Are you asking and answering questions on LinkedIn? You should be.

Posted by Emory Cook on October 14th, 2009

Are you using LinkedIn’s Answers feature? If you aren’t, you should be. If you are, you should be using it more.

But why is this tool so nifty?

1. Answer questions: Each time you log onto LinkedIn, glance at the right side of the home page and find the “Answers” box. You’ll see questions from other business professionals in your field. By responding to these questions, you not only help other business people with their problems or inquiries, you open doors to networking opportunities and positive personal branding.

2. Ask questions: This one’s obvious. Do you have a general query about sales, marketing, taxes or employment opportunities? Are you looking for a service in a particular city? Do you want to know what other businesspeople think about a news topic or current event? I’ve found that by asking good questions, you get good answers. LinkedIn is full of talented and articulate professionals that jump at the opportunity to answer a question. You can even categorize your question in a particular industry so the right people will see it. Asking questions has been very valuable in my personal experience, and I’m sure you’ll find it useful too.

3. Visibility: Like I mentioned in #1, you get a lot more face time by asking and answering questions. Other industry professionals and leaders will see you and perhaps look at your profile. LinkedIn users can label you an “Expert” if you give the best response to a question, thus giving your online expertise more credibility (and a nice green star goes on your profile). You can connect with other professionals that ask or answer questions, expanding your network in the process.

Tags: answers, LinkedIn, questions

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 at 12:07 pm and is filed under Branding, Social Networks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.