LinkedIn was once just a medium for making connections, and it was utilized most heavily by recruiters and people looking for jobs. It has since upgraded itself to a social media site with room for postings, groups to join, and a direct way to connect with people in your area of expertise. If you are an authority on a topic or have a book related to business, science, health, and many other recognizable fields, LinkedIn is for you.

Some tips on using LinkedIn include:

1. Fill out your profile completely! Think of every place you can add information as an opportunity to present what you are trying to convey or sell.
2. Think of LinkedIn as a way to post your resume to thousands simultaneously. Whereas Facebook might have a picture of your cat associated with your profile, on LinkedIn you should use a photo of yourself or your brand’s logo, book jacket, etc.
3. If you are currently working in your field, you can list your title in your description of yourself. If you are a writer and have won a prize, you may want to identify yourself as “National Book Award Winning Writer.” Maybe you are a cook with a book on cupcakes and you have a blog under that name—identify yourself as “The Cupcake Maven” (or whatever your blog name might be).
4. Sync your contacts with LinkedIn to get immediate connections. Respond to requests to connect and send out your own inquiries. You can search for people that relate to what you are promoting and you can ask to connect with them so they start to see your posts. Also make sure to get back to people who want to reach you in a timely manner.
5. Post a couple of times per week. As with Facebook, there is no need to say something new every day. Some ideas for posts are a link to a new blog on your website (if you have one); an interesting article related to your interests; and any new development in your business or with your book.

There are two levels of membership on LinkedIn. What we have described above works on the free version. If you want to send direct messages to people through LinkedIn and otherwise interact with the platform in a more in depth way, you will need to check out their Premium service, which does carry a fee.

Do you use LinkedIn as an author tool? Tweet @mckinneypr on ways that you use it!