No matter your choice of profession, it’s much easier to find a job today than it was before the advent of the Internet. What used to be accomplished through phone calls, letters and word of mouth is now just a click away – you’re connected to all possible sources of jobs, not just through online job sites and forums but also through social networks like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. It’s a time when technology rules, and if you’re not connected, you end up being the loser.
While blogging may not be a full time job for most people, it does pay to be on LinkedIn if you’re a serious blogger. The following are three benefits that this network could bring you.
Connections
When you blog, you’re naturally interested in getting the maximum publicity for your writing. You want people to read what you have to say, not just for your search engine rankings but also because you want to be heard by those you think are important. When you’re connected to a host of people through LinkedIn, it’s easy to promote your blog and improve its popularity. Best of all, you can import your blog entries into LinkedIn using BlogLink or WordPress applications, so people can go straight to your blog from the LinkedIn environment.
Work Opportunities
If your skills as a writer are appreciated by other people, you are likely to gain work opportunities through your LinkedIn profile. And if you make a living or earn some extra cash through your blog, setting up a profile on LinkedIn and hooking up your blog to it is one of the best ways to get new writing gigs or get paid to write for other people’s blogs as well. Also, if your blog showcases a niche subject in which you are an expert, you are likely to be sought out for writing work in this niche.
Feedback
You can receive feedback for your blog and your work through your LinkedIn profile. You can ask satisfied clients to leave recommendations and positive feedback which is visible to other people who are connected to you and people who are connected to them. This helps enhance your work profile and boosts the visibility of your blog and your ability as a writer.
LinkedIn is more than just a tool that helps you maintain an online resume. It allows you to search for people and jobs based on your preferences and location. And when you’re a blogger, you can use it to your advantage in more ways than one.
About Brenda
Kikolani covers blog marketing and blogging tips for personal, professional, and business bloggers to succeed in search and social media marketing. Kristi Hines is a 
Great reminders of the purpose behind all this social network energy. Thanks Kristi for helping us keep our eye on the ball.
.-= New from Jonathan – Advanced Life Skills 7 Minutes on the Garden Isle of Kauai =-.
One other thing I would like to add to Brenda’s post is, in regards to making connections – LinkedIn Answers is a great way to demonstrate your expertise and help others by simply answering questions about blogging, social media, your niche, etc. I have gained new connections from people simply from answering questions in the LinkedIn Answers section. There are also LinkedIn Groups that you can join for your niche and network with others interested in the same topics.
To be honest, I’m messed up with today’s lots of social networking tools. No doubt that is why I haven’t registered in LinkedIn yet. I’m good with Google Buzz, Twitter, Facebook, Digg and StumbleUpon. If right now I try to get active in anymore social tools or something alike, I’m going to ruin my blog. I have a very little time of blogging after my school and part time job in a news agency. So, I always have to rush.
However, those who would be interested in joining linkedin and making it a part of their blogging success, this post is sure going to help.
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Not only is it key to answer (and ask) questions in the Answers section, but ensure your headline is accurate to how you want people to see you. Most LinkedIn users use the space to define what they are doing, but I suggest the headline be used to define how you do it. For instance, instead of headlining yourself as a “Bird Blogger,” you can call yourself a “Writer of Hummingbird Songs.”
Additionally, try to recommend one person in your network every week. What goes around comes around, twofold.
For more tips of mine, see 12 ways to use LinkedIn today.
.-= New from Ari Herzog@Online Media Strategies How to Enhance Your Blog Comment: Forget the Comment =-.
Recommending someone each week is a great idea Ari! So many ways to reap rewards from each network and service that you sometimes forget the obvious.
I still haven’t tapped linkedIn for anything other than real life professional stuff…I have employers on there, so I’m hesitant to share much of my personal blogging “stuff”.
.-= New from Wayne John @ Web Development Help The time when a Burger King employee threw a double cheeseburger at me =-.
I have not even visited linkedin before. I’ve received a couple of invites, but I just feel that it is another social network that will subtract from my time writing.
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I am even a part of a few groups on LinkedIn, and some times I share posts of my blog to the LinkedIn community, I can say it’s a very smart choice to be connected with profession people through it’s service!
Maybe I am not so lucky yet on finding a job through it’s search, but they have a great service indeed, but we don’t have to neglect the fact it’s not easy to find a job these days!
.-= New from Hesham @ FamousBloggers WP Automated Blogging Plugins: is it a True Business Opportunity? =-.
I’ve signed up for LinkedIn purely for professional connection intent. I am yet to try it as a tool to further my blogging tools exploration.
