Hi Chris,

That's really interesting - I like the mailing list bit! I was wondering about points 8 and 9. Could you elaborate a bit more? Are you thinking about the Questions and Answers facility?

My contacts are being forebearing as I invite them first to Facebook, then to Twitter and now to LinkedIn. I'd like to be able to explain to them the different benefits of each.

I'd also be interested to learn from people who use the subscription services - have you found increased benefit from these?

Many thanks.

Shani

All you points on LinkedIn’s features are well taken.

I also teach clients to use LinkedIn to get behind the walls of a potential customer.

If a salesperson has their eye on a potential customer but is unsure whom to contact and the company is protected by an automated attendant or a live gatekeeper, I recommend the following strategy.

Do a search on LinkedIn by the target company’s name. The results will contain everyone registered on LinkedIn who has that company name in their current or historic employment listings.

Look at their positions. If the people you find are not exactly the people you need, a good salesperson need only ring them up and ask. I know that’s grossly oversimplified, but we all have our own styles of getting people to open up on a cold call so you know what I mean.

You can also take the names of the people you find and search them on other networks such as Facebook, Plaxo and Twitter. If you find them there you might find the right contacts you seek among their contacts in that other network.

I can get into much more detail about methods and strategies, but you get the point.

LinkedIn allows you to see through the walls of a company to the people sitting in the building. Once you have that information your skills as a salesperson should enable you to do the rest.

One item of note about LinkedIn that I can not stress enough.

While LinkedIn can certainly serve as an excellent vehicle to portray your professional qualifications, a poorly prepared profile can have just the opposite effect.

Too many people join LinkedIn simply because a colleague invited them, however they don't spend the time to adequately fill in their profile, or they become distracted halfway through and never get back to finish, they don't spell check their entries, or leave a blatant gap in their employment history.

If you're going to have a LinkedIn presence, treat it with the same professionalism you would if you were delivering a CV to your next prospective employer.

Do it right or don't do it at all.

I don't think you've missed anything Chris! I have got friends who appear both on my Facebook page and also on LinkedIn. I see LinkedIn as my professional face and it is a useful way to keep on people's radar without being a nuisance!

I like to see who people are 'related' to and it makes it much easier to connect with people when you have a joint connection. I agree with that you do need to keep it up to date and properly filled out otherwise it just looks tacky and why would someone want to work with you/employ you etc!

I work out which page people go onto by considering whether I mind them knowing I've had a s**t day at work, or know that I've got my jammies on while I watch Match of the Day. If the answer is 'yes' then it is probably better that they are just on my LinkedIn page ;-)

Thanks everyone for your comments - very helpful for expanding my understanding.

I was wondering what to do about those Match of the Day moments ...