Introduction

Relationships matter. Ever since the dawn of time, when Fred Flintstone asked Barney Rubble whether there was any work down at the quarry, human beings have always networked. We're social creatures who like to reach out and talk to someone. As the Internet developed and grew in popularity, people rapidly took advantage of this new technology for communication, with e-mail, instant messaging, personal Web pages sharing voice, video, and data with each other, and lots of other applications to keep everybody connected. But how can the Internet help you do a better job with your professional networking? I'm glad you asked. Welcome to LinkedIn For Dummies, Third Edition.

LinkedIn was founded in 2003 by a guy named Reid Hoffman, who felt that he could create a better way to handle your professional networking needs. He saw lots of Web sites that let you build your own page and show it to the world, extolling your virtues and talents. But a lot of the popular Web sites that Hoffman came across focused more on the social aspects of your life and not that much on the professional side. LinkedIn changed all that with its approach of augmenting all the professional networking you do (or should do) on a daily basis. You don't have to be looking for a job to use LinkedIn, but if you're looking, LinkedIn should be a part of your search. As Hoffman put it, LinkedIn was designed to “find and contact the people you need through the people you already trust.”

In short, LinkedIn allows you to coordinate your professional identity on the Internet and make you more effective in your career. The site is designed to make the aspects of networking less time consuming and more powerful, so you can open doors with your professional connections and tap the connections of people you know who make up your extended network. LinkedIn doesn't require a huge amount of time or usage to be effective, and is focused only on providing tools that help your professional career.

Perhaps you've heard of LinkedIn, but you don't understand fully what it is, how it works, and most importantly, why you should care about it. Maybe you got an invitation to join the LinkedIn Web site. Perhaps you've gotten multiple invitations, or you keep hearing about it and want to find out more. Well, you're taking the right first step by reading this book. In it, I talk about the whys as well as the hows. If you're looking to enhance your professional life, I truly believe you need to look at LinkedIn. If you want to go straight to the beach and retire, though, maybe this isn't the book for you!

This book covers LinkedIn from start to finish. In case you haven't already joined, I show you how you can sign up. If you're already a member, this book is also very useful because I show you how to build your identity and take advantage of LinkedIn's functionality. This book is useful regardless of your skill level, whether you want to join or you've been on LinkedIn for years but feel stuck.

About This Book

This book covers all aspects of using the LinkedIn site: from signing up and building your profile, to growing your network of contacts, to taking advantage of some of the sophisticated options, and everything in between. I include a lot of advice and discussion of networking concepts, but you also find a lot of step-by-step instructions to get things done. In this third edition, I revisit some of the newer facets of LinkedIn, including its Groups, Contacts, and Companies sections, and have updated all the core processes, from creating your profile to looking for a job.

This book is organized as a guide; you can read each chapter one after the other, or you can go straight to the chapter on the topic you're interested in. After you start using LinkedIn, think of this book as a reference where you can find the knowledge nugget you need to know and then be on your merry way. Lots of details are cross-referenced, so if you need to look elsewhere in the book for more information, you can easily find it.

How This Book Is Organized

I divide this book into six handy parts:

Part I: LinkedIn Basics

This part starts with the basics: I talk about the benefits of LinkedIn, how to sign up, and how to build your online profile.

Part II: Finding Others and Getting Connected

In Part II, I go a step further and discuss your network of connections. I go through how to search the LinkedIn database of tens of millions of professionals, how to introduce yourself to other people, how to grow your own personal network, and how to coordinate the way you communicate with and endorse your network.

Part III: Growing and Managing Your Network

In Part III, I heat things up by covering some of the built-in functionality of LinkedIn, such as getting and receiving recommendations, adding LinkedIn tools to your e-mail and Web browser, and importing and exporting your network to other applications, such as Microsoft Outlook.

Part IV: Finding Employees, Jobs, and Companies

Part IV takes everything I cover in the first three parts of the book and applies it to the top reasons why people use LinkedIn: namely, searching for a job, finding an employee, and finding valuable companies.

Part V: Using LinkedIn for Everyday Business

In this part, I continue on the trend of showing the real application of LinkedIn by applying the site's capabilities to different professions. I talk about how to use LinkedIn for marketing, sales, venture capital and start-up, and even some creative uses you may have never thought of doing with LinkedIn.

Part VI: The Part of Tens

Part VI is the traditional For Dummies Part of Tens — it contains lists that detail a number of LinkedIn functions and resources you can find on the Internet to help you with your LinkedIn experience.

And Just Who Are You?

I assume that you know how to use your computer, at least for the basic operations, like checking e-mail, typing up a document, or surfing the great big World Wide Web. If you're worried that you need a Ph.D. in Computer Operations to handle LinkedIn, relax. If you can navigate your way around a Web site, you can use LinkedIn.

You may be utterly new to the idea of social networking, or the specific ins and outs of using a site like LinkedIn. LinkedIn allows you to do some really cool stuff and enhance your professional life. There's more to it, and this book is here to show you the ropes — and help you take full advantage of what LinkedIn has to offer.

This book assumes that you have a computer that can access the Internet; any PC or Macintosh line of computer is fine, as well as Linux or any other operating system with a Web browser. All the main Web browsers can access LinkedIn just fine. In some parts of the book, I discuss specific applications such as Microsoft Outlook; if you have Outlook, I assume you know how to use it for the purposes of importing and exporting names from your address book.

Icons Used in This Book

As you go through this book, you'll see the following icons in the margins.

The Tip icon notifies you about something cool, handy, or nifty that I highly recommend. For example, “Here's a quicker way to do the described task the next time you have to do it.”

Don't forget! When you see this icon, you can be sure that it points out something you should remember, possibly even something I said earlier that I'm repeating because it's very important. For example, “If you are only going to do one of my bullet point suggestions, do the last one because it's the most powerful.”

Danger! Ah-oo-gah! Ah-oo-gah! When you see the Warning icon, pay careful attention to the text. This icon flags something that's bad or that could cause trouble. For example, “Although you may be tempted to go into personal details in your profile, you should never post anything that could embarrass you in a future job interview.”

This icon alerts you to something technical, an aside or some trivial tidbit that I just cannot suppress the urge to share. For example, “It would be as ludicrous for me to recommend the 802.11q standard as it would be for me to insist that 1 is a prime number.” Feel free to skip over this book's technical information as you please.

Beyond the Book

In addition to the material in the book you're reading right now, I provide some helpful bonus articles on the Web. Check out the free Cheat Sheet at www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/LinkedIn for tips on uploading your photo to your LinkedIn profile, staying involved with your network through status updates, using LinkedIn to search for a job, getting the most out of LinkedIn Groups, and avoiding the ten most common mistakes people make on LinkedIn.

Where to Go from Here

You can start reading this book anywhere. Open the Table of Contents and pick a spot that amuses you or concerns you or has piqued your curiosity. Everything is explained in the text, and important details are cross-referenced so that you don't waste your time reading repeated information.

Good luck with LinkedIn. Happy networking!