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I have not paid much attention to LinkedIn but thanks for sharing this information. Now at least I think I’ll be giving more attention to improving my linkedIn profile and using its blogging advantages.
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Im not the biggest fan of LinkedIn because of their need to charge users for upgraded profiles and site functionality problems but it has been very useful for the reasons you mentioned in addition to an array of others. I think we wont need resumes anymore because a LinkedIn profile is much more useful.
.-= New from Marc@New York in Words Charging Money for FREE News???? =-.
This is a great reminder of all the free options that the internet provides bloggers. In the past I have not been a fan of LinkedIn but once I read I can pull in post I got more excited about it. Because of that tip, I am at least going to give it a shot.
.-= New from Daddy Blogger The Demise Of A Blogger =-.
Definitely agree. As much as I’m admittedly not taking advantage of all the ways the Internet offers to market yourself, it amazes me that although I graduated college in 2002 and many of the online places I go to make a living as a writer didn’t even exist when I graduate college. It definitely pays to have an online presence.
.-= New from Shane@Master Dayton Writing Blog Entry Level Writers: Don’t Get Discouraged =-.
Oh I was unware of all linkedin activity, after all I am not so busy with linked in. Its like promotion of our blog through linked in profile. I will try it.
.-= New from chandan@work at home jobs Advice and tips on work at home =-.
One thing folks should be aware of is LinkedIn is NOT a “social network” in the traditional sense. Too many people say it sucks because they don’t get this fact.
If one is on LinkedIn and knows what they are doing, they are there for BUSINESS. Period.
.-= New from Dennis Edell WANTED – Keyword Research Expert(s) =-.
I signed up with LinkedIn last year and never really did much with it. In the last few weeks I took the time to enhance my profile. I joined several groups that I like, including a couple blogging ones. Haven’t found any work from it, but I like the fact that I can answer a lot of questions in the groups I’m in.
I think it’s easy to over look the fact that you are an expert in your field and you can pass along your knowledge to people who are up and coming. These forums have helped me realize that I do know what I’m doing, I feel good about helping other writers, and through these questions and answers, I have found a few ideas for posts on my own blog.
.-= New from CJ @Online Technical Writing KeywordLuv CommentLuv – Luv is All Around =-.
I have account on LinkedIn about a year a go but active as member recently. I’m enjoying LinkedIn more than other blogger community. LinkedIn member are professional and they are real people
Thank for sharing Brenda
.-= New from Latief@AnotherBlogger Blog Progress =-.
While I have heard of Linkedin (came up in the SERPs) prior to reading this post, I didn’t realize there was a Linkedin Answers. I imagine this will be a great source for gaining professional exposure.
I’ve had a LinkedIn accounts for what seems like 5 years. Is that possible? I didn’t use it much for quite a while but LinkedIn seems like they are really ramping up their service. I had not checked out the Answers section, but will very soon. Thanks.
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I find it so hard to manage all my different profiles, this has made me rethink linkedin slightly. I do agree that if you promote yourself and your skills online it can open up huge opportunities for you, more than you could ever accomplish offline.
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You have just convinced me to give LinkedIn another shot. It’s not that I don’t like it, it’s just that with all the social media mass swirling around in our heads we barely have time to eat, let alone spend countless hours in front of the computer “socializing”.
Good job on the post though, keep up the good work.
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Having a thorough LinkedIn profile has helped us on more than one occasion to garner new business. Plus, existing clients have made comments about information they have learned from reading our profile.
.-= New from Colleen Kennewick Real Estate =-.
I have a blog focussed on project managers as audience and so I have made sure that my blogs are tweeted and in turn shown as status updates in my profile (all automated). Do get visitors from linked in.
Ganapathy
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I love Linked In, of all the social networks it’s the easiest to use and manage, and connecting with people there is always easy.
.-= New from JR @ Internet Marketing Website Speed Now A Definite Factor in Google Rankings and 12 Tools to Check Site Speed =-.
I am a Big Linkedin fan myself. It’s just one huge niche market with many small niche markets with in the network. Linkedin has become my 3rd largest source of referral traffic to my blog.
Where else can you find a bigger professional network online to collaborate with?
.-= New from aBlogger@Social Media Blogging Just Hang in There! =-.
There is also a SEO benefit from LinkedIn. Many other directories will use LinkedIn profile information for their directories and business listings, and while the LinkedIn profile links are nofollow, sometimes the LinkedIn profile links are dofollow in these other websites. Of course, for local search, the scraped LinkedIn profile info becomes yet another source of citation for a local listing.
.-= New from Colleen@Kennewick Real Estate Richland Washington Homes For Sale =-.