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Making

Part B

Making the Most of LinkedIn

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I have my profile complete (or almost). Now What? Having a profile on LinkedIn and doing little else is like taking resumes to a job fair and doing

nothing with them. This is your time to meet new people, make new connections and affiliations, and research companies. It is also a time to see what else can be added to further beef up your profile.

1. Meet New People You can begin by connecting with professional contacts you know and trust.

To start building your network, consider these tools:

Invitations to connect can be sent to anyone you know and trust. Note: You may need to enter an email address to send invitations.

Introductions can be sent through one of your direct connections to help you communicate with a LinkedIn member who is two or three degrees away from you.

InMails are private messages that allow you to directly contact any LinkedIn member who isn't a 1st degree connection, while protecting the recipient's privacy.

Invitations to Connect You can ask someone to join your network by sending them an invitation to connect. If they

accept your invitation, they become a 1st-degree connection. LinkedIn recommends that you only send invitations to people you know well.

You can invite people to connect from the following areas:

1. A member's profile - Click the Connect button on their profile.

2. Search results - Click Connect to the right of the person's information.

3. The Add Connections page - Search your email address book to find contacts or invite them using their email address.

4. People You May Know - Click Connect next to the person's name to send an invitation.

Introductions Introductions let you contact members in your extended network through the people you

know. If you want to contact someone who is two or three degrees away from you, you

Topics Covered in Part B

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can request an introduction through one of your connections. Your connection will, in turn, decide whether to forward your message on to the desired recipient (if in your 2nd degree network) or on to a shared connection (if in your 3rd degree network).

All LinkedIn members (even those with free accounts) have a certain number of introductions they can request. Compare account types to see how many introductions your account gets (5 for free accounts, up to 25 for paid accounts).

Introductions expire after 6 months if the receiver doesn't respond.

Once the member accepts your introduction you can exchange information and do business.

You won't become 1st degree connections unless one of you invites the other to connect and the request is accepted. We recommend you only connect with those you know and trust.

To contact any LinkedIn member directly, without an introduction, send an InMail.

InMails You can send an InMail by clicking the Send InMail link in the upper right of a member's

profile page or from search results.

InMails let you directly message members you're not connected to.

If you have a Basic (free) account, you can purchase up to 10 InMail credits.

If you have a premium account and want more credits than the number you've been allotted, you can always purchase up to 10 more.

InMail credits are issued on the monthly anniversary of your subscription start date. (The number of credits you get each month varies by type of premium account you have.

You can accumulate InMail credits from month to month, but they will expire after 90-days.

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If you have a basic (free) account, you can purchase up to 10 InMails on your account at once.

You don't need to use an InMail to send messages to your 1st degree connections. Just click Send [Name] a Message in the upper right of your connection's profile. NOTE: There's a 7-day response guarantee for InMails—if you don't get a reply in 7 days, you get another InMail to send.

2. Recommendations and Endorsements A recommendation is a comment written by a LinkedIn member to endorse a colleague,

business partner, student, or service provider. People interested in hiring or doing business with someone often consider recommendations in making their decisions.

Making recommendations can be as important as getting them. In fact, one of the best ways to get someone to recommend you is to recommend them.

On the Profile tab, click “Recommendations” to manage recommendations received, track and edit recommendations given, and make and ask for recommendations.

Ask colleagues, clients, managers, and employees to recommend your work.

Skill endorsements are a great and easy way to recognize your 1st-degree connections' skills and expertise with one click. They also let your connections validate the strengths found on your own profile. Skill endorsements are a simple and effective way of building your professional brand and engaging your network.

To receive endorsements, scroll down to the Skills & Expertise section on your own profile to see endorsements you've received. You can add any skill to this section. Accumulating a high number of endorsements for a skill adds credibility to your profile, and shows that your professional network recognizes you have that skill. That being said, you should only endorse those skills that you know your connections possess.

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Endorsing others is a great way to recognize your colleagues for the skills you’ve seen them demonstrate. It helps contribute to the strength of their profile, and increases the likelihood they’ll be discovered for opportunities related to the skills their connections know they possess.

Endorsing your colleagues also helps keep strong connections with the people in your network. You may find that after endorsing a colleague from the past, it’s easier to reach out to them because you’ve recently been in touch.

3. Groups LinkedIn Groups provide a place for professionals in the same industry or with similar

interests to share content, find answers, post and view jobs, make business contacts, and establish themselves as industry experts.

You can find groups to join in the Groups Directory or view suggestions of groups you may like. You can also create a new group focused on a particular topic or industry.

Please note that there may be multiple groups on LinkedIn for each interest, organization, or affiliation.

