How To Get Started with LinkedIn

LinkedIn, a social network, got started well before Facebook and Twitter although LinkedIn carved out the niche of connecting professionals.  The platform allows you to not only share your professional experience like an online resume, it also allows you to connect with others, invite them to join your network, create and join groups, and integrate your blog, your tweets and just about anything else you want to include. 

You can also search for other professionals in a specific location, search for individuals in other companies, post jobs and give access to anyone who wants to connect with you based on your preferences.

Description

LinkedIn is a fantastic networking tool for the professional side of you.  It gives you an opportunity to communicate with others who have the similar interests as well as provide potential customers, clients and employers the ability to view your professional experience to gain a quick understanding of your abilities.

Why Is It Important?

LinkedIn provides a platform to build your professional network through an online profile that communicates your experience, expertise, associations, and passion for the work that you do.  It is a great way to find your next career path, search and connect with experts, build your network and much more.  Everyone should consider getting a LinkedIn profile so let’s begin to show you how to get started with LinkedIn.

Step 1: Register

Go to www.linkedin.com and fill in the four blank fields and then click on 'Join Now'.

Step 2: Add Details about You

Fill in the information as requested and click on 'Continue'.

Step 3: Adding Contacts

Either you can choose to add contacts now or later.  I prefer later so I'll skip this step for now.

Step 4: Confirm your Member Account

LinkedIn will send you a message to your default email address that you provided.  Click on the link that is embedded in the email to verify that you are the person who has requested to join the LinkedIn network.

Step 5: Adding Contacts Manually

Another option to add your contacts is by typing the email addresses manually although there is a much simpler option later so choose to 'Skip this step' for now.

Step 6: Add Your Contacts Through Your Email

Type in your email address and click on 'Continue'.

Step 7: Your Profile

Voila, your profile is created! The next steps are to add information to your LinkedIn profile.  Click on the highlighted text as shown which will take you to another screen where you can add information about your experience, your education, your websites, your Twitter account, etc.

Step 8: Your Career Information

In this section, you can add information about your career.  Keep coming back to this tab as many times as needed to document your past and present career positions.

Step 9: Add More Contacts

You can add more contacts by clicking on the tab 'Contacts' and navigating to the tabs below to enter or import any contacts.  You can search for them and send them invitations or use the email services (Yahoo, Gmail, etc.) from here.

Step 10: Find Groups to Join

Click on the 'Groups' tab and you can search for groups by category, location and language. Once you find a group, like Meylah's Group, you can request to join.  You can also start your own group by clicking on the tab 'Create a Group'.

Step 11:  Search for Jobs

You can search for jobs by clicking on the 'Jobs' tab.  Enter the keywords that relate to you and your interests and click on 'Search'.  This will lead you to a list of job openings and you can directly apply for them on this page.

Step 12:  Email Your Contacts

You can email and communicate with your network from here by clicking on the 'Inbox' tab.

As you can see there are a lot of things that you can do from a LinkedIn profile.  Start your LinkedIn profile and take time to build it and explore the various areas of your profile and how to keep expanding your network.  Have you heard of six degress of separation?  The idea is that each and every one of us is connected through a maximum of six other people - "The Human Web" - so get started on LinkedIn and get to know the world.