No doubt you’ve heard of LinkedIn. So what’s the purpose of getting involved? 

As a real estate agent, you want to avoid the trap of looking at LinkedIn as merely a market for which you will sell in. People buy from people they like, not companies. And since LinkedIn is all about finding people that could be of value to you as well as being found by others, you need to start by creating a profile that will best represent you to the world.

1. Brand Your Profile

Branding. I’m sure you’ve heard lots about it. Bradley Will defined branding as:

Your brand is something unique that differentiates you from everyone else. It illustrates your unique skills and experiences and describes, or “brands” these attributes in the appropriate fashion. Ideally, your brand will immediately showcase your unique strengths.

Why is this important in LinkedIn? Because your LinkedIn profile is being viewed by people looking for skill sets or experience that you have.

2. You Are Not Your Company

LinkedIn, although it is a social networking platform for professionals, is still all about people. Don’t brand your LinkedIn profile as a company. It should be about YOU. If you already own your own company put it in the Company Directory.

3. Connect! Connect! Connect!

Here comes the fun part: increasing your connections! When you connect with someone on LinkedIn, not only will you be able to mutually see each other’s network updates and send messages without entering their email addresses, but you also now become visible to their connections as a 2^nd degree connection and to their 2^nd degree connections as a 3^rd degree connection. This is how you will start becoming visible. And, if your connections decide to leave their connection browsing open, you can take a look at who they are connected and search for people that you might want to start a conversation with, using your contact’s name as a reference.

4. Join Groups & Participate

Alright, you are starting to really work LinkedIn! You’ve got the greatest profile, and your connections, and thus visibility, is on the up. Now it’s time to start leveraging the social aspects of LinkedIn: joining communities of like-minded LinkedIn users called Groups.

Once you are on Groups, you have the ability to take part in discussions, read or post the latest news, check out job postings…and all of this information is specific to your particular group. Answer some of the discussions, post your own question, start communicating! LinkedIn Groups can be very powerful.

5. How to Network on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a social networking site like Facebook, Twitter, or any of the others. You can find people to network with and take your communications offline. Once you are connected to someone you will be able to directly send them a message without knowing their email address. From there, your communication with them should be like anyone else you meet at a networking event: “How can I help you?” Obviously there has to be some potential synergy to strike up a conversation, but even just saying why you are contacting them and what it is in it for them will be critical to your networking success.

LinkedIn also gives you this ability through its Events application. Look under the ‘Add application’ bar and check out the events clsest to you or where you can add value if they are some distance away.

Once you get started on LinkedIn there’s no turning back! Embrace it and make it a habit to spend 15 minutes a day looking for new people to contact, discussions to join, or events to check out. And expect to start being contacted by people that will also hopefully help you on your journey. Good luck! Article by Bradley Will. efkgsrnybt

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