Live Post: Chris J Reed - 10 Top Tips for How to Use LinkedIn (and some for what not to do) #agencypublisher

Live from the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong (AmCham) - one of the largest American Chambers outside the US and the largest international chamber in Hong Kong.

Today AmChamHK hosted Chris J. Reed Global CEO and Founder, Black Marketing Global and Asia Pacific Office, who presented to a packed audience on how to use LinkedIn for any business purpose.

Here are the key take-aways from his presentation:

LinkedIn = Gamification Platform

Top Tip #1 - Your profile photo
It's a business network, a professional photo works best. Be positive, be engaging. Be genuine! Animals, Cars, and Penguins...no, no, no... One person works best, sorry which one are you? No groups. What does your personal brand say about you on LinkedIn?

Top Tip #2 - Use a great background image
Use a great background photo, be dynamic, personalise your profile page. Images are given to you for free. 

"A great photo and background will increase your profile views by 14 times"

Top Tip #3 - Your profile headline
Your profile headline is searchable on Google. The headline follows you. Use it to convey what you do. Often your LinkedIn profile will appear in search results higher than websites or blogs. It appears everywhere on LinkedIn and greatly improves your SEO - every word is a "key word". 

Top Tip #4 - Combine both, personal and company
Company and personal brand. Think about employer branding. Use your logo, background in profile photos and backgrounds. Consistency is critical.

Top Tip #5 - Summary
The Summary section is critical. Its your personal brand. Write your profile in the first person, give it warmth, give it life, don't make it sound like your PA wrote it. Think about the power of the search feature for profiles.

Top Tip #6 - Experience
Use the experience section. Consistency is again critical. Do your company's employees say the same thing and describe the company in the same way, or do you have multiple descriptions of the company. Enable people see exactly what you do.

Top Tip #7 - Visual content
LinkedIn is a highly visual content, pictures, videos, PDFs. You can use links back to original content.

Top Tip #8 - Create a content marketing plan
Are you posting, are you liking, what are you doing on LinkedIn. How do you communicate you personal and company brand on LinkedIn? Using posts as thought leadership, video is a great way to add interest. LinkedIn will market your posts through Pulse, far better than your website to a large audience. The Analytics will help you understand who, what and where your readers are. Its a fantastic digital marketing platform. Use engaging content. Infographics work well. Don't forget to share engaging content in Groups, but make it relevant and contextual, otherwise its spam!

Top Tip #9 - Develop your company page
Powerful for employee branding, recruitment and communications. L'Oreal has one of the best company pages. They talk about real business issues, rather than simple content marketing. ANZ talk about fintec and innovation, not banking. Compelling and engaging content is crucial. If you are publishing content on your company page, keep it up-to-date, be engaging, and most importantly monitor it. Reply to comments, address complaints, monitor your page. Pages are FREE and it greatly improves your Google SEO - they work closely together.

Top Tip #10 - Create new business
Sales navigator works. Its been designed to create compelling content. Save leads, accounts, profiles. Makes connections, reference common points when you connect. Put your communications into a business context and keep it brief. These tools will put you in control.