LinkedIn For Dummies
5th Edition
Published on 25. May 2018
Book
Paperback/Softback
384 pages
978-1-119-46993-3 (ISBN)
Description
Make LinkedIn your number one professional branding tool
LinkedIn is the premiere social network for professionals looking to discover new opportunities, enhance personal branding, connect with other professionals, and make career advancements. With LinkedIn For Dummies, you'll have step-by-step instructions on how to take advantage of the latest tools and features to do all of this and more.
This book will teach you how to create an attractive profile that employers will notice, as well as ways to expand your network by making connections around the globe. You'll also learn how to best navigate the new user interface, write recommendations, take a course with LinkedIn Learning, and conduct your job search.
Create an appealing, detailed profile
Establish your credibility and personal brand
Connect with employers and find jobs
Request and write recommendations
Whether you're one of LinkedIn's 500 million global members or brand new to the site, this authoritative resource helps you get the most out of the world's largest professional network.
LinkedIn is the premiere social network for professionals looking to discover new opportunities, enhance personal branding, connect with other professionals, and make career advancements. With LinkedIn For Dummies, you'll have step-by-step instructions on how to take advantage of the latest tools and features to do all of this and more.
This book will teach you how to create an attractive profile that employers will notice, as well as ways to expand your network by making connections around the globe. You'll also learn how to best navigate the new user interface, write recommendations, take a course with LinkedIn Learning, and conduct your job search.
Create an appealing, detailed profile
Establish your credibility and personal brand
Connect with employers and find jobs
Request and write recommendations
Whether you're one of LinkedIn's 500 million global members or brand new to the site, this authoritative resource helps you get the most out of the world's largest professional network.
More details
Other editions
New editions
Previous edition
Joel Elad
LinkedIn For Dummies
Book
05/2016
4th Edition
Wiley
€23.90
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Person
Joel Elad is a social networking, Internet, and eBay guru with a software development background and a yearning for entrepreneurship. He has authored or co-authored several books, including Facebook Advertising For Dummies and Starting an Online Business All-in-One For Dummies.
Content
Introduction 1
About This Book 2
Foolish Assumptions 2
Icons Used in This Book 2
Beyond the Book 3
Where to Go from Here 3
Part 1: Understanding LinkedIn Basics 5
Chapter 1: Looking into LinkedIn 7
Understanding Your New Contact Management and Networking Toolkit 8
Keeping track of your contacts 9
Understanding the different degrees of network connections 10
Discovering What You Can Do with LinkedIn 13
Building your brand and profile 13
Looking for a job now or later 14
Finding out all kinds of valuable information 16
Expanding your network 16
Understanding LinkedIn Costs and Benefits 17
Weighing free versus paid accounts 17
Comparing the paid accounts 18
Upgrading to a premium account 20
Navigating LinkedIn 23
Touring the top navigation bar 24
Looking at the Settings & Privacy page 25
Chapter 2: Signing Up and Creating Your Account 27
Joining LinkedIn 27
Joining with an invitation 28
Joining without an invitation 29
Completing the sign-up process 30
Starting to Build Your Network 38
Chapter 3: Completing Your Profile 41
Adding a Summary and Basic Information 41
Writing your summary first 43
Updating the Summary and basic information sections 45
Completing Contact and Personal Info 50
Adding a Position 55
Reporting Your Education 58
Setting Your Profile URL and Public View 61
Part 2: Finding Others and Getting Connected 65
Chapter 4: Discovering and Building Your Network 67
Searching Your First-Degree Connections 67
Searching the LinkedIn Network 70
Starting with basic search options 71
Advanced searching with filters 73
Performing advanced searches 76
Saving searches for future use 77
Chapter 5: Growing Your Network 79
Building a Meaningful Network 80
Importing Contacts into LinkedIn 83
Importing a contacts list from your email system 83
Checking for members 87
Finding classmates 87
Using the People You May Know feature 89
Browsing your connections' networks 90
Sending Connection Requests 93
Sending requests to existing members 94
Understanding why you shouldn't use canned invitations 95
