LESSON 1. Introducing LinkedIn
In this lesson, you learn the basics of LinkedIn and develop a strategy for success with this popular social networking site.
Understanding What LinkedIn Can Do for You
LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) is the world’s leading social networking site for business, with profiles of more than 85 million professionals around the world. LinkedIn is also rapidly expanding: A new member joins approximately every second. The site is extremely active with recruiters from recruiting firms as well as from major companies such as Microsoft, eBay, and L’Oréal, which makes it a prime hunting ground for job seekers.
Everyone from top CEOs to President Barack Obama has a LinkedIn profile. If you want to network for business on just one social networking site, LinkedIn is the site to choose.
Creating a professional profile and developing a solid network of connections on LinkedIn can help you meet many goals. For example, participation on LinkedIn can enable you to do the following:
• Find a job or recruit quality job candidates
• Develop your business by connecting with clients and partners and promoting yourself as a service provider
• Brand yourself online with a professional presence that demonstrates your expertise
Note: LinkedIn History
LinkedIn was founded in May 2003 when the five company founders invited 350 of their closest business contacts to join. By the end of that first year, LinkedIn had reached 81,000 members.
Understanding the Key to Success on LinkedIn
The key to success on LinkedIn is to establish clear goals and ensure that all your actions on the site work to achieve those goals.
For example, if your goal is to find a job on LinkedIn, you want to create a strong profile with keywords that attract recruiters. You also want to develop a solid network of professional contacts in your industry—the type of people who might hire you or who might provide relevant job leads.
On the other hand, if your goal is to find business leads and develop your platform as an expert in your field, you could use a different approach. A strong profile and network are still important, but you might also want to participate in LinkedIn Answers and LinkedIn Groups to promote your expertise among LinkedIn’s millions of members.
Before establishing your goals, however, you need to understand the unwritten rules of LinkedIn. LinkedIn’s focus is on developing a mutually beneficial online business network. With LinkedIn, you can stay in touch with your existing contacts and connect with other professionals who share your goals and interests. LinkedIn is not the place to amass thousands of “followers,” engage in heavy sales tactics, or send spam-like communications. Keeping these rules in mind will help you develop a LinkedIn strategy that generates positive results in your professional career.
Tip: Focus on Strategy, Not Filling Out Forms
At first glance, LinkedIn appears deceptively simple. Its true power, however, comes from employing the strategic best practices of online networking, not on your ability to enter your professional data in a form.
Understanding LinkedIn Account Types
LinkedIn offers several account types, including a free basic account, four types of premium accounts, and three types of Job Seeker accounts. All accounts offer the ability to create a professional profile, develop a network of contacts, search for jobs and people, receive unlimited InMail and requests for introductions, participate in groups, and participate in LinkedIn Answers.
See Lesson 9, “Finding a Job,” for more information about Job Seeker accounts.
Plain English: InMail
An InMail is a private message from a LinkedIn member who is not your connection. Although you can receive InMail free if you indicate that you are open to receiving InMail messages, you cannot send InMail unless you pay for that particular service. InMail is a paid service because messages you send via InMail are far less likely to be confused for spam. Keep in mind, however, that InMail isn’t the same as the free messages you are able to exchange with your connections after you have already made a connection.
Plain English: Introduction
A LinkedIn introduction provides a way to reach out to people who are connected to your connections. By requesting an introduction through someone you already know, that person can introduce you to the person you’re trying to reach. For example, one of your connections might be connected to a hiring manager at a company you want to work for. Requesting an introduction to this hiring manager is a much better way to find a job than just sending a resume along with hundreds of other people.
See Lesson 6, “Communicating with Other LinkedIn Members,” for more information about messages, InMail, and introductions.
Using a LinkedIn Free Account
LinkedIn’s free account offers so many powerful features that it should suit the needs of most users. Unless you specifically need a premium feature, try out the free account first before making the decision to upgrade. With a free Basic account, you can request a maximum of five introductions at one time, view 100 results per search, and save a maximum of three searches with weekly email alerts.
Note: LinkedIn Is a Powerful Search Tool
You can perform and save targeted searches for people, jobs, companies, and other LinkedIn content. See Lesson 7, “Searching on LinkedIn,” for more information about LinkedIn search capabilities.
Exploring LinkedIn Premium Accounts
Premium accounts offer you the ability to contact more people who aren’t connected to you and are ideally suited to recruiters or people using LinkedIn as a business development tool.
LinkedIn’s premium accounts enable you to
• Perform unlimited one-click reference searches
• Receive an OpenLink Network membership
• Send unlimited OpenLink messages
• Access the complete list of who’s viewed your profile
• View expanded profiles of everyone on LinkedIn, even people outside your network
• Receive LinkedIn customer service responses within one business day
Plain English: OpenLink Network
The OpenLink Network is a LinkedIn premium feature that enables network members to contact each other without incurring additional fees.
