When it comes to connecting with bloggers, I usually have no problem finding their Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, and even YouTube channels. What I do run into is a lot of bloggers who do not have a LinkedIn account, which is a shame because there are a lot of untapped opportunities for bloggers on this social network.
Some Interesting LinkedIn Stats
LinkedIn is the top professional social network. While it is not as large as Facebook or Twitter, it still has the following numbers to back up it’s importance:
- Over 15 million unique visitors per month
- Over 90 million members
- Google PageRank of 9/10
If those don’t impress you, how about the number of people who have the following in their profile:
- 43,112 results for blogger
- 6,243 results for video blogger
- 67,085 results for blogging
- 56,163 results for WordPress
- 4,917 results for blogging expert
Needless to say, there are lots of bloggers and people interested in blogging to network with, and you will want to network with them!
Strengthening Your Personal Brand
If you are building your personal brand (as you should be), you will want to have strong profiles on the top social networking sites, and what better network to become a part of than the top professional social network. There are many things you can do with your profile that will make it stand out. Here are the parts you don’t want to miss setting up.
Headline
Your headline is what comes up in search results, and it is also going to be your first impression on new connections requests that you send. You will want to put what it is you do, whether it is blogging, freelance writing, search optimization, gardening expert, etc. here so that people will know who you are and why they want to connect with you.
Photo
For bloggers, I would suggest using a profile photo that people would recognize, such as the same picture you use for your Gravatar, Twitter, and Facebook. You will want people to easily recognize you across all of your social media properties, including LinkedIn. Needless to say, you will want this shot to be a professional one.
Current and Past Jobs
Your jobs don’t necessarily have to all focus on what you’re doing full time. As you can see with mine, I include my full time position, my role on my own blog, and my most notable regular guest blogging position. If you offer WordPress consulting or other freelance services, those can go here too.
Websites
While there are default ways to add your websites to your LinkedIn profiles using the words My Website, My Company, and My Blog, I highly suggest NOT using those. Instead, use the Other option so you can customize your links’ anchor text.
This really has nothing to do with SEO value. Rather, you want people to make your text something that people will want to go and check out.
Don’t use one of your website links for your Twitter. Instead, add your Twitter account via the Twitter settings.
This will also allow you to incorporate your tweets as status updates. If you don’t think every tweet should go through your LinkedIn account, you can select the option to only share tweets ending in #in instead so you don’t clog up your connections news feeds with a lot of #FollowFridays and other chatter.
Custom Profile URL & Privacy Settings
Be sure to customize your profile URL so it is easy to share.
Also, make your privacy settings as open as you are comfortable with so people can learn more about you and see why they would want to connect with you.
WordPress Application
Is your blog on WordPress (self-hosted or WordPress.com)? Then you can use the WordPress Application on LinkedIn to show either your most recent posts or posts that are tagged LinkedIn.
This is a great way to share your latest blog posts with visitors to your profile.
Amazon for Authors
If you have published a book, you can use the Amazon Application to showcase your latest two books right on your profile.
Or, if you have a friend who has recently published a book, you can share it with your visitors.
Developing Your Network
Once you have a great profile setup, you will want to start connecting with others. You will want to connect with as many people as possible as LinkedIn uses a system of 1st connections (people you’re directly connected to), 2nd connections (people who are connected to people you are connected to), and 3rd connections (kind of like the six degrees of Kevin Bacon thing). You can get certain contact information and privileges based on your relationship to someone, so the more people you know, the larger your network will become.
The great thing about LinkedIn is, unlike Facebook, your connections can’t write on your profile wall and, as a general rule, cannot drive you bananas with spam event and application invites. So it really doesn’t hurt to connect with a broad range of people.
With any network, it’s best to start with your own email contacts as these should be the people you know the best. Under your Contacts menu, go to Add Connections, and let LinkedIn peruse your email contacts to find people on LinkedIn and send them an invite.
