Somewhere along the line you started treating it more like a resume. It’s time to fix that.

Flickr/Coletivo Mambembe

Overall, LinkedIn is the best social media platform for entrepreneurs, business owners, and professionals. Unfortunately, your LinkedIn profile may not be helping you to create those connections.

So let’s tune yours up with six simple steps:

Step 1. Revisit your goals. At its most basic level LinkedIn is about marketing: marketing your company or marketing yourself. But that focus probably got lost as you worked through the mechanics of completing your profile, and what started as a marketing effort turned into a resume completion task. Who you are isn’t as important as what you hope to accomplish, so think about your goals and convert your goals into keywords, because keywords are how people find you on LinkedIn.

But don’t just whip out the Google AdWords Keyword Tool and identify popular keywords. It’s useful but everyone uses it—and that means, for example, that every Web designer has shoehorned six- and seven-digit searches-per-month keywords like “build a website,” “website templates,” “designing a website,” and “webmaster” into their profile. It’s hard to stand out when you’re one of millions.

Go a step further and think about words that have meaning in your industry. Some are process-related; others are terms only used in your field; others might be names of equipment, products, software, or companies.

Use a keyword tool to find general terms that could attract a broader audience, and then dig deeper to target your niche by identifying keywords industry insiders might search for.

Then sense-check your keywords against your goals. If you’re a Web designer but you don’t provide training, the 7 million monthly Google searches for  “how to Web design” don’t matter.

Step 2. Layer in your keywords. The headline is a key factor in search results, so pick your most important keyword and make sure it appears in your headline. “Most important” doesn’t mean most searched, though; if you provide services to a highly targeted market the keyword in your headline should reflect that niche. Then work through the rest of your profile and replace some of the vague descriptions of skills, experience, and educational background with keywords. Your profile isn’t a term paper so don’t worry about a little repetition. A LinkedIn search scans for keywords, and once on the page, so do people.

Step 3. Strip out the clutter. If you’re the average person you changed jobs six or eight times before you reached age 30. That experience is only relevant when it relates to your current goals. Sift through your profile and weed out or streamline everything that doesn’t support your business or professional goals. If you’re currently a Web designer but were an accountant in a previous life, a comprehensive listing of your accounting background is distracting. Keep previous jobs in your work history, but limit each to job title, company, and a brief description of duties.

Step 4. Reintroduce your personality. Focusing on keywords and eliminating clutter is important, but in the process your individuality probably got lost. Now you can put it back and add a little enthusiasm and flair. Describing yourself as, “A process improvement consultant with a Six Sigma black belt,” is specific and targeted but also says nothing about you as a person—and doesn’t make me think, “Hey, she would be great to work with.”

Share why you love what you do in your profile. Share what you hope to accomplish. Describe companies you worked for or projects you completed. Share your best or worst experience. Keep your keywords in place, leave out what doesn’t support your goals, and then be yourself.

Keywords are important but are primarily just a way to help potential clients find you. No one hires keywords; they hire people.

Step 5. Take a hard look at your profile photo. Say someone follows you on Twitter. What’s the first thing you do? Check out their photo.

A photo is a little like a logo: On its own an awesome photo won’t win business, but a bad photo can definitely lose business.

Take a look at your current photo. Does it reflect who you are as a professional or does it reflect a hobby or outside interest? Does it look like a real estate agent’s headshot? A good photo flatters but doesn’t mislead. Eventually you’ll meet some of your customers in person and the inevitable disconnect between Photoshop and life will be jarring.

The goal is for your photo to reflect how you will look when you meet a customer, not how you looked at that killer party in Key West four years ago. The best profile photo isn’t necessarily your favorite photo. The best photo strikes a balance between professionalism and approachability, making you look good but also real.

Step 6. Get recommendations. Most of us can’t resist reading testimonials, even when we know those testimonials were probably solicited. Recommendations add color and depth to a LinkedIn profile, fleshing it out while avoiding any, “Oh jeez will this guy ever shut up about himself?” reactions. So ask for recommendations, and offer to provide recommendations before you’re asked.

The best way to build great connections is to always be the one who gives first.

Jeff Haden learned much of what he knows about business and technology as he worked his way up in the manufacturing industry. Everything else he picks up fromghostwriting books for some of the smartest leaders he knows in business. @jeff_haden

Blink and you’ve missed a development on the social Web. GrowCo speaker Howard Tullman breaks down what marketers need to know to connect.

Leave town for a week or two and you’re likely to miss several new developments in the ever-evolving social Web. That was the message from Inc. GrowCo speaker Howard Tullman, who’s president and CEO of Chicago’s Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academy.

In a wide-ranging talk evaluating the future of social marketing, Tullman touched on how Facebook is like a marketing “sniper,” how to find influencers, and why Walmart has 8,500 Facebook pages. Here are four key takeaways:

You have to be who you are.

This, says Tullman, is the single biggest change brought about by the Facebook revolution–a universe where you can turn up photos of what your friends looked like 15 years ago. It’s no longer true that on the Internet, you can be anyone. Your friends and customers will figure you out and pull back the curtain. “Once your authenticity is gone, you’re pretty much over,” Tullman says.

