PAPER making! FROM THE PUBLISHERS OF PAPER TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL ® FROM THE PUBLISHERS OF PAPER TEC Volume 11, Number 2, 2025
How to Improve Your LinkedIn Networking Create a Professional Profile LinkedIn isn’t Facebook. It’s a professional network. Don’t post an image of yourself at the beach—not appropriate. A professional headshot is the best, but if that’s out of budget, don’t omit an image. Put on your dress duds and have a friend take the best smartphone shot possible. Some will advise you to list all your work, internship, and volunteer experiences, and I would agree—if you’re looking for a job, but if you’re looking to attract customers, a more focused approach may be more effective. My point is to understand who you’re attempting to reach and share what best fits their interests. Your business life is active, and your profile should be too; update your profile as often as your career and needs change. Earlier, I said LinkedIn is a professional network, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t share a little about who you are. Listing your hobbies and interests may help you connect with businesspeople on a more personal level. Add to Your List Continue to develop connections. Remember when you added people from your contacts, email, and other networks? How many people have been added to those lists since you uploaded them to LinkedIn? Is it time to update? At least once per month, review LinkedIn’s More profiles for you, People you may know, and Grow your network and then add the people you do know. Reach out to customers, vendors, and others in your industry and add them. Business in the 21st century changes fast. More than ever, today’s competitor may be tomorrow’s customer, and your contact at a small firm may end up as a decision-maker at an organization you’ve always wanted to connect with. Wouldn’t it be sad if you lost touch with them and didn’t know? Don’t Spam Please. No. Auto-responses. When you accept an invitation to connect, reach out with a personal message. (I’m not throwing stones here; there have been times I’ve been too busy to send a message, but I try to make it up with a personal touch later.) Thank them for reaching out, remind them of connections you share, and ask how you can help. Groups are important, being in the right groups more so. Limit your group involvement to those fitting your business and personal interests. Just because somebody else joined a group or you were invited to join doesn’t make it a good fit. Joining too many groups limits your ability to contribute and participate and may be counterproductive. In group discussions, talk to people, not at them. Don’t hijack the conversation, and try not to get on your soapbox (that’s a hard one for me). Don’t use LinkedIn solely for promotion; take the time to like, comment, share, and converse with others. Be real. Never lie, and that includes misleading through exaggeration or omission. If a friend requests a connection to someone you don’t know well or feel uncomfortable connecting, don’t do it. LinkedIn isn’t the place to brag or humble brag too much. Let others do it for you. It is the place to announce milestones such as educational achievements or promotions. That’s not bragging; it’s sharing information.
Article 12 – LinkedIn
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