One of the most popular social networking sites these days is called LinkedIn.  This site is mainly for business professionals to network with one another.  Of course, professionals are also consumers in one form or another, so you can also pick up customers that may want to use your product or service.  One of the main ideas of using LinkedIn is to network with other professionals who can send you referrals, similar to regular networking groups in your local area.

The key to using LinkedIn, and the one thing that is often missed by your competitors, is setting up a good profile.  Many people try to use their profile as a mini resume, but it’s boring and bland.  No one wants to sit around all day reading resumes unless that’s their job!

When you’re setting up your LinkedIn profile, make sure that you always focus on what’s in it for the other person.  They don’t necessarily want to hear about what your duties were at your last job.  Instead, they want to know how your expertise from that job can help them.  Make your profile interesting and entertaining with lots of space and bullet points.  Make sure to break your jobs up into sections so that you can show all of the different responsibilities you had there.

Another important part of using LinkedIn is getting recommendations from others.  When you connect with other people on LinkedIn that you already know or have done business with, ask them to go and give you a recommendation that will show on your profile.  You can do the same for them.  This is just like having testimonials on your page.