The Maine SEO Blog

Did you know you can customize the links from your LinkedIn profile? Don’t worry, a lot of people don’t. It’s just one more way LinkedIn helps with SEO.

First, go to your LinkedIn profile and click “Edit” by your websites.

By default, LinkedIn gives you an option to choose Personal Website, Company Website, Blog, RSS feed, or Portfolio. Those are all well and good, but why not add something a little more descriptive?

Change the option to “Other”, then add the name of your business or a keyword rich title.

Save your changes and you’re all set! Now get out there and customize your URLs.

Nicki Hicks
Connect with me on LinkedIn

This summer, LinkedIn started offering the ability to create company pages – not entirely unlike Facebook Pages. Per usual LinkedIn style, it’s not necessarily intuitive how to create or manage a page.

How to create a company page

Start by checking if someone created a company page for you. I’ve found that the number of duplicates of company pages on LinkedIn – and on Facebook, too, for that matter – is a little ridiculous. So, start by checking to see if your company already has a page! Simply change the search parameters (in the upper right of the page) to “Company”, then search for your company.

[Like Facebook, there's no easy way to search for companies. In fact, this is how LinkedIn suggests you find companies.]

It’s as easy as that! If your company exists already? Click on the page and make sure you have access to it. We’ll get into how to edit in a second.

If your page doesn’t exist? Start by going here. Fill out every detail you can – the more, the merrier.

How to edit the page

Start by clicking “Edit” on the top right-hand corner of the page.

Currently, there’s not a lot you can add to your company profile page other than some basic information. Also, there’s no way to update your “status” unless you count the blog feed or Twitter status updates. I’m guessing both of these will eventually be updated.

Why is a company page so great?

Even though you can’t do a lot with company pages currently, they’re great for taking over the first page on Google. Our company page is the 8th result:

Nicki Hicks
Follow flyte on LinkedIn!

Do you know who they are?

Sadly, many business owners don’t know who their audience is. A local Mom-and-Pop variety store may be entirely unaware of who they should be targeting.

So step one: figure out who your customers are.

Just ask

Seems silly, but why do all sorts of research and do little more than guess when you can find out for sure? Simply say, “Oh by the way, I was just wondering where you spend your time online. Do you have a favorite social network?”

Maybe your audience isn’t online, and therefore you don’t need to spend time there. You’ll find out pretty quickly where most of them lie: whether it’s on MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or maybe a niche social media site that you’ve never even heard of. Asking is the easiest way to find out – and it’s far easier than guessing.

Be where your people are

After you find out where people are…go there. They may be on multiple channels, and that doesn’t mean you have to devote your time to all of them. Pick one if that’s all the time your resources allow; but sign up for all of them.

MySpace

For the right kind of business (and audience), MySpace could be lethal (in a good way). For musicians and new bands, MySpace has been a huge key to success.

With the ability, unlike most social networks, to customize backgrounds and profiles, MySpace is truly a brandable network.

Facebook

Create your personal profile first, then a business fan page. Starting suggesting that friends fan your business, and then start reaching out beyond your friends. You can search for specific keywords within your network; or simply keywords within profiles – depending on privacy settings.

Facebook ads are another way to gain fans. Right now, they’re ultra-targeted and relatively cheap per click.

Twitter

If your customer base is on Twitter, sign up and build out your profile (including a custom background). Search for people you already know and start following them. Then go to Twitter Search and find some gurus in your industry by searching for keywords in your line of business. Check out Nearby Tweets for tweeps in your area and start following them.

Download an app like TweetDeck and track keywords in either your industry or your physical location. By doing this, you’ll no longer need to search constantly on Nearby Tweets or a similar geo-locating tool. Also, make sure you track your business name. That way, if someone talks about you (positive or negative), you’ll be right there, ready to respond accordingly.

LinkedIn

If your audience is on LinkedIn, you should be too! Create a personal profile page, along with a business profile page. Then make sure everyone in your organization is on LinkedIn and become connected with them. Then, look for your audience. Start with people you know.

Begin joining groups – even creating some around your line of work. Be sure to check the Answers section in order to become the expert in your industry. Both Groups and Answers are great places to find people to become connected with.

You’re not done yet

Now that you’ve found your audience, make sure you continue to search for new fans, friends, connections, and followers constantly. Consistently engage with these people – no matter what network you’re on.

Nicki Hicks
Go where the people are

This week, I gave two presentations (or rather, the same presentation, twice) for a senior Business Seminar class at Saint Joseph’s College. Though it’s always nice going back to my alma mater, more so than usual, I feel for the senior class.

A year and a half ago, it was easier to find a job. Obviously, it took some work, but it’s nowhere near the type of competitive environment these soon-to-be grads face in the next 6 months of their job search. So how are you supposed to differentiate yourself in such an atmosphere? Why, with social media, of course!

The full presentation is in Slideshare below, but here are some of the key points:

• On Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter already? Great…now go in and clean up and fill out your profiles. Not on them? Join! (Note: only join Twitter if you can devote the time to it.)
• The next step: go above and beyond. Engage people by friending/fanning, following, and connecting with the right people and groups.
• Jobs in ME/VT/NH and many of your other favorite job listing sites have a presence on all of the major social media networks. Why go to their website everyday when you can engage them via Twitter? or Facebook? or even an RSS feed?
• A really neat find: when I was doing research for the presentation, I stumbled upon some video resumes on YouTube – what better way to add depth to your resume? But be careful – you have to do your video resume the right way; check out the presentation for tips and tricks for YouTube!

