I was very fortunate to be joined on a webinar by the very knowledgeable Emily Miller from LinkedIn Tutors. She specialises in helping busy professionals at some of the world's biggest firms to get the most from LinkedIn. If you get a chance, please take a look at the video below when you have some time on your train journey home or between meetings.

In summary, there are a few very simple things you can do to make LinkedIn more than just your CV online with connections to your old uni buddies. It can become a place where you can drive new business and the best bit of all is that all your competitors are likely to be hopeless at it! Top Tips:

1. Make your profile really visual with a good head shot and background image - takes 2 minutes and makes you stand out from the majority
2. Complete the "Summary" section. Make sure yours is written from a business development standpoint
3. What "key words" are most relevant to what you do?  Get those all over your profile.  e.g. Emily specialises in LinkedIn training and consultancy. If you search for the word "LinkedIn" in her profile it comes up nearly 100 times!
4. Demonstrate your expertise with regular insight articles and then share that to the RELEVANT people.  The best way to do this is to fine the LinkedIn groups that your customers and potential customers are members of and start leading the debate in those groups

Remember, the bar has been set very low so to start to shine might not be as difficult as you think!