Winning LinkedIn Strategy

WinningWork with
An Extended Guide

Adam Gordon
Director
Gordon BDM Ltd
January 2012

Founded in July 2009, Gordon BDM’s team works with organisations across the
UK and internationally to help them create competitive advantage, achieve
influence and/or win new customers, using unique, modern techniques.

180 Nithsdale Road, Glasgow G41 5RH 07870 268288 www.winningwork.co.uk
123 Pall Mall, London, SW1Y 5ED 0203 326 8787 adamgordon@winningwork.co.uk

WinningWork with
An Extended Guide

Contents
1) About Adam Gordon
2) Introduction
3) Concepts
4) Who’s on LinkedIn?
5) Your LinkedIn Strategy
6) Your Profile – Our Rules
7) Meeting New People
8) Taking Your New Connections Offline
9) Advanced People Search
10) LinkedIn Groups
11) LinkedIn for Client Management
12) LinkedIn Apps
13) Case-Studies
14) Summary
15) Comments on the Abbreviated LinkedIn Guide


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About Adam Gordon
My career has been in marketing, communication and business development in advertising, In mid-2009, I decided to leave my salaried role and started Gordon BDM because of three
professional services and recruitment. I love to network with the purpose of learning and reasons:
LinkedIn has been invaluable to me in doing so.
With recession, the markets I understood had less resources for in-house marketing
support but had, if anything, enhanced requirements
I became a LinkedIn member when I was in business development with
The methodologies I had created to achieve success using LinkedIn were proven and
PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2004. I was invited to join the site by trusted contacts in the
many professionals would benefit from an understanding of the rationale I had
United States and did so. I subsequently accepted connection requests from friends and
embedded in these techniques
professional contacts for the next three years but didn’t really think about why or what I was
A death in my family meant I needed to change the way I was earning an income.
doing with my membership. My contacts couldn’t be clustered in any meaningful way and
my network was made up from a variety of early adopters with very little in common.

Most LinkedIn members still employ a similar approach. They have joined the site because some-
Gordon BDM Adam Gordon, Director
one they know and respect – often a superior or a client - has sent them an invitation to join and - Founded July 2009 - LinkedIn marketing pioneer
connect and they have felt it rude or inappropriate not to do so. They are connected to people - Based in London & Glasgow, UK - BA Hons 1999, ACIM 2003
they know but don’t really know why they are there or what they should be doing. They haven’t
- Acting for world famous - NLP Master Practitioner 2010
received anything useful in their direction from the sight so continue being passive members.
organisations - Ex-Euro RSCG and PwC
By 2007, I was marketing director at a private equity-backed recruitment business. My - www.winningwork.com - Regular LinkedIn speaker
colleagues Tony Hamilton, Paul McComish and David Williams inspired me to become more
involved with LinkedIn and their successes proved to me that LinkedIn is a superb channel
for enhancing existing relationships and developing new relationships. I went on to use the
The following information is based on Gordon BDM’s work with local and international
site extensively and honed a methodology for creating success, encouraging inbound
clients in the call centre, central government, financial services, FMCG, higher education, IT,
enquiries, connecting with new people and taking these fledgling relationships offline to
marketing services, professional services, recruitment and voluntary sectors.
meet many people. I trained teams in my methodology and they had an instant uplift in
This information is not fact; merely my opinion. However, I’ve lived my life on LinkedIn for 4
terms of success v time-spent using LinkedIn.
years (to my wife’s horror) and don’t know of any other companies providing the services we
do, so feel justified I am writing with authority.


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Introduction
LinkedIn is for collaboration and networking. So it says.

We say you might choose to use LinkedIn to win customers, get head hunted, hire people,
seek and share best practice, research companies or people, demonstrate your expertise,
find suppliers or just keep on top of the hot topics in your line of work.

LinkedIn’s a movement, a culture and a way of working.
LinkedIn’s a
movement,
LinkedIn is not a ‘social network’ exactly. Jeff Weiner, LinkedIn’s CEO doesn’t allow that term
to describe LinkedIn and we don’t use it either. It looks and functions quite like Facebook but
don’t be tempted to use it like Facebook. Keep it professional.

Who’s on it? Senior professionals often tell me their perception is that LinkedIn’s for the
trainees or early career professionals. Their thinking is that because they’re young, they
a culture and a
way of working.
‘probably use it’. Early career professionals often tell me they think it’s for management. Both
are wrong. Anyone who works in an office can benefit themselves and their organisation
through their LinkedIn use.

Barack Obama’s on there. As is Bill Gates. In fact, there are very few
well-known figures who don’t have a LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn’s a market full of budget-
holders, line-managers and decision-makers ready to be influenced to make good buying
decisions. The world’s changing fast as we progressively more embrace and embed LinkedIn
into our working lives.


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Concepts
“’Nothing avails but Perfection’ may be spelt shorter: Paralysis.” In April 2011, I asked LinkedIn members if they connect with people they don’t know offline
Winston Churchill and these were the results:

Too many professionals either don’t sign up to LinkedIn or take membership and do nothing
because they are procrastinating about what not to do. They naturally want to put in place
frameworks and rules. Take some advice from Nike and ‘just do it’…. If you don’t, your
competitors will. And they’ll be talking to your customers….

People prefer different ways of communicating

This is the most important reason why professionals should not ignore LinkedIn. I answer
the phone every time it rings. My wife doesn’t. She doesn’t like to answer if she doesn’t
recognise the number that is calling (and she normally doesn’t like to answer if it’s me that is
calling!).. I don’t necessarily respond to every email I receive quickly and I don’t respond to
some emails ever. My wife does. She responds to all emails she receives and mostly quickly.

I used to say that LinkedIn isn’t for everyone and those who weren’t automatically
comfortable with this form of communication shouldn’t feel they must take part. Some
people would prefer not to use LinkedIn. However, if you’re in an external-facing role, I’m
afraid you need to look beyond your preferences. It doesn’t matter if it is ‘for you’ or not. It is
the preferred way of receiving and digesting information and building new relationships for
some of your target market so you have an obligation to make yourself available through
LinkedIn.
This quite clearly proves that you can use LinkedIn to connect with people you don’t know
You can use LinkedIn to build new relationships. but want to know. However, you need to get your approach right (more on this in the section
‘Meeting new People’).


