Here is an article written by Jeff Haden for BNET, The CBS Interactive Business Network. To check out an abundance of valuable resources and obtain a free subscription to one or more of the BNET newsletters, please click here.

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I think LinkedIn is the most effective social media platform for professional and business purposes.  Based on the amount of email I got from my recent post, How to Create a LinkedIn Profile That Really Connects, most of you agree.

The problem is making connections is relatively easy.  Connecting with the right people is a lot harder, especially if you only apply website- and resume-building strategies to creating your LinkedIn profile.

For example, the Google AdWords Keyword Tool is a great way to find out how many people search for various keywords.  Use the tool to create your LinkedIn profile:  Do a little keyword research and make sure you pack your profile with search-friendly terms so potential clients and connections can find you

Great — but everyone uses the keyword tool to determine how describe themselves or their businesses

That means every recruiter, for example, jams hundreds-of-thousands-of-searches-per-month keywords like “staffing,” “recruiting,” “hiring,” “jobs,” “staffing agency,” etc. into their profiles.   By doing everything right they get lost in all the keyword noise.

What can you do to stand out and help the right connections find you

1. Use popular keywords to build the backbone of your profile for a general audience, then

2.Include specific, highly targeted keywords to stand out to a specific audience

Here’s an example.  I worked in book manufacturing and have extensive experience in productivity, quality, and efficiency improvement.  Pretend I want to build a consulting business around those skills and hope my LinkedIn profile will help book manufacturers find me.

Using the Google keyword tool approach, I should definitely include keywords like process improvement, productivity, efficiency, and quality.  I should also include keywords like Six Sigma, 5S, TQM… processes and programs commonly searched for that I can deliver.

The problem is I don’t really stand out from all the other efficiency experts.  People will find me, and that’s great, but some I’m sure to miss.

[During the remainder of the article, Haden goes deeper: “I’ll identify types of keywords specific to the book manufacturing industry.” To read the complete article, please click here.

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Jeff Haden learned much of what he knows about management as he worked his way up the printing business from forklift driver to manager of a 250-employee book plant. Everything else he knows, he has picked up from ghostwriting books for some of the smartest CEOs he knows in business. He has written more than 30 non-fiction books, including four Business and Investing titles that reached #1 on Amazon’s bestseller list. He’d tell you which ones, but then he’d have to kill you. However, you can visit his website at: www.blackbirdinc.com.