Getting the Most Out of LinkedIn | How-to Guides for running your business from Business.com

A few years ago, some Silicon Valley netreprenuers were sitting around trying to figure out how to make social sites -- the growing phenomenon of Web sites for communities dominated by Facebook and MySpace -- work for business. Thus LinkedIn was born: a giant virtual business cocktail, going 24/7.

At this writing cruising toward 10 million users, it's an amazing tool, and one with so many new ways to connect and learn it's hard to keep up sometimes. Through this guide you will learn to:

1) Set up an effective initial profile
2) Best ways to add professional connections
3) How to use its strongest features for your business

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Not convinced? Read up

The media coverage has been very good of the site. Although media tends to dress up any new technology, the millions of active users should help drive home their point: it works very well.

I recommend: See the major media coverage at LinkedIn's media coverage page. Mike Copeland's genesis piece about the initial investors in Business 2.0 is especially good, as well as Sree Sreenivasan's basic guide to using LinkedIn.

First step is to register and set up your profile

This is not rocket science, yet most new users fail to complete the profile, probably because it feels like creating a resume for a job site, and many who flocked to big job sites a few years ago likely came away unimpressed.

I recommend: Ignore that feeling. Register first at LinkedIn.com and don't skip anything. Creating a complete online profile, which is essentially a form of resume, is key to enjoying all the possible connnections. Put in your current job, all past jobs by date, all schools, any clubs, whatever. Why? Because then LinkedIn can show you every possible person on the network that you might know from each place or time. Weirder still: People you know from one place know others from a second place in the past. Suddenly, those connections are made visible.

Automate your contacts process

You can download your contacts from Outlook or Web-based mail like Gmail or Yahoo! and then upload the CSV file, or just tack on a toolbar to add folks on the fly.

I recommend: The toolbars work with Outlook, Microsoft Explorer and the Firefox browser. Because the effectiveness of the site for you personally will depend on how many contacts you provide, don't be stingy. Upload anyone and everyone you do business with, and invite them. Once you get registered, it will even scour your Web-based mail automatically.

Kick it up a notch

LinkedIn's business model is equal parts dot-com and Web 2.0. That is, they expect lots of ordinary folks to join and pay nothing, but they also expect some -- particularly salespeople and recruiters -- to pay for higher levels of access.

I recommend: Among the premium offerings are direct links to users and something called InMail, which allows you to e-mail them directly whether you are connected to them or not.

Spread the love with groups

There's a lot of people in LinkedIn, so it can be comforting to make connections quickly through a group.

I recommend: Check LinkedIn's group directory for your alma mater, employer, former employer, networking assocation or other professional group. Don't see yours? Then start one.

Find a job -- or a candidate -- on LinkedIn

Job hunting is probably the most absorbing feature of the network. Jobs listed directly from your network appear first, and then from the wide-open Web, but with hints alongside of who you might know at the hiring company. Powerful stuff.

I recommend: Read up on job searching or job filling at the LinkedIn help site. If that's not enough, it's far more concrete to join and try the controls from within your profile.

Tips & Tactics
Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

One of the most-ignored features of the system is recommendations, where you either write a pithy comment on someone's work with you, or have one written about you (you must request it). I have seen recruiters only ask about connections with recommendations. It's that strong an indicator of trust.
Once you have a strong profile and a few dozen obvious connections with co-workers and old school friends, what next? Well, one tactic is to assume people are in the network. Search a major company and see who's one or two people away from you. If they're close enough, get an introduction.
Want an easy-to-use Web resume? Complete the profile and you'll have it. The public version of the profile page is linkable from anywhere on the Web or as a signature on your e-mail.
You will probably get some e-mail from network members who call themselves "open" networkers. This means only that they want to connect with you, despite not knowing you, in order to expand their own total network. It's a philosophical choice, but the site's founders would prefer you stick to personal contacts, which tends to increase the value of the network.

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