Most people are familiar with the basic features of LinkedIn such as connecting, groups, answers, applications, etc. There are some cool features that often get missed by the average user. Here we look at five under-utilized tricks you may not be familiar with.

One of the benefits of writing a book (in my case two books which were released on June 1st) is that you reacquaint yourself with some features that are not always top of mind. These five feature won’t make or break your LinkedIn experience but they are useful. Drum roll please…

Add a You Tube Video to Your Profile

You can do this with either Slideshare or Google Presentation. My perspective was that Google Presentation was a little faster, but you should try both to see what works for you.

Here is how you would add a video using Google Presentation:

~Add the Google Presentation application
~Go into Google Docs and create a new presentation
~Click on Insert (top link) and click on Video
~Search for your video on YouTube and choose your video
~Click on File (top link) and choose Rename – rename your presentation
~Go back into Google Presentation from your Profile
~Click on your video and Post to Profile

When the slide show is clicked the video will play.

Create an Email Signature on LinkedIn

You can use LinkedIn’s Email Signature Tool to add a LinkedIn signature to your Outlook (2003, 2002 XP, and 2000), Outlook Express, Mozilla Thunderbird, and Yahoo email accounts.

To create your signature do the following:

1. At the bottom of each LinkedIn page there are three rows of text links. Click on ‘Overview’ at the bottom of your home page in the ‘Tools’ row.

2. Click on the ‘Try it Now’ button in the ‘Email signature’ area at the bottom of the ‘LinkedIn Tools Overview’ page.

Once you fill in the information you would like to include click the text link “Click here for instructions”. This will open up a pop up window with the html code and instructions.

Customize your Search Views

When you conduct a people search or a Group member search you get a list of the results. At the top is a drop down to choose how to view the results. You can choose Basic, Extended, or Create a New View. Choosing the New View opens a pop up window that allows you to include what you would like in your view.

This is a Premium feature that is available for a time to all types of accounts. Use it while you can and don’t be surprised if one day it disappears if you have a free account. LinkedIn wants to suck you in and once enough people use it, it will become a carrot to get you to upgrade to a paid account

Have new questions emailed to you based on a topic

Track topics based on keywords and categories in LinkedIn Answers to review and respond to questions posed by other LinkedIn members. When you look at a category on the right side at the bottom of the Browse box is a text link to “Subscribe to new questions in” whichever category you are currently viewing.

Add Personal Contact Information to your profile

At the bottom of your Profile Edit page is a space to include the following information:

~Phone number
~Instant Messaging ID
~Address
~Birthday
~Marital Status – do I see an eHarmony tie in coming down the road?

There a lot more relevant information that LinkedIn should allow you to share so let’s hope they expand this down the road.

I look forward to your comments and connecting with you! If you need help with your social media strategies or tactics feel free to visit our website or give us a call. SONARconnects helps businesses leverage social media to create communities, build trust and connect with their target markets.

Also, I would like to thank Sean Nelson from SONARconnects for his time, energy and input on this post!