Get SMART With LinkedIn

The start of a year is the perfect opportunity to ramp up your LinkedIn Profile while you have time on you side after the festivals. Reflect and celebrate your achievements of last year, then plan for the year ahead. What do you want to achieve?

Set SMART goals for the year. These are goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound;

S – specific, significant, stretching
M – measurable, meaningful, motivational
A – attainable, agreed upon, achievable, acceptable and importantly action-oriented
R – relevant, realistic, reasonable, rewarding, results-oriented
T-time-bound, time-based, timely, tangible, trackable

Here are some things to think about;

Do you review your goals and work out an action plan in order to reach them?

How can you use LinkedIn to get you closer to your goals?

Have you set a goal to get set up properly and start using LinkedIn effectively?

Chunk down big goals into manageable chunks and assign the content, tools and strategies to go with them. How can LinkedIn be used to get you closer to your goals?

FACT: People who are active in LinkedIn Groups and comment on discussion regularly have 4 times the number of Profile views according to LinkedIn.

LinkedIn currently has over 259 million members around the world with over 5 million in Australia and continues to grow at a rate of 2 new users per second. It is the essential online tool for anyone in business.

According to LinkedIn's blog; "We want to make it easier for you to build your professional brand, leverage and manage a trusted network of peers and collections, and quickly access unique business knowledge flowing through LinkedIn everyday … We believe LinkedIn can power every professional moment you have. "

What can you do right now?

1. Before any meeting, do your research by looking them up on LinkedIn.
2. Use to connect to new leads and connections from networking events.
3. Become the go-to-person in your field by using LinkedIn to share your expertise.
4. Gain visibility by using Groups to help people who have problems that you fix.
5. When traveling, use LinkedIn to let your network know and set up meetings before arriving.
6. Monitor your competition.
7. Monitor your prospects to stay one step ahead.
8. Keep your profile fresh by updating regularly
9. Learn how to use LinkedIn effectively.

Time to ramp up your social media and specifically LinkedIn? Get started now.

Source by Jo Saunders