How to Optimize Your New LinkedIn Profile (Part 5)

tour of your new and improved LinkedIn profile. I affectionately refer to the final two new features as THE MONEY!  

  

Simply put, you can now do an Advanced People Search (with all the available sorting filters) of any first-level connection’s database. So  before you have that lunch, phone call, golf outing, fishing trip, etc. with someone in your network, search their network. Then discuss with them how their friends might become your friends. 

Go to your connection’s profile.

Scroll down to the Connections box. (If you don’t see this, they have chosen to hide their connections from view)

If you aren’t salivating over this one, you better read it again. Better yet–try it. I know you’ll love it.

In this new section LinkedIn has really taken “breaking the ice” to the next level. Simply scroll over any of the in-common circles, and you can instantly see what you have in common with someone–and they don’t even have to be a first-level connection.  

I have already used this with success. When discussing with an event organizer the possiblity of being a keynote speaker at a national conference, I saw he is a scuba diver. We quickly hit it off on a personal level once we started talking about our diving trips. 

I am not sure that diving with the sharks in the Bahamas will secure the gig, but I know I was able to quickly build a relationship with a total stranger, and that may lead to income some day. And it helps make business a lot more fun!

 

For more killer strategies to maximize your new LinkedIn profile, check out the recent webinar I did with my good friend Joan Stewart, a/k/a The Publicity Hound.