In getting ready to present a seminar this week, I came across a nifty application on LinkedIn that might be good to use on your profile.

Have YOU used Google Presentation Yet?

It’s called Google Presentation, and it seems to be a good way to showcase your work in a visual way. If you have a series of white papers you would like visitors of your profile to see, just create a slide presentation of the covers and links to the papers (or the download forms). At left is a screenshot of how the app shows up on your profile when you’re logged into LinkedIn.

Have you used it?

You can either create a PowerPoint presentation and upload it, or use Google Docs to build the presentation. I had some trouble using the Google Docs version (maybe my bandwidth), so next time I’ll try PowerPoint.

My idea was to create a visual portfolio of the work, not try to make the entire paper into slides, so the format is simple. I just wrote a short synopsis about the papers with the same information: Audience, Objective and Link.  I linked directly to the portfolio piece from my website, but you may want to use a link to your registration form.  Better yet, include a bit of teaser copy from the paper with a “read more” link that takes readers to your form.

Another way to get more visibility on LinkedIn for your work is to use the Slideshare application and/or flesh out your company profile and use images and links there. More on that topic in a later post.

LinkedIn is an underutilized social media gem, in my opinion. Executives that find white papers compelling and useful often use LinkedIn more than other social networking sites, so put more of your content where it will be seen by them.  The link-backs to your website don’t hurt either.

Have you found other ways to use LinkedIn to share your white paper content? If so, please comment to share your thoughts!