To find a group you want to join:

1. Move your cursor over Groups at the top of your homepage, and select Groups Directory from the dropdown menu (see above).

o Browse the Featured Groups on the page.

o Search for a group using the Search Groups box on the left.

2. Move your cursor over Groups at the top of your homepage and select Groups You May Like from the dropdown menu.

o Browse through our list of suggested groups.

Choosing the right group for you:

You can get more details about a group and find out if people in your network are members on the Group Profile page.

1. Click a group's name to view its Discussions page.

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2. Click the More… tab under the group's name and select Group Profile.

To join a group:

Click Join Group on the group Discussions page or anywhere you see the button.

OR

Respond to an invitation from a group member or manager.

Group affiliation can also look good on your profile page:

A typical group page.

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4. Research Companies

A Company Page allows you to learn more about a company you are interested in. For millions of professionals, a Company Page is a place to:

Explore companies of interest

Get the latest company updates and industry news

Research products & services

Learn about job opportunities.

Information like the company description, products & services, job opportunities, and company logistics is provided by the Company Page's administrator. Other information, such as employee stats and profile updates, is generated by network and profile updates of past or current employees, or company jobs posted on LinkedIn.

To search for companies, move your cursor over Companies at the top of your homepage, and select Companies Directory from the dropdown menu (see above). A company page looks like this:

Each company page has four tabs: Home, Careers Products and Insights.

1. Home

The home page has sections that tell about what that company does, their industry, company size, and other information. Like individual LinkedIn pages, the Company pages

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have a Recent Updates section to keep you up to date on the latest happenings at their company.

The How You’re Connected section shows people in your network who are employed at that company. Using this information can put you in touch with people who can help you research that company to see if it is a good fit for you, and vice versa.

2. Careers

The Careers page contains information regarding working at that company, including employees with LinkedIn accounts, lists of job openings, and the kinds of careers available. Company updates are listed here as well. Jobseekers can read the information listed on the Careers page to help decide if the corporate culture is a good fit for them, and to prepare for upcoming job interviews as well as to search and apply for jobs.

3. Products

Companies can list their products to do business through LinkedIn. Customers can also add recommendations to the products listed.

4. Insights

Insights page provides statistics and analytics about the company and its employees. Employers can view the most recommended employees for recruiting talent; jobseekers can see who in their network works or has worked for that company, what companies they came from, and top skills and expertise employees list on their personal LinkedIn pages. This information can help jobseekers get valuable information about corporate culture and what work is like at that company from connections who work there, and tap into information that will improve their own profiles.

A section called People Also Viewed contains links to related companies you may be interested in.

Followers of that company can get updates from that company posted on their individual home pages, to keep abreast of the latest news. Simply click the yellow “Follow” button in the upper right hand corner of the company home page.

5. Jobs

Jobs You May Be Interested In is a free feature that shows jobs posted on LinkedIn that match your profile in some way. You can find this feature on the right side of your homepage

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or by clicking Jobs at the top of the LinkedIn homepage to reach the Jobs section of the site.

From the feature on the homepage, click See More to view and filter additional results by

company, location, date posted, and other criteria.

From the feature on the jobs page, click See More to view more suggestions, and then click See All to view the full set of results with the filters.

You can also get daily or weekly email alerts for these job suggestions.

To do a more extensive or customized search for jobs, use the Advanced Search option on the Jobs page.

6. Enhancing Your Profile

Promoting Your Public Profile Your LinkedIn public profile is a streamlined version of your profile that shows up in

search engine results, and is visible to people who aren't signed in to LinkedIn.

Some options for promoting your public profile include:

Creating a personal URL Adding a LinkedIn View My Profile button to your online resume,

blog, or website Creating an email signature that contains your public profile URL

To change the information on your public profile, customize the URL, and find HTML code for "View My Profile" buttons:

1. Click Profile at the top of your homepage. 2. Click Edit located in the top section of your profile. 3. Click the Edit link next to the public profile link in the top section of your profile.

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Adding Sections to Your Profile LinkedIn profiles can contain considerably more than a simple online resume. Consider

adding information to sections including:

Contact Info - Your email, phone, IM, and address (only visible to connections), as well as your Twitter handle and web sites.

Certifications - Certifications, licensures, or clearances you've attained. Courses - Adding your body of coursework can help your education to stand out. Honors & Awards - Show off your hard-earned awards. Languages - Languages you understand or speak. Organizations - List the organizations or associations you've been a part of along with

your role. Patents - Any patents you've applied for or received. Publications - Publications that have featured your work. Projects - Showcase the projects you've worked on, along with team members. Volunteering & Causes – Organizations you support, and causes you care about.

Hit the + sign to add information.