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LinkedIn is a useful tool for building a professional network on the internet. It's a little bit like Facebook or MySpace, but without the goofy factor. On LinkedIn people post their credentials and experience. The value comes in when you link to useful and helpful people that you know, because you can then access their list of equally useful and helpful people. In this way you can leverage a network of contacts exponentially.
LinkedIn makes a point of reminding you to only connect to people who you know well and who know you. You will be sharing contacts. You may be asked about them. They may be asked about you. I would also add that it is important to think of the quality of the contacts you make. Are you connecting to people that have useful skills and knowledge? Do they know other useful people? Are they likely to be helpful in the network?
Another benefit of LinkedIn is that it can raise your own profile. Other people can find you and you can show off your expertise by participating in the Q&A section of the site. You should make sure that you have meaningful information about yourself. You should also consider posting this information on your public LinkedIn page.
Here's how to make sure you have a good public profile:
- First make sure you fill your profile with details about your skills and experience.
- Next, turn on your Public Profile - click the Edit link in Public Profile setting.
- Choose the items you want to display to the world.
- Change the URL of your profile from the default to something more meaningful:
Now you have a profile that is visible to the world and will be picked up by search engines!
The next thing to do is promote your profile. If you have a website or blog, you can easily create a link button to this page. Here's a button link to my profile:
And here is the code that you can use to link to your profile:
<a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/YOUR_PROFILE_URL_HERE" ><img src="http://www.linkedin.com/img/webpromo/btn_myprofile_160x33.gif" width="160" height="33" border="0" alt="View YOUR_NAME_HERE's profile on LinkedIn"></a>
Good luck with building your network!
