1. DECIDE you’ll use LinkedIn to promote your business.

(a) LinkedIn is everywhere: 2 professionals are signing up to LinkedIn every second. All Fortune 500 companies are represented in LinkedIn. Top salesmen leverage LinkedIn better.

(b) Avoid gatekeepers: The typical LinkedIn user is a US-based decision maker influencing buying decisions.

(c) Align your actions with your objective: if you’re in Israel, chances are your CEO is one of the 1 million+ Israelis who has created a LinkedIn profile. Ask your CEO “What do you want?”, and you’ll often hear “Growth/ Sales/ Business”. Still, ask those CEOs why they’re on LinkedIn, and you’ll often hear a vague answer, or even something like “I simply got plenty of invitations”. Since when is this a valid business reason? Would you like your Supply Chain Manager to justify an expense by saying “I simply received 20 brochures from this vendor”?

2. PREPARE by knowing where you want to go

(a) Forget all you think you know about LinkedIn. You won’t use it to find a job.

(b) Make LinkedIn work for your business and generate leads. Create a system identifying your ideal reader, leveraging groups, curating content, creating Posts, selecting a smart connection strategy, involving your staff, and simply supporting your business objective: business joint venture discussions, a demo, a phone call, a download, an email subscription etc.

Don’t fall for LinkedIn metrics: success isn’t 500+ connections. Success is a steady flow of happy profitable customers.Use LinkedIn to support your business, not the other way round.

(c) Check for yourself: Are your customers on LinkedIn? This is the very first step of the system to put in place.

3. BUILD the right infrastructure

(a) Start by building a professional profile. Complete your profile (here’s how). Treat your profile as a website that needs to convert your ideal client into performing an action like going to a specific page on your website, such as inquiring about your services.

(b) Google your full name now. See how high your LinkedIn profile ranks? Stop accepting or sending invitations, understand the power of your profile. When prospects google you, is this what you want them to see?

(c) Avoid being stuck in the “Glorified Rolodex Plains” (see below). Complete your profile before doing anything else on LinkedIn. Move from 1 to 3 and then to 4.

(d) Company pages are static on LinkedIn. Most users don’t follow them, nor can a company page post in groups, so they just have to be up-to-date. Do optimize your company page so it conveys the information you want, and help your staff be associated with it by updating their profiles.

(e) Find the right groups – starting with the America-Israel LinkedIn Group. Groups are where you generate leads on an ongoing basis!

3.5 After you DECIDE, PREPARE and BUILD, try to avoid some common Misconceptions.

Let’s face it, LinkedIn isn’t the most user-friendly site in the world. Because they don’t use LinkedIn on a regular basis, many people get it wrong with LinkedIn. Don’t.

This Post was first published in the November 2015 edition of the America-Israel Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber has promoted trade and investment between the United States and Israel since 1965.