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Concepts
An international accountancy firm’s Birmingham office had been attempting to build relation- Enhancing Your Network
ships with the CFOs at 20 organisations without success. They had tried to invite them to events, There is some sense in using LinkedIn only to connect with people you already know. As far
send them publications, attempted the telemarketing approach and sent emails. Nothing had as I am concerned however, the most useful application of LinkedIn is in getting to know
‘opened the door’. They asked me if LinkedIn might provide an alternative route and I said ‘yes it
new people. It might be useful to get to know the following:
might’. I worked with two partners in that firm and using a tailored approach, we connected
them with 12 of the decision-makers at these 20 firms. We were able to convert 6 of these new
- Prospects – sales or marketing
LinkedIn connections into offline meetings.
- Recruiters – job-seeking
This example proves that LinkedIn doesn’t work in creating relationships with everyone. It - Competitors – knowledge-sharing
also proves that LinkedIn can help create relationships with people where every other - Suppliers of noncompete services to your clients – knowledge-sharing
approach has failed. LinkedIn doesn’t replace any other established channel for - Journalists - PR
communicating with your markets. It does however provide an alternative option. Everyone - Politicians - influence
prefers different ways of communicating, digesting information and building relationships. - Industry regulators - influence

Those with the most flexible methods for communicating and building relationships will do Yes, look at your contacts' contacts. This will be very useful in helping you map
so with the optimum number of people. your world. Subliminally you'll take a lot of this information in and it will come to your
conscious when you need it. However, don't make assumptions about people and their
Six degrees of separation…. Rubbish! LinkedIn contacts. Because everyone has a different personality and a different LinkedIn
It used to be said (and still is by some who haven’t cottoned on yet) that you were only
approach, some people connect with a wide network and others only with trusted contacts.
separated from Kevin Bacon (or anyone else for that matter) through 6 steps at most; AKA ‘six
degrees of separation’. This is no longer true. We’re all much closer than ever before. Mostly
everyone who’s anyone is within your direct reach. I no longer need an introduction to you Just because someone is connected to an individual you want to know, it doesn't
and you no longer need an introduction to me. I/we can do it ourselves. We don’t need to automatically mean they are close enough to refer you or even pass on information for you.
rely on others and when we do connect, we’ve come to a joint decision to do so. I’ve My view is that it’s best to build your own network.
approached you and you’ve permitted me to speak with you. Now not everyone’s comfort-
able with making their own introductions and building direct relationships in this way but People who rely too often on referrals become considered a bit of a pest and no-one wants
LinkedIn makes this abundantly easier. And those who have mastered the techniques for to be thought of like this.
doing this can create hugely enhanced opportunities.


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Concepts
What does a LinkedIn connection mean? When someone you don’t yet know accepts your invitation to connect on LinkedIn they
Does that mean they want to buy from you? Absolutely not. Does it mean they even want aren’t saying they are going to buy your service. They aren’t even saying they are going to
to meet you? Not necessarily. meet with you. What they are saying, at its most basic, is that they acknowledge you and
they are giving permission for you to speak with them. If you get your approach right, you
However, unless they simply approve every approach they receive, they may well have seen will be given that permission by many of the people you want to know.
something in your invitation that interested them. Something in either your invitation or
your profile or ideally both will have made this new connection believe that there is at least The relationship pyramid
an iota of value from making your acquaintance.

A transfer pricing specialist at one of Gordon BDM’s clients recently said to me, “When the
recipient receives and accepts your request to connect with them, they are kind of giving you
TRUST
permission to speak to them.” I thought about that for the next couple of days and have to say,
I think this is the best way to encapsulate what this means.
RESPECT
I have hired people that have approached me on LinkedIn, bought services people have sold
me on LinkedIn, won new clients I have approached on LinkedIn and each of these
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
experiences has been positive and valuable. This is an old concept but as valid today as ever. In order for someone to buy from you (or
hire you or recommend you to their close associates) they need to trust you. In order to trust
Social media has had some bad press over the years. Those people who post adverts on you they need to respect you. In order to respect you they need to acknowledge you.
LinkedIn Groups’ message boards and spray and prey with their email marketing are
LinkedIn is the best tool for professionals to gain acknowledgement with a wider circle, peer
infuriating. So make sure when you have made new contacts on LinkedIn that you are
group, community, industry, alumni pool, profession or geography.
respectful. Don’t try to sell them anything. It takes time to build trust.

You have now created acknowledgement with your new contacts. That’s the first stage in the Some people like to maintain a small, close-knit group of contacts who are all very relevant
sales process done. Share some of your thoughts and expertise. Your new contacts are likely and useful to them. I agree it is useful to keep close to those who are currently most impor-
to benefit from hearing some of this. But don’t repel them now by coming on too strong. tant to you. However, just imagine how much competitive advantage you would gain if
every possible user of your service acknowledges you and gives you the opportunity to
speak with them....


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Concepts
Be Curious I join and contribute to the Groups that are for the people I want to share my knowledge
Use LinkedIn to find out other peoples’ opinions. Post questions and discussions on LinkedIn with. Yes, it’s useful for me to join and contribute to the Groups for people involved in my
Groups. Find out how people do things and what they think best practice looks like. Send profession but they aren’t usually the professionals who will award work to my company.
messages directly to people who may have answers. Research people, customers, interme-
diaries and competitors. Use the tools that are designed to help you such as Polls and Think about the clusters of people who will award work to you and make sure you are in the
Answers. And if you do so, make sure to tell your contacts to take part in your research same communities where they are seeking information. And remember to share with them
through direct message or via your status update. information you hold which will be interesting and useful.

The people who get the most out of LinkedIn have a natural curiosity OR learn to have such.
The currency of ‘Free’
Everyone on LinkedIn has something to offer. Everyone has experience that is interesting to
Be where your audience is
other LinkedIn members. You will learn something new every single week and when you
Lots of LinkedIn users think they can join LinkedIn and people will find them. Here are some
useful statistics based on a survey of 100 decision-makers in industry (CFOs, CIOs, CMOs and package that ‘something’ as intellectual capital and make it available to the right people, in
similar) from April 2011: the right way, for free (and with no strings attached), you develop major associated good-
will. People warm to you, trust your word, your authenticity and you set yourself up as the
1/3 of decision-makers had used LinkedIn to find an expert ‘go-to’ person for your subject.
1/3 of decision-makers had used LinkedIn to research a supplier
You can give something for nothing through your status updates, on LinkedIn Groups’
If those people use the ‘search’ function to find an expert, you may be found if you have discussion boards, via LinkedIn Answers, LinkedIn Polls, SlideShare, Box.net (more informa-
optimised your profile effectively, connected with enough and ‘the right’ people and joined tion in ‘Useful Apps’), through LinkedIn Events and using other in built tools.
the right LinkedIn Groups. In the section ‘Your Profile: Our Rules’ which follows later, you will
find ways of doing this.

