Updating your status on LinkedIn can both help and hurt you on LinkedIn. Used properly, they can be a very powerful component of your LinkedIn strategy. On this post I’ll focus on how they can help you.

Your updates should be used to increase your and/or your network’s Visibility / Credibility. You can also use the updates to promote – as long as they are subtle! Remember that people on LinkedIn want primarily relevant information and connections. They don’t want to be sold!

I recently posted that I had booked a presentation while traveling abroad to the U.K. (I live in San Diego, CA.) My main purspose with this update was to increase my credibility as an International Speaker. However, I also got an unexpected bonus – see below:

I had recently connected with this person on LinkedIn and thanks to my post we started a conversation and we are now likely to meet face-to-face in a few weeks.

This is the magic of integrating online and offline networking

One of the three pillars of building an effective Social Networking strategy is increasing your credibility. When people trust you they will listen to you. So I’m always looking for ways to increase my credibility online.

ReallyWho.com can help you increase your credibility online. They have a pretty slick system that allows them to verify that you are indeed a real person with a real physical address. This greatly reduces the chances that spammers would use their service – since the last thing that they want is for people online to know their real name and/or location. As you can see from my picture below, they add a verify banner to your image that you can then place on your Social Media sites to increase people’s trust in you.

Remember that trust and credibility are built over time and in little increments. This is one step that will help you. I highly encourage that you at least check them out.

Thanks to Nate Kievman I just learned how to add a Video Profile to LinkedIn. To see how it is integrated on my LinkedIn profile, go to my profile on LinkedIn.  Be sure to click on the view full profile. If you do, be sure to drop me a note.

I’ve written before about the Visibility, Credibility & Profitability (VCP) process in Social Networking. Simply put, to make Social Networking work for you, people first need to know who you are (Visibility.) Then they need to trust that you are genuine and that you will add value to them (Credibility.) Only when these two stages are met, people will be willing to give you their direct or referral business.

Earlier today I sent a message to my network contacts in Ecademy.com about my latest article published on The National Networker. Ecademy is a Social Networking site that is very big in Europe and is gaining a lot of momentum in the US.  I have met some very friendly and valuable contacts there. One of the reasons I joined was because I saw an interview with Ecademy’s Chairman, Thomas Power, where he spoke about his reasons for starting Ecademy and also his values about networking.

Thomas Power happens to be one of my contacts. In fact, he was the first person who invited me to be part of his network when I joined. My assumption is that he invites EVERY new Ecademy member to join his network. While this is a nice touch, there isn’t anything particularly noteworthy about it. It is just a sound business strategy.

However here’s the part that IS noteworthy: he actually responded to my message! With nearly 53,000 contacts, I find it very impressive that he took the time to respond to my request. That shows the man is walking his talk. With so few people nowadays doing this, it is refreshing to find out that people who run large organizations, still understand the value of a personal connection. With this simple human touch, he won my loyalty.

If you have yet to discover Ecademy, I encourage you to sign up. Membership is free and well worth it. Plus you will probably have Thomas in your network as a result!

There are many ways you can build your online reputation. Why is this important? Three words: Visibility. Credibility. Profitability.

The VCP model states that people first need to know who you are. Then they need to trust you. Once these two elements are in place then the relationship can move to the third stage which is where they will either buy from you or refer you to others.

Naymz is a Social Networking site where you get two reputation scores. One is based on how the people in your network rate you. The second one is based on how the people in your network rate with others. This means that if I add someone who has a low reputation score, it will lower mine. Conversely, if I add someone who has a high reputation, my score goes up.

So one of the ways you can add to your reputation score is to join Naymz and then connect and/or invite others who already have a high reputation.

Your LinkedIn profile is the first step you need to take after you register to start using LinkedIn. Laurie Cantus owner of Go2Girls Virtual Assistants has an excellent post on do’s and don’ts for your LinkedIn profile.

The Referral Institute has a relationship model called VCP. It stands for Visibility, Credibility & Profitability. Simply stated, people need to know who you are (Visibility) and they need to trust you (Credibility) before they will do business  with you (Profitability.) This is true both online & offline.

One of the best ways to get Credibility is through the use of third party testimonials or recommendations.  Chris Brogan has written an excellent article on how to do great LinkedIn Recommendations.