LinkedIn is a great way to market yourself and your professional qualifications. Problem is, you have to rely on a lot of plain black-and-white text in order to do so. Wouldn't it be nice if you could use the social network to actually show colleagues (and prospective colleagues) what you can do, instead of just telling them about it?

With SlideShare Presentations, you can. This free LinkedIn app is an extension of SlideShare.net's professional sharing community, which allows you to upload and share a variety of content, including PowerPoint and Keynote presentations, Word documents, PDFs, and videos.

To use the LinkedIn app, you simply add it to your profile and give it permission to access your account. You don't need a SlideShare.net account to use the LinkedIn account (or its Facebook equivalent), but signing up for one lets you sync content between them. A basic SlideShare.net account is free, while prices for other versions start at $19 per month.

Once you have SlideShare Presentations up and running, you can access it from your LinkedIn profile. The app's home page displays a mix of content, including featured presentations, presentations from your industry, and--at the bottom of the page--presentations from your contacts. I do wish the content from your contacts (arguably the most relevant part of the page) was highlighted a bit more, but it is easily accessible.

Uploading your own content is easy: Slideshows, PowerPoints, PDFs, and videos can be added with just a few clicks. You can set a title, add tags and a description, and decide whether to allow others to download the file. (Note that the free version of the app limits uploads to files that are 100MB or smaller.) Once the content has been uploaded, you can view it from within LinkedIn, and you'll also see options to share it via e-mail, links to embed, and a feature that allows you to show it on your profile.

SlideShare Presentations offers a great way to share compelling content with your LinkedIn contacts. Anyone who's looking to show off their work instead of just telling others about it will appreciate this free app.

Note: This link takes you to the vendor's site, where you must register to use the Web-based software.

--Liane Cassavoy