LinkedIn For Dummies

Introduction 1 About This Book 2 Foolish Assumptions 2 Icons Used in This Book 3 Beyond the Book 3 Where to Go from Here 3 Part 1: Understanding Linkedin Basics 5 Chapter 1: Looking into LinkedIn 7 Understanding Your New Contact Management and Networking Toolkit 8 Keeping track of your contacts 9 Understanding the different degrees of network connections 10 Discovering What You Can Do with LinkedIn 13 Building your brand and profile 13 Looking for a job now or later 14 Finding out all kinds of valuable information 16 Expanding your network 16 Navigating LinkedIn 17 Touring the top navigation bar 18 Looking at the Settings & Privacy page 19 Understanding LinkedIn Costs and Benefits 20 Weighing free versus paid accounts 20 Comparing the paid accounts 21 Upgrading to a premium account 24 Chapter 2: Signing Up and Creating Your Account 27 Joining LinkedIn 27 Joining with an invitation 28 Joining without an invitation 29 Completing the sign-up process 30 Building Your Network 39 Chapter 3: Completing Your Profile 43 Adding a Summary and Basic Information 43 Updating the basic information sections 45 Writing your summary first 52 Completing Your Summary 54 Adding More Profile Sections 55 Adding a Position 57 Reporting Your Education 60 Setting Your Profile URL and Public View 63 Part 2: Finding Others and Getting Connected 67 Chapter 4: Discovering and Building Your Network 69 Searching Your First-Degree Connections 69 Searching the LinkedIn Network 72 Starting with basic search options 73 Advanced searching with filters 76 Performing advanced searches 78 Saving searches for future use 79 Chapter 5: Growing Your Network 83 Building a Meaningful Network 84 Importing Contacts into LinkedIn 87 Importing a contacts list from your email system 87 Checking for members 91 Finding classmates 91 Using the People You May Know feature 93 Browsing your connections’ networks 94 Sending Connection Requests 97 Sending requests to existing members 98 Understanding why you shouldn’t use canned invitations 99 Sending requests to nonmembers 100 Communicating the value of joining LinkedIn 102 Removing people from your network 103 Accepting (or Gracefully Declining) Invitations 105 Chapter 6: Managing Messages and InMail 107 Using InMail versus Using LinkedIn Messages 108 Understanding LinkedIn messages 108 Understanding your inbox 110 Getting to know InMail 112 Sending InMail 113 Managing Invitations 115 Tracking sent invitations 115 Tracking received invitations 116 Setting Up an Introduction 118 Planning your approach to each person 119 Sending an introduction request message 120 Managing Introduction Requests 122 Accepting requests and forwarding the introduction 123 Gracefully declining requests 126 Chapter 7: Interacting with and Endorsing Your Network 127 Interacting with Your Network 128 Creating a status update to stay connected 129 Interacting with status updates 132 Giving and Receiving Endorsements on LinkedIn 136 Endorsing someone on LinkedIn 138 Accepting endorsements on LinkedIn 139 Managing your skills and endorsements 141 Part 3: Growing and Managing Your Network 145 Chapter 8: Understanding Your News Feed 147 Understanding the News Feed 148 Configuring Your News Feed 151 Setting Up Digest Notifications 153 Writing an Article on LinkedIn 155 Managing Post Interactions 158 Chapter 9: Exploring the Power of Recommendations 161 Understanding Recommendations 162 Writing Recommendations 164 Choose wisely, grasshopper: Deciding whom to recommend 164 Look right here: Making your recommendation stand out 165 Creating a recommendation 166 Requesting Recommendations 168 Choosing whom to ask 168 Creating a polite recommendation request 169 Gracefully Declining a Recommendation (or a Request for One) 171 Managing Recommendations 172 Editing or removing recommendations you’ve made 172 Handling new recommendations you’ve received 174 Removing or requesting to revise a recommendation 175 Chapter 10: Accessing LinkedIn with a Mobile Device 