If you want to be notified the next time I write something, sign up for email alerts or subscribe to the RSS feed. Thanks for reading.

Supercharging your Free LinkedIn Account

LinkedIn is one of the more powerful social networking services that incorporate the basics and combine it with enough features that cater businesspeople and professionals to encourage them to join even if they are involved with existing social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. The main features with the most emphasis are the community which includes professionals of different areas and the ability to easily locate people that you know both professionally and personally.

However, there are other lesser features that if used correctly can supercharge your LinkedIn account and the best news is that you don’t have to upgrade your free account at all since upgraded accounts are for people that use LinkedIn more often. You can supercharge your LinkedIn account by following these tips and tricks.

Creating a Robust Profile

Building your profile takes a bit more time to finalize because there are more fields compared to the rest of the sites, but don’t let that intimidate you because many of the fields you only need to fill up just one time such as the general summary about yourself or brand and specialties. There might be other fields that you may need to update as you gain more professional experiences so don’t forget to keep your profile solid, complete, and up-to-date. More people will find your profile and be convinced to add you to their list as well.

Once your profile is all set up, you might want to create a public profile as well so your public image gets more recognition by the search engines and you can use it to attract non-LinkedIn professionals to join the site and connect with you. The trick is to use a vanity URL to make your link indexable and attractive.

Using your Connections the Smart Way

Having lots of connections will generally make your profile more interesting, but don’t forget that these connections are actually other profiles that are active and trying to make connections of their own. Some of the people you could be connected with may not be very active in connecting with others for reasons that you are unsure of. Give attention to these people by communicating with them more so that they are inspired to use LinkedIn more often and build their professional profile. You can even go as far as helping them by introducing other people that you are connected with.

Taking Advantage of Other Features

You can supercharge your account further by using the endorsements feature in order to offer and request endorsements. If you can demonstrate that you can produce quality work and services, the decision making process will go in your favor.

Don’t forget that there is a question and answers feature just in case you don’t have much to do in LinkedIn. This is a great way to share your expertise and help others. If you help enough people, more people will be interested to be a part of your network.

Supercharging your LinkedIn account is all about taking advantage of all the features to interact and connect with others. That way you can see if you really need to upgrade your account or not.