WEEK 1: Introduction to LinkedIn

[Michele Martin]

LinkedIn is primarily a professional network, designed to facilitate linkages between people who are wanting to connect for work-related purposes. It is more “buttoned-down” than Facebook with a more formal culture of relationships and connections. It is also the network of choice for most professionals.

Because LinkedIn is designed for professional networking, there’s a greater emphasis on building a reputation and connecting to employment and business opportunities. LinkedIn Questions and Answers is a way for people to ask questions and receive expert advice. Answers can be rated and people who do this well can improve their LinkedIn reputation. There are also employment listings and an ability to receive recommendations from your connections that then become part of your profile. You can also create and join groups.

To learn more about how LinkedIn works and how you can create a LinkedIn profile and start networking, check out the posts in this HowStuffWorks series on LinkedIn. Also see what other learning professionals are saying about LinkedIn. And consider these tips on using LinkedIn from Ray Sims and 10 Ways to Use LinkedIn from Guy Kawasaki. Also check out "I'm on LinkedIn, Now What?"

Also check out the LinkedIn Tips and Tricks Forum--We were losing some great ideas in this Introductory forum, so I'm moving those tips over to this forum where they're easier to find.

Tips on Writing Your LinkedIn Profile from Chris Brogan
**Make Your LinkedIn Profile Work for You
**Write Your LinkedIn Profile for Your Future

Tony Karrer has also created a quick screencast on how to use LinkedIn to find an expert. You can read another post on Searching for expertise (with another screencast) here.

ACTIVITIES

Spectator--Read the resources on LinkedIn posted here and any comments people make on this Forum thread.

Joiner/Collector--Read the resources and Forum comments. If you haven't done so already, join LinkedIn and start connecting. Invite people to join your network. Flesh out your profile by asking for recommendations or write a recommendation for someone in your network. (Be sure to check out Lodi's ideas on developing your profile). Join the LinkedIn Group we've started for this course, as well as the eLearning Guild's LinkedIn group. You may also want to comment or ask questions in this Forum. Or add your favorite LinkedIn Tips and Tricks to this forum.

You can also add your LinkedIn badge to this forum and/or to your Ning profile page by going to your profile page on LinkedIn and looking for the "Promote my Profile" link. Click on it and it will take you to a page where you can find the code to copy and paste. You can also add your badge to your blog, as Paul did. (For more detailed instructions on how to find/add your badge, check out Kate's post).

Creator-If you have any resources on LinkedIn or want to go looking for some to share, add them to this Forum. Go on LinkedIn and ask a question or try to find an expert, then share your experiences in a blog post or in the forum. Find a LinkedIn group to join and then participate in the conversation. Answer some questions that others have asked and see if you can get someone to rate your answer the best one (this will improve your reputation within the network). Consider creating a screencast or other job aide showing people how they can use LinkedIn.

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[David Miller]

I have not used it much, but have answered a few questions and found that part to be of some use.

[Tony Karrer]

It is a bit spooky how it surfaces some of these connections. Over time, the systems for surfacing connections are going to be quite amazing as things like Data Portability take over. The larger challenge will be categorizing connections so that you can act on them. Who would I want to send this message to?

paul lowe said:

Linkedin seems pretty spooky in the way it makes recommendations for people to link to - it just invited me to link with my brother in law - and i had no idea he was even on it or what the connection inside linkedin is!!
I guess we must know someone in common, but not sure who

[paul lowe]

yes, and then we have the problem of how much of yourself do you want to make public - but i guess thats a discussion for the privacy forum....

Tony Karrer said:

It is a bit spooky how it surfaces some of these connections. Over time, the systems for surfacing connections are going to be quite amazing as things like Data Portability take over. The larger challenge will be categorizing connections so that you can act on them. Who would I want to send this message to?

paul lowe said:

Linkedin seems pretty spooky in the way it makes recommendations for people to link to - it just invited me to link with my brother in law - and i had no idea he was even on it or what the connection inside linkedin is!!
I guess we must know someone in common, but not sure who

[Rachel Imsland]

[Kate]

I had a difficult time finding the 'Promote my Profile' link. Here's how I found it (using Firefox 2.x on a Mac):

While at the LinkedIn site:

1.Click on your profile
2. Then click on 'Edit Public Profile Settings' near the top right hand corner of the window
3. A third of the way down the Edit Public Profile Settings window you will see Public Profile and the second bullet sentence states, 'Promote your profile with customize buttons'. Click on 'customize buttons'.

[Michele Martin]

Kate--sorry that my instructions were less than clear and thanks for posting this. I'm going to pull this out to share with others (with attribution to you, of course). :-)


Kate said:

I had a difficult time finding the 'Promote my Profile' link. Here's how I found it (using Firefox 2.x on a Mac):

While at the LinkedIn site:

1.Click on your profile
2. Then click on 'Edit Public Profile Settings' near the top right hand corner of the window
3. A third of the way down the Edit Public Profile Settings window you will see Public Profile and the second bullet sentence states, 'Promote your profile with customize buttons'. Click on 'customize buttons'.

[Jana Schiff]

I haven't really used it much either but after this maybe I will.

[Tony Karrer]

I've just created a quick screencast using Jing that shows a very common approach that I use for expertise capture using LinkedIn. I'd prefer to be talking through this with someone else, but I still don't have that figured out.

http://www.screencast.com/t/mCfKLBPb


Let me know if this is helpful.

[Rheinard Korf]

Hey guys...

Thought I'd join the badge dropping...

[Susan Neva]

Here's my badge.


Thanks for putting this ning together.
I was looking for some way to figure out how to get into this whole social networking thing... and you have provided it!
Looking forward to participating over the next several weeks.
Susan

[Collin Kromke]

I've been "playing" with LinkedIn for a while now. I actually wrote my first recommendation a few weeks ago for a co-worker.

After going through a recent re-org in my company, I'm thinking there could be some value in asking for recommendations when people both within and outside the company are happy with something I've done for them. These days, employers are searching sites like LinkedIn more and more, and this seems like a good way to collect some references - just in case.



What do people think of creating a group on LinkedIn for the participants in this course? Would it be too redundant considering we already have a community here on ning?

[Ruth Wahtera]

Tony,
I appreciate the screencast. I haven't noticed tags on linked-in, nor had I thought through using Linked-In in that way. Thanks so much.
Ruth