LinkedIn: 5 changes to make to your profile today

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Just like with romantic relationships, workouts and savings accounts, you get out of LinkedIn what you put into it. If you leave your profile relatively undeveloped, you're not using the site to its full potential. Besides filling out your experience and trolling your contacts for connections, there are some easy ways to make your profile much more effective, today. Here are five:

Accept invitations from strangers

On Facebook, connecting with strangers is dangerous. Criminals may monitor your page for personal info, like your vacations plans. Besides, your "friends" represent you, so why take a chance that a stranger might embarrass you? But on LinkedIn, connecting with people outside your immediate circle is imperative. "If you only accept invitations from people you know, why use LinkedIn? Outlook will suffice!" says Bruce Hurwitz, CEO of Hurwitz Strategic Staffing. And he would know -- Hurwitz has 28,200 connections and adds about 300 each week.

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Update your profile every few weeks

Making tiny tweaks makes a huge difference to your profile's visibility. "Every time you make any change in your LinkedIn profile, the update is shared with everybody in your network," notes Bettina Seidman, founder of SEIDBET Associates. You don't have to completely revamp your page -- simply adding a new skill will get you back on people's radar. It's the less obtrusive equivalent of emailing each person and saying "Remember me?"

Explain your role, not just your title

Your resume naturally explains what you did in each prior role to show what you could do in a new position. Do the same with LinkedIn. "Every description should convey scale, scope and impact -- what you did, why it was important and how it helped the organization," says small business consultant Shawn Graham. Potential employers or collaborators will then know what you can provide--above and beyond other people with a similar title.

Join LinkedIn groups

These groups are a simple way to open doors to many new and relevant contacts at once. "You can add a contact on LinkedIn if you share the same group as them, but you wouldn't have been able to add them otherwise unless you worked with them or have their email address. Make sure the LinkedIn groups are related to your field and/or industry so you can have more targeted searches," says Dan Schawbel, managing partner, Millennial Branding LLC.

Use LinkedIn Classmates

In October 2011, LinkedIn Classmates was launched to connect people to other alumni of particular educational institutions. Click on a school, then an industry, then a location and -- bam! The database sorts through the muck so you can see who in your city works in your industry and has the common denominator of having gone to the same college or graduate school. It's an easy way to reconnect with classmates who you might not realize are in the same field, or discover a commonality with a stranger (see above) who went to your alma mater.

[TrishS2009]

I agree with Echodave and ThreeDuece. I experienced the same issues that TreeDuece has, plus more SPAM and folks asking for my time. It's a big drain on my time.

DO NOT follow the advice in the article above. but...

DO be wary of recruiters. Be sure that you are dealing with a professional recruiter and NOT a "recruitard".

http://pigsgetfedhogsgetslaughtered.blogspot.com/2009/11/recruitards.html
http://pigsgetfedhogsgetslaughtered.blogspot.com/2009/12/recruitards-ii-heads-up.html

DO network in Linkedin, by joining groups in your area of expertise and starting and involving yourselves in group discussions.

For job hunters there are several great job groups on Linkedin such as:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Pay-it-Forward-Hidden-Job-3211168.S.46239819?qid=d5fd972f-dd46-43d2-80e8-7ff67c5c30bc&goback=.gmp_3211168

DO follow the advice given in DetroitNet, by EchoDave above although these are tech folks, they are still experienced and seasoned professionals that have been in many industries.

[echodave]

Stop it. Just...stop it. #1 is just dumb. There are no points for a high score. It's about professional networking, and being able to make connections through those whom you trust. Terrible.

LinkedIn is Not a Video Game: http://www.detroitnet.org/index.php/20/linkedin-is-not-a-video-game/

How not to suck at LinkedIn: http://www.detroitnet.org/index.php/2684/how-not-to-suck-at-linkedin/

[echodave]

Stop it. Just...stop it. #1 is just dumb. There are no points for a high score. It's about professional networking, and being able to make connections through those whom you trust. Terrible.

LinkedIn is Not a Video Game: http://www.detroitnet.org/index.php/20/linkedin-is-not-a-video-game/

How not to suck at LinkedIn: http://www.detroitnet.org/index.php/2684/how-not-to-suck-at-linkedin/

[bizmarketer]

So Bruce Hurwitz has 28,000 contacts in LinkedIn. Does he get a prize for that? I hope so because there is simply no other explanation for why anyone would waste their time clicking the Accept button. 300 new connections a week is 60 every work day, which means he is Accepting a new one every eight minutes. A far easier and more productive way to hang out with 28,000 people is to open a phone book. Here's a link to my reasons why I don't accept invitations from strangers : http://bizmarketer.wordpress.com/2011/10/20/why-i-wont-accept-your-linkedin-invite/

[jonhatchell]

Perhaps Senator McCarthy could please explain to me exactly how "your 'friends' represent you"?

[jonhatchell]

Perhaps Senator McCarthy could please explain to me exactly how "your 'friends' represent you"?

[JMSTAR100]

So if I were connected to Bruce Hurwitz, his contacts would be WORTHLESS to me. He cannot possibly speak for the value of 28000 contacts.

People who connect to me, OTOH, have met me through an organization we both belong to, or have worked with me, or corresponded (more than trivially) with me, or come personally recommended by someone I trust. And that means I can vouch for them, at least in that small way, to everyone ELSE who connects with me.

[MHeminway]

You know its funny that one article this week says don't add anyone that you have never interacted with, then this one says go ahead and do it. The answer is, it depends.

If you are a headhunter, that is one thing, add away. If not, consider whether they are part of your extended network or not, and if you want them to be. In other words what are you using LinkedIn for, and how is it representing you? You can always send the requester a note to contact the person to get to know them, although even superficially or ignore it. If you are in the habit of sending a note, you will actually grow your network, not just your numbers.

[ThreeDeuce]

I could not disagree more with the first tip. In my experience, accepting invitations from strangers has primarily resulted in requests for my time, my (free) advice or access to my network. Sure, some will say, good networking begins with giving; but I don't have enough hours in the day to give freely of my time to any random stranger who asks, and neither do you.

Let's modify: "Accept invitations from strangers... ONLY when there is a clear reason to do so."

[wkb4447]

@ThreeDeuce
Couldn't agree more. I made that mistake when LinkedIn first came out and I paid the price in lost time and effort. In fact, check out the other names associated with any stranger to see if there are any you know. If so, ask them first about linking up with the stranger. These social networks require some discretion and back-ground checks.