Many LinkedIn members join Groups that are for people ‘like them’. Auditors often join
Groups for auditors. Marketing professionals join Groups for marketers. Not as many Linke-
dIn members join Groups that are for their client markets. My clients are marketing directors,
BD directors, strategy directors and HR directors usually.


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Concepts
Between May 2010 and September 2011, I handed out over 15,000 copies of a free abbreviated This screenshot from the McKinsey Quarterly LinkedIn Group shows 1,024 people had
version of this book to people who requested it after I made it available on 4 LinkedIn Groups. commented on my offer at this one LinkedIn Group alone. This has kept me very much in
people’s minds as a specialist.
I didn’t previously know hardly any of these 15,000 people. Unfortunately a lot of them know me
as ‘Gordon’ now (rather than Adam which is actually my name!) but at least they know me. Because of the activity I created from this one post I have been ranked as ‘top influencer’
here for 19 months and counting. McKinsey wouldn’t interview me for a role as their recep-
If I wanted, I could follow up with each of the recipients of the Guide and ask them what they tionist. I don’t have a sufficiently prestigious academic record. However, I have gained signifi-
thought of it. I could invite them to connect with me on LinkedIn since a relationship of sorts had cant credibility through the association with McKinsey’s LinkedIn Group.
begun to develop. I could take the conversation offline and meet with many of these people.
One participant commented on my post, “This is why we love
McKinsey. Because they keep on giving.” I was flattered....

N.B. When you offer to send some useful information to your fellow LinkedIn members, do it
personally. Make sure it comes from you rather than your PA. If you offer to send something
and they receive it from a different source, this wonderful gesture somewhat loses its shine.

The recipient should feel they can reply to you personally with any feedback, suggestions or
referrals. It’s less likely they will do that if you haven’t sent it personally.

Of course there are ways of making this easy for yourself. Store a template (like I confess I do)
or ask your PA to set up a clone of your email address (which is really cheating but should
create the same result).

The body of the message should include a summary of the document and the language
should tie in with your original post on the LinkedIn Group(s).


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Concepts
Don’t be shy about requesting for feedback or referrals. My message says: Think carefully about what you can offer. What do you know about that people will find both
interesting and useful? Some examples might include:
“Hello X
- Hot topics – what are the core learnings from the work you’ve been doing?
Please find attached LinkedIn Guide as requested. The content covers: - Regulatory changes – what is coming up and how can your audience prepare?
- New business processes that have helped you and/or your customers
- Tips for creating a compelling LinkedIn profile - Results from surveys or other research
- How to connect effectively with others and enhance your network - White papers written by specialists from your business
- How to work with LinkedIn Groups to optimise your success - Podcasts, webcasts and other downloads

I hope it’s useful. Do let me know any feedback. We work with all types of B2B organisations and Now take it to your audience on LinkedIn.
have experience working with PwC, KPMG, Standard Life, Omnicom and Heineken in case you One note of caution....You can do a lot of damage to your brand by posting things that are
know of anyone who might benefit from our LinkedIn related services. neither interesting nor useful. One of the worst crimes on LinkedIn is simply using it as a
cheap classified advertising board. A couple of the worst types of posts I see regularly
Kind regards, include:

Adam” “For the cheapest legal advice around, get in touch with X & Partners.”

Make sure to personalise the salutation to include the person’s name. Send individual emails and
to each recipient since they’ve gone to the trouble of replying to your post. Use a common
subject heading so you can easily track the emails you’ve sent from your ‘sent items’. My “Take a look at my latest blog post www.abcdef.com”
preference is to start with ‘Hello’ since I believe ‘Dear’ is too formal for an email and ‘Hi’ is too
informal since you don’t know the recipients, yet. People have egos…. Flattery gets you somewhere (sometimes)


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Concepts
Many professionals don’t appreciate the quality of the intellectual capital they hold. They Lead the conversation
think that the information they see as basic is widely known and understood by most others. In series 3 of Mad Men, Donald Draper said to Conrad Hilton, “If you don’t like what’s
They often think everyone sees the world the same way they do which is usually not the being said, change the conversation.” I love this line. And when I first heard it, it made
case. We’ve all received different training and had different experiences . me immediately think of LinkedIn Groups. Now, you don’t need to dislike the existing
conversation but you should use LinkedIn Groups and other LinkedIn channels to create and
People are much more likely to react positively when approached if you tell them that their lead people into the type of conversation you relish. Get people involved. The right type of
knowledge would be useful to you. They will take more notice if you say their LinkedIn people. And make sure you position yourself as the expert.
profile looks interesting and you would value their opinion. They will also react much more
positively if you are offering them something in return. This mutual exchange of knowledge Magnetism
will enable effective networking. Many LinkedIn members are quite passive in their usage of the site and many are mostly
inactive. Very few members pro actively search the site to find people, companies, events,
Incorrect approach: “Please meet me next Tuesday so I can tell you how good I am articles and even Groups that are of use to them. It is therefore important that you make
at my job and you will want to use my services.” good use of all your established techniques for driving people to the area of LinkedIn you
want them to go to.
Correct approach: “I see from your profile that you have some fantastic international
accounting experience. It would be great to hear your views about the latest IFRS issues and Undertake internal communications so your colleagues know all of the LinkedIn
in return you might find it interesting to hear about some of the hot topics I’ve been facing initiatives you’re undertaking.
recently. Let me know if you have half an hour for a coffee at some point next week.” Broadcast your LinkedIn Groups on your website (you can find the URL at the Group’s
‘manage’ section and at ‘invite members’), on your newsletters and on your email
The main issue here is, really think about the language you use. What will people signature.
respond to better? Don’t be sycophantic – that doesn’t go down well in any quarters but Add your personal LinkedIn profile URL to your email signature, business cards and
build bridges, let people know they have value and build relationships. your biography on your firm’s website (if such a page exists).
Use event announcements to encourage invitees to sign up for your events on LinkedIn
You will learn more about similar techniques in the sections ‘Meeting New People’ and (at LinkedIn Events – more to follow) so they can tell their networks they are attending.
‘Taking Your New Connections Offline’. Post status updates on LinkedIn to let your networks know about any events, Groups,
Polls or other activities you would like them to participate with.


