LinkedIn can be a powerful business networking tool if you keep it current with your business contacts. Here are five ways you can keep your LinkedIn network up-t0-date with your real business network.

• Before You Start: You have a LinkedIn profile and connections (people in your network)
• Learning level: 3 | Building Skills
• Article Last Updated: Friday, February 24, 2012

Your LinkedIn Network

LinkedIn is different from many social media networking sites because it emphasizes the quality of your connections over the number of people in your network. With LinkedIn, you are encouraged to only connect with people you know and trust. This means that LinkedIn is not a tool you can use to expand your network. Instead, you want to update LinkedIn to reflect your real world network.

Here are five ways you can update your LinkedIn connections.

1. Import Your Email Addresses

LinkedIn has an automated process for importing your email addresses from the most common web-based email like Gmail and Yahoo! and email software like Outlook. Click Add Connections from the top menu and follow the instructions.

2. Add People From Business Cards

When you attend professional meetings, tweetups, conferences, and trade shows, make a point to collect a business card from everyone you meet. When you return to your office, have a place to store your collected business cards. While the event is fresh in your mind, sit down and search for each person using LinkedIn’s people search box.

3. Review Your Twitter Community

Twitter allows you to make connections with strangers. However, after talking with someone on Twitter for a while, you may feel comfortable enough to invite them to join your LinkedIn network. As good rule of them is to send the person a direct message (DM) first to ask if they are on LinkedIn and if they would like to connect there. If they agree, they might send you a link, or you can search for them using LinkedIn’s people search box.

4. Search For Colleagues

There are more than 55 million people on LinkedIn. Most likely, you can find people you work with currently or worked with in previous jobs and add them to your network. LinkedIn uses your job history to find people who have overlapping work histories. Use Colleagues tab located on the Add Connections page to find people you know.

5. Search For Classmates

Like colleagues, LinkedIn finds people who attended the same schools, colleges, and universities. Use Classmates tab located on the Add Connections page to find people you know.

Bonus Tip: How To Connect

Because LinkedIn emphasizes connecting only with people you know, it penalizes you if you invite people who say they don’t know you. For this reason, always include a personal message with your invitation that mentions how you know the person you are inviting. Don’t assume that they will remember you!

Your turn: Do you keep your LinkedIn connections up-to-date? What tips can you offer the community to help make this process easier?

Related Articles:

• Backing Up Your LinkedIn Connections
• Announcing Your Social Media Presence
• Conference and Trade Show Tweeting
• Add A Company Profile To LinkedIn
• Add  A Twitter List