Getting started with LinkedIn

A Quick Start Guide

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About this GuideThis guide has been written to provide a quick start for those who are new to LinkedIn and who would like a helping hand to get going with the service. It contains no staggering insights and any experienced LinkedIn user will probably know everything in here.

The guide takes you through what LinkedIn is, how to set up and optimise your professional profile, how to add connections, how to join groups and how to search for people, companies and jobs.

All the content in this guide is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

This means that you can copy, share and edit the content as long as you give this document credit and don’t make any money out of it.

See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/ for more details.

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Contents

• Part 1: What is LinkedIn?

• Part 2: Create your personal profile

• Part 3: Get Connected

• Part 4: Optimising your profile

• Part 5: Join LinkedIn groups that you share

interests with

• Part 6: Build your credibility as an industry expert

• Part 7: Further Resources

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4 - 5

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Part 1: What is LinkedIn?LinkedIn is a social networking website for people in professional occupations. Founded in December 2002 and launched on May 5 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking. As of June 2013, LinkedIn reports more than 225 million acquired users in more than 200 countries and territories. (Wikipedia 2013)

The LinkedIn Mission

“Connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful.”

When you join LinkedIn, you get access to people, jobs, news, updates, and insights that help you be great at what you do.

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Part 2: Create your personal profileTo join LinkedIn and create your personal profile go to http://www.linkedin.comwhere you will see this screen:

Fill in your information including; first name, last name, email and password on the form on the left and hit Join Now. You will then be taken to this page where you will begin creating your professional profile.

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Once you have submitted this information you will be prompted to choose your industry from a drop down menu. You will then see the screen below asking you to add your email address. Be sure to use your professional email address as this is where you can import connections that you alreadyknow.

LinkedIn will initially request permission to access your email address and those of your contacts who are already on LinkedIn. If you would like to find connections that you already know easily, please select yes to this request. You can change these permissions at any time in your account settings.

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Part 3: Get connectedIf you have selected yes to allowing LinkedIn permission to your email contacts, you will then be presented with a list of people you know that are already members. You can select all to add as connections or select only those that you wish to add. You can also skip this step and return to it at a later date.

Based on the company and industry information that you entered at the initial registration stage, LinkedIn will present a list of suggested people that you may know. As before you can choose whoever you like from the list to send a connection request to or alternatively you can skip this step.

Once you have finished adding connections you will see this page. Congratulations! You have just created your professional profile. You can share this news on Twitter or Facebook, letting friends on other social networks know that you are now a LinkedIn member. As before, you can skip this step.

If you want to add connections, view your contacts or alumni at a later date, navigate to the top menu and select Network. You can then make your choice from the dropdown.

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Choose Your Plan LevelDepending on what you want out of LinkedIn you can choose from two different plans which are Premium (paid) and Basic (Free). You can see a list of the features below. Once you have selected your plan you will then be taken to your profile page. For now it is recommended that you set up a free account, you can upgrade at a later date if you wish.

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Part 4: Optimising your profile for maximum resultsYou are now a professional LinkedIn member. Let’s optimize your profile to give others an insight into your skills and experience. This is how your profile should look at this stage:

Optimising your profile on LinkedIn is easy and straightforward. You will be prompted to edit different profile sections of on the right hand panel. You can skip editing and choose to finish at a later date if you want. If you want to do this now however, see below for hints and tips.

Experience

Be honest and accurate, document your previous work experience and duties included, right up to your current position. You don’t need to go back as far as your school paper run or include a job that you only stayed in a few months. Make sure to include experience that adds to your credibility, skills and expertise.

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EducationAgain be honest about your education history or achievements. You can choose to include higher education, further education or both. Once you include the name of any institutions you attended, LinkedIn will give you the opportunity to add professionals who may have attended with you at the same time.

PhotoYou can add a photo to your LinkedIn profile. A headshot is recommended or you can upload a larger photo and edit it. Your photo is an important part of your LinkedIn profile for a number of reasons. A good quality photo will increase the number of views that your profile gets and will also help you make the right impression. You may also meet a LinkedIn contact in person for the first time who could recognise you because of your photo. 1. Click Choose File to find the photo you

wish to publish.2. Click Upload Photo.• You can upload JPG, GIF or PNG files.• File size - 4MB maximum.• Pixel size: 200 x 200 minimum and 500 x 500 maximum.• Your photo should be square3. Select who you want the photo to be visible to.4. Click Save Settings.

If you choose to skip this step and update your photo at a later you can add or change your profile photo from the Account section on your Settings page once you have logged in.

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Skills & ExpertiseWhat are your areas of expertise? Do you have skills that you gained in previous positions or in your existing job? Add your skills to this section making sure to give only a title e.g. Email marketing, online marketing, cash handling or team management. Your connections will have the option to ‘endorse’ you for these skills which will further enhance your profile and your credibility.

Sharing your profileYou should now have a detailed LinkedIn profile. You can share your completed profile on Twitter or Facebook using the LinkedIn share functionality.

Editing your profile

If you wish to edit your profile at any time, maybe to add new skills or expertise, you can do so by navigating to ‘Profile’ on the top menu and selecting Edit Profile.

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LinkedIn SearchIf you would like to search for LinkedIn members, job openings or companies you can do so on the top ribbon of the LinkedIn site on any page.

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Part 5: Interests | Join LinkedIn groups that you share interests withTo find groups that may be of interest, go to Interests on the top menu and make your choice or alternatively type Groups in to the search bar.

You will then be presented with a list of groups that may be of interest based on your industry, skills and expertise. You can refine this list by choosing Advanced Search or by choosing from the search options on the left panel.

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Joining a groupOnce you have found a group that is of interest click on Join to the right of the group name and description.

You will then be presented with this page which shows if any of your connections are members. Click Join Group.

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Some groups will give you instant access but others may be monitored and require admin to grant access. Once your request to join has been received you will receive email confirmation. If your request needs to be reviewed by admin, you will receive further email correspondence from the group owner.

This is how the email notification should look:

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Part 6: Build your credibility as an industry expert Share relevant content with your connections via social sharing buttons on various sites. You can share your thoughts, blog posts, news stories, as well as provide links to articles you have written yourself or find interesting and relevant.

Here is an example of how to share a blog post on www.learningpool.com , social sharing buttons should be visible on any reputable blog or news site so always keep an eye out for the LinkedIn share.

Hover your mouse over the Share This button.

Select LinkedIn from the Social Media options.

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Add your own comment or share the post as it is. You can choose to post to groups and/or individals as well as change the visibility of its audience. You can also share the post to Twitter at the same time by ticking the box next to the Twitter icon.

And there you have it, you should now have a fully optimised LinkedIn professional profile, have joined groups of interest, and made professional connections. For further help please see our extra resources overleaf which will direct you to the LinkedIn Help Centre, LinkedIn webinars and guides to getting more professional connections.

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Resources

• LinkedIn Help Centre

• LinkedIn for Dummies

• LinkedIn Learning Webinars

• The Definitive Guide to Getting More LinkedIn Connections

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