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Concepts
Very few organisations and individuals create a structured outreach approach using Linke- I recently asked people in a poll to help me choose the name for a new initiative I am under-
dIn. Those who invest the time in doing so create significant competitive advantage.... And taking and one of the suggestions is ‘Friday’. Someone who took part in the survey left me a
the compound effect of doing so is to create a perception that your organisation is both comment to say he didn’t think ‘Friday’ suggested the right level of gravitas – that it
energetic and making good use of modern technology and techniques. suggested ‘a bit of fun’…. Very interesting indeed.

Man-marking So, that got me thinking, much as Friday is the best day for interaction on LinkedIn, perhaps
LinkedIn’s not just for the most senior executives. An organisation would do very well to you send out a sense of importance if you undertake your LinkedIn activities on a Monday.
engender an ‘entire firm’ approach to business development. If your most senior people
connect on LinkedIn with your clients’ and targets’ most senior executives, your mid-ranking Perhaps that’s the thinking behind PwC Consulting being temporarily re branded as
client teams connect with their peers and your early career professionals link to their ‘Monday’ back in the early naughties...
upwardly mobile counterparts, you will have created a true man-marking approach. That
way, you will get a true and full picture of your markets and be in a position to enhance client Maybe it’s better to differentiate and link the importance of Mondays to your LinkedIn
relations not just now but also for the future. activities….

Don’t just think of this in terms of the level of the teams within your organisation however.
Every single person can be an advocate for your firm. Encourage your finance team to link in
with their equivalents in your clients’ and targets’ organisations. Encourage your IT teams to
do the same. They will benefit from knowledge sharing and at the same time, everyone can
contribute to the overall business development process.

Mondays and Fridays
So, I’ve been telling people for a long time that LinkedIn traffic surges on a Friday afternoon
and if, as you should, you’re going to get involved in any discussions, send out connection
requests or share any useful information, you should do it at lunchtime on a Friday to
optimise the number of other members you reach.


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Who’s on LinkedIn?
You might find this surprising. I don’t….

Based on results from LinkedIn Polls in April 2011, the average LinkedIn user in the UK is:

- 43 years old
- Earning £55,000
- Responsible for 6 employees
- Managing a budget of £12,000

These people are decision-makers. Yes, the CEO at a top NYSE listed business
brings the average up but LinkedIn is full of decision-making members.


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Your LinkedIn Strategy
Entrenched v Passive Some LinkedIn members feel they should connect with a small Group of people who are of
Some people benefit from leaving LinkedIn open on their computer all day. They use it to a certain level, are known to them and they have a trusted relationship with. Some will
source information about people and ideas and will consult LinkedIn before every email, accept others into their network but only if they feel they will be of genuine benefit. Some
phone call or meeting. Recruiters, sales professionals and others will do so from a tactical won’t and will insist on an off-line meeting first. There are many variations on these tactics.
perspective. HR & IT professionals and some journalists will do so from a natural perspective.
These types of people have entrenched LinkedIn in their working lives. Some feel that connecting with a broad range of people including those they don’t actually
know off-line can is incongruent with ‘the system’. They feel that the integrity of the overall
Others have a passive approach to LinkedIn and this is the correct way for them to operate. LinkedIn community is jeopardised because your connections should only be people you
They connect with the members that are suitable for them and join the LinkedIn Groups that
trust and can personally recommend.
provide them with the optimum sources of information. They read the LinkedIn updates
they receive by email about their network and their Groups and click on any links that are
There are however real benefits to developing a broad range of connections. I personally
relevant for them. This passive approach works very well for many professionals.
know around 50% of my LinkedIn connections. Many of my connections are prospective
Private v Public customers and (in conjunction with my blog), I use them as an audience. Every week, I share
Some LinkedIn members genuinely don’t need to meet anyone new. They see value in being new and interesting insights into LinkedIn and its usage. I give my contacts ideas which
a LinkedIn member and referring their connections to each other as appropriate. And there- might help them and this generates goodwill for me and in some circumstances, leads to
fore they apply the privacy settings meaning their profile is private to those not connected new-business.
to them on a 1:1 basis. Very few people can genuinely verify the rationale behind this
decision however. The other major benefit of having a broad range of connections is that you will get found
more quickly by those who are searching for an expert. LinkedIn makes changes to their
Most LinkedIn users have a public profile and for good reason. Most LinkedIn users want to system regularly but at the time of writing, you are only able to see the first name and
be found by the right people and therefore maintain a public profile so they can be seen and surname initial of those who are more than two degrees of separation from you.
approached and gain some value from new contacts.

Narrow v Broad Connections
There are many different strategies which lend merit to each approach. Some of these are
driven by tactics and some are personality-based.


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Your LinkedIn Strategy
Upgrading to the Premium Service

People ask me regularly if they should upgrade to a paid-for account and the answer is, that
depends.

For expert users, you can undertake for free almost any activity the paid-for subscrip-
tion allows

For beginners, the paid-for subscription will give you significantly more liberation on
the site. You will be able to see more people, communicate with them more easily and
get a better view on who is looking at your profile and how they got there


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Your Profile - Our Rules
Add a photo Professional Headline
Make sure you add a photo. People are less likely to want to interact with a mysterious, LinkedIn will automatically try to populate your professional headline with your current job
faceless internet page. If people are searching for an expert, find your profile which has no title. When you add your job title, ensure you un-tick the box which will pre-populate this
photo and the profile of someone with comparable skills and a photo, your competitor is area and add this manually. You can do so by going to ‘profile’ and ‘edit profile’ and clicking ‘edit’
much more likely to receive contact before you. It doesn’t matter what you look like. Unless on the right hand side of your picture.
your head has been chopped off, there’s no valid excuse.
Add a professional headline which accurately describes what you do. Make use of all the
People often ask me if their photo should be a professional headshot and my advice is that characters and make this as specific as you can. When someone searches for an expert, they
depends on the markets you serve and what you are using LinkedIn for. Your image should will see a list of people. They will see a snapshot of your profile which includes your profes-
be you rather than a logo or an avatar because the nature of LinkedIn means it’s about sional headline and your photo. You need all those who are searching for you to understand
personal relationships and the more authentically your profile represents you as an immediately what you do and that you will be useful to them. Some viewers will skip over
individual, the better. That said, in many circumstances, I don’t believe there’s anything your profile if they need to enter it in full to gain more information.
wrong with a picture of you ‘doing something’.
Your Job Title
One LinkedIn member I know (partner in an international finance business) is pictured on Ensure your job title is understandable to people out with your sector. If it contains uncom-
his motorbike. Another (IT professional) is pictured at the top of Mount Kilimanjaro. These mon acronyms, spell them out. If your job title contains jargon, change it. (But check your
images add personality to their LinkedIn profiles and, in my opinion, enhance their image. boss is OK with you doing so).
Pictures of you undertaking public speaking or accepting awards add further legitimacy to
your LinkedIn profile so are well worth using. Ensure your job title is understandable and specific out with your organisation. ‘Principal
Consultant at Hudson’ or ‘Partner at Baker Tilly’ are too vague. A prospective client may skip
over your profile because you haven’t made it easy enough for them to understand what
you do specifically. ‘Principal Consultant specialising in Finance Recruitment at Hudson’ or
‘Partner specialising in VAT/Indirect Tax at Baker Tilly’ is much better.


