50 Intelligent LinkedIn Tips That Could Change Your Life

LinkedIn is sometimes referred to as Facebook for grown-ups. That may be true, as LinkedIn is a much more respectable site on which you can network, share information, and build relationships that can grow and support your career. Check out these tips to find out how you can use LinkedIn to make a change in your life and career.


General
Pay attention to your manners, be a real person, and follow these tips to do well on LinkedIn.

1. Be polite: Remember your manners when interacting with others on LinkedIn.
2. Stay active: Update routinely-you don’t want it to look like no one’s home.
3. Keep an eye on your competition: Check out the public profile for companies to see who they are hiring and more.
4. Research a company’s health: Look for former employees to get candid opinions.
5. Say thank you: Always remember to say thanks, publicly or privately, when someone does something thoughtful for you.
6. Write like a human: Avoid dry writing-robots are reading your profile, but people are more important.
7. Ask questions: Get answers and contribute to the knowledge available on LinkedIn with questions.

Job Search
These tips will come in handy for those working on a job search.

8. Make connections where you want to work: Get connected with people on the inside that can give you an in where you want to work.
9. Don’t advertise being unemployed: Avoid the temptation to advertise that you’re unemployed-recruiters believe that employed workers are better employees.
10. Look up potential employers: Before going into an interview, make sure and look up potential employers to find all of the information you can.

Networking & Connections
Pay attention to these tips that can help you with your network of LinkedIn contacts.

11. Send personalized connection requests: When you send an invitation, make sure you’ve for a personalized message to go along with it.
12. Connect your contacts: Provide a valuable social resource and become a more influential person by connecting your contacts.
13. Initiate a conversation: After you’ve made a connection with someone, keep the ball rolling with a new conversation.
14. Raise funding: Find mentors or potential investors with the help of your LinkedIn network.
15. Look up everyone you know: You’ll never know the connections you have until you find everyone you possibly can.
16. Get answers to questions: Ask your friends to help you out with tough business questions.
17. Reply to connection requests: When you accept connection requests, be sure to send a short message back.
18. Search in terms and industries: Connect with people you don’t personally know by searching on terms and industries.
19. Start a group: Become the center of information and a connector on LinkedIn by starting a group.
20. Do small things: Click "like" on shared articles, write short notes of congratulations, and find other ways to show others that you’re listening to what they’re saying.
21. Reach out to event attendees: If you’re attending an event, be sure to talk to attendees that you’re connected with.
22. Take advantage of travel: Check out your connections by location, and let them know when you’re going to be traveling to their area.

See Tips 23 - 50 and complete article