An Introduction to LinkedIn

Are you turned off by friends’ constant Farmville requests on Facebook?  Harassed on MySpace?  Baffled by Twitter?  If you are interested in creating a presence online but aren’t interested in these options then perhaps LinkedIn is more your style.

LinkedIn is a social networking site that focuses more on the professional lives of its members.  Instead of sharing wacky photos of your Saturday night’s escapades and countless updates about how much you need coffee, LinkedIn connects you to your trusted contacts and helps you exchange knowledge, ideas, and opportunities with a broader network of professionals.

Through LinkedIn, you can establish a professional presence online, stay in touch with colleagues and friends, find experts and answers, and explore opportunities. Looking for a new employment opportunity? LinkedIn may help by putting you in contact with someone that can make that vital introduction to get your foot in the door.  Even after you are employed, LinkedIn is a great site for getting questions answered by other professionals in your field.  Whether your job is sales oriented or you are simply looking for a vendor referral, you can draw from the professional contacts you have made within the network based on your personal relationships.

To get started with a LinkedIn profile today, use this New User Starter Guide to get you on your way.  In the next few days we’ll post a couple of articles with tips and best practices for utilizing LinkedIn.  For now, here are some helpful hints to get you on your way:

• Remember that this site is for professional use so your profile photo should reflect that.  The ideal photo to use is one taken by a professional photographer but at the very least it should be a photo of just you, ideally taken from the shoulders up, and your appearance should be neat and tidy, just as you would want to look going into an job interview.
• When completing your work experience and background, be careful of typing errors and spelling mistakes.  Just as you would with a resume and cover letter, poor grammar and writing skills can make for a bad first impression.  For more information about how to write a resume or cover letter, please visit our Career Topics.
• To create your “real-world” network, make sure you are only adding those people you personally know.  These could be friends, classmates, or colleagues.  But don’t send requests to people you don’t already know.  If there is someone you’d like to connect with, see if a person in your network knows them and ask them to make an introduction for you.

Sign up on LinkedIn today and start working on developing your profile.  In the next few days, we’ll give you more information on how to make your profile work for you.

Do you already have a LinkedIn profile?  Has it helped you in your professional life?