Did you know that Millennials are considered the 1st generation of “digital natives”? They are on their phones, laptops and iPads looking for you.

They’re about 80 million strong in the United States, larger than any other demographic group. As of March 2016 there are more millennials in the American work force than Generation Xers or baby boomers.

And…. Millennials are starting to grow up – they are getting to the stage where they’re in their careers, getting married, having children and influencing more spending. Accenture estimates that millennials will spend $1.4 trillion annually by 2020, and they are expected to inherit about $30 billion in the coming years.

In an article for The New York Times, Fay DeBillis says she used LinkedIn to win around $10 million worth of business over 18 months.

Before you start making any changes to your profile, turn off your notifications.

You do not want to notify your network of every little change you make in your profile. It will annoy them and make you look like you don’t know what you are doing.

However, you DO want to turn on your notifications for big events such as a promotion, job change or a new headshot.

Whatever title you add under your name at the top of your LinkedIn profile is what will show whenever you post something on LinkedIn.

And if you don’t post on LinkedIn, it still is important because it will also show up in the preview of your profile in Google search results.

Check with your compliance department to see if you can use something other than your regular, HR approved job title, something that describes best what you can offer.

Did you know you can create a custom URL for your profile?

A custom URL will make it easy for you to promote your profile and when people see it on your profile, it shows that you know what you’re doing on LinkedIn.

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People want to do business with people.

Use LinkedIn to showcase who you are and build your personal brand.

Endorsements are a list of skills you’ve added to your profile that your 1st connections validate as your strengths by clicking the “endorse” button.

These skills will also help you appear in more search results, based on your selections. But be sure to check with your compliance department first;; regulators can consider them to be testimonials for investment advisors.

You control which skills are listed and in what order. If they are against your compliance policy, don’t list any on your profile – then people can’t endorse you.

Now that you’ve built a powerful profile, run a check as the general public would view it. To do this, click the “View profile as” button next to your headshot.

Then, at the top of the page choose “Connections” from the drop-­down to view your profile as the public would see if they Googled you.

Make sure your entire profile is viewable (not private) and always double check for spelling and grammatical errors.

It’s important to make sure your profile settings are set in a way that allows people to easily find and connect with you. Whereas on Facebook you might want your privacy settings tighter because you're posting personal things, LinkedIn is designed to be public so people who want to do business with you can find you. You shouldn't post personal things on LinkedIn, so you shouldn't have to worry about it not being private.

You can find the profile settings tab by hovering over the thumbnail version of your head shot in the upper right hand area of the screen to bring down the drop-­down, then scroll down and click “Manage” next to “Privacy & Settings”. From there you can manage who can see your feed, your visibility, and your activity broadcasts (which should all be public) and more.

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Now it’s time to build your network. If you haven’t already connected with your existing clients, you should. Use the search bar at the top of the page;; once you find them, don’t ever use the standard form template in a LinkedIn invitation – the one that pre-­populates – instead, take a moment to write a personal message asking them to connect and why.

Once you’ve connected with all your clients, start connecting with their children and beneficiaries as appropriate.

When looking to connect with someone you don’t know, but you see one of your current connections is connected with them, don’t use LinkedIn’s “request an introduction” feature – instead, pick up the phone and call that connection. Verbally ask them how well they know the person and if they would be willing to make an introduction for you.

After you’ve connected with your clients on LinkedIn, an interesting feature for prospecting is the “People Also Viewed” section. Go to one of your best client’s profiles -­ in the right hand column you should see people in similar roles as your existing client–possibly to identify as new prospects. You can then click through their profile and it will suggest more.

Scrolling down further that right hand side you will see “People similar to…” where you can do the same thing.

Use the apps to quickly tap into your professional world on the go. Get news and info that matter for your professional day, a daily brief on what’s happening in your network and a quick way to reach out and keep in touch.

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