Meredith Katz
Meredith Katz
Author Marketing, Wiley
linkedin Image courtesy of Forbes
2013
marked professional networking site LinkedIn’s ten year anniversary. 
By the end of its first decade, the company netted 225 million members,
with a growth rate of over two members per second. [1] Now with 277 million members, LinkedIn has the largest number of users of any online professional network in the world. [2]
"LinkedIn is, far and away, the most advantageous social networking
tool available to job seekers and business professionals today,"
according to Forbes. [3]
“I’m often asked, ‘How important is it for those already near the top
of their careers to be utilizing resource tools such as LinkedIn?’ Most
times, these questions come out of not fully understanding what you can
do with a LinkedIn account and profile,” says career coach John Crant of
SelfRecruiter.com [4]
So, how can you harness LinkedIn’s vast audience and  successfully showcase and disseminate your published content?
Utilize your strongest promotional tool on LinkedIn - your profile. Make your profile a positive tool in promoting the circulation of your published content:
   
  1. Tell your entire story. Assess
    potential omissions in your profile - have you listed all of your
    occupational experiences?  Education? Awards? Prior accomplishments may
    seem small, ancient, or downright irrelevant, until you shift your
    perspective. LinkedIn users visiting your profile probably don’t know
    the narrative of your career. A lapse in your profile is a missed
    demonstration of growth and of ambition. An earlier achievement may not
    reflect your current work but it will enrich your profile ‘story.’ By
    establishing the scope of your achievements, you grow common interests,
    expand your circles, and increase access to you and your published
    content.
  2. Frame your profile.
    By positioning your most relevant accomplishments first, you increase
    the likelihood that a visitor will read them and continue reading. Your
    publications will default to the bottom of your page. Reposition
    ‘Publications’ to the uppermost portion of your profile, under
    ‘Experiences.’     Select ‘Profile,’
    then choose ‘Edit Profile.’ Click the arrows on the top right side of
    the box you wish to move. Hold and drag the selected portion of your
    profile to their desired spot.
  3. Make it powerful and concise. Avoid verbosity. Cut out unnecessary qualifiers and weak verbs. Capture your accomplishments and other users’ attention with résumé action verbs, leaving them more compelled, and with more time, to read your published content.
  4. Be public. With LinkedIn’s vast user base, consider the scope of potential users as well as users you’d like to target your work to. Set
    your profile to ‘Edit.’ Scroll down to the ‘Connections’ section and
    select ‘customize visibility.’ Play around with the privacy controls of
    your account, such as tailoring your activity ‘broadcasts’ and ‘feeds.’     Examine
    how traditional approaches of disseminating your published content
    (e.g. live networking or print collateral) compare to technology driven
    ones. Set attainable goals for your LinkedIn use (such as increase
    monthly views by X%, make X number of connections) engage with the
    platform and measure your success according to your set goals.
  5. Highlight your work. When a paper is published or a book goes to press, add it to the publications section of your profile. . Title all publications precisely, list authors in contribution order, and add a live link to your articles. If
    relevant, consider including the number of citations your article has
    received, the Altmetrics score, or links to positive press coverage
    generated by your book or article. By listing your published work you
    create additional portals to your LinkedIn profile, promoting traffic to
    your page and circulation of your current and previous published
    content.
  6. Showcase your honors and awards. Have
    you won an award? Received an honor? Been featured in a major blog or
    magazine? List it under ‘Honors & Awards.’ Consider attaching
    related visuals such as corresponding images, videos, presentations,
    URLs, or documents as illustration of your achievement.
  7. Add images, videos, presentations, and documents. LinkedIn’s
    launch of the Professional Portfolio marked an increase in
    functionality, encouraging users to showcase their work in a new way -
    through upload of images, videos, presentations and documents. "From the
    analyst who makes annual predictions on tech trends to the 3D animator
    who is looking to fund a new short film, the opportunities are limitless
    for how professionals can now use the LinkedIn profile to help showcase
    these unique stories in a visual way," said Udi Milo, project manager
    at LinkedIn.     Featured content
    must be public URLs hosted by LinkedIn or one of the approved services
    (including sites like YouTube, Pinterest, SlideShare, Spotify, TED and
    Twitter). Attached files are limited to 100MB size.    To
    add images, documents, presentations, or videos to your LinkedIn
    profile, set your profile to ‘Edit.’ Under each of the entries in your
    ‘Summary’, ‘Experience,’ and ‘Education’ sections choose the square with
    a symbol icon. Click this to upload a file or link to content you wish to share. You
    can also move media samples from one section to another. Do this by
    clicking the drop-down menu under ‘Move this media to’ and choose the
    section of your profile you'd like to move it to. Then click Save. To
    rearrange items within the same section of your profile, click and drag
    them to the spot you want.     Mix up
    your visual media with a variety of figures, images, photos,
    screenshots, video, and presentations. Remember, each time you change
    your visual content in Professional Portfolio, it displays on the news
    feed, showcasing your published content to other LinkedIn users.
  8. Create an ORCID ID. Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID)
    is an open, non-profit organization that maintains an international
    registry of unique researcher identifiers and a method of linking
    research activities to those identifiers. You can include your ORCID ID
    on your webpage, when you submit publications, apply for grants, and in
    any research workflow to ensure you get credit for your work.     [5]