I used to strongly advocate management consultants putting effort into their profile, building up their network and using LinkedIn for communicating. It seemed on the verge of turning into a really handy mini-CRM for social selling.

But no more, all the useful functionality has disappeared without notice or warning.

Some of the important disappearances include:

• Ability to categorise your contacts into groups - gone!
• Ability to send messages

While Twitter and Facebook encourage strangers to become connected, LinkedIn is all about relationships. However almost daily I am contacted by strangers who are merrily ignoring the rules set down by LinkedIn that state you should only connect with people you know.

The strength in LinkedIn for management consultants is the relationships between people who connect with one another. It allows for recommendations and referrals

A wise proverb states ‘The enemy of my enemy is my friend’, but in terms of LinkedIn We’d suggest it is ‘The friends of my friends are my friends’! The contacts of your contacts are going to be brimming with opportunities

Making the right impression when you want to build rapport with someone is vital, not least in business. Ever heard the saying: ‘you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression’?

Yet on the social media channel that means business LinkedIn the majority of introductions are abrupt anduse the standard ‘I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn’.This undermines

If you have ever been on Twitter you will have spotted those anonymous eggs that denote profiles that have not added a photograph and often flags a complete novice or worse a spam account. On Facebook the silhouette makes you suspicious and on LinkedIn, where it really matters, no photo means no business!

When I see the anonymous head and shoulders silhouette on LinkedIn it usually means it is a profile that lacksany attention and however professional the person is,you cannot help but

Do you have your ‘Company Website’ displayed on LinkedIn, literally? The default setting for the link with your contact info is to your company web address and at first glance this makes sense.

In fact the Contact Info button – just below your number of connections on LinkedIn, is where your connections can easily discover your email, Skype address and telephone number. Other information includes being able to list up to three web addresses, include your ‘Company Website’

What does your headline say on LinkedIn? If it simple declares you to be a ‘Management Consultant’, ‘Owner’ or ‘Managing Director’ then you are missing a major trick on LinkedIn; you should be using this to promote the difference you can make to clients!

Your headline is the text that appears immediately beneath your name and is a key part to getting you found on LinkedIn and driving people to engage. Equally it is your chance to appear dull and uninteresting – so get it right and use best practice for your headline on LinkedIn.