Sending requests to nonmembers 96
Communicating the value of joining LinkedIn 97
Removing people from your network 99
Accepting (or Gracefully Declining) Invitations 101
Chapter 6: Managing Messages and InMail 103
Using InMail versus Using LinkedIn Messages 104
Understanding LinkedIn messages 105
Understanding your inbox 106
Getting to know InMail 109
Sending InMail 109
Managing Invitations 111
Tracking sent invitations 111
Tracking received invitations 113
Setting Up an Introduction 114
Planning your approach to each person 115
Sending an introduction request message 116
Managing Introduction Requests 118
Accepting requests and forwarding the introduction 119
Gracefully declining requests 121
Chapter 7: Interacting with and Endorsing Your Network 123
Interacting with Your Network 124
Creating a status update to stay connected 125
Interacting with status updates 128
Giving and Receiving Endorsements on LinkedIn 132
Endorsing someone on LinkedIn 133
Accepting endorsements on LinkedIn 135
Managing your skills and endorsements 136
Part 3: Growing and Managing Your Network 141
Chapter 8: Understanding Your News Feed 143
Understanding the News Feed 144
Configuring Your News Feed 147
Setting Up Digest Notifications 149
Writing an Article on LinkedIn 151
Managing Post Interactions 154
Chapter 9: Exploring the Power of Recommendations 155
Understanding Recommendations 156
Writing Recommendations 158
Choose wisely, grasshopper: Deciding whom to recommend 158
Look right here: Making your recommendation stand out 159
Creating a recommendation 160
Requesting Recommendations 162
Choosing whom to ask 162
Creating a polite recommendation request 163
Gracefully Declining a Recommendation (or a Request for One) 165
Managing Recommendations 166
Editing or removing recommendations you've made 166
Handling new recommendations you've received 167
Removing or requesting to revise a recommendation 169
Chapter 10: Accessing LinkedIn with a Mobile Device 171
Surveying the Different LinkedIn Apps 172
Installing a LinkedIn Mobile App 174
Breaking Down the Sections of the LinkedIn Mobile App 178
Connecting Your App Usage with Website Usage 181
Chapter 11: Configuring Settings Like a Pro 183
Using the Settings & Privacy Page as a Command Console 183
Starting with Basic Account Changes 185
Controlling Privacy Settings 191
Finalizing Your LinkedIn Communications Settings 197
Chapter 12: Using LinkedIn with Your Internet Activities 203
Exporting LinkedIn Contacts to Your Email Application 203
Creating your contacts export file in LinkedIn 204
Exporting contacts to Outlook 206
Exporting contacts to Outlook Express 207
Exporting contacts to Yahoo! Mail 207
Exporting connections to Mac OS X Contacts book 209
Exporting Your Profile and Badge 209
Exporting your profile to a PDF file 210
Creating a public profile badge for other websites 212
Part 4: Finding Employees, Jobs, and Companies 215
Chapter 13: Finding Employees 217
Managing Your Job Listings 218
Posting a job listing 219
Advertising your job listing to your network 222
Reviewing applicants 225
Screening Candidates with LinkedIn 228
Using Strategies to Find Active or Passive Job Seekers 230
Chapter 14: Finding a Job 231
Searching for an Open Position 232
Tuning Up Your Profile and Network to Make a Good Impression 235
Preparing Your Profile and Account Settings for Job Searches 237
Checking your profile's visibility 237
Optimizing your profile 238
Involving LinkedIn in Job Search Strategies 240
Leveraging connections 240
Finding people with the same or similar job 241
Taking advantage of your alma mater 242
Finding target company referrals 243
Chapter 15: Following Companies 245
Searching for Companies 246
Putting Your Company on LinkedIn 249
Requirements for a Company page 250
Adding a Company page to LinkedIn 250
Part 5: Using LinkedIn for Everyday Business 255
Chapter 16: Getting Connected with Groups 257
Reaping the Benefits of Groups 257
Understanding the Two Types of Groups 259
Joining a Group 260
Starting and participating in group discussions 263
Viewing a group's membership list 267
Creating a Group 267
Setting Up the Group and Inviting Members 270
Building and managing your member list 270
Crafting your invitation email 272
Approving members to your group 273
Chapter 17: Implementing Sales and Marketing Techniques 277
Marketing Yourself through LinkedIn 277
Optimizing your profile 278
Marketing yourself to your network 280
Marketing Your Business through LinkedIn 282
Using online marketing tactics with LinkedIn 283
Mining for Clients 284
Generating leads with the Advanced People search 285
Finding the decision-maker 287
Closing the Deal 289
