You've heard of it, you've read about it, you've even signed up for it—and you still wonder how to get the most out of it!
LinkedIn is the most popular business networking environment around right now. The jump from 13 million signups to 14 million happened in about a month, which was two months faster than the previous one million signups.
If you are one of those LinkedIn members who really isn't getting much out of LinkedIn, let me share eight things that you should do today to start getting more out of LinkedIn.
1. Sign in
It sounds simple, but once you sign in you'll see a number of things, including pending invitations, questions that your network has asked, new additions to your network, service providers that your network contacts endorse, and more. This first page is the "what's going on in my network" panel, and you should check it out every once in a while.
2. Check your preferences
LinkedIn allows you to choose what notifications you get via email and what notifications you get just from that logged-in page. If you want to know what's going on without logging in, set your preferences to receive the emails. Alternatively, if you are overwhelmed with emails, set them to not go to your inbox.
3. Flesh out your current job summary
You really should flesh out your entire profile, putting names, dates, duties, accomplishments, strengths, and more. For now, just put a one- or two-paragraph blurb on your current job title, and maybe next week flesh out another job you had, and work your way backward.
4. Get a vanity URL
Click on the Profile tab, and then scroll down to the "Public Profile" section. If the link ends in numbers and letter and slashes, click on the edit link and choose your own name (or even company name), to give your public profile a more polished appearance.
5. Put links to other Web sites on your profile
Right above the public profile link is a section where you can put three Web site addresses. If you have a blog, book, Web site, Facebook profile, Twitter account, or something like that, consider putting any of those links there. If you don't have anything you can put your company's Web site. Always choose "other" in the drop down so that you can rename what the link shows the reader.
6. Ask and answer a question
I'm cheating by putting both of these as number six, but "Answers" is such a valuable place to share knowledge, and you need to know how powerful it is. The best way to figure it out is to try it. Click on the Answers tab and try it out—many LinkedIn users have told me they are amazed at the results.
7. Search open jobs (even if you are not in a job search)
Job postings are kind of boring, right? Well, the job search feature within LinkedIn has an added benefit: It not only tells you about the job but also tells you who you know that might be able to help network into the company. I don't know of any other job board that gives you that critical path to a hiring manager. (Not in a job search? Use it to see what your competition is hiring for; there's great competitive intelligence in job postings.)
8. Recommend someone
A recommendation is a short endorsement of someone's professional work or talent. Find someone in your network whom you can comfortably and honestly endorse, and leave a thoughtful, specific recommendation. This will show on their profile, which adds to their credibility. Typically, they will recommend you in return (although you shouldn't expect it), and your profile will be linked to from their profile.
* * *
Here's a bonus, ninth item—but this one is different: This is something to NOT do.
Do not invite a ton of people to your network right away. LinkedIn makes it easy to invite gobs of people, with either the Outlook toolbar (a tool you download that integrates with Outlook) or the import function to pull your Gmail, Hotmail, or AOL Web mail contacts in.
This would seem to be a great way to grow your network and let everyone that you've ever come into contact with know that you are on LinkedIn. However, LinkedIn has a policy that will lock your account if it thinks you're behaving like a spammer.
And it's pretty easy to look like a spammer in LinkedIn's system: If five people click on the "I don't know you" button when you invite them, LinkedIn thinks you are a spammer or are otherwise abusing the system, and it will lock your account.
LinkedIn is a great tool, and doing these eight things should help you get more out of it.
Do you have great LinkedIn success stories? Shoot me an email (jason@jibberjobber.com) and share your success!
