LinkedIn is a social network of more than 20 million professionals from around the world, representing 150 industries.

When you join, you create a profile that summarizes your professional accomplishments, pretty much like an online resume, but with important social networking elements baked into it.

Here are some personal branding and marketing tips to get the most out of your LinkedIn profile:

Add a picture

You can add your picture and display it at the top of your profile. A picture helps create a personal connection and conveys the message that you take networking seriously.

You can use the same picture you use in other social networking sites, so that those who frequent them may identify you more easily (brand recognition).

Create a personalized URL

When you join LinkedIn, your profile will be assigned a random URL such as:

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/2/496/aa7

Not very marketable.

You have the option, however, to create a personalized URL such as:

http://www.linkedin.com/in/yourname/

If you want an even better URL, you can always register yourname.com for less than $10/year and forward it to your LinkedIn profile page for the ultimate in URL branding.

Promote your profile with LinkedIn buttons

Like other social networking sites, LinkedIn offers a wide array of icons and buttons that you can use to promote your LinkedIn profile on your site or blog.

Create a LinkedIn email signature file

A LinkedIn email signature file displays your contact information including a link to your LinkedIn profile, in a variety of layout styles. The only caveat is that LinkedIn signatures are designed using HTML, and therefore will work with Outlook but not with Gmail or Hotmail.

If you don’t like any of the default styles, you can always use an HTML editor and create your own signature file, or create one directly in Outlook (you can use one of the LinkedIn buttons discussed before to make the link to your profile stand out).

If you use Gmail or other email provider that doesn’t accept HTML, you can always create a text-based signature file, and include a link to your LinkedIn profile by writing your URL preceded by http://.

Always include a Summary

LinkedIn lets you write a few paragraphs about yourself as part of your profile. You must take advantage of this since the Summary almost always gets read. This is your chance to include your elevator pitch or any other carefully crafted statement where you put your best foot forward.

Make your summary objective, but not boring. Avoid sounding self serving and corporate: if the summary of your qualifications sounds like it came out of an automatic mission statement generator delete everything and start again.

I suggest that you read the profile summaries of several members first, to help you decide how you would like your profile to read.

Participate in Questions & Answers

LinkedIn has a Q&A section where you can pose questions and answer other people’s inquiries. By actively using this feature you can share your expertise with other members and enhance your reputation in your field.

When answering questions, pretend you’re commenting on a blog or an online forum. The idea is to help others and add something meaningful to the conversation, not to openly advertise your products and services. If you are too aggressive you will turn people off. If you honestly try to help, people will naturally come to you.

Fill up the Specialties section carefully

Some LinkedIn users search for people by keyword. For example, if somebody does a LinkedIn search for “Online PR” and the term Online PR is listed among your specialties, your profile has a better chance to pop up for that query. Make sure to include all your areas of expertise in the Specialties field.

What other tips do you use to promote yourself in LinkedIn?

If you are an independent professional who has embraced blogging for marketing, you’ve probably asked yourself these three questions:

• Should I write long or short posts?
• Should I write only original content or can I write about somebody else’s content?
• Should I post daily? Weekly? Monthly?

Long vs. Short Copy

While some pundits argue in favor of writing long articles, it really depends on what you’re trying to do. “How to” articles dealing with complex subjects will usually be longer. Bloggers like Skellie and Maki excel in this blogging style.

On the other hand, it is entirely possible to communicate powerful insights with only a few lines of text. Client K (one of my favorite business blogs) does exactly that every day.

Original vs. Derivative Content

With so much information already published on the web, writing something completely original is quite difficult. It is even more difficult to do so day in and day out.

If you are a guru that can write original content with half your brain tied behind your back, great. However, the rest of us can do just fine by analyzing a common problem from a different angle or re-purposing existing content for a specific target audience.

Also, there is nothing wrong with writing quick posts that link to other people’s content. If you see something that can be useful to your readers on another blog, by all means link to it. Don’t let the Not Invented Here syndrome dictate your blogging policy and stand in the way of your readers receiving valuable information.

Posting Frequency

Here I have to agree with the experts: it is better to post frequently. While posting daily can be tough (especially if you blog part time), posting weekly should be doable.

Consistency, though, is more important than frequency. Posting consistently every two weeks is better than publishing daily for three weeks and then disappearing for weeks or months.

However, don’t be so hung up into sticking to a publishing frequency that you start posting filler content. Avoid publishing something of inferior quality just because too much time has passed since your last post.

In Summary

Writing long or short posts depends on what you want to accomplish. If you find something interesting on another blog, by all means link to it. The best posting frequency is this: post when you have something important to say. If that occurs frequently (weekly or more often), even better.

You Can’t Ignore Search Engine Traffic

With all the hype around social media it is easy to overlook the potential of search engines to deliver targeted traffic. Search engines are probably the best source of targeted traffic and, as such, they should not be ignored.

While social media sites like Stumbleupon or Digg can be very effective in delivering strong bursts of traffic almost instantly, that traffic dwindles over time and generally doesn’t convert very well.

Search engine traffic, on the other hand, has a longer term effect. Also, since search engine users are specifically looking for what you have to offer, search engine traffic has a better conversion rate.

Search Engine Traffic: Shoestring Branding’s Case

Six months ago, when we launched this site, we relied heavily on social media traffic. Stumbleupon was especially good to us, generating more than 70% of the traffic during our first two months. Search engines represented only 5%.

Today, six months later, our site has accumulated visibility and trust. Stumbleupon has decreased in relative importance, while search engine traffic has grown. In the last two months, search engines were responsible for 40% of our traffic (versus just 17% for Stumbleupon).

At the same time, we have seen our subscriber numbers grow, giving weght to the theory that search engine traffic converts better.

