Court Bovee discusses the most important features you should be teaching about LinkedIn, the world's largest professional social site with 80 million members. Download the accompanying slides.

1. Slide 1
Pearson opener
Slide 2
Teaching LinkedIn opener
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LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional social site. LinkedIn connects
members to their trusted contacts and helps them exchange
knowledge, ideas, and opportunities with a broader network of
professionals.
80 million members
On average, 42 pages are browsed by each member every month
LinkedIn is a searchable database, which means you can find people
with similar interests, similar companies or organizations, and similar
job titles. Experts can be easily located. It also means you can be found
(if you choose) in the event you want people to contact you about job
or business opportunities or consulting work.
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LinkedIn Members by Job Function

2. Slide 5
What Are the Major Reasons People Use LinkedIn?
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How can you get the most from your professional network on LinkedIn?
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What Are the 16 Ways That LinkedIn Is Commonly Used?
1. To find a dream job. If a person already has a job, but it’s far from
perfect, this person can use LinkedIn by searching for organizations or
companies that are looking that person’s qualifications, and contact
them. The search for the dream job starts with a single click.
2. To increase freelance work. If a person is a freelancer, or the person
wants to be, getting work can sometimes be a challenge. Or perhaps
the freelancer gets a lot of work but wants to focus more on quality
work that gets them the highest pay per hour. The freelancer needs to
set up a profile that shows the person’s qualifications, experience, and
what the freelancer have to offer. The freelancer should connect with
others people the freelancer knows, and this provides a free way to
market the freelancer’s services.
3. To boost business. What if a person has a small business but wants
to generate more customers? Perhaps this small business person is not
connecting with the right people. LinkedIn can increase the chances of
getting an opportunity that puts the business exactly where it wants to
be.

3. 4. To improve Google search results. When someone Googles you, do
you really want the first thing they see to be your posts on the fly
fishing forum or a forum about crocheting? Because your LinkedIn
profile will have a fairly high Google PageRank, it should rank fairly high
in your search results. This allows you the opportunity to showcaser
yourself with material you’ve chosen and that you want people to see.
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5. To check references of potential hires. Trying to hire the perfect
applicant? Well, you’re not likely to find out about an applicant’s sordid
past mistakes by calling the references on their application. Do a search
for others who worked at the same company at the same time, and you
may get a better background check in minutes.
6. To get advice. Use LinkedIn’s Answers feature to ask a question and
get some great answers. There are some true experts on LinkedIn, and
it’s worth a shot to ask your question.
7. To showcase a resume . Don’t feel like creating an old-fashioned
resume and e-mailing it to 20 different companies? Create a LinkedIn
profile that serves as a resume, and then send people the URL. Be sure
to get a vanity URL for this, as you can set the URL of your LinkedIn
profile as you wish.
8. To do research. Need to find out about business trends for an article,
need to find an expert or need to contact people for further
information? LinkedIn is a good place to start, especially if you’re
running dry on Google. Start with the advanced search feature for
people, which I’ll explain a little later.
Slide 9

4. 9. To get connections. When you start out with LinkedIn, you’ll have 0
connections. Get others you know in your network by allowing LinkedIn
to access your e-mail address book. I’ll also explain little later how this
is done.
10. To prep for an interview. If you’re going to a job interview for a
position as a college instructor, for example, it’s best to know the
background of the person you’ll be talking to. Check out their LinkedIn
profile to find out more about their work experience, interests,
education and more. This may give you an edge.
11. To increase credibility. If you’re trying to market yourself as an
expert, for example, or develop credibility in your field, it looks good to
have a strong presence in a network such as LinkedIn, with lots of
connections. If you answer questions with the knowledge of an expert
in the Answers section, it’s even better.
12. To establish a personal brand. It’s smart to develop your own
personal brand. What do people think of when they hear your name? A
strong presence on LinkedIn only reinforces the branding you’re doing
elsewhere. And while you’re at it, be sure to link to your website from
your profile.
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13. To find people. Looking for friends from times past, for prior
business associates that you want to re-establish a relationship with,
for former employers or employees, for someone you met at a party
but can’t find their card? Do a LinkedIn search.
14. To get to know a company. If you want to know about a company,
you could Google it or go to their website. But using LinkedIn, you can
find out much more about it. For example, do an advanced search on

5. the company to see what kind of talent has left the company, and how
fast. This is one of the great features about LinkedIn. You can
communicate with these people to see what they have to say about
their former employer. Many profiles list IM address, telephone
numbers, and e-mail addresses.
15. To get publicity. It can be hard to contact media or top bloggers.
But many of them have a LinkedIn profile, and you can contact them
through the profile. A press release or a polite e-mail letting them know
about a new launch, for example, might be appreciate or at least
noticed. It shouldn’t be your whole marketing strategy, but it could
help.
16. To do market research. Let’s say someone is planning to launch a
new product? The person would do a little research into what
companies are offering similar things, about what kind of potential
customers are out there, and what they’re like, and what their needs
are, and what kind of demand there is for your type of product. It can
take some creative searching, but the information is there, waiting to
be mined. Talk to employees or former employees of similar
businesses, or of potential customers, and you can get the answers
you’re looking for.
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There are five levels of services on LinkedIn, as shown here. Today,
we’re going to focus on the primarily on the free level, although not
exclusively.
Basic Account - free
Business Account $24.95
Business Plus $49.95