Your choice of the specific premium account that’s right for you depends on your needs for InMail, introductions, and searches.
The Business account costs U.S. $24.95 per month. With this account, you can
• Send three InMails per month
• Save five searches and receive weekly alerts on each
• Maintain 15 pending introductions at one time
• Create five Profile Organizer folders
• View 300 results per search
The Business Plus account is priced at U.S. $49.95 per month. With this account, you can
• Send 10 InMails per month
• Save seven searches and receive weekly alerts on each
• Maintain 25 pending introductions at one time
• Create 25 Profile Organizer folders
• View 500 results per search
The Executive account is priced at U.S. $99.95 per month. With this account, you can
• Send 25 InMails per month
• Save 10 searches and receive daily alerts on each
• Maintain 35 pending introductions at one time
• Create 50 Profile Organizer folders
• View the full name of your 3rd degree connections
• View 700 results per search
The Pro account, at U.S. $499.95 per month, might interest power users. Pro users can
• Send 50 InMails per month
• Save 15 searches and receive daily alerts on each
• Maintain 50 pending introductions at one time
• Create 75 Profile Organizer folders
• View the full name of your 3rd degree connections
• View 1,000 results per search
Note: Get More with LinkedIn Talent Advantage
If you need a higher volume of InMails and introductions than the available premium accounts offer, consider signing up for LinkedIn Talent Advantage (talent.linkedin.com), a suite of power solutions for recruiters.
Creating a LinkedIn Account
Signing up for a LinkedIn account is a simple, straightforward task. Figure 1.1 shows the welcome screen that greets you the first time you visit LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com).
Figure 1.1. You can quickly sign up for your own free account from LinkedIn’s home page.
To create your own LinkedIn account, follow these steps:
- In the Join LinkedIn Today box, enter your first name, last name, email address, and a password. Be sure to create a strong password. A password that contains a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols provides the most protection.
- Click the Join Now button. The Let’s Get Your Professional Profile Started page appears, shown in Figure 1.2.
Figure 1.2. Enter your basic data to get started on LinkedIn.
- In the I Am Currently field, select your employment status from the options available: Employed, A Business Owner, Looking for Work, Working Independently, or a Student. The selection you make in this field affects which additional fields display on this page. In this example, we’ll use the fields that display if you specify that you’re employed. If you select another status, the field you see will differ.
- Enter your Country and ZIP or Postal Code. Note that LinkedIn displays only your geographic region, such as San Francisco Bay Area, and not your actual code or city on your profile.
- Enter your Company. As you start typing, LinkedIn locates potential company matches from existing profiles. Choosing from an existing entry helps ensure that you and your colleagues are correctly linked by company.
- If LinkedIn doesn’t find an existing match for the company you enter, the Industry field appears. Select the Industry that best describes your professional expertise from a list of more than 100 options. These options range from popular professions (Accounting, Banking, Computer Software, Internet, Real Estate, and Marketing) to the more obscure (Dairy, Gambling & Casinos, Fishery, and Think Tanks).
- Enter your job title.
- Click the Create My Profile button to open the See Who You Already Know on LinkedIn page. This page encourages you to search for and connect with people you already know. However, I recommend that you create your profile before completing this step. Why? Because when your contacts receive your connection request, you want them to view a complete profile, not an empty one. To bypass this task for now, click the Skip This Step link.
- Next, LinkedIn prompts you to confirm your email address. What displays on this page varies based on the email provider you use. Complete the verification process based on the prompts LinkedIn provides you.
- The Do You Know These People page displays information about several people LinkedIn thinks you might know. Again, I recommend that you click the Skip This Step link and send invitations after you’ve created your profile.
- On the You’re Almost Done page, you can enter the email addresses of other people you know. Click the Skip This Step link to send your invitations after you’ve created your profile.
- On the Your Account is Set Up—Choose Your Plan Level page (see Figure 1.3), you can choose to start with a free basic account or upgrade immediately to a premium account. Unless you’re certain that you need the features offered with a premium account, I suggest that you start with the free account. To do so, click the Choose Basic button.
Figure 1.3. Choose to start with a free Basic account or upgrade immediately to access premium features.
LinkedIn displays your home page (see Figure 1.4), welcoming you to the site.
Figure 1.4. Your home page is your main LinkedIn dashboard.
Tip: Stay Logged In to LinkedIn
Now that you have a LinkedIn account, click the Sign In link whenever you visit the site to log on again with your primary email address and password. If you forget your password, click the Forgot Password? link on the Sign In to LinkedIn page to request a new one. If you always use the same computer to access LinkedIn, such as a home computer, you can remain logged in for up to 24 hours as a convenience.
