With all the focus on Facebook and Twitter for social media tools, LinkedIn is often forgotten. According to Guy Kawasaki, LinkedIn is one of the most powerful tools for business and career-building. According to Lewis Howes, it is the most powerful tool for building a small business or career.

Three Powerful uses for LinkedIn:

1. To become SEEN
   1. To be findable
   2. To have your career information easily accessible and available
   3. To connect to others
2. To become KNOWN
   1. To keep yourself in people's awareness through updates
   2. To share information about your career, business, and events
   3. To become familiar
3. To become a RESOURCE (to be connected)
   1. To join groups around your topics of interest
   2. To participate in group discussions
   3. To be seen as an expert
   4. To share information learned in the groups with your followers and friends

The key components to making LinkedIn work effectively for you:

1. Keywords
   1. Include words that apply to you that can easily be used by google
   2. Use keywords that match your website
2. Profile
   1. Keep it up to date
   2. Include as many things about yourself as you can
3. Groups
   1. Find and join groups that support your profession
   2. You can set it up to send you emails when new posts are added or you can go to the group when you want to review.
   3. Use it to find material that you can blog about or share with your clients/customers
   4. Also a way to establish yourself as an expert
4. Answers
   1. Answer questions on group forums
   2. Also watch for questions posted and answer them
   3. Establishes you as an expert
5. Testimonials (recommendations)
   1. Get clients and peers to recommend you
   2. Recommend peers and others you have done business with
   3. Both end up on your page
6. Customizing for you
   1. Important you make it work for you
7. Include in other static media
   1. Create automatic posts when you use twitter or a blog
   2. Put your LinkedIn URL on your business card and website

During this time of uncertainty, it is important to use all the tools we have available to reach out to our clients and potential customers. LinkedIn is one of the best tools to connect with peers, mentors, and referral.