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Apart from the fact that you want prospective clients to immediately know and understand A good example of current job titles might include:
how you can help them, LinkedIn’s search function scans key-words in members’ job titles * LinkedIn Marketing Specialist at Gordon BDM
before the rest of your profile. * LinkedIn Business Development Expert at Gordon BDM
* LinkedIn Trainer at Gordon BDM
So, if someone has the term ‘transfer pricing’ in their current job title six times (transfer * Committee Member at Institute of Directors
pricing expert, transfer pricing specialist etc) and you have it in the main body of your profile * Board Member at Anniesland College
six times but only once in your current job title(s), they will be found in searches before you
will. When searching on key-words, LinkedIn prioritises current job titles, then previous job Status Updates
titles then the rest of your profile. Add information to your ‘Status update’ section regularly – at least once a week.

Of my current 2,000 LinkedIn connections, less than 1% of them have applied any The purpose here is to attempt to capture your connections’ attention and if they comment
techniques to their profile which take this into account. That’s simply because it’s not very on or ‘like’ your status update, their networks will in turn see that they have done this in their
well known. home page. Perhaps talk about a project you’re working on, an expert view or even some
recent thought-leadership relevant to your job and industry. If you have a work-related blog,
In this, bear in mind that there are different ways of listing your current function. If your job you can alert your contacts to new posts using this section too.
title is Finance Director, also add FD, CFO and Chief Financial Officer as these are terms some
might prefer to search on. In some industries, Sales Director and Business Development Don’t update your contacts with what you’ve had for breakfast or what mode of transport
Director mean the same thing. Add both. you’re currently using. That’s not useful. Useful status updates include;
1) New professional experiences relating to your work
Remember to add any non-executive, committee or advisory roles. The more you put here, 2) Insights from work you have undertaken recently
the more rich your experience will look to those viewing your profile. People will respect this 3) Views on legislation or other issues impacting on your markets
breadth of activity. And some people might find you based on a search on the name of the 4) News items you respect and are valuable to your contacts
organisation you have added. 5) Articles you have contributed to


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6) Publications you have contributed to Previous Jobs
7) Functional news about your organisation – office moves, new services.... In terms of your previous jobs, if you have more than you’d like to broadcast, perhaps only
8) Events you are running or attending list the last two or the two which have been most significant, relevant or maybe prestigious.
9) Job postings That said, if you’re proud of your career history, list them all. Many people search for
10) Blog posts ex-colleagues or experts by using the ‘company’ search criteria and this could lead to
interesting enquiries.
Some of the most successful LinkedIn users actually maintain a rosta of status updates and
refer to this weekly. Competitor Business
If you previously worked for a competitor business, list this, but don’t go into much detail
Too many updates may irritate your contacts. Some LinkedIn users connect their Twitter about all the successes you achieved. You don’t want viewers of your LinkedIn profile to
account with LinkedIn and all new Tweets go out on their LinkedIn status updates. My view develop so much of a positive impression of your ex employer that they also get a call.
is that Twitter offers a very different communication experience and the content is more
ephemeral than LinkedIn users expect. Some people may want to ‘hide’ all your updates If your responsibilities were similar in your previous role(s), make sure you optimise your job
because they are too frequent and not useful enough. Be warned. titles in the way you have done for current job title(s). Don’t add ‘Director at Marsh’. Add
‘Director Specialising in Employee Benefits’ at Mercer. And add all versions of this such as
Do NOT connect Twitter with LinkedIn if you use Twitter for personal reasons. I have seen ‘Director – Reward at Mercer’.
swear words and inappropriate jokes posted onto LinkedIn from people who have
connected Twitter with LinkedIn and not considered that they use each channel for different Education
reasons. List all your education. Some people place major value on academic qualifications. This
might make the difference between someone interesting getting in touch or otherwise.
Personally, I do use a Twitter account but I send messages I post on LinkedIn to my Twitter Include the school and university you went to. People search for former class mates to
following and not the other way around. OK, that means I probably don’t Tweet sufficiently re-connect.
but the dangers of the alternative are too great.


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There are instances where some people deliberately prefer to leave out their education Their recommendations for each other didn’t come across as authentic and some LinkedIn
because it isn’t as impressive as they would like. People can work their way into a very senior users take recommendations seriously.
position despite their qualifications. Some people don’t begin to excel and really fulfil their
potential until they are in their 20s, 30s or 40s, or possibly later. Whatever you think and whatever I think about LinkedIn recommendations is
irrelevant. Some people do read them. Some people go and read your recommendations
If this suits your circumstances and character, do leave your education out of your profile but as one of the first things they do when they get to your profile.
bear in mind you may be harming the chances of you being found by potential customers.
Unless you have something outrageous written in your LinkedIn recommendations, those
In April 2011, a managing director told me he preferred to leave his school off his LinkedIn who don’t value the content will not be offended. However, those who value the content will
profile because the name of the school marked it as aligned to a particular religion and he notice if you have no recommendations. They will wonder ‘why?’ and they may consider you
wanted to avoid attracting any prejudice. Clearly, if there are sensible practical reasons why less credible because of this. Write with the viewer in mind. Don’t think about LinkedIn in
you should leave out your educational history, do so. terms of what you prefer. Think about the way that others will prefer to receive and use
information.
Recommendations
Some people feel recommendations on LinkedIn are a little worthless and sometimes disin- If you have some close professional connections on LinkedIn, do ask them to recommend
genuous. I genuinely saw the following two recommendations posted by colleagues Rob you if you feel this is appropriate. Many LinkedIn users read recommendations with great
(creative director) and Tom (BD director) at the same advertising agency: interest and respect the opinions of others.

