As more and more technologies become available and popular and even musts, we naturally worry about keeping up and managing all these demands on our time. Here are some suggestions for how to stay on top of LinkedIn by dividing the tasks into frequency categories.
Establish your account and build your page
1. Create an account at www.linkedin.com. It is free at the basic user level.
2. Start to build your profile. You can use the feature that imports your resume, but that will require lots of editing and it is just as easy to start from scratch.
3. Choose your own personal URL instead of the default one assigned to you. This means it will have your name or initials as your address. No big deal, but nice to do.
4. Spend lots of time building your connections. This is the heart of networking, so think broadly and deeply about people you know from schools, previous jobs, neighborhood, church, social groups, professional associations, and everything else.
5. Use a personal message when you invite them to connect. Remind them how you know them, and let them know that you'd like to stay in touch.
6. Join some groups where you have an interest or know people.
Daily Routine
1. Check for responses to your invitations. When you connect with someone you can now view their connections so you can see if there is someone there you also know and would like to invite. Keep building your network. Until you have at least 60 connections your network does not have enough reach to be very valuable.
2. Check for other messages from your network to stay on top of events and communications.
3. Read through all the status updates from your network. You can learn a lot about what people and companies are up to this way.
4. Check the Jobs section to see what new postings show up. Do some searches on jobs to see what you can find.
Weekly Routine
1. Begin to post status updates and posts in the groups where you are a member.
2. Consider using your talents and expertise to answer questions posted in the ANSWERS section. This is a way to get known and build credibility in your field.
3. Ask a question of others in the ANSWERS section if you want to get feedback or ideas about something.
Monthly Routine
1. If you choose to give and receive recommendations on LinkedIn, you should review them and search for more bosses or former co-workers who will give you a good recommendation. When you request one make sure you let them know what kinds of statements will be most helpful. Keep them brief, please.
2. It is a good idea to review your profile once a month to see if you can improve it. You will be reading others' profiles and will get some ideas of wording, whether to use the 1st or 3rd person, how to be briefer. Perhaps don't include every place you have ever worked.
3. Check your profile for consistency with your current resume. Make sure you use the same job titles and dates (if you use dates). Employers will be checking your profile, so you don't want any discrepencies that will make them wonder.
4. You can post a link to your resume on your LinkedIn page if you wish. When you are editing your profile you will see a choice asking if you want to add sections to your profile. You can use a tool called box.net to link to a DOC or PDF file of your resume.
