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LinkedInvestment: Eight ways to improve your Social ROI

If you spend 10 minutes on LinkedIn each business day for the last two years, you’ve made an investment of 86 hours… or two weeks of vacation. Up that to 15 minutes, and you’ve gobbled three weeks over the year.  How satisfied are you with the return on your time investment?  If you’re like most, then the answer is… you know you can do better.

If you’re going to spend so much time on LinkedIn – let alone Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or the other social networks, here are eight practical ideas to improve your ROI:

  1. Be intentional: What specifically are you hoping to achieve with the tool? Professional support/professional development? To close more business? A new job? Or something else?
  2. Complete your profile: This means being thoughtful in your use of keywords, not just filling in blanks.  And writing for your reader
  3. Change your status strategically: You are judged by the quality and frequency of your status updates. Irrelevant or too frequent posts harm your personal brand.
  4. Multi-lingual profiles: If you are fluent in another language, create a mirror profile in that language. If someone searches for keywords in this other language you’ll show up.
  5. Add a blog to your profile: Not only does this improve your search results, but it also lets people know how you think. Don’t have a blog? Check out Six Steps to Strategic Blogging at http://www.randallcraig.com/six-steps-to-strategic-blogging (no cost)
  6. Be more active in groups: Choosing the right groups (and participating in them) is really today’s version of networking. The ‘transactions’ of asking and answering questions translates directly into reputation and relationships.
  7. Connect to the real-world: Use LinkedIn proactively before real-life meetings. Check out your connection online before speaking to them directly, and reach out to people who know both you and them.
  8. Measure and manage: Set your calendar for three months time from now. If you haven’t made progress towards your goals, then re-examine what you’re doing with your social media time.

This week’s action plan: Most people already have done 3-4 of these items. But what about the rest? This week, improve your LinkedInvestment by changing how you spend those 5-10 ‘social’ minutes each day.

LinkedIn Trivia: Where are you on the LinkedIn pecking order? It’s not the number of connections, but how long you’ve been using the tool. LinkedIn assigns each person a unique serial number – starting from 1: The longer the number, the more of a veteran you are. Find your LinkedIn number by clicking on the “Profile” menu, and looking for a long string of numbers in the URL.  (My number is 1566001 – what’s yours?)

Randall Craig, president of 108 ideaspace, is a leading Social Media & Web Strategist.  We share Randall Craig’s blogs here on 108 ideaspace. However, the Make It Happen Tipsheet is also available by email. Go to www.RandallCraig.com to register.

This post has been written by 108’s Senior advisor and former CEO Randall Craig.

For information on our upcoming events, click on the links below:

Social Media Master Class – March 5, 2014

Inbound Marketing and Content Strategy – April 23, 2014 (No-cost webinar)