LinkedIn Social Networking for Professionals

LinkedIn is basically a profession-oriented social networking site. Recently the site has registered rapid growth; as of 22 March 2011 (2011 -03-22)[update], LinkedIn claims more than a 100 million registered users spread over more than 200 countries worldwide.

The site exists in multiple languages including English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. That said we move on now to what this article is really geared towards; the article highlights nine unpretentious ways to Get More out of LinkedIn, nine simple ways to make the most of this wonderful site.

* Monitor who views your profile

Firstly you need to keep a consistent check on who views your profile. To do this, look for a box called "Who's Viewed My Profile" Located towards right side of your homepage.

Simply click on the link to see an indicators page that would show you who has viewed your profile for over a week.

The format of display differs but usually it’s in the form "Someone at XYZ Company" or "Someone from some Area."

* Rank Higher in Search Results

The boost to your professional career can come through this social networking site only if people looking for employees like you could find you easily.

And if you want that to happen on LinkedIn, you would need to improve your search ranking: that is to say that you will need to produce a list of keywords, the ones people can use if they are looking for you.

As in illustration, if you're a career consultant, the keywords words can be "career," "consultant" and "business consultant." Then reenter each section in your profile and reorganize it in a way that you are recurrently employing these keywords.

* Pump Up Your Profile With Apps

What you need to remember is that like you there are thousands of other people out there who would be looking for the same job you would be interested in hence you need to make your profile stand out.

Fortunately with LinkedIn this job is made easy as LinkedIn’s apps make your profile vibrant, fascinating and notable, accumulating the odds that the hiring manager would just find that “something” in you.

* Know Your Privacy Settings

Generally LinkedIn is regarded as one of the safest social networking sites out there, but the last thing you would want is to lose all your hard work consumed in building the perfect professional profile just cause you decided to disregard the privacy and account settings that LinkedIn has set up.

Hence one should not only know his privacy settings but he should make it a point to update them frequently.

* Customize Your Profile

Like mentioned before, standing out among a crowd competing for jobs is a prerequisite for success nowadays, and at LinkedIn's making your profile outshine others is even more difficult, which is precisely why it one should make it a point to add a few of new fields. Examples can be Languages, Publications and Skills etc.

* Request New Connections Properly

Those who know LinkedIn would not be oblivious to the term making a connection. While using this particular site one needs to make sure that he avoids boilerplate connections:

Before you decide to make a connection try finding out more about the other party; groups they belong to, hobbies they have, past jobs, and the like.

Determine what you have in mutual and finally produce a personal note to spawn an unforgettable “taster” before you tell them why you want to connect.

* Integrate LinkedIn with Outlook

A usual problem with such online professional job hunt is legitimacy. But with LinkedIn, there is a simple solution to this:

Integrating Microsoft Outlook with your LinkedInnetwork. Doing this gives you better pel lucidity into the parties with whom you contact through e-mail.

* Participate in Groups

What is professional life today without establishment of a vigilant work force network? In one word we would say “isolated”. LinkedIn however allows people to partake in groups who share professional interests. This, if nothing else, will at least expand your network.

Hence we advise active participation in such groups. One can easily find "Groups" located at the navigation bar. Such active participatory groups incline to keep you informed with your industry of interest linked information.

What is their biggest advantage however is that they function as a forum or gathering where you can recommend and respond to questions! This helps you earn a name to be reckoned with.

* Follow Companies

Finally you need to make sure you make the best of "Company Follow", another of the many features being offered by LinkedIn.

The company follow function allows you to observe companies and keep an accurate track of their crucial progresses, developments, possible business prospects and job leads.

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