Last week I spoke about the changes taking a foot in LinkedIn and how it’s looking to freshen up and shake off the corporate image that it’s held for some time.

If you didn’t see it, you can read ‘Could LinkedIn be the next big thing in social?’

So if you’re on LinkedIn or thinking about giving it a go here are 18 tips to help you improve your LinkedIn game

First - 8 steps to improve your LinkedIn Profile

1. Choose a great profile image. Not something with you in sunglasses, or behind your cats bum! Something professional where I can see your face. And preferably the same profile image you use across all your social media channels. Remember you are building a brand here!

2. Add a background photo to your profile – something that adds to the story of you and your brand.

3. Make your headline something more than just your job title. This headline gets displayed every time you post. So owner or Director of just doesn’t cut it. Make the headline about what you do and the difference you make. It’s your space to have a calling card.

4. Turn your summary into how you help people. Make it about your clients and customers., what value you bring to them.

5. Add links and videos to your summary. I’ve got a podcast recording of me when I first started early on, my website and a Pecha Kucha I spoke at.

6. Flesh out your experience section, add web links to projects you worked on and examples of your work.

7. Add your education and any volunteer roles you’ve taken on.

8. Flesh out the accomplishments section. LinkedIn says the Publication section is one of the most underused. Been in Marie Claire, Forbes or The Guardian – you can list it here!

Now you’ve got an awesome profile it’s time to look at using LinkedIn for social.

Lucy Griffin-Stiff a friend on mine on LinkedIn had this to say 'I don't see it as just a platform for corporate business these days. I see it as a networking room full of expertise, business friendships, sharing of information, starting conversations and helping each other out'

Which is such a great description!

Here are 10 ways you can make use LinkedIn

1. Start growing your network. The more relevant connections you make, the more people LinkedIn will suggest for you to connect with. You don’t need to say yes to everyone who wants to connect with you.

You really want to build your network with people you want to connect with. You know who your ideal customer is and who can support you on your journey – find and connect with those people!

2. Be active! It’s a social media channel like all others, so you need to post on it as you would other social media channels. Remember the same rules apply.

Don’t be spammy. No-one wants to be sold to. Use it like other social media channels to tell the story of what you do, share links to your blog posts, tell people about the difference you make, try and add value to people’s lives.

Here’s the social media mantra – Inspire, Educate, Entertain.

How can you do one of those 3 things? It is all about being social! I probably post 2/3 times a week and that seems to be enough to gain a sense of visibility of the platform.

3. Use LinkedIn Pulse. Alongside posting your blogs as links in the newsfeed, you can also post your blogs on LinkedIn Pulse as articles.

There is a rule of thumb here. Post the blog to your own website first, so google knows the content lives there. Then 2 weeks later post as an article on LinkedIn - don’t forget to add a call to action at the end though!

4. Reply to comments people leave you, on both posts and articles. LinkedIn works the same as other social media channels.

The more conversation on your posts and articles, the more popular it will think your content is, the more it will show it to more people.

So don’t leave people hanging. Get those conversations going.

5. Comment on other people’s content. Remember the ‘social’ in social media.

Maybe set aside 5/10 minutes a day to check in with what other people are posting and start conversations.

6. Move conversation onto LinkedIn messaging.

A lot of the magic happens when you start to make things personal. So if you want to really get to know someone start a private conversation with them.

7. But don’t be over salesy on messenger – a pure sales cold call message is just a little bit annoying!

8. Use video. LinkedIn has spent a lot of money improving is video functions, so word on the street is that it will push your videos out to more people (whether that is true or not, how is to say, but worth a punt!).

You can record video in LinkedIn and make use of the stickers and fun other elements it gives you to play with, or record and upload as you would an image.

9. But don’t add YouTube links. LinkedIn won’t reward you with trying to get people off it’s platform to YouTube. So drop video files in instead.

10. Ask for referrals from people you’ve worked with. People do read these testimonials and it adds to your sense of expertise and builds credibility.

Getting busy on LinkedIn

Now, remember that if you’re new to LinkedIn using another social media channel will time out of your day. 60% of the working and student population of the UK do have a LinkedIn account, so it’s likely your customers will be there, but you need to review it's effectiveness.

I always advise people it’s better to be on 1 or 2 platforms well, that try and be on everything badly and burn yourself out. So if you do decide to give LinkedIn a go, I would set a timer on it.

Maybe 3 months, of doing the above and review how it’s working out for you. Check your google analytics and find out if traffic is going from LinkedIn to your site and ask new clients how they’ve heard of you.

As with all social media you want to be measuring your success to see if it’s worth your time!

Interested in whether to take a look at Linkedin? Read ‘Could Linkedin be the next big thing in social?’