LinkedIn doesn’t let you personalize invites using this method, which is why it is essential that you have a recognizable photo and headline. If you’re not sure that people will recognize you, you might want to go into detail on your headline and say blogger at XYZ.com so people will know who you are.
Once you’re done with your email contacts, be sure to connect with others who publicly share their LinkedIn profiles on their website or other social profiles, and likewise share your LinkedIn profile URL on your online properties so people can connect with you.
Building Your Authority
There is lots of talk amongst bloggers that the way to dominate your niche is to build yourself up as an authority in it. LinkedIn gives you several ways to prove your authority on any topic.
Recommendations
Recommendations are powerful testimonials that tell visitors to your profile that you not only offer something of value, but people have been helped by you. You can get recommendations for past and current job positions, which includes your blog.
So how do you get recommendations? Think of it like an extremely powerful form of commenting. Find people in your network whose work you respect, and give them a recommendation. Chances are if they know your work, they will recommend you in return. You can also go under your Profile menu to the Recommendations section, find the job that you would like to be recommended for, and select people in your network to request a recommendation from.
Groups
There are a lot of great groups on LinkedIn (yes, actual active, non-spammy groups) where you can connect with people in your niche and your industry. If you are regularly an active participant, you can be listed on the group’s homepage as a Top Influencer which can lead to more recognition.
You can join up to 50 groups, so don’t be shy about joining them to see which ones are the best if there is more than one that you are interested in. The best part about groups is you can also connect directly with members of the group without having 2nd or 3rd connections in common.
Answers
Another great way to show your knowledge in your industry is through the LinkedIn Answers area. Similar to Yahoo Answers, it is a place where people can post their questions and you can, of course, answer them. The best part – this area also highlights experts in the industry.
Again, another way to get noticed and make new connections!
Driving Website Traffic
For many, social networking comes down to how much traffic they can drive to their website. LinkedIn doesn’t disappoint in this aspect either.
Sharing Links
To share your latest blog posts with your connections, I would suggest using the Attach Link option in your status box.
This allows you to have the link title, description, an image, and an additional comment which will make your update much more noticeable in your connections’ news feed and on your profile.
Sharing with Groups
Don’t just stop there though. Once you have shared your post, use the Share link beneath the update to go beyond just your connections and share it with the groups you are a member of as well.
With the update above going to just those three groups in the dropdown, I expand the reach of this post from just my 1,000+ connections to the groups combined 175,000+ members. Talk about an opportunity to drive traffic with new visitors! Just be sure that the group you are sharing with is open to such promotion, and that the post you are sharing is absolutely relevant to the main focus of the group.
Want to Get Results on LinkedIn?
Are you excited about LinkedIn yet? Because you should be!
This is really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to LinkedIn. There are so many more ways to utilize this powerful network.
Lewis Howes is a LinkedIn rockstar – literally. He and his social media savvy partner Sean Malarkey have created a great course called LinkedInfluence which helps you get the most out of LinkedIn. If you are looking to grow your network, build your authority in your niche, drive more traffic to your sites, find a job, get leads, make sales, and connect with key people in your industry, then this course is definitely for you.
I have bought it, listened to every module, and am proud to recommend it as an affiliate because I have applied some of the strategies already and seen immediate results, like going from somewhere beyond page ten in the LinkedIn people search results to the first page for some major keywords. Plus you get some great bonuses, including a 55 minute training video on LinkedIn Ads worth $97, and three eBooks – LinkedIn Master Strategies, Linked Working, and Twixplode – worth $147.
So if you want to go further with LinkedIn and are planning on investing into any course in the near future, make it this one. It’s really a fantastic deal – it seems like a lot of courses recently have been almost ridiculously expensive, but this one is only $97 for a limited time. It is really a fantastic deal. Don’t miss out on it!
Your Thoughts on LinkedIn
Do you use LinkedIn? What kind of results have you seen from it? And if you don’t, are you convinced to now? 
Also, whenever you do create your profile, be sure to connect with me on LinkedIn!
About Kristi Hines
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 
I just created a linkin just recently. So far I am liking it.
