3 LinkedIn New Year’s Resolutions That Will Change Your Life

January 5, 2016 / in LinkedIn / by Mic Johnson

Post author: Mic Johnson

Yes, a new year is upon us and that means we’ve all been thinking about the things we could do better in 2016 to make it the best one yet. Some common business resolutions include…Get organized. Reduce stress. Change careers. Manage your email better. Find new clients.

Those are all worthy business-related resolutions, but let me give you three LinkedIn Resolutions that will change your life for the better:

1. Give Your LinkedIn Profile Some Love.
Upload a new picture. Update your professional headline. Update your Summary (or write one if you still haven’t done it). Fine tune your job descriptions.

I just went through this exercise myself and make a point to do it at least every 6 months. I found several things I wanted to change and “tighten up” on my profile. It’s time for you to be proud of your profile instead of saying Don’t Look at My LinkedIn Profile.

2. Get Connected.
Are you still one of those people with 65 connections? Come on, now. You can do better. Take time each week to connect to people you know, trust and respect.

Build your network now. You never know when you’re going to need them or, better yet, when you might be able to help them.

(MicTip: Be sure to personalize your connection requests. From your desktop or laptop, go to the person’s profile and click the blue CONNECT button. You’ll see options there to personalize the message. Or, for iPhone users, go to a person’s profile on the LinkedIn App and click on the three dots in the upper right hand corner.)

3. Commit to Using LinkedIn Regularly. It Just Might Change Your Life.
You wouldn’t even be reading this post if I hadn’t been using LinkedIn regularly over 6 years ago. Why? It was on LinkedIn where I connected to Jason Terry, who was using LinkedIn to publish updates about this new company he started called Blue Gurus.

He posted about the company name he chose, he shared the logo, he shared blog posts, and more. And I saw all of it going on because, just like him, I was using LinkedIn effectively. LinkedIn doesn’t do anything for you or your business if you don’t use it.

Read that again: LinkedIn doesn’t do anything for you or your business if you don’t use it.

So how can you use it? Write a recommendation for someone in your network that’s awesome. Engage with your network by LIKE’ing or commenting on their posts. (or better yet, share their posts with your network.) Start a discussion in a LinkedIn Group. Publish a post yourself about a topic you’re passionate about. Provide an introduction between two of your connections. Those are just a few ideas to help get you started.

(MicTip: Copy and paste this entire article right now and create a weekly recurring calendar appointment to remind you to do these things. Sure you might get busy one week and not be able to get to it, but that reminder will be waiting for you next week…and the week after…and the week after.)

I hope you’ll share a LinkedIn success story with me once you commit to these LinkedIn Resolutions for 2016. I don’t know when. I don’t know how. But I’m confident if you use it regularly…it will change your life…just like it did for me.

Good luck with all of your New Year’s Resolutions. Wishing you a 2016 full of health, happiness, good fortune and lots of LinkedIn!