The Old Days of SEO

Since the early days, search engine quality engineers have offered this simple suggestion: if you want to rank well, just create a useful site with lots of great content. However, manipulating search engine rankings was so easy that webmasters usually chose to focus more on learning the latest SEO tricks than trying to grow organically.

These are some of the things you could do in the past:

• Increase keyword density by repeating your keywords of choice in your page copy.
• Use the same keywords in the link text of every link pointing to your site.
• Get a keyword rich domain, like “keyword1-keyword2-keyword3.com”.
• Exchange links with other people (chances are you’re still receiving spammy email from clueless webmasters offering you to exchange links to “increase Pagerank”).
• Spam blogs by leaving meaningless comments as an excuse to include a link back to your site.

Most of these tricks don’t work any more, and are nothing but a waste of time .

Mechanical SEO Is Out. Sustainable SEO Is In

Search engines have been busy lately working to close all these loopholes. Search engines can now identify and penalize pages that use keywords excessively or develop too many links too fast. Blog comment spam has been out since blog platforms started supporting the no-follow tag.

SEO is not about using tricks any more. Instead, SEO should focus on getting your site firmly enmeshed in the community: SEO is now a social activity .

The time has finally come to follow the search engines’ original advice and build a great site that others will want to link to. It’s time to engage in sustainable SEO.

Sustainable SEO: Getting Back to Basics

No matter how you slice it or dice it, there are only two things you need to do to build a successful site:

1. Create and publish great content, and
2. Tell the right people about it.

Assuming that you know how to create great content (after all, you’re interested and passionate about your topic, right?) telling the right people about it should be your next priority.

Getting people to know you and link to you are the basis for sustainable SEO, since search engines use links from established, reputable sites as a proxy for value and trust.

The Number One Tip to Get Links

The best advice I can give you is this: link out liberally. If there are bloggers in your field that you admire and want to get their attention, link to their posts from your site. Use their posts to provide support and context to your posts.

Don’t be afraid to “send your readers to the competition” or “leaking Pagerank”. That is foolish and outdated thinking .

By linking out often, people will start to notice you. Some of them will read your blog, others will become subscribers, and a few of them will become your friends, link to your posts, and support you all the way through. These connections will become your most valuable asset.

Training the Search Engines

Aside from writing good content and reaching out to fellow bloggers, you must train the search engines to know what your site is about. This will help you rank for different queries related to your topic. Some of the things you can do to guide the search engines are:

• Post regularly.
• Link to very good sites related to your subject matter.
• Make your blog posts focused: talk about only one specific subject per post.
• Have a limited (10 or so) group of focused, related categories with descriptive names.
• Include keywords in your page or post titles.
• Link to past posts on your own blog using descriptive anchor text.
• Create a sitemap and link to it from your sidebar.

Grab a Chair: Search Engine Visibility Takes Time

Search engine visibility doesn’t happen overnight. There is evidence that search engines like Google place new sites on a “probation” period before giving them weight in their rankings (in the case of Google, this probation period is known as the Google Sandbox).

During that time, it pays to be patient and to focus on building your site’s content. After a while (usually a few months) search engines will learn to trust your site and your posts will start showing up in the SERPs for a variety of search queries.

Other SEO Resources:

• SEO Training Program.
• SmallFuel: SEO for Small Business.
• Google’s Quality Guidelines .
• Matt Cutt’s SEO Tips Video.
• Aaron and Giovanna Wall’s SEO for Blogs .

The answer is simple: in the information age value can be created by simply aggregating and compiling information. We don’t have time to hunt for information. We want it fast and in a format that’s easy to consume: why browse through 4,000 posts when we can get a selected, condensed, organized and neatly packaged version of that content? That is why Darren will sell a ton of books.

Have you thought of all the possible components of your value curve? Are you addressing all the ways in which your customers may want to consume your product or service? Are you packaging your expertise in a way that’s easy to communicate and spread?

Last Monday I traveled overseas and, while at the airport in Miami, I observed the behavior of two people working there. One was a food stand attendant and the other one a security agent for the TSA (Transportation Security Administration).

The food stand attendant was taking a personal phone call while serving customers, holding the phone with one hand and reaching for the customers’ money with the other. In the meantime, the line kept getting bigger and customers were getting impatient. There were breadcrumbs and dirty napkins lying on the floor around her, the shelves were missing product and the whole place looked untidy and neglected.

When there were no more people on the line I decided to buy a bag of chips, but before I could hand her my money she just walked away, leaving the stand completely unattended for around three minutes. During that time, customers who wanted to pay left their food and walked away.

The TSA agent was completely different. This guy was walking through the crowd lined up before the security checkpoint, acting like a rock star, greeting everybody and making jokes: “How you doin’ today sir? OK? Good! And how about you ma’am? Good? I’m glad… Happy passengers, that’s what I want…. New York Jets? New York Jets? You gotta lose that cap, buddy!….How are you, sir?….. OK folks, if the guy in front of you is not moving, kick him! …..How you doin’ sir?” He would then pause for a few minutes and repeat the performance with another group of newly arrived passengers. He even had some cool jazz music playing close bye.

Going through airport security ranks high as one of life’s most dreaded experiences (up there with getting a root canal or watching politicians apologize in public for their character flaws). However, this guy alone, with his positive attitude and personal touch made the whole experience different and almost enjoyable.

I don’t think it’s a matter of money. The difference in salary between these two people can’t be more than a few bucks an hour, however, one cared and the other one didn’t. It’s a matter of character and pride.

This episode made me think about Jim Collins’ remarks in his classic book Good to Great , when he talks about the need to “get the right people on the bus” first. What he means by that is that people are more important than org. charts and job descriptions, and that you should make sure that you hire the right people before you do anything else.

He is right, and under that perspective the TSA guy would get hired over the food stand attendant any time.