Rob: “Tom is the most prolific new-business director of his generation” One well acknowledged technique is to request the recommendation but offer to give the
Tom: “Rob is the most prolific creative director of his generation” writer some suggestions – OK, this is not necessarily the most authentic way to gain credible
recommendations and I am not saying I approve of this practice but many of your advocates
After I stopped laughing at how ridiculous the language here was, (perhaps it was just just won’t have the time to think about it and write something for themselves. The easier
meant to be funny and my reaction was what they wanted) something a little more serious you make it for them to give you that recommendation, the more likely they will do it.
occurred to me.


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Your Summary According to Elsa Ronningstam, associate clinical professor of psychology at Harvard Medi-
Your summary should be comprehensive but easy to understand. Write in the first person. cal School and author of Identifying and Understanding the Narcissistic Personality:
My personal view is that those who say ‘Crispian is an accomplished IT professional’ or some-
thing similar look a little disconnected with their audience. “If you've achieved major success suddenly, using the third person could be a way to adjust to the
bigger role that's been assigned to you. It's a way to enlarge yourself to fit that role.”
“To me, Pele is best,” says Pele….
Illeism: the practice of referring to oneself in the third person. I recently saw someone who claims to be a social media expert at a large communications
agency include the following on their LinkedIn profile: “Today X is widely recognised as
Don’t write about yourself in the third person on LinkedIn. It just looks really odd. It looks one of the country’s leading authorities on social media.” That’s true. You probably aren’t
creepy. You shouldn’t use your LinkedIn page like an advert and that’s what it looks like the super villain Dr Doom and I doubt you’re Maradona so don’t do it.
you’re doing when you create your profile in this way. LinkedIn’s for user-generated content http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlfE695MFHc
and authentic individual contribution.
Make sure you appear confident and impressive but not boastful. Ask someone to review
If, for example, you’re a partner at an accountancy firm, people expect to read your biog in your summary for a second opinion before you make your profile public. Others are often
third person on your firm’s website. This is obviously a marketing channel. They don’t better placed to judge the tone of your summary. Many people write in language that is
however expect your LinkedIn profile to appear in this way. Has someone else written it for natural to them but you need to think outside of your organisation and your profession.
you? OK, don’t answer that but even if they have, your profile should look like you’ve written
it. Someone asked me to recommend a ‘database’ professional recently. I said I didn’t know one.
Two weeks later, I was out running with a very good friend who I knew worked in IT. It
Referring to yourself in the third person creates distance between you and the person (still transpired he is a database expert but I didn’t know that because I’m not in the IT world and
you) that you’re describing. If you’re describing that person (you) in a positive light, it didn’t recognise any of the terms he had applied to his LinkedIn profile.
augments that description in a very conceited way.
Make sure everyone understands your summary at a reasonably macro level.


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You may be connected to people you went to school, college and university with who have If you’re an accountant for example, you might list your key-words as such “management
taken a different career path. They need to understand (as do new viewers of your LinkedIn accounting, budgeting, forecasting, fixed assets, inventory control”. If you are in advertising,
profile) what your core skills include. Only then can they act as advocates for your experi- you might write ‘brand management, PR, production of documents, direct marketing, digital
ence and value. marketing, social media etc”. There is no need to write in sentences here – comma-separated
key-words are fine.
Contact Details
Bearing in mind that people have different ways that they prefer to communicate, LinkedIn Additional Information
suggests you add your contact details near the bottom of your profile. In ‘additional information’ add a link to your website’s homepage and potentially to the
section of your website most relevant to you or your speciality. Perhaps don’t add links to
I suggest you do that because some LinkedIn users will go there to search for ways to get in Facebook or other personal sites. This just isn’t appropriate in most circumstances.
touch with you. I also suggest that you add your contact details to the summary section of
your profile. It is near the top of your profile and therefore easy for other members to find. Do add links to other information people will find interesting. If you have a Just Giving page,
The further down your profile LinkedIn users need to go and the more clicks they make, the add a link to this. People often respect those who do work for charities. So, if you are running
chances of them actually being in contact with you diminish. This is a very important a marathon for a hospice or climbing Ben Nevis for your local housing association, add this
consideration. here. If you are on Twitter for professional purposes or maintain a blog, link to these here.

Some LinkedIn users prefer to do more than this and add their email address and/or contact Interests
number in their professional headline and/or status update. This follows my concept which Under ‘interests’ I would encourage you to give a little information about what you do out of
is that, the easier it is to contact you, the more contact you will receive. However, some Linke- work. People will find it interesting. And that can act as a hook for them to start a conversa-
dIn members may feel your profile looks a little too much like an advert. tion with you.

Specialities Perhaps don’t list your favourite football team (especially in certain parts of the world like
Use the ‘specialties’ section to add all the key-words relevant to your role. This isn’t in any way Glasgow) or activities that some people might find objectionable (oh, I’m not sure whether
a ‘fact’ but this section is below your summary so the aesthetic display of the content is less to actually put these as examples in case of uproar but ‘’) but if you’re an ice skater, twitcher
important. or love baking, this could just start a conversation. Give people material to use to make
contact.


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It’s common sense, but many professionals like golf and such like. Contact Details
One post I thought as really interesting was a senior partner at an accountancy firm who Unless you want to avoid contact with prospective customers, make it easy for them to get
listed his interests as, “fine wine, good food and the music of the Grateful Dead.” That shows in touch.
a bit of interesting personality.
Add a mobile, direct dial, email address, co-ordinates for carrier pigeon and any other way
LinkedIn Groups for people to get in touch.
By all means join lots of LinkedIn Groups. By default, their logos will be displayed on your
profile. You can change their settings so they are invisible to viewers of your profile. If you are
an auditor to the retail sector however, you want retail FDs to see you are in Groups that are
relevant to them. If you are an employment lawyer, HRDs should feel you are in tune with
their issues if you are in the relevant Groups and you want them to see this from your Linke-
dIn profile.

You can join a maximum of 50 LinkedIn Groups (and there are reasons to claim your alloca-
tion below) but sometimes there are tactical reasons why you might want to join Groups but
you don’t want to display this to your LinkedIn connections and viewers of your profile.
Below is much more information about how to find and use LinkedIn Groups.

Honors and Awards
List all ‘Honors and Awards’. But if you have many, perhaps only list those most impressive or
perhaps restrict this to those achieved in the last few years. You don’t want to look like you
are showing off or ‘collecting’ Honors and Awards for the sake of it.

You also don’t want to dilute the impact of your most impressive Honors and Awards by
surrounding them with less interesting accolades.


