2. On LinkedIn, this means making sure that you have completed your pro?le in detail and taken advantage of all of the pro?le features that the site provides. Start with the headline. The default is your job title, but your job title probably doesn’t indicate what you do. Consider describing what unique bene?t you provide, and understanding how current customers describe what you do is a good starting point.

3. Use the 2,000 word summary space to your advantage. Who do you want to see your pro?le? What might they be searching for? Use those search phrases (the answer to those questions) as keywords in your summary. Make sure to include relevant experience, but take advantage of the other features that LinkedIn offers (articles, video and presentations) Utilize the recommendations section of your pro?le.

4. LinkedIn offers a host of ways to upload your contacts into LinkedIn, such as importing your Gmail, Outlook or Yahoo address book. You can add contacts by directly entering their email address or uploading a CSV file. If this fails, do a search using LinkedIn’s search engine to locate contacts you might not have an email address for.

5. You can start to broaden your network by using LinkedIn’s blogging platform. LinkedIn has opened up its internal, long-form blogging platform to all users. Aim to write at least one blog piece for LinkedIn on a topic that would be of interest to the people who you want to connect with. Try joining groups on LinkedIn, which are relevant to your industry and interests.

6. One of the elements of being successful with LinkedIn – just like offline – is to provide value (sharing links to valuable content and helping people with their problems). Aim to contribute at least two or three times a week to each of the groups that you belong to in order to see results. Any time you send a connection request, take one extra minute to customize the request message. If you have met offline, remind the person how you met them and reinforce the fact that you are not a stranger. If your interactions were only online or if you haven’t actually interacted, then use the connection email to reinforce the value that you think you can each bring to each other.

7. The right strategy for converting your connections into clients depends on what products and services you’re offering. LinkedIn ads can be one way to reach even beyond your network. LinkedIn offers several advertising methods to reach out to your target audience. Their ad formats include text and image ads, video ads, and text ads that allow you to tailor your advertising style to your audience. Target your ads based on job title, location, function, seniority, and other essential demographic information. As you target, keep in mind who the actual decision-maker will be.

8. If you want to avoid spending money on LinkedIn client conversion, you can directly approach potential clients. Reach out to connections who fall into your target audience, or who are connected to decision makers within this audience. Watch their group posts, LinkedIn updates, and other interaction with the site. If you can tie your sales pitch into their recent social activity, you have a natural way of opening up the conversation. If you don’t have as much to go on, talk to the connection about recent projects and news related to the company to create a more receptive audience.

9. www.ucfunding.com