Preparing for the client meeting 289
Reporting a positive sale 291
Chapter 18: Using LinkedIn Ads 293
Understanding LinkedIn Ads 293
Finding Out about Filtering Options 295
Creating an Ad Campaign 297
Managing Your Ad Campaign 303
Chapter 19: Discovering Creative Uses of LinkedIn 307
Mashing LinkedIn with Other Services 308
LinkedIn and Google Alerts 308
LinkedIn Archives and Data Syncing 309
LinkedIn and Evernote work together 311
Building Your Focus Group 313
Using Location-Based LinkedIn Ideas 315
Building your network before moving to a new city 316
Arranging face-to-face meetings when traveling 318
Networking with LinkedIn in person! 319
Part 6: The Part of Tens 321
Chapter 20: Ten LinkedIn Do's and Don'ts 323
Do Keep Your Profile Complete and Current 323
Don't Use Canned Invitations 324
Don't Expect Everyone to Network as You Do 325
Do Your Homework 326
Do Give LinkedIn Messages Equal Importance 327
Don't Spam 329
Do Make New Connections 330
Do Cross-Promote 331
Do Add Value to the Process 331
Don't Confuse Quantity with Quality 332
Chapter 21: Ten LinkedIn Resources 333
The Official LinkedIn Blog 333
LinkedIn Instagram 334
LinkedIn Marketing Solutions 334
LinkedIn YouTube Channel 335
Linked Intelligence 335
LinkedIn Speaker Series Podcast 336
LinkedIn Plugins 336
Social Media Examiner 337
Evernote 337
Buffer 337
Index 339
About This Book 2
Foolish Assumptions 2
Icons Used in This Book 2
Beyond the Book 3
Where to Go from Here 3
Part 1: Understanding LinkedIn Basics 5
Chapter 1: Looking into LinkedIn 7
Understanding Your New Contact Management and Networking Toolkit 8
Keeping track of your contacts 9
Understanding the different degrees of network connections 10
Discovering What You Can Do with LinkedIn 13
Building your brand and profile 13
Looking for a job now or later 14
Finding out all kinds of valuable information 16
Expanding your network 16
Understanding LinkedIn Costs and Benefits 17
Weighing free versus paid accounts 17
Comparing the paid accounts 18
Upgrading to a premium account 20
Navigating LinkedIn 23
Touring the top navigation bar 24
Looking at the Settings & Privacy page 25
Chapter 2: Signing Up and Creating Your Account 27
Joining LinkedIn 27
Joining with an invitation 28
Joining without an invitation 29
Completing the sign-up process 30
Starting to Build Your Network 38
Chapter 3: Completing Your Profile 41
Adding a Summary and Basic Information 41
Writing your summary first 43
Updating the Summary and basic information sections 45
Completing Contact and Personal Info 50
Adding a Position 55
Reporting Your Education 58
Setting Your Profile URL and Public View 61
Part 2: Finding Others and Getting Connected 65
Chapter 4: Discovering and Building Your Network 67
Searching Your First-Degree Connections 67
Searching the LinkedIn Network 70
Starting with basic search options 71
Advanced searching with filters 73
Performing advanced searches 76
Saving searches for future use 77
Chapter 5: Growing Your Network 79
Building a Meaningful Network 80
Importing Contacts into LinkedIn 83
Importing a contacts list from your email system 83
Checking for members 87
Finding classmates 87
Using the People You May Know feature 89
Browsing your connections' networks 90
Sending Connection Requests 93
Sending requests to existing members 94
Understanding why you shouldn't use canned invitations 95
Sending requests to nonmembers 96
Communicating the value of joining LinkedIn 97
Removing people from your network 99
Accepting (or Gracefully Declining) Invitations 101
Chapter 6: Managing Messages and InMail 103
Using InMail versus Using LinkedIn Messages 104
Understanding LinkedIn messages 105
Understanding your inbox 106
Getting to know InMail 109
Sending InMail 109
Managing Invitations 111
Tracking sent invitations 111
Tracking received invitations 113
Setting Up an Introduction 114
Planning your approach to each person 115
Sending an introduction request message 116
Managing Introduction Requests 118
Accepting requests and forwarding the introduction 119
Gracefully declining requests 121
Chapter 7: Interacting with and Endorsing Your Network 123
Interacting with Your Network 124
Creating a status update to stay connected 125
Interacting with status updates 128
Giving and Receiving Endorsements on LinkedIn 132
Endorsing someone on LinkedIn 133
Accepting endorsements on LinkedIn 135
Managing your skills and endorsements 136
Part 3: Growing and Managing Your Network 141
Chapter 8: Understanding Your News Feed 143
Understanding the News Feed 144
Configuring Your News Feed 147
Setting Up Digest Notifications 149
Writing an Article on LinkedIn 151
Managing Post Interactions 154
Chapter 9: Exploring the Power of Recommendations 155
