LinkedIn is a business-oriented social network site. It is mainly used for professional networking. Find out key people in businesses, get introduced, get jobs, keep track of colleagues, and have your own “resume” online.
Important Terms
“Connection”– Invite someone to connect to you to be able to view each others profiles and networks.
“Invitation” – Invite someone to connect with you, either existing LinkedIn or new members.
“Network” – A group of users that can contact you through connections up to three degrees away.
“Groups” – A group of users sharing common interests.
“InMail” – Private messages to contact another member directly.
Want people to follow you?
Find people easily through the LinkedIn search. Send them invitations to connect to you. Look at their connections and send invitations to the people you know in common. Once connected, they can easily follow your updates and look at your profile.
Sign up for an account
Go to http://www.linkedin.com with your web browser.
Use your real information on LinkedIn. There are no aliases/pseudonyms. When you sign up, it will guide you through a series of steps to populate your profile. Customize your profile with your photo and professional/career information about you. After you are done with your profile, search out and invite people you know to connect to you.
Help
LinkedIn Help Center
http://help.linkedin.com
How to get started with LinkedIn
http://learn.linkedin.com/students/step-1/
LinkedIn Glossary
http://www.whycommunicate.co.uk/the-essential-linkedin-glossary-social-media-blog/
Tools
LinkedIn for iPhone
http://www.linkedin.com/iphone
LinkedIn for Android
http://m.linkedin.com/android
LinkedIn for Blackberry
http://www.linkedin.com/static?key=blackberry
Advertising Opportunities
http://www.linkedin.com/advertising
LinkedIn Ads, targeted advertising
Videos
What is LinkedIn?
LinkedIn Grad Guide: Video 1
How to Build your LinkedIn Company Page for Business Success
Kick Start Your LinkedIn Company Page to Grow Your Business
LinkedIn is so much harder to get into than other social media, but it’s also so much more useful than Facebook or Twitter due to how professional it is. This information was really helpful!
I don’t see how people have success with LinkedIn. I’ve never really made connections with anyone, outside of people I already know. The jobs posted are also lacking in my opinion.
I really enjoy LinkedIn, but it feels like it’s missing something big. I love the “closed” feeling it has — like Facebook had when it first came out, but SOMETHING is missing. I can’t describe it.
I have an issue with LinkedIn. Sometimes it won’t allow me to connect with people because they’re “not in my network”. I like that it’s more geared towards professionals, though.
Very nice article, Dave. LinkedIn is such a useful site for businessmen that everyone who runs a business or is planning to run one should sign up to that site and find some good connections.
The videos support this very good introduction. There are a lot of articles on your blog that helped me already though I’m just reading it for a couple of days.
Thanks for that!
I like LinkedIn very much although I know I have much to learn about it. I have not fully utilized its potential so I greatly appreciate this guide, and the accompanying videos.
It is quite different from other social media sites. I appreciate the straightforward and professional environment it has established. You have to be yourself on LinkedIn and for networking purposes this is a great benefit.
LinkedIn is not social media as much as it is an interactive resume. Anyway, I think anyone looking to network and gain jobs NEEDS to have a LinkedIn account. The truth of it is that employers are looking more and more at your online presence and LinkedIn is one of the biggest sites for that. It also helps you keep in contact with former co-workers, which is good when they pass jobs over to you, haha.
How true. I her that some companies have started looking up their applicants more on LinkedIn aside from Facebook. Of course, LinkedIn is much more exclusive due to its nature.
Yes, I agree. I think LinkedIn is a necessity for a professional in this day and age. Potential employers and others who are researching you turn to LinkedIn. I think that’s fantasstic as it gives us a chance to showcase our background and skills.
A friend of mine uses her LinkedIn profile to post a modified version of her entire resume — with the full names and phone numbers of all of her references’ phone numbers — along with what amounts to her cover letter in which she highlights her skills and how she could be a good fit with a company or organization.
I think that we will see LinkedIn grow in importance for our professional lives. I see that as a great trend.
Wow. That is a sweet bundle of resources for someone starting out on LinedIn. I am not on it yet. Even though I have received invitations from other people, I don’t think I need that sort of network just yet. I have so much to check already with Facebook, the emails, sms etc. etc. I don’t think LinkedIn would be worth it being so busy at the moment. Plus, I don’t feel like dealing with all those extra notifications
Really informative article! I am going to graduate soon and only recently started building my LinkedIn profile. These tips would definitely come in handy!
Linked-In is great, you get a lot of info on job offers, and great career advice too! I made my account about 2 years ago, didn’t really take it seriously but after reading this I think I’ll log on and fix up my profile.
Most of my friends who use Linkedin have not found any success by using it. A few have been contacted about job openings but none have actually found a job with it. It just seems like a gigantic waste of time to me. Now I have read that Linkedin is offering a pay service where you can be put to the top of the list for new job openings if you are willing to pony up money to linkedin. Lame.
Thank you for the videos. They were informative. I will probably use linkedin more when I begin job searching for a new position. I have read that people are paying linkedin to get their resume sent out to employers before that of other applicants. That kind of bothers me about the linkedin service and I am considering dropping them as they have not helped me out yet at all with finding work.
This is very useful to me. I have had a Linkedin profile for a good long while now, but I have done very little with it. I’m not sure why but it just didn’t appeal to me. Using this page I may be able to finally slay the procrastination beast and get something done.
LinkedIn is a pretty good way to start a professional network online. This website makes it easier for you to get a job as long as you keep trying! I’ll be sure to make one of these when I start looking for a job. Thanks for the helpful post!
At first I never understood what this site is for but once I got out in the real world I completely understood how great and useful this site is. I even landed my first job using this service it’s amazing.
Great tips. I use linked in but can’t say it has been very useful for me this far. I do browse the job listenings every once in a while. I’ll continue to use it…why not?
I use Linkedin a lot to look for jobs. It is a great place to keep your resume stores for employers to look at.