By regularly nurturing your LinkedIn network, you can get valuable business intelligence that can open doors. It happened to me and I want to tell you how.

LinkedIn MerlinWizard (Photo credit: Adriano Gasparri)

If you’re like most of my friends, you treat LinkedIn as an online resume-storage box. You probably devote most of your social media time sharing information with friends on Facebook or Twitter, and rarely visit or update your LinkedIn profile, seek recommendations, join groups, list accomplishments or even add a profile photo.

If you’ve been LinkedIn-Lazy, it’s time to change your ways. It’s the first place recruiters do their hunting; it’s a place where it’s totally cool to strut your stuff, and your achievements get showcased in a nicely organized way.

What’s most important to me? On LinkedIn, you can easily gather business intelligence by learning about nearly everyone who is sizing you up on a daily basis.

That little bit of information — above all else — is LinkedIn’s most valuable benefit to my business.

I treat LinkedIn as my little treasure hunt in reverse. The treasures aren’t hidden. They are in full view EVERY DAY. Every single day I find valuable gold nuggets for my business — the names and companies of those who’ve visited my profile page.

It’s my free business intelligence about who may be looking for a PR or social media consultant. It also tells me who’s trolling for possible partnerships or internships. With a little chutzpah, you can connect with those people and see what unfolds.

Here’s a nugget that recently dropped in my LinkedIn lap. I noticed a few days ago that a marketing exec from a major university visited my page. So I took the initiative to send this message:

Dear PERSON, I couldn’t help but notice your recent visit to my LinkedIn profile. Please let me know how I might help you or whether any potential job candidates have listed me as a reference. Enjoy your summer!

The next day I received this response:

Thanks for the note. I am looking for a XXXX to take XXXX to the next level. Ideally I am looking for INDUSTRY X, Y AND Z who can help to further raise our profile and engage prospects. (TEXT ALTERED BY ME)

By simply checking up on my LinkedIn profile visitors, I now have a continuing conversation with someone I might never have met. A door opened for me and I didn’t even push. I’ll let you know if it leads to business.

Having a solid, 100% complete LinkedIn profile is a must for any professional, whether or not he/she is looking for work. And it’s equally important to make daily trips to LinkedIn to see who’s scoping you out.

It also helps to take the initiative (or maybe, audacity) and let LinkedIn visitors know that you’re looking at them while they’re looking at you. As long as you can do it in a welcoming, helpful, non-creepy sort of way, you have nothing to lose and some valuable business intel to gain.

Happy Reverse-Treasure Hunting! 

Post happily written by Michelle Damico