Tanya recently posted Finally a Customer Reviews & Testimonials Plugin for WordPress
That’s good to hear Tanya! Hopefully this post has given you some more ideas on where to go next.
I agree. LinkedIn is totally under appreciated. It really opens you up to another niche. It may not be “hip” but it has tons of value! I learn so much being on there and it is a shame that many people don’t find it to be an essential tool for branding. And thanks for the tips. They are very helpful.
I have to admit, I was one of the under-appreciators until just recently. There is SO much you can do on there though, whether you’re just a blogger or a blogger building a business.
I did not originally think that way I did either. I was recommended to it a few times then one day I was bored (that’s also the reason why I originally signed up on FB too. Lets keep that on the down low lol) and I decided to play with it. If I only listen to advice sooner. =P
I have not used it before, But It seems like a smart place to be. I am looking for blog networks. It is great to get to know people my niche..
Exactly Bj! You could probably find lots of people who need some help with WordPress too!
Well said Kristi Hines. Thanks for sharing. I have more business connections over there. That brings some traffic as well as business too.
But one thing I noted in LinkedIn that is we don’t have enough privacy settings for our LinkedIn Profile.
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I think LinkedIn assumes that since it’s a professional network, they don’t have to worry about the information being too personal, as most people would want to share most of their resume content with possible employers, clients, etc. There are a few items I wouldn’t want shared with the general public, like my phone number, but if I don’t add one, it’s not too much of an issue.
Great info Kristi.
I really enjoy LinkedIn. Probably the best Social Network to use for Niche marketing.
I captured a couple of minor tips here I need to use to fully optimize my profile.
The only weak spot is LinkedIn location service. If I use the Tupelo zip code I end up in Florence Alabama. I have used Greater Memphis. But still not what I want. So I really hope they soon fix that. Been one of my pet peeves with LinkedIn.
But LinkedIn Answer is a great resource for valuable info.
And of course Lewis Howes really knows his LinkedIn stuff.
Cheers.. Are
Are Morch recently posted How To Provide Proper Social Response
I haven’t tried much with location, but the few searches I did for people in my area worked out pretty well. It really aims for major metro areas though. Definitely something they could work on. And yes, Lewis knows his stuff!
I tried groups and answers as lead generation tools, but I didn’t have much luck. I guess maybe it’s a matter of consistency. I did it for a couple weeks, then quit.
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I guess it might depend on the niche. I notice that every time I answer a question or spend a few days interacting in groups I end up getting new contact requests stemming from those. I have heard of others who have luck with that, so maybe keep working on it. Really if you take about 10 minutes a day just checking in on new questions / discussions and respond, you might see some results after the persistence, when people begin to start recognizing your name as being helpful in that area.
Good review on bloggers using LinkedIn, I know I originally only used LinkedIn for my day job networking, but expanded to network with my blogging community as well. If interested just look me up on LinkedIn to connect with me.
Justin Germino recently posted 10 Bloggers Share Their 2010 Accomplishments
I started the same way you did. When I added in my blogging, that was when my LinkedIn experience really started becoming exciting!
Thanks so much for your post! We had heard great things about LinkedIn but didn’t really know how to use it. Your tips are great! Thanks so much for sharing!
You’re welcome! It’s a powerful network, especially for the Internet marketing industry!
Wow! I had no idea all those functionalities were already built into linked in! I’ve had a profile for ages with just a link to my blog and that’s it. I had no idea you could integrate it with WordPress and Twitter and the like. My goodness! You blink an eye and you’re already behind the times!
I blog under a pseudonym and LinkedIn has me as my full legal real name and I want to not link them. So LinkedIn would not work for me. Darn.
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Good point. I know someone else who is doing something similar. I guess you could build up your pseudonym specifically in the blogging arena with a separate profile and use it simply to build that image and authority, but maintaining two profiles could be a time challenge.
Good Stuff Kristi – I had not used the Twitter application, but just finished getting everyone followed and separated into their own list. Very handy!!!
