If you want to build your business and your career then these 29 LinkedIn tips must be part of the mix! With more than 170 million professionals worldwide and 3 million in London alone LinkedIn is the best place to start!

Recent design changes have hidden many of the features that have given your profile much of its power — recommendations, web links and social media. As a result, creating a highly searchable and keyword rich profile is essential.

With more than a million groups and great search features, LinkedIn is an amazing opportunity to build a business! Put in the effort to grow a network and learn the ins and outs of the system and the payoffs are huge!

1. Secure your name to customize your url. This is done in the settings function and will provide you with a professional looking link instead of the default link which contains lots of numbers and random letters. Please feel free to connect with me!
2. Complete your profile. Nothing says amateur than an incomplete profile. A complete profile will help when contacting with others.
3. Start with connecting with your warm market. Invite friends, relations, schoolmates, customers and colleagues.
4. Use LinkedIn to follow-up after other communications. Don’t make the mistake of trying to connect with lots people you don’t know. LinkedIn will warn you, and then could shut you down if too many people don’t respond to your connection request. Whenever you receive an email, business card, or leave a voicemail; add that you are going to also connect by LinkedIn right at the end. Then people make the connection as someone they know and approve your connection request.
5. Customize the standard connection request message that LinkedIn puts in to something you write that is more personal. Note that if you import lists or use the mobile application to make requests that customization is not an option.
6. Teach LinkedIn strategy and tactics to your employees. Get your people together and coordinate your efforts and strategies as a team. If you provide your staff with a team approach you will get much stronger results. Leverage each other’s connections for better team results.
7. Give and receive recommendations, a heart-felt recommendation helps build relationships. Nothing boosts morale, loyalty, and friendship, like an unsolicited recommendation. Try it. And don’t be afraid to ask for it from co-workers, friends, and even customers. Be generous with your praise!
8. Use your “3 Free Backlinks” (these are the weblinks) with all employees: Google uses backlinks to drive search engine results. Every LinkedIn account has a place for 3 Free Backlinks, and LinkedIn leaves these links open to indexing by Google. Ask that employees list your company website, blog and facebook page.
9. Define your LinkedIn sales strategy. Know what you want to achieve and keep this in mind when making connections, posting in groups and creating updates.
10. Have your marketing department assist your team with writing of profiles to be certain everyone within the company provides a professional profile.
11. The magic of 3! Before your sales reps make a call to a prospect, have them spend 3 minutes and find 3 things on LinkedIn to talk about. It’s much more compelling than talking about the weather or sports.
12. Use professional photos. They should be business portraits and should present you in a positive and dynamic light. Do not use photos with your children (really) or partners. Bring in a professional photographer to take portraits of your entire team and these can be used for LinkedIn, Web, Twitter and News Releases.
13. Invest in premium services. The basic paid level is essential if you wish to make sales connections on LinkedIn. Information is power!
14. InMail is a great service LinkedIn provides where they guarantee a response through a request for introduction, or they give you a credit to use another InMail.
15. Online groups are replacing traditional industry and local groups, the old days of lunch clubs and breakfast networking groups are still around but LinkedIn is adding power. Many LinkedIn groups also have face-to-face meet-ups, which increase their power and influence.
16. Use LinkedIn in your trade show strategy, LinkedIn Events can be used to promote your events and trade show participation. A number of LinkedIn newbies or purists will say, “You should only connect with those you already know and trust, so you can make recommendations to others when they want an introduction.” I can see where these users are coming from, but how do you expect to expand your opportunities and options when you close off communication to the rest of the 170 million plus members on LinkedIn? Think about it, you already know all of the opportunities that your closest connections can share since you talk to them more frequently. It’s time to use LinkedIn like a live networking event and introduce yourself to others, make new friends, and start helping more people to connect to your network.
17. Accept invitations from others who add you, as the more connections you have, the larger your expanded network grows which helps create more opportunities in the long run. It is your choice whether you wish to share your connections — this can be adjusted in settings.
18. Have a clear and written LinkedIn policy for employees. Don’t try to exert too much control but be clear on expectations. Consider that companies that try to control employees activity too much or that expect to ‘own’ connections are not likely to get sincere participation.
19. Use the LinkedIn search function to identify those who need your services. Send personalized invitations using LinkedIn InMail or request an introduction from a common contact. This way, you won’t come off as ‘spammy.’
20. Engage! Answer questions in your groups and in LinkedIn Answers. People can benefit from tips and tools related to their interests and business. The more helpful and unique your contributions are, the more valuable you become to the community.
21. LinkedIn applications, like Blogshare or Slideshare Presentations where you can showcase your work. Helping people and adding value to groups will position you as an expert and increase your visibility.
22. Know what others are thinking with LinkedIn Signal Click on ‘News’ > ‘Signal’ to see all of the updates from your network and related connections. Sign up for updates on your specific interests to track them. Keep in touch with your connects and stay top of mind by sending them personal messages.
23. Be Compelling! Most profiles are extremely boring and showcase zero personality or compelling attributes. Add an interesting story in your summary, have a video recommendation pop up in the first few seconds, or at the least tell people who you are, who you help, and how you help them so there is some direction for people when they land on your profile.
24. Join Targeted Groups! It doesn’t matter what industry or business you are in, this the part of LinkedIn you should be focusing the most. There are benefits to both joining and being a part of niche-related groups, and also being the owner of them. Don’t expect immediate results!
25. Add Advanced Applications. LinkedIn has a number of applications to help you promote your business or your personal work better. It doesn’t matter what industry you are in, there is an application for everyone that can help you get your message across better, and improve the overall experience of your LinkedIn profile.
26. Use the sharing buttons on your website and blog and share anything interesting with your connections and groups. Be careful not to push out too much content but don’t be shy either.
27. Be consistent and persevere, like any social media effort, the return on your investment in time on LinkedIn isn’t always easily determined. If you’re looking for short-term gains, no social media network is likely to produce them so learn to be patience and moderate in your approach.
28. Find out who’s viewed your profile. See the statistics on your profile to learn more about your performance on LinkedIn, and know when it’s a good time to follow-up with a contact. A premium accounts provides more information. If someone has viewed your profile that may be a good moment to connect.
29. Check your settings. Unless you have a specific reason to remain private you do want people to know that you have viewed their profile. Most people with view the profile of people who have view them — this is a market impression so don’t hide!