Mary Smith at ABC Manufacturing in Charlotte, for example, but cannot remember her married name, you may search for “Mary” with the company name and location as parameters and may be able to locate her in LinkedIn.

Sample Company Search
So what do others see once your company and employees are LinkedIn? The Bank of America profile is shown below for reference. Note the following:
• Current employees in my network are listed with their titles; more can be seen by clicking on “See more…”. These may be contacts for garnering additional business.
• On the right side, related companies/divisions are listed, followed by common career paths (this will only show up if the employee pool using LinkedIn is large enough). High connection paths are also listed. In some cases this might represent a partial client list for the business.
• Former employees and new hires are listed below current staff. Recent promotions may be shown at the bottom. You might use these names and titles to send congratulatory notes with a request for a meeting.
• Key statistics appear on the right (when available). These might include divisional locations, a website address, industry, revenues and company size.
• Below statistics, common job titles may be listed. This can be valuable as many companies use slightly different job titles—this way when you contact them you can speak their “language”.
• News links and stock information may also be shown (not displayed here).

The Value of Groups
There are thousands of groups in LinkedIn ranging from a few members to thousands. Groups are broken out by type to make it easier to find. These include alumni, corporate, conference, networking, non-profit, professional and other.  To search for a group, click on the Groups link on the left navigation bar. A list of current groups you belong to (if any)will appear. On the right side of the page are options to find a group or create a group. To find groups to join, choose Find a Group. Enter keywords and choose the category (or leave blank to search all).

Hints:
• Limit the groups you join to those that really make sense for you. Some groups require approval, so don’t waste your time trying to join the UCLA Alumni group if you didn’t go there!
• Consider adding both undergrad and graduate alumni groups.
• Look for industry-specific groups that represent your prior industry or future interests.
• Consider local professional groups; some of these groups have meetings in addition to a LinkedIn presence. Charlotte Business Professionals, for example, meets quarterly and is open to all industries and job levels.
• The number of group members is generally represented next to the name. This may help you determine whether it is worth your time to join a group.
• You can decide whether to receive email updates from the group. If these get to be overwhelming, you can go back and turn off this feature. 

One benefit of group membership: you can use the advanced search feature to look for group members within a specific company. This gives you a way to get a contact name. Note that with an unpaid LinkedIn membership you can only page through the first hundred names, so utilize keywords where possible to limit search results.

The Introductions Feature
Once you are linked to contacts and/or groups, you may use the introductions feature for a “warm” intro. Here’s an example:
1. Search for the specific business.
2. Look at the list of current employees—it will tell you at the top how many are in your network. You may have to click on “See more…” to access the full list.
3. You may limit the list, if needed, by choosing filters on the right. Do this to limit to your geographic area if the company is headquartered elsewhere. You can also filter by job title or limit the list only to those in your network.
4. Let’s assume you are looking to speak with the Marketing Director and you see an individual listed as VP of Marketing who is a second or third level LinkedIn contact. This looks like a good fit for the introduction. Under the person’s name you will see how you connect to this person.
5. Mouse over the person’s name- three options appear. Choose “Get Introduced”. [If you have a paid LinkedIn subscription, you may choose to send a message through InMail. You may also invite the individual to connect through this link but again this is not recommended unless you know him/her.]
6. A screen will appear to compose your messages (plural). For a second level contact, you will write a message to the intended connection (keep it concise and professional) describing why you are contacting him. A second email should be composed to your first level contact—the one who links the intended connection to you. Your connection will forward the email on to his or her connection and do the introduction. For a third level contact the process happens once more—so it takes longer to get a response.

Some of your contacts are busy or may choose not to forward the introduction email. Even if they do so, not everyone will respond. Keep trying—it usually works!

The Jobs Tab
LinkedIn offers job postings to members for $195 per 30-day posting. [This feature is more valuable in some geographic areas than others.] To see jobs posted in your area, choose the Jobs link at the top and search by keyword, country and/or postal code. When results are returned, two tabs will appear. The first shows jobs posted on LinkedIn; the second shows jobs posted matching your criteria on the web through SimplyHired.com. Alternately, when searching companies (see section below) you may filter to display only companies with jobs listed on LinkedIn.
Many LinkedIn group members will also “list” jobs that appear as comments in your group updates. This is a good (and free) way to advertise openings!

Communicating via LinkedIn
The InMail feature in LinkedIn allows users to email level one connections. Level two or three connections can only be contacted by users with the upgraded version of LinkedIn. Group members can be sent email by everyone in the group. Emails are delivered to the address posted in your profile, so make sure it is current. The messages also appear in your LinkedIn inbox. Note when you receive an email in your personal box that as a standard, LinkedIn is forwarding the message on behalf of the sender using a “nomail” return address that will bounce if your just hit reply. If the email has been sent on behalf of a contact, scroll to the bottom and choose the “reply to” link. This allows you to respond within LinkedIn.

Other Stuff
Advanced users might consider:
• Adding LinkedIn Applications like SlideShare, Polls or TripIt.
• Asking or answering questions—by providing valuable answers to questions others ask you can position yourself as a subject matter expert.

LinkedIn is a valuable tool for professionals to keep connected and share ideas. Use it well!