When it comes to online reputation management, most digital marketers head right towards Google for solutions. They look for keywords that may harm them, or content that contains negative information about them, eventually coming up with new content that will rank just a little higher in search results.
While this could be a winning strategy, there is another tool that they can use to kick up their online credibility; and this tool is none other than LinkedIn. The site has over 107 million active users in the United States alone which makes it one of the biggest social media platforms out there. This simple fact can make it quite a good target for reputation work. In addition to this, LinkedIn has specialized tools that make it quite an ideal choice to boost a good name.
Table of Contents
LinkedIn works much like a search engine. Users tend to type in sets of keywords in the search bar and the website generates results accordingly. Using the right keywords, thus, makes a profile a little convenient to find plus it helps you to look a little more professional and credible.
Although keywords could go anywhere, some bloggers suggest that keywords work best in high-impact spots like headlines, company names, job titles and skill sets. Putting key phrases is yet another smart strategy.
While it is hard to write a natural-sounding blog or social media post regarding an award you have won or a compliment you have received; LinkedIn has an entire section dedicated to awards and recognitions you have won, in a way, actively encouraging boasting.
Loading this section up with real data is an excellent way to communicate that you are good at what you are doing and that you can be truly trusted with any future work.
You can connect with “anyone” on LinkedIn; and by anyone, we mean anyone, even if you don’t have an in-person relationship. Doing so can help you kick up your career. The thinking behind this is: Reaching out to people you don’t know is a form of advanced networking that comes in handy, especially when you need another job down the line.
However, when it comes to reputation management, connections should be limited to people you actually know. Why? This is because an attempt to connect with people you don’t know personally can be interpreted as a personal affront. Also, LinkedIn connections are primarily designed to assist with profile building. The people you are linked to providing endorsements and recommendations. They reply to your posts and share them. As such, they work as a supportive community. If your contacts are all fakes or strangers, it means the community does not exist and that may dilute the power of LinkedIn.
Groups include professionals who share the same interests and work field. Interacting with these groups lets you connect with people in the same field as yours, who might become excellent connections over time. These groups can also boost your online reputation.
LinkedIn blogging feature is quite helpful, especially for people who work in the B2B sector. The blogging platform works well for people who want to share content. However, LinkedIn blogging comes with some unseen dangers. The entries are shared quickly which means anything you write should be specifically designed to make you appear good. Any curse, inaccuracy or offensive statement might make it hard to repair the damage.
Simply setting up a LinkedIn profile and joining groups cannot act as a long-term winning strategy. It takes continual work to make the website really work for you. That is when you get the required endorsements, engagements, and credibility that get translated into long-lasting reputation management success.
But undoubtedly, LinkedIn has a great deal of power; so, it’s worth the effort to utilize all that this platform has to offer.
