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I get lots of people saying they don’t know how to use LinkedIn but know I’m a member so they ask to connect with me, or agree to join but don’t know how to proceed. I wrote the message below and sent it by email to many to help them on their way, but thought I should really share it here for all.

Granted, LinkedIn has changed how the home page looks now but the components are still the same, so the information below should help you move in the right direction and get some value out of your membership.

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There are many components to LinkedIn and I’m not going to try and cover it all in one email but just want to give you an outline this time round.

When you log into LinkedIn you will see the above on your login page.

First of all Account & Settings is where you can set various items for your account – if you use more than one email address during your workday, then I suggest you list all your email addresses so that if someone sends you an invite via any of them, you will receive it into this account and not accidentally set up a second account – something I see a number of people doing and having challenges with.

There are 4 areas here you will probably use more than the others and they are:

1. Home (to view your updates and inbox and total number of connections),
2. My Profile (which you should get set up as soon as possible if you haven’t already),
3. My Contacts (where you will see an alphabetical list of all your first level contacts)
4. and the one that I’ve found most beneficial for networking – Answers.

Answers is worth checking out. You can read through Questions that people have placed and read the answers of others. Here you get to learn who has experience and knowledge in various areas and go and view their profiles. As you do so you’ll probably get more ideas for adding to your profile. If you know the answer to a question asked, don’t be shy – go ahead and give an answer. If your answer is listed as ‘good’ or ‘best’ you will start to see that in your Answers stats (My Q&A). Once you’ve gotten a ‘best’ answer you will then go on the Experts list – these are also worth checking out.

You are allowed to ask 10 questions a month and can ask questions about almost anything. But do have a look at the others first because sometimes the same questions are asked over and over again, mainly about how LinkedIn works. But that is only one category and there are many others relating to all sorts of things such as Technology, Staffing, Administration and so on.

Do be careful not to place something in Answers that comes across as blatant advertising. I did post something that was intended to be informative and to give others an opportunity in relation to a competition and it was flagged as an advertisement and closed. I wasn’t aware of this till I was checking my stats and wondered what had happened to that question. So I’m learning to be careful how I word things so that I’m not viewed as blatantly advertising something. Too many of these and you get your Q&A privileges suspended by Customer Service.

Be aware too, when you are sending invitations to people to connect with them, it is important you introduce yourself and explain why you want to connect – particularly with people who might not know you very well (but are on your database) or people you’ve seen at LinkedIn and want to get to know better. If they say they don’t know you and you get 5 of these, then your invitations are suspended for a period of time, so it is taken seriously.

Finally, if you want to get true networking value out of LinkedIn, then make sure you join some of the chat forums associated with members there. LinkedIn does not have an actual chat forum, nor the facility for sending emails to members so many members host forums via Yahoogroups and Google groups, amongst other mediums. You can check some of them out at my profile at http://www.linkedin.com/in/kathiethomas or simply shoot me an email and I’ll send you addresses to those I find most particularly beneficial.

Tags: LinkedIn // 2 Comments »