A little slip

I'm a freelance artworker...I'm no expert on SEO, but I know a few basics.

I've managed to keep my site in the top 8 search results on Google, for about 4 months now, and whenever it starts to slip, if I update my blog, the ranking improves again.

I hit upon the idea of  changing my linkedin url to include "freelanceartworker", but I forgot to reflect that in my site! This meant a broken link (as my old url said markcastrogarcia at the end) and my ranking dropped to a low of number 20!

Does this also mean that linkedin can heavily influence a ranking in a positive way? I've updated my site now, to reflect the change, and hopefully we'll see a drastic improvement soon  :)

I wonder if the same will work with facebook...?