Exploring the LinkedIn Home Page
When you first create a LinkedIn account, your home page (refer to Figure 1.4) displays minimal content, which is understandable considering that you don’t have any contacts yet. A welcome box greets you, encouraging you to search for and connect with people you know. Again, I recommend that you complete your profile before doing this.
It’s important to remember that the content on your home page is dynamic and is unique to your LinkedIn actions, network, and account settings. After you start participating on LinkedIn, your home page changes. As an active LinkedIn user, the left column of your home page includes the following content:
• Inbox: Displays a preview of your Inbox with links to the three most recent unread messages. If you don’t have at least three unread messages, the preview displays the number of unread messages that are available. See Lesson 6 for more information about your Inbox.
• Network Activity: Displays your current status and a text box for updating your status. See Lesson 5, “Managing and Updating Your Profile,” for more information about updates. This section also lists recent activity from your connections.
Tip: View Your Network Updates as an RSS Feed
Click the Feed icon next to the Network Activity heading to open the LinkedIn RSS Feeds page where you can subscribe to your LinkedIn network updates and read them in a feed reader. See Lesson 4, “Customizing Your LinkedIn Settings,” for more information on RSS and feeds.
• Group Updates: Displays recent group updates, including information about the groups your connections joined and comments and recommendations from fellow group members.
• News: Displays recent news articles about your company, competitors, and industry. You can also participate in discussions with your colleagues about news articles, recommend news to your colleagues, share news with your connections, or submit your own articles. Be aware that the News section appears on your home page only if news is available for your current employer. If you’re self-employed or work for a small company, this section might not appear on your home page.
• Just Joined LinkedIn: Displays links to new colleagues and classmates who have joined LinkedIn recently.
Tip: Customize Your Home Page for Easier Viewing
To customize the network activity that appears on your home page, go to the global navigation bar, click the down arrow to the left of your name, and select Settings from the drop-down menu. On the Account & Settings page, click the Network Updates link to make your customizations.
The right column of your home page displays
• A list of three people you might know based on your existing connections. You can click the Connect link below their name to send an invitation to connect. If you haven’t added any connections yet on LinkedIn, this option won’t appear.
• A box with advertisements.
• The Who’s Viewed My Profile? box, which tells you how many people have viewed your profile recently. To access details about who has viewed your profile, you must either allow others to view your name and headline when you visit their profile or upgrade to a premium account. If you haven’t created a profile yet or no one has viewed your profile, this option won’t appear.
• The Your LinkedIn Network box. This box lists your number of connections, the total size of your network, and the number of new people in your network.
• Boxes for LinkedIn applications and features, such as Events, LinkedIn Answers, Jobs, and Amazon Reading List recommendations. LinkedIn uses the information from your profile to determine relevant content to display. For example, if you select Marketing as your industry, the content displayed should be useful to a marketing professional. See Lesson 13, “Using LinkedIn Applications,” to learn more about LinkedIn applications.
Tip: Customize the Applications That Appear on Your Home Page
To remove a box that displays in this column, click the X button in the upper-right corner of the box. Some boxes include an Edit link that you can click to customize the data that appears. To add application boxes, click the Add an Application button at the bottom of the column to select from the available options.
Navigating LinkedIn
Navigating LinkedIn is a straightforward process after you understand its navigational structure. LinkedIn pages display two navigation tools: a global navigation bar at the top of the screen and a bottom menu of additional options.
The global navigation bar, shown in Figure 1.5, includes links to the most popular LinkedIn destinations, with drop-down menus offering additional options. Links on the top navigation menu include the following:
• Home: Return to the LinkedIn home page.
• Profile: Edit or view your profile and recommendations.
• Contacts: Manage, add, and import connections.
Figure 1.5. LinkedIn’s global navigation bar provides links to common tasks.
• Groups: View your groups, view a group directory, or create a group.
• Jobs: Perform an advanced job search or manage job postings.
• Inbox: View, send, and archive LinkedIn messages.
• More: Choose one of the following destinations from the drop-down menu: Companies, Answers, Learning Center, Upgrade My Account, and Get More Applications. This menu also includes links to your installed applications, such as Events or Amazon Reading List.
A search box appears to the right of the global navigation bar. See Lesson 7 to learn more about LinkedIn search options.
Above the global navigation bar, in the upper-right corner of your screen, you see a link to your name. Click this link to open the Edit Profile page. Click the down arrow to the left of your name to access a drop-down menu with the following links:
• Settings: Customize the way you use LinkedIn.
• Sign Out: Log off LinkedIn.
The Add Connections link displays to the right of your name. Click it to send invitations to potential LinkedIn connections.
The bottom of the LinkedIn screen provides links to additional menu options, including LinkedIn company information, LinkedIn tools, and premium features.
You learn more about these and other LinkedIn features later in this book.
Summary
In this first lesson, you learned about the many features LinkedIn offers, strategies for using the site, how to sign up for an account, and basic navigational tools. Next, it’s time to create your profile.