Making Your Profile

1. First you do want to load a picture into your profile. This allows people to put a real face with a name. Not doing so will cause an additional barrier for people to hurdle. To add just click on edit profile and you will be prompted to add your picture near the top.
2. Next you want your profile to be concise outlining just a few goals for your use of Linkedin.
3. Your profile is your resume, be sure to be keyword targeted in your work history and specialties.

Inviting and Loading your contacts

1. Everyone you work/affiliated with or have worked with professionally or someone who you have a relationship with should be a contact you consider inviting to be a part of your professional network on Linden.
2. Load your existing contacts from outlook, ACT, webmail, or CSV file to Linkedin. Linkedin will automatically crosscheck your contacts to see who is already a member of linkedin. You are able to invite both those who are members and those who are not. Once you load the list you can invite them all in one simple email invite that goes to all of them. Don’t worry they already have self generated ones if you don’t want to create one. Click on Invitations then click on “compose message” on the right a drop down menu appears” click on “send invitations”. On the top you will see a tab to “import contacts” click here and follow the directions.

Invite & Follow Up Response

Develop a word document that you can always copy and paste to respond to invitations. You want it to have no more than three bullet points and a very short. It is critical to have, as this is free advertisement back to those who invite you to connect.
Here is mine for example.
Thank you for the invite, I am absolutely thrilled! Couple things I want to run by you.—

► Join our “Success with Linked In Group” http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/1765677

► I am currently seeking “Fortune 500 type” customers. Please take a moment and review my company online at www.centimark.com if you think of a business connection that may be of interest please let me know. Centimark is the Largest Commercial Roofing Contractor in North America.

► Visit www.successwithlinkedin.com to learn more about being successful with linkedin. Also don’t forget to join the group above.

Best Regards

Randy Schrum
P.S. Feel free to contact me anytime

Why join Toplinked.com, LION, & Networkers United

By joining these groups you are able to grow your connections dramatically. This is important for several reasons such as increasing your exposure, searching for key contacts in Linkedin as the search results are directly related to your connections and your connections, connections.
A question I always like to ask those who question this. “Do you know what your professional future holds?” This question is directly related to being able to use Linkedin for future opportunities as well as build your current business.
Part of being a member of these groups normally requires displaying the name in your profile. This should be interpreted as a good thing as it tells others you are an “open networker”, one who accepts all invitations and does not IDK (I Don’t Know) anyone.

Finally you can pay to get a large amount of exposure with Toplinked.com by becoming a supporter on a monthly basis for a small amount. However you choose that amount and those who pay more get better exposure/ ranking on the “supporters” list. This list goes out on a weekly basis to toplinked’s entire database of members. Initially you will receive several hundred to thousands of invites the first month. After that it will slow down to maybe a few hundred a week. This is why your invite response is so critical.

Participating in Groups & Answers

Getting exposure is critical to growing your connections. You can do this effectively by participating in Groups and Answering questions. In both cases choose to participate in industries your both targeting or may be knowledgeable in. The more you participate the more exposure you get, but that’s not all. Be sure to sign off with your signature and tag line. Whether it is “INVITES WELCOMED” or your website www.successwithlinkedin.com for instance.

You can choose to become the member of groups you like by searching the group’s directory with keywords. This in turn returns back search results of groups that match your keyword. Be sure to join the larger groups as you get more exposure. Unless a group is new and you suspect it will explode do to the content related to the group.