So you’ve just created a killer blogpost. It’s got a ferocious title that will bring in a ton of readers, it’s keyword rich, and to top it off – you’ve got some stellar, unique content. Ok, so now what? Hit “publish” and you’re done? I think not…

1. Email subscriptions and RSS

It may sound silly, but make sure your readers have the ability to subscribe to what you write: be it via email or RSS. I can’t tell you how many blogs I’ve seen that don’t have either option, and interestingly enough: I’ve only seen them the one time.

2. Tweet about it, post it on Facebook and LinkedIn

Make that puppy viral! Sure, you have your email and RSS subscribers, but proactively seeking new readers and subscribers adds to your community. On top of that, your followers on Twitter might ReTweet your post – sending it out to their followers; your friends on Facebook might “like”, comment, or even repost your post; and your connections on LinkedIn could also access your post.

Specifically for Twitter, give your reader the option to “ReTweet” – the icon in the top left of this post – this way, they don’t have to do any work outside of hitting a button.

3. StumbleUpon it

I’ll be the first to admit I don’t use this tool for all its worth. But the reality is, you can create quite a bit of traffic around StumbleUpon – specifically among those people in your network or those that simply like the same things you do! Bonus: get other people to StumbleUpon the post too!

4. Digg it, or add it to your favorite Social Bookmarking site

There’s a lot of junk on social bookmarking sites. But then again, there’s a lot of great stuff too. Once articles go viral, there’s a ton of traffic in store for them, even if it’s for a short time. (That’s why you need #1 – to keep the readers.)

So, have someone digg or sphinn your post, add it to delicious, reddit, or whichever social bookmarking site you love!

5. Get your incoming link juice on.

Last, but certainly not least, get back to some basic SEO and get some other bloggers/sites to link to your post.

There’s an overlaying theme here: be everywhere. Be it a blogpost, a marketing message, newletter, what have you; distribute it to as many channels as humanly possible.

Nicki Hicks
Getting your blog out there, one post at a time

Step 1: Build out your profile

Add a picture of yourself. I would suggest going with something somewhat more conservative than what you’d use for Facebook or Twitter: a nice picture of yourself so people know who you are!

Include job information and descriptions. LinkedIn likes to have at least three jobs, one being current; but you can list as many as you like! Also, be sure to have extensive descriptions – think of your LinkedIn profile as your virtual resume.

Customize, customize, customize! You can create up to three links to your website/blog, and customize the anchor text. Also, be sure to customize your profile URL with your name.

It’s OK to be personal. Include some personal details, like your hobbies; you never know – you could easily make your next networking contact that way!

Step 2: Start connecting

Connect to everyone you already know who is on LinkedIn, invite people who aren’t there yet to. Convince your coworkers to create profiles, to even further build out your network.

Once you’ve built up your contacts, why not ask for a recommendation? Give your profile an extra boost or vote of confidence by acquiring recommendations from your colleagues, clients, you name it.

Step 3: Join groups

There’s a LinkedIn group for everyone. From the big to the small, there’s something for you. Within groups, add to or start a discussion – a great way to start a good conversation amongst group members and get questions answered.

Groups also have jobs areas – which is one of the reasons LinkedIn is such a great resource for job seekers. If you start joining groups your area of expertise, be sure to keep checking back at the job boards.

Step 4: Answer (and ask) questions

The Answers section of LinkedIn works much like the discussion board of Groups. By either answering or even strategically asking questions, you establish yourself as the expert.

Step 5: Rinse and repeat

For the most part, you can set up your LinkedIn profile and let it be. But, be sure to keep checking back in the Answers section to see if you can’t be a resource. Also, don’t let your status go unnoticed. Make sure you update every so often.

You’ll recieve weekly emails about LinkedIn activity within your Groups and Connections, so make sure you give them a good skim and watch for any opportunities!

Nicki Hicks
Connect with me on LinkedIn

My boss has recently been interested in the benefits of using LinkedIn – his most recent blogpost being about the advantages for small business people and entrepreneurs using LinkedIn.  In addition, I recieved an email from LinkedIn this morning about their newest addition: LinkedIn Applications.  So, I figured it’s high time I do a little investigatory work myself…

The first thing I noticed – while Facebook profiles will, more often than not, outrank it; searches for people with LinkedIn profiles will rank incredibly high (usually the first page).  My profile, for instance, is the fourth result in a search for my name, the fifth being a SERP for my name in LinkedIn:

So…what does that mean?  In all honesty, not all the much.  I mean how many people search for my name other than me?  The catch: searching for your friends, colleagues, classmates, or even businesses.  Say I was searching for the Via Group – an advertising firm right here in Portland.  (Admittedly, they just connected with me on LinkedIn.  But let’s say for the sake of argument I was searching for them.)  Their LinkedIn profile is ranked eighth in a search for “via group”.

Pretty powerful.  Another cool thing about LinkedIn?  They follow THREE of your links! (Most social media sites will usually give you an area to add links for your business, blog, what have you; but will nofollow them.)  For example, my Facebook links are nofollowed (SeoQuake will strikethrough nofollowed links):

Conversely, my LinkedIn profile not only follows my links, but also allows me to choose my own anchor text – even more powerful:

Moral of the story: If you don’t already have a LinkedIn profile (whether personal or business), get one!  And while you’re at it, follow me -

Nicki Hicks
Find me on LinkedIn