Whether it’s your business or your personal brand, people always connect with people on a personal level.  It’s all about engaging in a dynamic relationship.  Brands are not logos or commercials, they are the perception and emotion of people built on trust and credibility.

A successful brand cultivates extensive user experience and encourages interaction that creates meaningful dialogues.  In order to foster strong relationships you must be trusted.  And to earn trust, you need to allow others to become aware of you. This concept also applies to the art of social networking, particularly with the shift from face-to-face communication to more online communication.

There are literally thousands of social media websites on the internet with hundreds more popping up every week. The strategy is to focus on the ones that suit your niche.

Setup a blog

I recommend setting up a blog if you don’t already have a website.  Even if you have a website such as your company or product website, incorporating a blog will enhance your online presence because blogs are typically search engine friendly, and they allow for rapid content indexing on the internet.  You ... read more >>

This is the first in a series of weekly posts in which I’ll be sharing some tips on how to use LinkedIn to good effect. This week’s tip is about having a well-crafted, up to date profile. And that includes paying close attention to keywords.

The idea of a series of LinkedIn tips has been prompted by my experience, over the past couple of weeks, of getting requests for advice and suggestions on how best to use LinkedIn to help grow your business or network. In each instance found myself writing more in reply than I think was expected.

Then I reminded myself that I have spent a lot of time studying and writing about LinkedIn. In fact it’s not long ago that my colleague Bill Vick and I were working on the second edition, now available, of our book LinkedIn for Recruiting. So it stands to reason there are things about LinkedIn that I may take as given, but which could well be news to a lot of people.

The book is based on interviews with top gun recruiters, sourcers and other industry specialists. And while the interviews and the book focus on the recruiting industry, a great proportion of the insights and advice is more generally applicable.

When we started the review I wondered whether 

My first piece of advice is that you DON’T want to “quick-launch” on LinkedIn; do it slowly and deliberately and do it right the first time.

What?

You say you’ve just been laid off, or there’s some other career crisis, and you didn’t “dig your [networking] well before you’re thirsty?”

OK, it happens.

In our Every Dot Connects social media workshops, here are some of my top tips for starting a good LinkedIn profile:

• Upload a photo. People like to see a face, and when you connect with folks after conferences and meetings, it also helps jog their memory about who you are and what you do. Get a professional headshot, not some fuzzy picture with your head against a blank wall taken with the family Kodak by your long-suffering spouse.  If you are located in Central Texas, I recommend Korey Howell.
• Personalize your public profile URL.  The default URL for your profile is an alpha-numeric jumble, but you can change it to read “www.linkedin.com (slash) YOURNAME.”  It looks a lot more professional, especially when you add your profile URL to your standard email signature, which essentially attaches your resume to every email you send.
• Spend a lot of time crafting your one- or two-line “elevator sp...