A few weeks ago I attended a workshop set up by the local Business Support network and my district council. They are working together in my area to help businesses and owners. I have been asked to attend many groups and meetings in the past, but they have all been either at the wrong time, or took up too much of the working day. This one was nice and easy, two hours in the morning and straight back to work. This workshop focused on the online business directory LinkedIn. This is used by professionals trying to reach out to other professionals. Before the workshop, I knew I had an account set up which had a few connections, but I didn’t really do much with it. I have heard stories in the past of corporations offering big money to take control of a LinkedIn group. The hard work has already been done for them, so they pass it on to their marketing departments and they advertise their services and products to the exact people who will use them. Around 30 people attended the workshop held in the chamber room at the council. We started by going straight back to basics. We had Questions answered such as: How do you build an effective profile that LinkedIn will approve and people will be able to find easily? Information on editing your profile to get best search results, and What are LinkedIn groups and how can you benefit? Straight after the workshop I spent an hour or so changing my own account and it has quickly been spotted by a few people, so it was worthwhile attending. I’ll be looking out for future social media workshops on other useful subjects, and will post the findings on here.