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An Extended Guide

Meeting New People
We firmly believe the best opportunity for you in using LinkedIn is in creating acknowledge- Advanced People Search Facility
ment between you and others and taking these new relationships offline. Here is our meth- You need to use the advanced people search facility (top right on your home page) to find
odology for doing so, if you’re a confident networker. And even if you’re not, our approach all those people who are relevant to you. More on this in the section following called
will remove any nerves you have about making that initial contact. ‘Advanced People Search’.

Our research suggests that a LinkedIn connection with another person simply means they Search Criteria
are giving you permission to speak to them and nothing more. It doesn’t mean they want to The most useful search criteria include ‘job title’, ‘location’ and ‘industries’. This will help you
meet you (yet) and it certainly doesn’t mean they want to buy from you (yet). It’s up to you to find all those you don’t yet know but want to. If you work for a B2B PR agency covering
to influence your LinkedIn connections in a courteous and intelligent manner in order to Norfolk for example, you might want to search for people with ‘marketing’ in their job titles,
really make rain. 50 miles from ‘NR1’ and tick the appropriate sectors in the ‘industries’ section (i.e. accounting,
banking, business supplies….).
There are 135m+ people on LinkedIn at the time of typing
(January 2012). Who to connect with
Once you have created your list, you will now need to select those people who you really do
25% of LinkedIn users will never connect with you want to connect with. Bear in mind that just because you haven’t yet heard of a company,
if they don’t know you. doesn’t mean you should rule them out as relevant to you without some research.

25% will connect with anyone from Mars to the Invitations
Tora Bora mountains. Now you will invite your chosen prospective clients to connect with you on LinkedIn.

50% of people will accept your LinkedIn When you invite someone to connect with you on LinkedIn, the site asks you to identify how
you know the other person. This is to prevent spam. You must NOT check the box that says
invitation if they feel they may benefit from ‘colleague’ or ‘friend’ if this is not the case. You will look disingenuous to the recipient as they
making your acquaintance. will know what you have selected.
These are the people you want to reach. They are discerning about their contacts but the
door is open for you if your approach is just right….


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Meeting New People
You must check the ‘other’ box and then enter their email address. Accepted Invitations
Once your new connections have accepted your LinkedIn invitation, you will receive an
Use your normal research procedures to find the prospective connection’s email address. email to inform you. Do nothing for 2 days so you don’t look desperate.
Google will be invaluable in this process.
After 2 days (no longer or the momentum will have fizzled out), make sure you send your
Before you send your invitation to connect, make sure your message is tailored for the new connection a follow-up message to thank them for accepting your invitation and
recipient. Make sure it’s polite. Make sure it gives the other person reason to feel there’s suggest it might be good to get together to share some ideas on a subject of mutual
value in accepting your invitation to connect. An example may say: interest. Don’t be too specific. Don’t suggest a venue or particular dates and times.

“Dear X, At this stage, your new contact is 33% likely to respond positively without feeling under
pressure.
I am a tax expert working with many clients in your industry in Norfolk. I noticed your profile
which is interesting and thought we may have some interesting perspectives to share in the To an extent, this process is a controlled numbers game.
future. The more people you attempt to connect with using this methodology, the more likely you
will meet new people and win new clients.
In the meantime I’d like to invite you to join my professional network on LinkedIn.

Yours sincerely,

Y.”

This example has demonstrated rapport, a little flattery and offered an invitation. Compared
to the default message LinkedIn suggests using, this approach will massively optimise the
likelihood of the other person connecting with you.


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Taking Your New Connections Offline
Because a LinkedIn connection or acceptance to membership of your Group simply means This approach clearly outlines the benefit to meeting with you.
a person is giving you permission to speak to them, you need to do more to really benefit
and win new customers. It also gives the recipient the opportunity to tell you when suits them best and you’ve used
soft language such as ‘might’ ‘if that’s suitable’, ‘if you’d like’ which creates an unthreatening
You need to look for reasons why other LinkedIn members would want to meet you. There tone and will optimise the likelihood of success.
are many clues in participants’ LinkedIn profiles to help you determine an approach.

Make sure you tailor each approach to the individual. There’s nothing worse than receiving
a message from someone and feeling you’ve been ‘mailshotted’.

You must use language that is open, not ‘salesy’ and makes the prospect of meeting you
seem almost irresistible. An example may say:

Hello X,

I read with interest the comments you made about the latest tax legislation in the property
sector. I’ve been working with clients who appear to have a similar profile to yours and may
face some of the same opportunities and challenges you do.

You might wish to hear about our approach and how we’ve saved our clients (squillions) in
tax at some stage? If that’s suitable, I’m due to be in Norwich in the next couple of weeks and
would be happy to meet you if you’d like to let me know when you’re available?

Kind regards

Y


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An Extended Guide

Advanced People Search
On the top right hand side of any LinkedIn page, you will see it says ‘People’ next to a c) If you add more than one term in the key-words field, LinkedIn will search for
free-text bar. On the right hand side of this is ‘Advanced’. people with all terms you input in their profiles. So if I was searching for a
“marketing manager” with internet marketing experience, I might be tempted to
Click ‘Advanced’ to open up a fantastic facility for all LinkedIn users (on the free subscription) use keywords such as ‘digital’ or ‘online’ or ‘web’.
to help them find all those people they want to connect with or research. Here are some tips
for using the advanced search. Inputting all these terms will limit my results to people who have all three
key-words written in their profiles. If I add them in speech marks with the word ‘OR’
a) Based on the free subscription, you are only able to see the LinkedIn profiles of the in capitals between each, my list will contain a composite of all those who have
first 100 people on any list you create. Simply changing the search criteria (amend “marketing manager” as job title and any of those key-words. So I would write
industries or postcodes) will enable you to see the profiles of many ’00s more. “digital” OR “online” OR “web”. This is another very useful tip for optimising your list.

b) If you add words into the job title section, LinkedIn will search for people with all of d) Some job titles and key-words are different in different organisations but mean the
the words you add but not necessarily in the order you want and not necessarily in same things. ‘Audit’ in one organisation is the same as ‘assurance’ another. ‘Sales’ in
the same job title. one organisation can mean ‘business development’ in another It is useful to
research job titles and key-words before undertaking your search so you obtain the
For example if I added the words ‘audit’ and ‘manager’ to the job title field I may be optimum list of people from your advanced people search. Job boards can often be
shown details of people who have a job title as ‘sales manager’ and also a job title as very useful as sources of alternative job titles.
‘audit committee member’. This person is not an audit manager. So, I will need to
input ‘audit’ and ‘manager’ in speech marks like this: “audit manager”. This way, e) Amend postcodes and re-search if you are looking for people across a wide
LinkedIn will recognise that I am looking for someone with that specific job title. territory. LinkedIn allows you to search for people within 10-100 miles of a
postcode. Look at maps and plan your variant searches based on how far certain
This could be very useful but remember that doing so will remove people with a towns and cities are from each other. Keep a note of which searches you have done
similar job title such as ‘audit compliance manager’ because the words ‘audit’ and and then fill in the blanks at the end. If you don’t, you will miss entire geographical
‘compliance’ aren’t written consecutively. You will know through experience what areas and therefore miss people who could be valuable to you.
system gives you the optimum list of people you want to find.


