LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) is one of the top social networking sites for business, with profiles of more than 19 million professionals. Twenty-five new members join every minute of every day. The site is also extremely active with recruiters—both from recruiting firms and major companies such as Microsoft, eBay, and L’Oréal—which makes it a prime hunting ground for job seekers. Everyone from top CEOs to presidential candidate Barack Obama has a LinkedIn profile.
LinkedIn works like many other social networking sites. You create a profile and establish connections with other users—people you already know and people you want to know. What’s different about LinkedIn is that its audience is almost exclusively professionals looking to achieve professional goals, such as finding a new job, recruiting employees, generating new business, or locating potential business partners.
After you create your profile, you can explore LinkedIn’s other features, including special areas for job seekers or recruiters, the JobInsider toolbar that integrates with Internet Explorer or Firefox, recommendations for service providers (useful for consultants or small businesses), and LinkedIn Answers, in which you can share information with fellow members.
Because there’s so much more to a successful experience on LinkedIn than simply creating a profile, several savvy networkers have established third-party sites offering best practices and advice on LinkedIn. Some examples include MyLinkWiki (www.dallasblue.com/LinkedIn/family.htm) and MyLinkedInPower Forum (tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/MyLinkedinPowerForum).
To get the most out of your LinkedIn experience, consider these tips.
This point is critical to your success. You need to strive for a balance between providing enough information to achieve your goals and providing too much information; a profile should not be a detailed resume. Review other profiles for an idea of what works. Also, think carefully about what you want to achieve. Are you hoping to network your way to a new job, change your career, or build your business? Craft a profile that matches this goal for the best results.
In addition, ensure that your profile is complete. This doesn’t mean that you need to create a lengthy profile with a lot of personal detail. It refers to LinkedIn’s calculation of completeness—whether you’ve included all the items they feel are important to a successful profile.
Laura, for example, is an editor with 20 current connections who wants to maximize her exposure on LinkedIn. She creates what she feels is a solid profile that demonstrates her expertise in both editing and business. But LinkedIn states that her profile is only 75 percent complete. Laura’s profile includes current and past positions, educational information, a photo, and one recommendation. Adding two more recommendations and a profile summary listing her specialties will enhance her already strong profile and elevate its completeness to 100 percent. According to LinkedIn, you’re 40 times more likely to achieve positive results if you post a complete profile.
Not having enough recommendations is one of the common reasons your profile may not reach 100 percent. Many people just don’t like asking for them. But by requesting recommendations from LinkedIn members you know—particularly former employers or other high-profile people—you can validate your qualifications in a way that your profile alone could never do by itself.
After you complete your profile, make it public. If you’re concerned about privacy, create a profile that presents your most important qualifications but doesn’t provide excessive personal or professional details.
Using LinkedIn’s search features makes it easy to find all your personal contacts who are already part of the LinkedIn network. Start with colleagues and managers, both current and former, and then expand from there. Fellow members of professional associations, former classmates, and people in your personal network are good choices. LinkedIn can review your contacts from Microsoft Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo!, or AOL to see if any of them already have LinkedIn profiles.
Expanding your network to include people you don’t know is where things become trickier. Although some people like to link with anyone and everyone, in general, you’ll get the most benefit from selectively linking with people you don’t know. For example, if you’re searching for a job, connect with recruiters or hiring managers at the companies you want to work for. To reach the most influential people, you may need to request an introduction through a mutual connection or a second-tier connection.
Being sociable can get you far in the LinkedIn community. To start, invite others to join LinkedIn. In a few circles, almost everyone you know is on LinkedIn. But for most people, a lot of your personal contacts don’t participate...yet. Send them an invitation and get them involved.
By participating in the LinkedIn Answers feature, you can elevate your visibility on the network. Providing detailed, quality answers is the best way to succeed and show your expertise. If others like your answer and it’s rated as a best answer, you’ll gain added visibility as an expert in your category. Remember, though, to make your answers useful. People will easily see through self-promotion disguised as an answer. Finally, promote your profile on your website or blog. LinkedIn offers copy and paste HTML code to create buttons for you to place on other sites. Doing this increases your profile as well as the number of targeted requests you receive to connect on LinkedIn.