As all of these platforms, software and product shift and shape around us;

What is your favorite social media tool?  What community platform do spend the most time with?

Tell us who do you love?

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I wrote one of my best evergreen articles on using LinkedIn eight months ago–when I shared 10 tips to use the networking site professionally.

Recollecting last night’s social media workshop led by Tyson Goodridge when more time was spent talking about Facebook and Twitter than LinkedIn, I think it’s worthwhile to expand upon the 10 tips and offer 12 ways how you should use LinkedIn today.

* If you have a LinkedIn profile, please keep it updated. If you want to know why, ask your friend to open his or her web browser and search your name. Chances are, unless you are omnipresent everywhere online or your name is very common like John Smith (not that I’ve ever met anyone with that name), your LinkedIn profile will appear in the top 5 search engine results. That’s why it should be updated.

* Fill your profile with colorful language, not drab resume-speak. There is a reason why the site is called LinkedIn, not ResumePlace. Verify the headline either is a mirror of your job title or a description of what you do. Change your headline as often as you’d like; mine currently states, Online media strategist and community manager for business and government, and Newburyport City Council candidate. Flesh out the summary and don’t be afraid it’s too long. Most summaries I see are too short. Which leads me to…

* Write in first person, not third. Unless you introduce yourself in third person at job interviews, cocktail hours, and networking mixers, keep your page about you in your words. Be transparent to who you are, not a third-person essay of what you’d like people to think you are.

* Upload the same photo you use elsewhere online. Ensure the picture is what you look like today, or within the past few months. Don’t use a picture that’s more than a year old. Again, think of the cocktail hour; unless you wear a mask to the event, show me who you are and what you look like.

* Join a group. Prove to me that you can connect to random people who share your beliefs. The more groups you join, the better. But don’t overdo it. You can also choose, when joining groups, whether they appear on your public page or not. If you look at my page, I am displaying a fraction of the groups in which I belong. Don’t display irrelevant groups to the rest of your profile.

* Ask and answer questions. Social media is about a dialogue; and the more questions you ask, the more frequently your connections will see the questions you ask in their streams. The more questions you answer, the more likely your answer will be marked “the best” and appear next to your name for future questions and answers. There are dozens of topics you can participate in, so go crazy. I was selected for having the best answers in selected questions on blogging, organizational development, and using LinkedIn.

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