You have to know before they know.

Many online marketers focus their energies–and their spend–on optimizing for Google. That’s a mistake, Tullman says. While Google’s algorithm is set up to make predictions based on past user behavior, Facebook actually has the answers you’re looking for: who your customers are, who their friends are, what they’re interested in talking about and buying. Walmart has 8,500 Facebook pages–one for each of its stores–because the company understands that commerce is local, and their customers want to connect locally.

When it comes to social media, “These are not trivial and dismissable conversations by kids.” Tullman says. “They are substantive conversations among customers, clients, and employees.

“Google is like a rear-view mirror,” Tullman says, and “Facebook is like a sniper scope.”

We’re moving from badges and bull**** to curation.

Increasingly, the Web is breaking its vast communities into chunks–niches where like-minded people can talk about issues that are relevant to them. That marks a new philosophy for marketers who are used to thinking of celebrities and other generic influencers as the holy grail. “Rather than giving 100 random celebrities a goody bag,” Tullman says, “you can find the people who actually influence decisions” in your particular target market.

If you haven’t adopted video, it’s time.

Video is exploding everywhere. Microsoft is integrating Skype into Outlook, and that’s only the beginning. You don’t have to be an expert to record video, and a 15-second video can be much more compelling than a piece of text. So get to it.

Simona Covel is a senior editor at Inc. A former Wall Street Journal reporter, she has reported and written on a an extensive range of business and financial issues, from the bond market to small business. Her background also includes roles in content and marketing strategy.

Have you made any of these mistakes? If so, you’re not benefitting from Pinterest as much you could be.

“If your brand isn’t on Pinterest, you’re getting left behind!” “Pinterest drives more sales than Facebook!” Advice like this, from consultants, social media experts, and–yes–websites like this one have a lot of truth to them. But they’ve pushed some small companies into jumping into Pinterest without taking the time to think things through. And that’s led to a lot of mistakes, according to Debba Haupert, channel director at the social media marketing firm Collective Bias, and creator of the blog Girlfriendology.

Here are the seven biggest mistakes she sees companies making when they use Pinterest:

1. Starting out without a strategy.

“We have to be on Pinterest because everyone else is!” isn’t a strategy. And if you don’t have a strategy, you may be wasting time, Haupert warns. “Know your keywords and use them in profiles, pins, and boards,” she says. “Know the categories where your customers will find you. You have to put some thought into it before you jump in.”

2. Using lackluster graphics.

Pinterest is image-driven and your pins are competing against professional photography from landscapes to kittens doing cute things. “You can’t be cheap about your photography,” Haupert says. “If you’re going to make the effort and dedicate the budget and hours it takes to be on Pinterest, you have to have engaging, amazing images that will get you noticed and re-pinned.” For instance, she explains, if your product is a vacuum cleaner, don’t just post shots of your product. Post a before-and-after image of a carpet after it removed a stain. Pinterest users with stains on their own carpets will take notice. Another option is to skip the photography and create interesting graphics with text or charts, she adds.

3. Being boring.

Brands become boring if they appear overly corporate, Haupert explains. “Legal worries have scared some companies away from pinning stuff. That’s too bad because nobody will follow them if all they’re pinning is their catalogue or images from their website. I’ll just go to the catalogue or the website if I want to see that stuff.” If this is you, she suggests adding a line to your bio explaining that your pins are merely intended to share what you find interesting, not necessarily endorse it.

4. Leaving boards unchanged for too long.

“That shows a lack of engagement and a missed opportunity,” Haupert says. “If you start it and then forget it, there’s no reason for anyone to follow you.”

At least move boards around from time to time, she says. And pay attention to seasonal issues–don’t have summer fashions on your board in January.

5. Using representatives who don’t understand the brand.

Companies often hire recent college graduates or other young folks to pin on their behalf only because they know Pinterest better than their older colleagues do (and they’re often available cheap). “A lot of small business owners tell me their friend’s son will handle social media because they ‘get’ it,” Haupert says. “But they may not know your brand or the tone you want to convey.”

6. Forgetting your audience.

It’s too easy to get lost in pinning what you find interesting or what represents your brand without paying attention to what your target customers care about. So pay attention to what people like, Haupert says. “Notice what they re-pin, then just do more of that,” she says. “You need to interact, respond to questions, and make sure you have boards aimed at your specific audience.”

7. Ignoring the competition.

Notice what other companies in your field are doing, and mine their pins for good ideas. For instance, Haupert noted that both a local coffee shop and Starbucks had Pinterest boards. The Starbucks’ board featured appealing shots of coffee drinks that were getting re-pinned frequently. The local coffee shop had merely posted its logo and left it at that. “Make sure you know what companies going after the same customers are doing,” she advises.

Minda Zetlin is a business technology writer and speaker, co-author of The Geek Gap, and president of the American Society of Journalists and Authors. @MindaZetlin