Join LinkedIn
LinkedIn was officially launched in May 2003. According to LinkedIn there are more than 100 million professionals using the site as of March 2011, and membership grows by more than one million new members every week.
You should set up LinkedIn for your business and networking contacts (your Facebook account should be for your family and close friends only).
LinkedIn is vital to your online reputation because it shows up prominently in search engine results. You can think of LinkedIn as your live résumé and networking engine.
Your User Name
You want to have a consistent name across all of your online profiles. If you have a website or a blog or other online profile, use the same name here.
Your Vanity URL
LinkedIn gives you the option of securing a vanity URL for your profile, which makes it easier for people to find you. To create a vanity URL, login to your account and click on Profile -> Edit Profile. Find “Public Profile” and click Edit. Use the same name as you chose for your user name above.
Your LinkedIn Profile
When you create your profile, the information is presented like a resume, and you are encouraged to complete it as fully as possible (a status bar tells you how far along you are). Be consistent and sign up with the same name that you used on all of your other social networking profiles.
Add the portrait photo and biography that you created earlier. Follow the steps to complete the rest of your profile as completely as possible.
Your Network
Make a list of friends, neighbors, co-workers, and current and past employers. You will find that you probably know more people than you think. Search for their names and ask them to connect. Once connected, search their list of connections for anyone you know.
Join groups and participate in a meaningful way. It’s a great way to meet new people to connect with that are interested in the same things you are as well as network with people in your same industry.
NEXT STEPS:
TIPS:
Using LinkedIn
- Beginner’s Guide to LinkedIn, from LinkedIn
- Jobs Portal for Students and Recent Grads
- Gigantic Tips Guide for Finding Jobs With LinkedIn
Protect Your Privacy
- Read LinkedIn’s privacy policy and terms of service before you sign up.
- Use a different password for each site.
- Don’t share your birthday, age, place of birth, address, or phone number.
- Don’t post your email address.
- During the registration process, LinkedIn will solicit you to share your email address book to help connect you with others you may already know on LinkedIn. To be safe, skip this step and manually look for your contacts on LinkedIn. As a general rule, don’t share your contact or email list with any site that asks.
- Provide only the information that is necessary. You can always provide more information later if you want to, but you can’t take back what you’ve already posted.
