I happened across a helpful post on the LinkedIn blog by my old colleague Adam Nash.  Adam, who is leading many of LinkedIn’s headiest product initiatives, uses the post to endorse the power of the recommendations tool most LinkedIn users are already familiar with.  The whole post is worth checking out but I liked this sentence in particular, perhaps because it feels like so many of the things we have been writing here for the past few years:

“Your professional reputation and relationships matter – and not just to you.  That value extends far beyond your profile itself – it carries over to every interaction, every message, and every piece of contributed content.”

When I present to groups around the country, I always tell them to start their online reputation management with LinkedIn.  In our opinion, it remains the best all-around solution for professionals who want to establish themselves online.  Here are three LinkedIn tips for those who are just getting started and want to create a strong reputation.  I’ll post again later on with some additional tips for power users.

1 – Set a custom URL that features your name and mark it public.  I think that selecting your full name is best (e.g., Owen Tripp) as it lends authenticity and quality SEO to your page.  A senior guy at LinkedIn recently described this to me as “hanging your shingle on the Internet”.

2 – Write a few recommendations before you even start receiving them yourself.  This is important because it a) shows that you’re not somebody who is simply a “taker” within the LinkedIn community and b) gives people who view your profile a sense of the type of people you want to work with, and what traits you admire in them.

3 – Spend a lot of time thinking about the keywords you use, especially in the specialties section of your profile.  As my colleagues here at RD know, I can’t stand the word “strategic” because I don’t think it doesn’t mean a whole heck of a lot. But I really love seeing specific skills that are “searchable”.   Some good examples: technical writer, business intelligence and data warehousing, food operations manager.  Some bad examples: growth focused team player, excellent collaborator, all purpose marketing contributor.  Sorry guys, but nobody searches LinkedIn for “excellent collaborator”.  You get the idea.

So go on now – get your LinkedIn profile cranking.  And when you see the power behind that tool, please check back with us and we’ll teach you some of the advanced tips and tricks.  You can always give our MyEdge team a call too at 877-720-6488.  They love talking about this stuff!