A list of LinkedIn best practices:
1. Find who you know. Start with your existing contacts by letting LinkedIn scan your email address book to find out who you know is on LinkedIn.
2. Personalize your URL. Change your LinkedIn profile URL from the default set of numbers to your name. This helps people find you when they search for your name within LinkedIn as well as in Google and other search engines.
3. Email Marketing Campaign. Include your LinkedIn URL in your email signature.
4. Add a picture to your profile. As I stated above, LinkedIn is about individuals so it looks odd when someone’s LinkedIn profile has a faceless silhouette rather than an actual photograph.
5. Ask to connect. Whenever you have interactions with people, ask them if they’re on LinkedIn and if they’d like to connect. MS Outlook has the ability to integrate LinkedIn which makes it easy to connect once you have a New Contact!
6. The more you give, the more you get. Fill out as much of your profile as you can. The more information you put in, the more connections you’re making and by doing so, you’re creating more opportunities for people to find you.
7. Put yourself in the mind of the user. If they know you or know who you are, people will search LinkedIn by your name in order to find your profile. But if people are looking for expertise, they will likely be using topical searches such as “public relations professional”
8. Use keywords that people will likely be using in their searches. As you put yourself in the mind of the people by whom you want to be found, think about what searches they’d perform on LinkedIn in order to find you. Build up a list of those keywords and search phrases and use them throughout your profile.
9. Don’t hide. All the SEO work will go to waste if you hide your profile. The two things that people do when researching business associates they have not met is Google them and search for their LinkedIn profile. Change the settings on your profile to “Full View” so your profile can be fully indexed by the search engines.
10. Link to your profile. If you have a Web site or a blog or a Twitter account or other social media profiles, link to your LinkedIn profile from them.
11. Link to yourself. LinkedIn lets you link three Web sites on your profile. The drop-down menu offers options such as “My Website” and “My Blog” but you’ll want to choose “Other” so you can use your own text for the link.
12. Recommend. Give and ask for recommendations. But be sincere or it will not sound authentic. When you recommend someone and when someone recommends you, that fact is displayed on your profile for all to see. (Don’t worry, you can control which recommendations appear on your profile). Don’t be afraid to ask people who you think have high regard for you for a recommendation. Recommend those you think are worthy before they ask you to recommend them. They will often return the favor. Recommendations are yet another aspect of LinkedIn that helps to establish trust.
13. Update your status. Update your status regularly and strategically. Use your status update to remind your network what you do and what you know.

There are more best practices...will let you know this week!!