I must confess I have neglected to do much with my LinkedIn profile.

I signed up and then essentially accepted invitations to be on my network.  I mean how much time is there to spend on it?

I had been looking to update and smarten my profile for passing traffic (contacts that had time to look), just to look professional.  Perhaps I was starting to awaken to its potential.  Well on Friday I got a little shove to do a lot more when I attended the first seminar on LinkedIn by networking authority and trainer Will Kintish.

Will has been showing thousands of professionals how to network face to face.  But like me he initially had his doubts about LinkedIn, can social media really give you the same contact and interaction as meeting someone in person?

Will realised that you do not have to compare like with like.  You can use LinkedIn as a highly targeted networking and lead generation tool in its own right, as well as a place to advertise your services and substance.

Will made key points about LinkedIn showing off the power of testimonials, its ability to reach hard to contact professionals (who possibly do not network so much offline) and the huge numbers of contacts you would want to make – far more than you could possibly achieve, the potential being so great.

What I think I came away with is that LinkedIn is easy to use, has good functionality and tremendous business development potential.  You could find much, possibly all your business, through LinkedIn if you really wanted.  It takes enthusiasm and time, but it can pay off big style.

I think I took away the view that it is time to take another look at LinkedIn and what it can do – a testament to Will’s enthusiasm and training.

More information on Will’s LinkedIn course.

Tags: Kintish, LinkedIn

This entry was posted on Monday, February 23rd, 2009 at 6:16 pm and is filed under Pitching, Social media, Social networking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.