You're not doing that right

A man walks into the doctor with raisins in his ears and peas in his nose and says, “Doc, I am just not feeling well.”

Doc: “Let’s take a look,” she says. “You’re just not eating right.”

Spare me the groans. [It was VERY funny 20+ years ago when my 5 year old told the joke in a talent show. It stayed with me ever since.]

Are you convinced LinkedIn is a time-waster? Let me ask you some diagnostic questions:

• What great article did you read and offer to your connections, introduced by your comments on why this is worth reading?
• What did you last write in a long-form Post, as an essay demonstrating your thought leadership?
• How often have you contributed to the LinkedIn Groups you belong to, asking timely questions, answering others’ queries?
• Who do you routinely congratulate connections on promotions, news stories or other information that lets them know you are rooting for their success?
• Which connections do you voluntarily introduce to each other to further their agendas (between the lines doing so for you too)?
• Do you recall the time(s) you re-purposed a blog post, a slide deck or a white paper that resonated with your audiences and pushed it out to your LinkedIn connections?
• How do you make yourself interesting to new potential connections and vet them thoroughly for benefit to you, and by association, to your existing connections?
• And finally, when was the last time you routinely culled through your connections and endorsers, pulling out those that no longer are fruitful and addressing the needs of the ones that are beneficial?

Make a point of using LinkedIn right, nurturing your connections in any, some or all of the above ways. Be active, visible, vocal and professional opinionated. Regularly. This is an action sport, not a spectator event.

If your answer to the earlier question is that you get little nothing back from LinkedIn, my diagnosis is you are not feeding the LinkedIn beast right.