How do I do it? Before you can reap the benefits of LinkedIn, you have to get into the network.  Here are ten tips to get started effectively:

1. Create your profile.  This is where you document your professional history, including your current and past employers, education, professional affiliations and areas of expertise.  People will be searching for you based on these items.  You want your profile to be as complete as possible.
    
2. Upload your contacts.  To begin building your network, you start with your own network of people you know.  Depending on how you store your own email address book, there are different methods to do that.  LinkedIn will connect with your specific email system and import all of your contacts into your LinkedIn profile.  [Note: LinkedIn does not do anything with the email addresses/contacts that you’ve uploaded.  You completely control any outreach to people in your address book.  This is a common concern expressed when starting with LinkedIn.]
    
3. Connect with people you know already using LinkedIn.  Once your own contacts are loaded into LinkedIn, you’ll visit the “Imported Contacts” page and see who from your address book are already using LinkedIn by looking for an icon next to their name.
    
   You can then select which of those people that you’d like to connect with, and create a personal note or use a form letter to request a connection.  Each person will receive an email saying that you’ve requested to connect with them.  They can choose to accept the connection. (Note: if you’re planning a job search, you may not want to choose to connect with your current boss, even if he/she is in LinkedIn.)
    
LinkedIn operates on the premise that you know the people you’re connected with.  I encourage you to follow LinkedIn rules and protocol by connecting with only people that you know and feel comfortable connecting to other people.
 
4. Connect with people from current and former employers.  You can also connect with others even if you don’t have their email addresses.  On the “Add Connections” page under the “Colleagues” tab, you can see a list of people who have worked at the places where you have worked.  Review this list to see old colleagues with whom you may have lost touch. 
    
   You can send a request to connect with these people without having their email address. Be sure the people you choose in this area will actually know who you are. You can add a personal note with this outreach.
    
   It’s also good to remember the rules and processes LinkedIn has set for your protection. For example, if you request a connection with a person who worked at the same place as you did that you didn’t know personally, when that person receives their invitation, instead of accepting the invitation they can select a button that says “I don’t know this person.”  If you do this too often (5 times), you will lose privileges to invite people to connect with you from employers where you don’t have their email address. 
    
5. Connect with people from your alma maters.  You can do the same outreach to people you went to school with as described in #4.  You can review lists of people who attended your college during the same years you attended.  Besides adding connections to your network, you might reconnect with an old roommate or long-lost friend.
    
6. Create a routine to repeat #2 through #5 above.  At a regular interval (I do this at least once a week), upload your email contacts (assuming you’ve added to them).  The system will show you if the new email addresses you’ve added are already in LinkedIn.  You also want to visit your “Imported Contacts” page as people you know are joining LinkedIn regularly.  You’ll be able to see if they’ve joined as an icon will appear by their name.  And, visit your “Colleagues” and “Classmates” area to see who may have joined since you last checked.
    
7. Review your “Network Updates.”  On your LinkedIn homepage, you’ll see lists of what is happening to people in your network.  You can see who your first level connections are connecting with, any changes they’ve made to their profiles, and any other activity that they’ve had on LinkedIn.  Use these as opportunities to engage your connections by congratulating them on a promotion, commenting on a project they’re working on, or offering them assistance with a question they’ve asked.
    
8. Answer questions that show your expertise.  Visit the “Answers” area to see if questions have been asked in which you could provide a resource or respond to as an expert. You can gain status as an expert in topical areas of interest to you and your business.  You can also ask questions to get access to a huge network of experts.
    
9. Outreach to people in your network to assist with your needs.  There are two methods to connect with your connections’ connections.  This is the power of LinkedIn.  Through a “People search,” you can find individuals who work at a specific company, in a specific field or industry, in a specific geographic location, and even by a keyword.  Once you find people you want to connect with that you don’t know directly, but are “LinkedIn” to you by either 2 or 3 connections away, you can request an “Introduction” or use an “InMail” to facilitate a direct connection.
    
10. Reciprocate!  Once you have a network in LinkedIn, others that you’re connected to, and their networks will ask your assistance in facilitating connections.  Depending on how you’ve set up your profile, you may or may not receive email notifications for requests to forward connections.  Respond to these requests in a timely manner as you’d hope others would do for you.  This means logging in to your profile regularly, not only when you need something from your network.

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