15 LinkedIn Tips to Help You Find a
Job, Work Smarter, Boost Your Career
LinkedIn is the leading business-oriented social networking site. If you’re
interested in making professional connections with other people in your
industry that could lead to future work or partnerships, LinkedIn is the place
to be. Aside from traditional connection and contact sharing, highlights
include LinkedIn Answers for asking questions, LinkedIn Groups for people in
similar industries, and a host of LinkedIn apps that live on your profile page.
1. Get introduced to people by using connection requests
If there’s someone you’d like to contact, but you don’t know them, you can
request an introduction if they are connected to anyone in your network or even
if they are two connections removed from you. To add this person as a
connection, simply visit his or her profile and click “Get introduced through a
connection,” then fill in a note asking one of your connections to make the
introduction and another note to the person to which you want to be connected.
2. Show your connections where you’re going
If your
business partners can see when you’ll be traveling to their
cities, they can request meetings with you and all kind of opportunities can
arise. To share your travel itinerary on your profile, click Add An Application
on the profile edit screen and select the My Travel app. You’ll have to sign up
for a free account with TripIt, but then you’ll be able to show your upcoming
trips and see where your contacts are traveling.
3. Use LinkedIn Answers to ask questions
If you need advice, why ask just a handful of people when you can reach the
entire LinkedIn community along with up to 200 of your contacts? To get
started, just select Answers from the More menu at the top of the screen, then
enter your query in the Ask a Question box. A new screen will appear that lets
you add additional details and categorize your question based on topic. You can
choose to only share the question with a select group or make it public so
anyone on LinkedIn can see.=
4.
Join groups to talk with others
In addition to asking questions and answering others’ queries, you can join
discussion groups to network and discuss particular topics with others. To find
new groups or manage your memberships, click the Groups button at the top bar.
You can then see suggestions by clicking Groups You May Like. You can also
search for stuff that interests you by visiting Groups Directory, or you can
even create your own group.
5. Request recommendations to improve your reputation
When potential business
partners and employers look at your profile, positive
recommendations really stand out. You can wait and hope that your contacts will
post recommendations without prompting, or you can politely request their help.
To request a recommendation, select Recommendations from the Profile Menu.
There you’ll see a list of all your jobs with the number of current
recommendations under each. Here you can click the Manage link to delete or
hide recommendations you don’t like or, better yet, click the “Ask to be
endorsed” link and send a request for recommendation to coworkers and business
partners.
6. Add your Twitter feed to your profile
By connecting your Twitter account to your LinkedIn profile, you can share
updates with everyone in your network. As long as your tweets are professional
in nature, this can be a good way to keep your contacts up to date on your
activities. To add a Twitter account, select Edit Profile from the Profile
menu, then click “Add a Twitter account” on the profile page that appears.
You’ll be asked to allow LinkedIn access to your Twitter account and to log in
to Twitter.
7. Follow companies that interest you
You’ve always wanted to work for Cogswell Cogs, but every time you check the
“help wanted” section of their corporate site, you never see a job. Wouldn’t it
be great to keep up with company turnover, job openings, and happenings for
companies you want to join or even competitors you want to fail? To follow a
company, simply search for the company name by selecting companies from the
search bar and typing in a query. Then click on the name of the company to see
its homepage. Click the follow button on the home page and select Change
Following Settings. You can then decide when you’ll be notified about job
openings, position changes, or company profile updates.
8. Edit your connections’ contact information to add details
By default, LinkedIn only displays a certain amount of contact information
for each of your connections. If a connection hasn’t chosen to list her mobile
phone number or physical location, only her e-mail address will be visible.
Fortunately, you can store any additional notes and contact information you
have in your contacts’ records. Simply click the View/Edit contact info at the
bottom of the contact Information box. Then you can add notes, phone numbers,
IM names, and more that are only visible to you.
9. Put polls on your profile to see what your connections are
thinking
A great way to keep in touch with your connections is to put a poll on your
profile and see how people vote. On the profile editing screen, click Add An
Application and select Polls. Then create a multiple-choice poll with up to
five possible answers. You can send the poll to all your first-degree
connections or include it in a directory so anyone on Linked-In can vote.
10. Collaborate on projects using LinkedIn
On your profile page, click Add An Application, then select Projects and Teamspaces
by Manymoon. Then you can create a project, track enhancements and bugs, and
even manage customers and post jobs related to the project. Information will
appear on your profile.
11. Showcase creative work directly on your profile
If you have art or other media you’ve created and want to demonstrate to
potential employers, just click Add an application from the Edit Profile
screen, then add Portfolio Display. You will then have to sign up for an
account at Behance.net. Then just upload and describe your work.
12. Connect your WordPress blog to your profile
If you run a blog on WordPress and want your contacts to keep up with your
postings, select Edit Profile from the Profile menu then click Add An
Application and select WordPress. Then enter the URL of your blog. You can also
choose to show all recent posts or only those which have been tagged
“linkedin.” The most recent four or five posts will appear on your profile
page.
13. Post files directly to your profile
Don’t just list your resume or link to samples of your work from your
profile. Make them downloadable so people can save your work to their hard
drives.
- To attach files to your
profile, click on the Add Sections or Add An Application links on the
Profile page. - Select Box.net files as the
application to use. - Click the Add An Application
button and make sure the “Display on my profile” box remains checked. - Create a box.net account on
the following screen, and then you’ll be able to start uploading files.
The files you store will appear as icons directly on your profile page,
which other users can then download.
14. Add connections using contacts from your e-mail account
If you’re just using LinkedIn’s search box, it’s difficult to find everyone
you’ve ever e-mailed to see if they have a LinkedIn account. However, you can
have LinkedIn search your e-mail account’s inbox to find contacts who have a
LinkedIn account.
- Select Add Connections from
the Contacts menu. - For a web-based e-mail
account, enter your e-mail address and password into the “See Who You
Already Know on LinkedIn” box. - To import contacts from
Outlook, click “Import Your Desktop Email Contacts” instead. LinkedIn will
then comb through your mail and present you with a list of people you know
who have LinkedIn accounts - Select who you want to
invite, including people who are not yet on LinkedIn.
12. Connect your WordPress blog to your profile
If you run a blog on WordPress and want your contacts to keep up with your
postings, select Edit Profile from the Profile menu then click Add An Application
and select WordPress. Then enter the URL of your blog. You can also choose to
show all recent posts or only those which have been tagged “linkedin.” The most
recent four or five posts will appear on your profile page.
13. Post files directly to your profile
Don’t just list your resume or link to samples of your work from your
profile. Make them downloadable so people can save your work to their hard
drives.
- To attach files to your
profile, click on the Add Sections or Add An Application links on the
Profile page. - Select Box.net files as the
application to use. - Click the Add An Application
button and make sure the “Display on my profile” box remains checked. - Create a box.net account on
the following screen, and then you’ll be able to start uploading files.
The files you store will appear as icons directly on your profile page,
which other users can then download.
14. Add connections using contacts from your e-mail account
If you’re just using LinkedIn’s search box, it’s difficult to find everyone
you’ve ever e-mailed to see if they have a LinkedIn account. However, you can
have LinkedIn search your e-mail account’s inbox to find contacts who have a
LinkedIn account.
- Select Add Connections from
the Contacts menu. - For a web-based e-mail
account, enter your e-mail address and password into the “See Who You
Already Know on LinkedIn” box. - To import contacts from
Outlook, click “Import Your Desktop Email Contacts” instead. LinkedIn will
then comb through your mail and present you with a list of people you know
who have LinkedIn accounts - Select who you want to
invite, including people who are not yet on LinkedIn.
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