Yes, reminds me I forgot to mention the tags for your connections. Very helpful in getting to know who you are connected to for what purposes!
A most excellent tutorial Kristi. I’ll be referencing it when Zi go back to LI. I signed up to it, like others eons ago and never did anything with it.
Dennis Edell@ Direct Sales Marketing recently posted New Year! New Theme!! New Plans!!! Oh My!!!!
Thanks Dennis!
Great and detailed post. One thing I did not know about at all was “you can use the WordPress Application on LinkedIn to show either your most recent posts.” I have looked around and don’t see where it is I am suppose to do this? Any guidance?
My guess is it would be helpful for many people (because it doesn’t seem obvious at all, where LinkedIn hinds this). Or I am missing something obvious.
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Hi John,
Sorry about that – sometimes I forget it’s not new to me anymore. You have to go under the More menu, Get more applications, and then select WordPress. From there, if you have never used the application before, it will ask for your blog URL. Underneath that, it gives you the option to select either all of your recent posts, or only posts tagged with LinkedIn.
If you have used the application before and just need to change the settings, you’ll need to go to the same area and edit your blog to get those options. I hope that helps!
Kristi, I’m on LinkedIn and I do most of the techniques you discuss here. I’ve been using LinkedIn to connect primarily with people in my specific field (freelance writing for college textbook publishers), so I’ve been connecting with editors and other people who work at the major textbook publishing companies, along with a few other select freelance writers and business people I know are top notch, including some in the blogging/social media area.
I don’t put my LinkedIn profile out there for all to see because:
1. I’m concerned I’ll get lots of connection requests from spammer types, like the spammers that frequently follow me on Twitter, and that it could take significant time to figure out who’s legit and who isn’t.
2. I want editors who check out my profile to see that I’m primarily connected to other quality people in the field and related fields, and not a wide range of people of varying skills, interests, and qualifications.
I’m still feeling my way with LinkedIn and learning what I can about it. (Social Media Examiner, which you write for, has a lot of good posts about LinkedIn.) However, I still am very much a newbie there.
John Soares recently posted The History of Social Networking — Plus My Story
I was the same way about LinkedIn – not wanting to connect with possible “spammers” or advertisers and such. Then I found out there was a limit of 30,000 and I figure, I’ll probably never hit that anyway, so how does it hurt to connect with just about anyone? In my case, people in just about every industry can benefit from blogging, so connecting with a blogger for advice isn’t too far fetched. And although I don’t need them, I do end up getting consulting requests from people in various industries thanks to being connected with me (or being referred by one of my random connections).
The thing I like about LinkedIn is the spammers aren’t really as intrusive. They can’t write on your profile, and the direct messages seem to be pretty low compared to other networks. But you definitely have to use the network as you see fit, and if that is how you want to do it, then that is fine.
One thing I would suggest, in the long run if you do decide to open yourself up to more people, is to take advantage of the tags. That way, you can tag the most important contacts you have coming in, and one day if you want to prune the list, you can just sort your contacts by untagged and sort it from there. That’s what I plan on doing one day – the tagging, not necessarily the pruning.
Thanks Kristi. I’ll think about your advice and consider tagging and being open to having a larger number of contacts.
Besides, John, you can always refuse to recommend or refer a connection if asked, claiming you don’t know that person well enough — which can become fodder to grow a relationship with that person!
You also may never know if a 2nd or 3rd degree connection of that “spammer” is someone who could be your next best client.
Thanks so much for posting this article. I needed that extra push in order to make me FINALLY set up a LinkedIn profile. Mission accomplished!
Nea | Self Improvement Saga recently posted 10 Awesome Natural Remedies from the Doctor Oz Show
Glad I could be of inspirational assistance!
Very well written Kristi. I hope that more people follow this advice. Most people on LinkedIn don’t even fill out their profiles!
Dan Schawbel recently posted Sledding Through Life
Thanks Dan! Yes, there are a lot of people with pretty bland profiles, many of which I know have websites and other online properties that they could be showcasing on this network. Hopefully this will be a nudge in the right direction for them!