Understanding Recommendations 156
Writing Recommendations 158
Choose wisely, grasshopper: Deciding whom to recommend 158
Look right here: Making your recommendation stand out 159
Creating a recommendation 160
Requesting Recommendations 162
Choosing whom to ask 162
Creating a polite recommendation request 163
Gracefully Declining a Recommendation (or a Request for One) 165
Managing Recommendations 166
Editing or removing recommendations you've made 166
Handling new recommendations you've received 167
Removing or requesting to revise a recommendation 169
Chapter 10: Accessing LinkedIn with a Mobile Device 171
Surveying the Different LinkedIn Apps 172
Installing a LinkedIn Mobile App 174
Breaking Down the Sections of the LinkedIn Mobile App 178
Connecting Your App Usage with Website Usage 181
Chapter 11: Configuring Settings Like a Pro 183
Using the Settings & Privacy Page as a Command Console 183
Starting with Basic Account Changes 185
Controlling Privacy Settings 191
Finalizing Your LinkedIn Communications Settings 197
Chapter 12: Using LinkedIn with Your Internet Activities 203
Exporting LinkedIn Contacts to Your Email Application 203
Creating your contacts export file in LinkedIn 204
Exporting contacts to Outlook 206
Exporting contacts to Outlook Express 207
Exporting contacts to Yahoo! Mail 207
Exporting connections to Mac OS X Contacts book 209
Exporting Your Profile and Badge 209
Exporting your profile to a PDF file 210
Creating a public profile badge for other websites 212
Part 4: Finding Employees, Jobs, and Companies 215
Chapter 13: Finding Employees 217
Managing Your Job Listings 218
Posting a job listing 219
Advertising your job listing to your network 222
Reviewing applicants 225
Screening Candidates with LinkedIn 228
Using Strategies to Find Active or Passive Job Seekers 230
Chapter 14: Finding a Job 231
Searching for an Open Position 232
Tuning Up Your Profile and Network to Make a Good Impression 235
Preparing Your Profile and Account Settings for Job Searches 237
Checking your profile's visibility 237
Optimizing your profile 238
Involving LinkedIn in Job Search Strategies 240
Leveraging connections 240
Finding people with the same or similar job 241
Taking advantage of your alma mater 242
Finding target company referrals 243
Chapter 15: Following Companies 245
Searching for Companies 246
Putting Your Company on LinkedIn 249
Requirements for a Company page 250
Adding a Company page to LinkedIn 250
Part 5: Using LinkedIn for Everyday Business 255
Chapter 16: Getting Connected with Groups 257
Reaping the Benefits of Groups 257
Understanding the Two Types of Groups 259
Joining a Group 260
Starting and participating in group discussions 263
Viewing a group's membership list 267
Creating a Group 267
Setting Up the Group and Inviting Members 270
Building and managing your member list 270
Crafting your invitation email 272
Approving members to your group 273
Chapter 17: Implementing Sales and Marketing Techniques 277
Marketing Yourself through LinkedIn 277
Optimizing your profile 278
Marketing yourself to your network 280
Marketing Your Business through LinkedIn 282
Using online marketing tactics with LinkedIn 283
Mining for Clients 284
Generating leads with the Advanced People search 285
Finding the decision-maker 287
Closing the Deal 289
Preparing for the client meeting 289
Reporting a positive sale 291
Chapter 18: Using LinkedIn Ads 293
Understanding LinkedIn Ads 293
Finding Out about Filtering Options 295
Creating an Ad Campaign 297
Managing Your Ad Campaign 303
Chapter 19: Discovering Creative Uses of LinkedIn 307
Mashing LinkedIn with Other Services 308
LinkedIn and Google Alerts 308
LinkedIn Archives and Data Syncing 309
LinkedIn and Evernote work together 311
Building Your Focus Group 313
Using Location-Based LinkedIn Ideas 315
Building your network before moving to a new city 316
Arranging face-to-face meetings when traveling 318
Networking with LinkedIn in person! 319
Part 6: The Part of Tens 321
Chapter 20: Ten LinkedIn Do's and Don'ts 323
Do Keep Your Profile Complete and Current 323
Don't Use Canned Invitations 324
Don't Expect Everyone to Network as You Do 325
Do Your Homework 326
Do Give LinkedIn Messages Equal Importance 327
Don't Spam 329
Do Make New Connections 330
Do Cross-Promote 331
Do Add Value to the Process 331
Don't Confuse Quantity with Quality 332
Chapter 21: Ten LinkedIn Resources 333
The Official LinkedIn Blog 333
LinkedIn Instagram 334
LinkedIn Marketing Solutions 334
LinkedIn YouTube Channel 335
Linked Intelligence 335
LinkedIn Speaker Series Podcast 336
LinkedIn Plugins 336
Social Media Examiner 337
Evernote 337
Buffer 337
Index 339