179 Surveying the LinkedIn Mobile App 180 Installing Any LinkedIn Mobile App 182 Breaking Down the Sections of the LinkedIn Mobile App 184 Connecting Your App Usage with Website Usage 189 Chapter 11: Configuring Settings Like a Pro 191 Using the Settings & Privacy Page as a Command Console 192 Starting with Basic Account Changes 194 Controlling Visibility and Privacy Settings 199 Finalizing Your LinkedIn Communications Settings 206 Chapter 12: Using LinkedIn with Your Internet Activities 211 Exporting LinkedIn Connections to Your Email Application 212 Creating your contacts export file in LinkedIn 212 Exporting contacts to Office 365 214 Exporting contacts to Outlook (non-Office-Suite version) 215 Exporting contacts to Gmail 215 Exporting Your Profile and Badge 217 Exporting your profile to a PDF file 217 Creating a public profile badge for other websites 219 Part 4: Finding Employees, Jobs, And Companies 223 Chapter 13: Finding Employees 225 Managing Your Job Listings 226 Posting a job listing 227 Advertising your job listing to your network 231 Reviewing applicants 234 Screening Candidates with LinkedIn 237 Using Strategies to Find Active or Passive Job Seekers 238 Chapter 14: Finding a Job 241 Searching for an Open Position 242 Tuning Up Your Profile and Network to Make a Good Impression 246 Preparing Your Profile and Account Settings for Job Searches 247 Checking your profile’s visibility 247 Optimizing your profile 249 Involving LinkedIn in Job Search Strategies 250 Leveraging connections 251 Finding people with the same or similar job 252 Taking advantage of your alma mater 252 Finding target company referrals 253 Chapter 15: Following Companies 255 Searching for Companies 256 Putting Your Company on LinkedIn 259 Adding a Company page to LinkedIn 260 Part 5: Using Linkedin for Everyday Business 267 Chapter 16: Getting Connected with Groups 269 Reaping the Benefits of Groups 269 Understanding the Two Types of Groups 271 Joining a Group 272 Starting and participating in group discussions 274 Viewing a group’s membership list 279 Creating a Group 280 Setting Up the Group and Inviting Members 282 Building and managing your member list 283 Crafting your invitation email 284 Approving members to your group 285 Chapter 17: Implementing Sales and Marketing Techniques 289 Marketing Yourself through LinkedIn 290 Optimizing your profile 290 Marketing yourself to your network 293 Marketing Your Business through LinkedIn 295 Using online marketing tactics with LinkedIn 295 Mining for Clients 296 Generating leads with the Advanced People search 297 Finding the decision-maker 299 Closing the Deal 301 Preparing for the client meeting 301 Reporting a positive sale 303 Chapter 18: Using LinkedIn Ads 305 Understanding LinkedIn Ads 305 Finding Out about Filtering Options 307 Creating an Ad Campaign 309 Managing Your Ad Campaign 317 Chapter 19: Discovering Creative Uses of LinkedIn 321 Mashing LinkedIn with Other Services 321 LinkedIn and Google Alerts 322 LinkedIn Archives and Data Syncing 323 LinkedIn and WordPress work together 325 Building Your Focus Group 326 Using Location-Based LinkedIn Ideas 328 Building your network before moving to a new city 328 Arranging face-to-face meetings when traveling 330 Networking with LinkedIn in person! 331 Part 6: the Part of Tens 335 Chapter 20: Ten LinkedIn Do’s and Don’ts 337 Do Keep Your Profile Complete and Current 337 Don’t Use Canned Invitations 338 Don’t Expect Everyone to Network as You Do 339 Do Your Homework 340 Do Give LinkedIn Messages Equal Importance 341 Don’t Spam 343 Do Make New Connections 344 Do Cross-Promote 345 Do Add Value to the Process 345 Don’t Confuse Quantity with Quality 346 Chapter 21: Ten LinkedIn Resources 347 The Official LinkedIn Blog 347 LinkedIn Integrations with Zapier 348 LinkedIn Marketing Solutions 348 LinkedIn YouTube Channel 349 Linked Intelligence 350 LinkedIn Speaker Series Podcast 350 LinkedIn Plugins 351 Social Media Examiner 351 TextExpander 351 Buffer 352 Index 353