Challenge: Make Linkedin Your New Years Resolution

It’s that time of year again… the time when we make and proceed to break our New Year’s resolutions, when we reset our goals and when weight loss ads are peering out of every corner 😉

I always take some time in January to evaluate the previous year, the good and the bad, and set goals for next year.

Many of the people that I’ve run into over the last few weeks have business related goals like do more better networking, finally figure out social media or better manage their business relationships.

If you want to achieve any of these things then it is time to get LinkedIn working for you.

Make LinkedIn Your New Years Resolution

LinkedIn is one of those social networks that everyone is on but nobody uses.  If you fall into this boat than NOW is the time to change it!  Don’t procrastinate.

All you need is some initial set up time to get your account up to snuff and then dedicate about 15 minutes, 2 – 3 times per week.

You can manage that – right?

Making LinkedIn your resolution is easy and can be very rewarding – both personally and professionally.

Step 1: Set up Your Profile.  Properly.

Spend some time to make sure that your profile accurately reflects who you are and what your goals are.  Create a compelling headline and summary.  Update all of your job information.

• Update your headline to match what you really are looking for
• Review your summary and make sure that it highlights the correct skills and experience
• Take a look at LinkedIn applications and consider adding some apps to your profile, like the Amazon reading list or connect your other social media profiles
• Expand on your job descriptions, make sure they are complete
• Add new jobs
• Consider refreshing your photo
• Update your websites
• Refresh your interests to make sure that they match your current goals
• Clean out your inbox
• Respond to any outstanding invitations

Step 2: Get More Connected!

The key to LinkedIn is maintaining connections.  Don’t wait until you need them – always be building your network.  In today’s world people change jobs so frequently that LinkedIn is the new business Rolodex (only you don’t have to keep it up to date – they do).

I am always surprised at the number of people that I know (in the real world) that I am not connected with yet.

Here are some ways to stay connected!

• Add any new people you may have met this year.
• Import your email contacts
• Go through your business cards and add connections
• Post your LinkedIn profile on Facebook and invite Facebook friends to join you on LinkedIn
• Review the LinkedIn “People you may know”
• Invite your Twitter connections to connect with you on LinkedIn
• Check out people in groups with you that you may not be connected to yet
• Invite your friends and family to connect
• Search for people at your current place of employment that you might not be connected to yet
• Write a blog post requesting connections

Step 3: Staying Active

The key to sustained success on LinkedIn is staying active.  Set aside some time every week to go on LinkedIn and make new connections, participate in groups and update your status.  This is where you can really get value from LinkedIn – through virtual networking.

Here are some of the things that you can do on LinkedIn to stay active:

• Update your status
• Clear out your messages
• Add new connections (people you met that week)
• Join a group
• Ask a question in Q&A
• Answer a question in Q&A
• Participate in a group discussion
• Start a discussion in a group
• Post news in a group
• Add connections from LinkedIn recommended “people you may know”
• Respond to invitations
• Read what your friends are posting
• Like or Comment on status updates of people in your network
• Recommend someone
• Request a recommendation from a friend
• Look at people in your networks who just joined

So how will YOU get more out of LinkedIn this year?

As you can see, there are LOTS of things that you can do to start getting results from LinkedIn.  What will you do to get more out of LinkedIn this year?