Financial advisors should not only be using LinkedIn, but they should also be aware of overlooked features in order to get the most out of the social networking site for professionals, according to Davis Janowski, a technology reporter with the New-York-based Investment News.

Janowski was speaking at FPA 2010 Business Solutions, the annual conference of the Denver-based Financial Planning Association, which opened Monday in Dallas.

LinkedIn is the professional networking site that enables business people to connect with others who share common interests. It is an ideal tool that financial advisors can use to share information with other advisors and related professionals, and to reach clients and prospects.

Many professionals believe, incorrectly, that LinkedIn is strictly a recruiting site, according to Janowski. That is because, as an effective networking tool, it lends itself well to recruiting.

“The original idea of LinkedIn was that professionals would join the site looking primarily for other professionals who did jobs like them,” Janowski said.

“Part of the idea was to take geography out of the picture, so the Internet could link groups from anywhere, including those working in small communities who might otherwise be cut off.”

But it’s not enough to just sign up, Janowski told the group of financial advisors from across the U.S. There are ways to get the most from the site.

For example, some advisors put too little information on their LinkedIn profiles. Just uploading your CV is not enough, Janowski said. By adding specific information about your business and about yourself, you will raise your profile.

“Adding more information will increase your visibility,” Janowski said. “It will enable you to link to others, add connections and increase the likelihood people will see you.”

For example, listing a few hobbies may open the door to connections with prospects who share your interests.

Another way to increase your visibility is to make sure you can be found by users of search engines. Be sure to select “full view” when setting your “Google rank” on LinkedIn; that will increase the likelihood you will appear in Google searches.

A personal LinkedIn account is free of charge. Business accounts range from $24.95 a month (or $249 a year) to $49.95 a month (or $499 a year). The “Pro” account costs $499.95 a month or $4,999 a year.

“They basically turn on features for you as you buy increasingly more expensive subscriptions to the service,” Janowski said. “That allows you to perform and save more searches and save profiles of people, and it allows you to send more of what are called ‘InMails’ [emails to other LinkedIn users]. It basically allows more access to a larger group of people.”

LinkedIn had 40,000 users during its testing phase in 2004. Now it has more than 40 million users.

It is a powerful business tool for advisors, according to Janowski: “It’s not Facebook and it’s not Twitter.”

IE