How to use LinkedIn to promote your blog.

LinkedIn is so much more than a site to help you find a job or promote your business.  You can use LinkedIn as a tool to promote your blog and generate a lot of traffic and leads.  However, LinkedIn techniques to help generate that traffic really have to be learned.  There are a few different techniques and they really have to be tested through trial and error to see what works best for you and your blog.

The steps to LinkedIn are simple:

• Create a profile & fill it in completely.
• Add a profile picture that is professional looking.  Not photos of your pets, kids or something abstract.
• Add your contacts & networks.
• Add your blog feed through a LinkedIn app
• NETWORK!

Who should you add on LinkedIn?  First off, import your e-mail contacts.  You can do that automatically by putting in your e-mail information (from multiple addresses) on the LinkedIn site.  It will import your address book and check which of your contacts also have LinkedIn profiles.  This is a smart idea since most of our business contacts & prior brands and PR people are listed in our e-mail address book! 

Also add former classmates, friends, former colleagues, bosses you may have a good relationship with; add anyone you know that has LinkedIn.  This is how you begin to network and find new contacts.  Go ahead, add your competition too!  However, only add contacts that you know or you feel you can build a networking relationship with.  Don’t add people you do not know at all and do not spam them with invitations. 

You can build new relationships and get more exposure with LinkedIn Answers.  Go ahead and answer some questions, but answer the questions you can give good and educated answers to.  Demonstrate your expertise by writing strong and well-structured answers to “show off”.  Chances are, if you answer a question well and clarify the answer to the person asking, they probably will add you as a contact as well. (Further helping you network.)

LinkedIn communities are also important since you can participate in discussions.  Discussions are another great way to show off your expertise and gain new traffic, contacts, networks and leads.  Go ahead and strut your stuff when posting threads or replying to threads.  You will only want to join communities that are within your blogging niche.  Adding communities out of your niche may confuse those in your network and those looking for experts. 

Keeping active in communities, answers and also your status update are very important with LinkedIn.  You don’t want to drift out of people’s thoughts by lying low and being inactive.  Your status update is important since that is the first thing that shows up on the front page when your contacts log in.  You want to keep that updated in order to stay active in their memory.  You want to keep that impression fresh in their minds.  Keep it interesting, business-related and well updated.  Always remember to add a link back to your blog, that is the way you will drive traffic!

LinkedIn is probably better than Facebook and Twitter as people who are on LinkedIn are more business inclined.  You can really drive massive amounts of quality traffic to your page as well as connecting with some great business and blogging contacts.  When it comes to LinkedIn it is more quality instead of quantity.  You want contacts that are going to stay with you and steadily read your blog instead of hundreds of contacts that may click on your blog every once in a while.  Social Networking is the new black. J