Today’s post is written by Irene Koehler and is another useful tip for LinkedIn. Irene and I have met virtually, first through http://MyVirtualPowerForum/ and then on twitter. She is the founder of http://almostsavvy.com/ ,a wonderful blog that teaches businesses and professionals how to improve their online reputation. She is an enlightening speaker on social networking as it is used today.
Here is her post:
You meet someone at a conference or a networking event and want to stay in touch. You exchange business cards and decide to connect on LinkedIn. She asks for the link to your profile on LinkedIn so she can send you an invitation to connect. If you reply begins with, “Uh, well…” don’t worry. Help is on the way.
Each LinkedIn profile is given a default URL, which is a combination of the LinkedIn domain and a bunch of numbers. Neither memorable nor impressive - especially when you can easily customize this in about 15 seconds. All you need to do is visit your profile page on LinkedIn and find “Public Profile”. Click on “Edit” to change the URL to include your name. A relatively small number of people use their business name here, rather than their own name, but I’d suggest considering this only if you own the business. Those with a common name may find that their desired LinkedIn URL is already taken by another member of the same name. In such cases, it is still better to find a version of your name than to use the default address. The result may include a middle initial or other similar tweak.
Now that you are the proud owner of a customized LinkedIn URL, use it for personal branding purposes. Include it in your email signature, making it easy for recipients to learn more about you by clicking over to your profile.
Side note: Unlike most sites, what you see in the address field of your browser when viewing your own profile is not the link to your profile. If you send this link to someone hoping they’ll view your profile, it won’t work. This link takes them to their own profile, not to yours. Trust me on this.
If you’d like to learn more about kicking your efforts on LinkedIn into high gear, be sure to visit http://almostsavvy.com/
Tags: Irene Koehler, Linkedin, Online Business Networking, social networking