I don’t have LinkedIn account but after reading your post I fully understand how important LinkedIn is… And surely going to create my LinkedIn account.
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That’s great Anu. Good luck building your network!
Thanks for the outstanding tips Kristi. I’ve been on LinkedIn for 3+ years, but I just started blogging. Q: What do you recommend if the title of your blog is longer than LinkedIn allows? Should I stick with “Blog” or use some creative abbreviations?
That’s great to hear! I would go with something descriptive that describes the essence of the blog. Most people recognize mine as Kikolani, but if they come across my profile and haven’t heard of it before, I think that Blogging Tips or Blog Marketing would sum it up for someone deciding if it was a website they would be interested in. So whatever that short summary of your blog is would be what I would go for in that case.
Once I build a presence on twitter and facebook I’ll definitely trying to grow my linkedin profile but I always thought that it is not personal enough and only suitable to find jobs through business contacts.
It’s much more than that Andreas. I direct message people regularly through LinkedIn for chat, and have made lots of contacts just for blogging, strengthening my relationship with them.
Hey Kristi, hope you’re settling back in after your trip to Oz! Did you get to see the penguins?
I was surprised that changing the labels on links to external sites doesn’t have SEO benefits. Why is that? For example, my retail consulting effort is called “Interstratics”, but my label for it in LinkedIn says “Big Picture Retail Insight”. Doesn’t having “retail” connected to the Interstratics.com hyperlink help, even if only a little?
Alexa Samuels recently posted How LinkedIn changed someone’s life in a way you couldn’t predict
Yes, we got to see the penguins! They were so adorable, waddling around and going to their homes on the beach to feed their babies.
The SEO benefits of links on LinkedIn are iffy. Basically, they are all nofollow, which tells the search engines to essentially ignore them. But there’s lots of differing opinions on whether search engines actually ignore those links or still give them some sort of value for being on the profile. So I just assume that the anchor text / label you give them is more for describing your site to visitors of your profile than it is for gaining the proverbial “link juice.” Either way, it certainly doesn’t hurt to have them labeled well.
Kristi,
You can get follow links from you profile, but only if you DON’T change the anchor text from the defaults.
Nofollow isn’t supposed to pass anchor text anyway (at least as far as Google is concerned) but at least if it’s a follow link it will pass PageRank.
Actually, now that I check my profile and yours it looks more like they are followed redirects. Even with custom anchor text.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/kristihines
http://www.linkedin.com/in/kylealm
But mine gets counted my Majestic SEO, so I’m not really sure about this whole thing now.
Thanks
Kyle Alm recently posted Ping for WordPress
I found this post re: LinkedIn’s link redirect changes. http://www.seerinteractive.com/blog/linkedin-changed-your-profile-links-to-302-redirects/2011/02/15/
If I understand this correctly, now none of the links posted on one’s profile have any SEO value anymore?
Alexa Samuels recently posted How LinkedIn changed someone’s life in a way you couldn’t predict
It doesn’t look like it. I understand that there are spammers, but they are even doing it for other social profile links.
302 used to be a major black hat SEO technique before my time, not sure how or if they get crawled.
Hi Kristi, I discovered your blog via Ana Hoffman and I am thoroughly impressed! I am one of the many people who have a Linked In profile, yet I am guilty of not utilizing it as well as I should.
I thank you so much for this incredibly detailed post. I thought I was somewhat familiar with it, but apparently not!
I will definitely print this off actually, and head over to Linked In next week and compare point for point!
Thanks for all the time you took to share all these tips!
~Jayne~
Jayne Kopp recently posted Get in to the Rythm of the Law of Rythm!
Wow Kristi, You are an excellent writer and offer superb material in areas I am passionate about. I was no where to be found on Linkedin for my keywords, then I learned from Sean and Lewis and I am on page one for my keywords. I highly recommend LinkedInfluence also.
@ClayFranklin
Hope you see some great results from moving up in the rankings! I know I’ve gotten a lot more contacts that way!
