Does Your LinkedIn Profile Have a Pulse?

Is your LinkedIn profile working for you while you sleep? Is it a tombstone or a cash register?

Every marketing research study I have seen over the past three years has shown a steady increase in people relying of social networks when it comes to researching employees, employers, business partners, suppliers, consultants, clients and more. The more recent studies show social media in the top two or three. 

Hinge Research (www.HingeMarketing.com) will be releasing a new study shortly called Beyond Referrals: How Today's Buyers Check You Out. The research clearly shows the rise of social media as a research tool and the dominance of LinkedIn in that category.

LinkedIn had 5.7 billion internal searches - searches inside LinkedIn - in 2012. 5.7 billion!

Now I am not a math major, but that is a pretty big number. And I am anxiously awaiting the stats for 2013.

I hear you out there muttering - What's your point, Mark?

My point is simple. If we are all using LinkedIn more and more, why is it that so many profiles are written so poorly?

Are some so vain that they think everyone knows them? 

Are there those who still don't realize how important LinkedIn can be for them and their company?

Or are many just too lazy to be bothered by actually thinking before they write? 

I have seen hundreds, perhaps thousands, of profiles that look more like tombstones than profiles of professionals. 

They simply don't have a pulse.

Here is my point: if you are not fully leveraging LinkedIn and other carefully selected social media, you are losing business to those who are, and they hope you still don't get it.