Welcome to the end of summer and the beginning of a series of blogs that look a bit more in depth at the various popular social media vehicles. Today I’ll focus on one of the easiest professional social media activities you can engage in, LinkedIn.com.

30% say LinkedIn their most valuable network

A study  by Anderson Analytics reports that 30% of a 5000 person sample said that LinkedIn was their most valuable network.

The idea of an online professional networking site is not new. I was shown  a site by some German students at least four years ago called, Wer Kennt Wen? (translation: Who knows who?) I was amazed by the capabilities of the site and the seriousness with which is was used.

Here is a situation outside of cyberspace (Doesn’t that word seem dated these days?) You want to make a contact in a particular organization. You talk to some friends to see if they know anyone in that company. Perhaps they would be willing to make a recommendation. If they don’t know someone, perhaps they know someone who knows someone who they have enough of a connection to that they are able to give you a name and number to call.

We all know how much easier it is to get someone’s ear when we have a common colleague or acquaintance.

Setting up on LinkedIn.com

So, to set up a profile on LinkedIn, here’s what you need to do:

1. Go to http://www.linkedin.com
2. Click on the Join Today link at the top right of the main page.
3. I suggest you immediately go over to the left hand column to Profile> Edit My Profile.
4. Editing your profile can be done over a number of visits but it would be wise to have something reasonably impressive before starting to search for contacts.
5. Your profile includes such things as: your work experience, you education, you current work, your websites and blogs, photos and so on. In addition, you can create a summary.
6. After completing your profile, you can look at connecting with people using the Contacts section.
7. You can also go to Groups and find and join groups or set up your own group. In a few minutes, I found a Chamber of Commerce group in my local area to join. Tomorrow, if approved for the group, I’ll let you know how it goes.

That’s only a start on LinkedIn but with about half an hour of time, you can being making some professional connections. Visit LinkedIn.com and take a look around.

Thanks for joining me here. Tomorrow I plan to look a bit further at LinkedIn and hopefully, to report on my new group.

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This entry was posted on Monday, August 31st, 2009 at 10:19 am and is filed under General, LinkedIn, Types of Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.