Yeehaw! Not once, but twice, do you feature me in screenshots! Thanks, K!
Ari Herzog @ Social Media Marketing recently posted Who is Ari Herzog to You
You don’t have to thank me… you did the hard work of getting yourself in those positions as the expert!
Kristi, let me say that I honestly appreciate this post. You outlined and explained all the major benefits of LinkedIn.
What I like about LinkedIn the most is that it is a great learning resource. I joined relevant groups and they are a deep pool of knowledge. Questions and answers are also awesome and I still prefer them to Quora.
I am still not using LI to its full potential at the time, but I enjoy it a lot. And I agree with all the readers who said that LI is under-appreciated.
BTW, love your LI profile.
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Hi Kristi,
I am on LinkedIn but I’m not really that active there. I get invites to connect with people but it seems that the majority of them are in some type of offline business. I’m an affiliate marketer so I haven’t connected with anyone actually looking for what I have to offer. I found the site to be really confusing which is why I guess I haven’t spent much time there.
Thanks for this though and I think that maybe over the weekend I’ll get on there again and really take a better look around. I’ve got a list of things to do this weekend and will be sure to add that to it.
Enjoyed the post and thanks for the information.
Adrienne
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You define yourself as an “affiliate marketer” and admit LinkedIn.com is confusing? How are affiliate marketing sites not confusing? I created an account on e-junkie.com today and it was very confusing.
Ari Herzog @ Click and Learn recently posted 17 Plugins to Improve Your WordPress Blog
You’re welcome Adrienne! It’s a little more “interesting” to work around their site, but once you get the basics set up, it’s usually smooth sailing from there.
I’ve been using LinkedIn but I don’t see ANY traffic coming from the site. True, I probably need to spend more time there but the site navigation is confusing.
Thank you for this great article, I hadn’t heard of the “Answers” facility before.
Stinks the links went from followed to a 302 re-direct. With the way no-follows are showing up in Google link checks though, I’d hesitate to remove my custom anchors just yet.
Hey Kristi,
Fantastic tutorial. I use most of the strategies that you’re sharing here. I need to join more groups in my niche.
Thanks for sharing your insights.
All the best,
Mavis
Mavis Nong recently posted Social Monkee – Your Tool for Creating Quality Backlinks Every Single Day!
Thanks Kristi for this wonderful tutorial! I have never heard of several of these uses–so now I have to start exploring. Thanks again.
Very thorough and extremely helpful, Kristi. I have a nice little to do list just from reading the post, and great resources to turn to once I’ve finished my list.
My LinkedIn account has been suffering from years of neglect, but, as you point out, I’d be a fool to waste the opportunities waiting there for me and my blogs.
Thanks for sending me the link to this post. I appreciate it.
Brad Harmon @ Big Feet Marketing recently posted 3 Myths About Online Branding
Awesome explanation about LinkedIn, excellent tutorial for us this is my second read now it seems to be a addiction of your insights analysis of web marketing, we normally use sites but we never try to get involve as much as you explain about more features, keep it on in future I wanna more big outputs from you.
Thanks and Regard
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Thanks Kristi, this is great advice
I had already been doing some of what you recommended, but changed a few more things because of your great post.
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Hi Kristi, thank you for tips in maximizing the benefits of Linkedin.
See, I have been a freelance since college. I have not been a staff/trainee/employee of any company. What would be the best way to display my resume? I had numerous clients for contracted jobs but how about for the people who does not know me yet and only see my resume.
Thanks.
Matt@Web Marketing recently posted Social Media – Tips For Using Social Media To Benefit Your Business
Nice tutorial Kristi
I created my LinkedIn account long ago when I first got started my online business. But I stopped using it after one month or so. One thing I can tell you that even with my “unprofessional” way of using it, I still learned many things from people I connected with at that moment. So, it’s definitely worth another try!
Thanks for sharing.
Duy@Razer Naga Epic recently posted By: black_raven
I have created my account many days ago but not using and I never cared about LinkedIn. Now i think i have to take care of it also.
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