5 Ways to avoid wasting your LinkedIn account.

Posted by Colin Clark on Jun 11th, 2009 | View Comments home title

I’ve got to be honest, I’m in love with LinkedIn right now. Sure it’s boring and stale and has a clunky interface and a crummy API. The reason I’m in love is that it’s actually putting money in my pocket.

Why? LinkedIn is HUGE. Plus, you get to find prospects and find out who your contacts are connected to. What could be better than seeing into the other guy’s Rolodex?! Here’s what I’ve been doing lately to get the most out of the tool.

Guard your contact list. How many of your ‘friends’ are really friends. Would you be comfortable asking them to introduce you to one of their connections?
Reach out to your contacts and do in-person meetings whenever you can.
Offer to make connections whenever you ask for one.
Never EVER use in impersonal message when you friend someone on LinkedIn.
Never EVER friend someone on LinkedIn without attempting to do a face-to-face meeting. Remember, the point of networking on LinkedIn is to meet new prospects through the people you already know and help them do the same thing. Connecting with strangers defeats the point.

Colin Clark

Thanks so much for sharing that resource Nikhil. I agree. LinkedIn is THE professional network for growing and leveraging your business network.
Nikhil Vaswani

Great Tips! LinkedIn will soon become the most effective way of building your professional career and creating a personal brand. However, one will have to invest time in learning the effectiveness of LinkedIn and ways to use it properly.

One resource that can be useful is a new book "How to REALLY use LinkedIn" by networking expert Jan Vermeiren. You can find a free lite version at http://www.how-to-really-use-linkedin.com/