• 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 Profile

Here are simple things you can do to maximize the benefit of having a LinkedIn profile.

• Focus on your accomplishments, not your responsibilities, in your job descriptions. People are interested in what you have accomplished and what you can accomplish for them. Use statistics and give examples. Often, you can rewrite a responsibility into a accomplishment with just a little thought and effort.
• Ask for recommendations. People are busy, and it probably won’t occur to anyone that they should write a recommendation for you. When you finish a client project, ask your client to post a recommendation on LinkedIn for you.
• Give recommendations. Be generous and give recommendations to the people in your network that you can recommend. Your recommendations can be as short as a couple sentences, but should be specific and focused.
• Post a professional picture on your profile. If you don’t have one, hire a photographer to take a headshot or a portrait that you can use for your online presence. It’s worth the money it costs! You can use the same photo on every social media outpost.
• Customize the link to your public profile. It’s much friendlier for other people use when it is customized.
• Complete your profile to 100%. You don’t have to fill it out completely the first day, but set a deadline to complete it. You’ll be glad when the details are all there.
• If you have a business topic blog, use the Blog Link or WordPress applications to pull your latest blog posts into your profile. This showcases your blog to the people who check out your profile.
• Update your profile as you accomplish more things. Keep your profile current, and add details about professional events you attend them. Review your profile every month to make sure you have the most current information posted.
• Share your LinkedIn public profile web address. Put it on your website, your blog, and include it in your social media passport.
• Check the LinkedIn blog for new features and smart strategies. They provide tips and information about new features added to LinkedIn. Check it regularly.

Your LinkedIn Network

Here are a few ideas about expanding your LinkedIn network to include people you already know.

• Decide your connection policy. LinkedIn recommends that you only link to people you know. That’s a good policy for many people. You can also decide to create an open network where you connect with people that you don’t know. Decide how much interaction you want to have with a person online before you connect with them on LinkedIn.
• Join groups to find people you already know. Most colleges have alumni groups, cities and regions have groups, and professional organizations have groups. Invite old friends and former co-workers to join your network.
• Check for people you know in each of your connection’s networks. Most likely, you have one or more people in common with each of your connections. Take a little time each month to review their networks looking for mutual connections.
• Backup your connection information. Use the export connections feature to pull your connection data out of LinkedIn and import it into your contact management or address book program.

Related Articles:

• Backing Up Your LinkedIn Connections
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• Using LinkedIn For Business
• Blogs And LinkedIn Work Together
• 6 Reasons Why Potential Customers Won’t Follow You on Twitter
• Add Twitter To LinkedIn

• Before You Start: You have a LinkedIn profile and connections (people in your network)
• Learning Level: 4 | Creating Solutions
• Article Last Updated: Friday, February 24, 2012

Export Your LinkedIn Connections

LinkedIn allows you to make a backup of your online business connections. This means that you can safeguard this valuable business data by having a backup on your computer. You can also use this information in other ways for your business. For example, you can import your LinkedIn connections to your email address book.

Before you export your LinkedIn connections, decide what you will do with them. This may change the export file format you choose. For example, if you only want to save the information, you could use any CSV file because you can open that kind of file with a spreadsheet. If you want to import your contacts into an email address book or other contact manager, find out the file format it requires.

To export your business connection contact information:

1. Log in to LinkedIn and display your connections.
2. At the bottom of the list, click Export Connections.
3. Choose the file format.
4. Type the verification code. (This is a security measure that makes sure a person and not a computer program is downloading your contact information.)
5. Click Export.
6. LinkedIn creates the file.
7. Choose Save File.
8. Your browser may ask you to select a file save location, or may save the file to a predetermined location.

If you want to import the connections, LinkedIn provides instructions for several email programs. If your email program is not listed here, refer to the instructions for your program.

Related Articles:

• 5 Ways To Update Your LinkedIn Network
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• Before You Start: This is the starting point to learn about LinkedIn.
• Learning level: 1 | Social Media Basics
• Article last updated: Friday, February 24, 2012

LinkedIn Basics

When it first appeared, LinkedIn was seen as the job search area of the social media realm. Common wisdom said that if you were corporate and looking for a job, you should post your resume on LinkedIn. That’s still true today, but what’s changed in the range of people who can benefit from being on LinkedIn. Now, small businesses and freelancers also benefit from being on LinkedIn.

If you need a crash course on LinkedIn and how it works, check out this introductory video from the fabulous people at Common Craft.

LinkedIn Benefits

Like other social media applications, LinkedIn allows you to build a community and provides a wide range of communication tools within your community.

LinkedIn’s greatest benefits for your small business include:

• Emphasize your personal business accomplishments. Your LinkedIn profile focuses on you and your personal work history. This gives you the opportunity to focus on your accomplishments within your business and to emphasize your business strengths.
• Collect recommendations from people who know your work. Each time someone reviews your resume, they can review the recommendations you have received. Your recommendations can include customer testimonials, but also can include feedback from your peers, former business associates, and even people you know through any volunteer or pro bono work you perform.
• Define a professional network of people. Part of building your business is establishing a network of your peers, your collaborators, and people in related industries. LinkedIn allows you to create professional relationships and gives you access to contact information for your network.
• Research your network to find people. Using the power of your network, you can find someone within your network who can help you answer many types of questions. This is a valuable resource when you need to find a collaborator, a contractor, or an employee.
• Keep your contacts updated. You can export the LinkedIn contact information from your network and import it into your address book or contact management software.
• Share your social media passport. You can link your blog, slideshows, and other social media accounts to your LinkedIn profile. This allows you to drive traffic to your social media outposts including your business website and blog.
• Get introduced to new people through existing network connections. The best way to meet someone who can help your career (or hire you) is through a personal recommendation. LinkedIn shows you who in your network provides the connection for getting introduced.
• Expand your network through groups. LinkedIn allows people to create groups based on common industries, community affiliations, and previous work experience.  You can join groups to meet people who can become part of your professional network.
• Establish your expertise. People ask questions on LinkedIn, and you can provide answers. Not only can you help the people asking questions, but your answers become part of your LinkedIn profile.
• Stay connected while mobile. LinkedIn is available through the mobile internet, and many phones have LinkedIn applications in their online stores.

Recruiting Through LinkedIn

You can use your LinkedIn network to help with your recruiting efforts, including finding temporary staffing and project contractors.

• Get recommendations. Ask the people you know and trust to recommend people they know and trust.
• Post jobs. Post jobs and other opportunities to your network and let them help you find great candidates for your positions.
• Search for candidates. Use the search feature to explore people in your extended LinkedIn network with specific skills and experience and then get introduced to them.

Even recruiters are turning to LinkedIn to fill positions today because of the high costs of using large job boards like Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com.

Related Articles:

• Getting The Most From LinkedIn
• 5 Ways To Update Your LinkedIn Network
• Announcing Your Social Media Presence
• Blogs And LinkedIn Work Together
• Add A Company Profile To LinkedIn