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f) Some people on the lists you source will have blind profiles so you can’t see their If you are viewing your competitors’ profiles for example, you may wish not to let them know
details. you have been doing so. If you are viewing the profiles of prospective clients or employees,
you may wish to leave that foot-print. I know people who let everyone know they have been
At the time of writing this, various techniques exist for uncovering these hidden profiles but to peoples’ profiles because it encourages inward enquiries – a very sensible approach.
I’m not going to include these here since LinkedIn changes the user experience and makes
changes to its operating system so often that they are likely to be out of date by the time you To alter your settings to suit you, hover over your name (top right hand side) and click on
read this. ‘settings’. Go to ‘XXX’ and then you can choose whether you are totally visible, leave a hint as
to who you are or are completely anonymous.
What I should add however is that if you come across a blind profile which simply says
‘Finance Manager at Gordon BDM Ltd’, put this term into a web browser’s search bar and UPDATE: After blogging/moaning recently that LinkedIn’s been stripping services to free users
undertake a search. In this day and age, so many people have contributed to events, publica- since it listed on NYSE, a curious thing has happened.
tions, blogs and other detail that is stored on the net that you are quite likely to be able to
find the name of the person from this technique alone. I cited the ‘Who’s Viewed Your Profile’ section as being less useful since the recent changes were
made. I expected people to be a little shy about showing themselves to people whose profile
Once you have, (say their name is ‘David Wilson’), you can then search LinkedIn for David they’d viewed but the absolute opposite has happened.
Wilson Finance Manager Gordon BDM and LinkedIn should show you the profile. You have
sufficient detail on the individual that LinkedIn assumes you must know him. Every time I look at ‘Who’s Viewed Your Profile’ I see new and interesting people have visited my
page. I asked a couple of clients to look at their own ‘Who’s Viewed….’ and they told me exactly
Browsing LinkedIn the same thing.
On your ‘home’ page, on the right hand side, there is a function called ‘Who’s Viewed Your
Profile’. This will show you some of the people who have been looking at your profile, Culturally people don’t seem to mind revealing themselves as interested in others. This is not
depending on how their settings are applied. what I’d expected.. So, check in to your ‘Who’s Viewed Your Profile’ – accessible from the right
hand side of your ‘home’ page.
You can amend your settings on LinkedIn so you can navigate the site incognito. You can
also amend your settings so that you leave a foot-print on everyone’s profile who you have Contacting those who’ve been viewing my profile has been very useful and indeed some very
viewed and they are able to see you have been there. useful people have made contact with me after I’ve viewed theirs.


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An Extended Guide

People You May Know

Again, accessible from your ‘home’ page, this tool is very useful for growing your LinkedIn
network.

Click on ‘See more’ and LinkedIn will suggest many people it thinks you might know. It will
suggest people intuitively based on your connections’ connections, where you work, where
you studied, the LinkedIn Groups you have joined and even based on those who have been
viewing your profile.

I first became aware of this last option because an IT Director I met told me he couldn’t work
out why LinkedIn kept suggesting one member, until he realised it was his teenage son’s
new girlfriend’s father – most likely checking out the boy’s pedigree!

The more connections you have the more accurate LinkedIn usually becomes in its
suggestions.


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LinkedIn Groups
LinkedIn Groups are wonderful online meeting places for you to engage with new people 3) Engage the most senior and relevant professional in your organisation and position
and demonstrate your expertise. her or him as the Group’s ‘owner’.

I would recommend joining Groups that are relevant to your expertise and also Groups 4) You are entitled to appoint 9 other professionals as ‘managers’ on the Group. Use
where your clients are likely to be. This way, you can use Groups to maintain your knowledge your allocation effectively.
and, in a tasteful way, show off a bit. There are many Groups on LinkedIn. If Groups you’re a
member of don’t provide you with any benefit, leave them and find others that do. The 5) Some organisations fill the ‘manager’ positions with other senior people but there is
process of finding the most valuable Groups for you involves trial and error. also real merit in inviting people at different grades within your firm to be managers.
LinkedIn Groups can be an excellent introduction to marketing and business devel-
Once you’re familiar with the format for LinkedIn Groups and you understand how to use opment for early and mid-career professionals. This may also help to spread internal
language to post discussions that gain a positive reaction, you may wish to build your own awareness.
LinkedIn Group(s).
6) Brand your Group with your firm’s name and logo if you are genuine experts. McKin-
You can create LinkedIn Groups to suit an audience (your prospective clients) and demon- sey could create the ‘McKinsey Strategy Group’. Hudson could create the ‘Hudson
strate your expertise with ease. Salary Monitor Group’. Mercer could create the ‘Mercer Employee Benefits Group’.

30-Point Plan for LinkedIn Groups 7) Don’t brand your Group with your firm’s name and logo if you are creating a commu-
Individually these points are insignificant. The compound effect of applying all of these nity for your target market. KPMG could create the ‘FDs in Natural Resources Group’.
techniques to your LinkedIn Group will however create a very powerful community. Linklaters could create the ‘IP for Company Secretaries Group’. Abbot Mead Vickers
could create the ‘Online Advertising Professionals’ Group.
1) LinkedIn Groups often fail because not enough of the members have anything in
common. Make sure your Group is targeted to a cluster of professionals with shared 8) Give your Group a name which will give multiple reasons why invitees know it is for
issues. them and is targeted. There’s nothing wrong with calling your Group ‘UK Finance
Directors in the Energy Sector’ for example. OK, it’s not the snappiest title but UK
2) Research other Groups that might be similar to yours and make sure your Group has a Finance Directors in the energy sector who are invited to join the Group are likely to
distinct purpose that doesn’t duplicate that of another existing Group. join because of the direct relevance to them personally.


Winning LinkedIn Strategy

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