6. Executive Account $99.95
Pro Account $499.95
The difference in the levels of service include the number and size of
the searches a member can do, the number of e-mails a member can
send via LinkedIn, the speed of customer services, and a variety of
other factors.
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How Do You Become a Member?
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The idea behind LinkedIn is to make connections.
So what is the definition of a LinkedIn connection?
1st-degree - Connections are two LinkedIn members in which one has
accepted the other's invitation to connect. Members who have
accepted your invitation to connect are considered to be in your 1st
degree connection network. A first degree connection is identified
throughout the site with a '1st' icon. The default setting is that 1st
degree connections can view and browse the profiles and networks of
their direct connections. Some LinkedIn users choose through their
privacy settings not to make their connections visible to the other
people they are connected to. Communication among your first degree
connections can be done through messages sent through LinkedIn.
When the invitation is accepted you are connected through the system,
you get their contact information and those people are added to your
'My Contacts' tab.

7. 2nd-degree - People who are connected to your 1st-degree
connections. You can contact them through an InMail or an
introduction.
3rd-degree - People who are connected to your 2nd-degree
connections. You can contact them through an InMail or an
introduction.
Fellow members of your LinkedIn Groups - These people are considered
part of your network because of you're members of the same group.
You can contact them by sending a message on LinkedIn or using your
group's discussion feature.
Out of Network - LinkedIn members who fall outside of the categories
listed above. You can contact them through an InMail.
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So how do you extend an Invitation on LinkedIn?
You can use this LinkedIn form that will pop up by clicking the button
on a person’s profile page.
And do you see the note at the bottom of the screen, right above the
“Send Invitation” button. You have to be careful who you approach,
because that person can indicate, with just the push of a button, that
you’re unknown, and LinkedIn can limit or stop allowing you to send
more invitations if you abuse LinkedIn’s rule about sending invitations
to people with whom you’re not acquainted. This doesn’t mean you
can’t approach people in other ways, such as through their e-mail
address, if it’s provided on their profile page.

8. Slide 15
Here is an alternative way to add connections to your network.
Using this form, you can invite contacts.
Or, you can import your contacts, from your e-mail address book.
LinkedIn will automatically tell you who in your address book is a
member of LinkedIn, which makes it easy to extend an invitation.
Or, you can invite colleagues or classmates.
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What’s the functionality of a LinkedIn connection?
• You can extend invitations to people you know, personal contacts,
and individuals in groups
• You can accept invitations from friends and past, present or
colleagues, and strangers
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What Features Are Offered on LinkedIn?
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So now let’s discuss your LinkedIn profile, the most important element
on your LinkedIn pages.

9. Slide 21
So How Can You Make a LinkedIn Profile More Powerful?
1. Add some polish and sparkle.
2. Add a professional photograph.
3. Upgrade the summary.
4. Give specifics.
5. Add statistics and solution to problems.
6. Obtain current, enthusiastic recommendations
7. Add content that is relevant to your background and experience
and your career goals.
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What Are the Secrets to Getting to the Top of LinkedIn’s Search
Results When Someone Searches by Industry or Occupation?
LinkedIn allows you to make your profile information available for
search engines to index. To increase your Search Engine ranking do
this, create a public profile and select “Full View.” Also, instead of
using the default URL, customize your public profile’s URL to be your

10. actual name. To strengthen the visibility of this page in search
engines, use this link in various places on the web.
Importantly, here are the secrets to ranking near or at the top of the
search engine for your chosen field.
1. Generate a list of keywords. Think about what words people would
use if they wanted to find you on LinkedIn. If you're an IT consultant,
those words would probably be "IT," "consultant" and "technology
consultant." If you're a developer, you might use "developer," "Java"
and "open-source." I’d recommends keeping your list to three
keywords or keyword phrases.
2. Populate your profile. Revisit each field in your profile and be sure to
restructure it so you're using your predefined keywords. Start with your
LinkedIn headline. Then, be sure to complete all parts of your profile
thoroughly, especially your summary and your current and past work
experiences.
3. Strike a balance. It may be tempting to paste a string of keywords in
each section of your profile, but don't do it. "Don't load up on keywords
in your profile to game the system. Integrate these words throughout
your profile, where they're appropriate. You need to keep your profile
professional and clean—putting in a bunch of keywords back to back is
counterproductive.”
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Now let’s talk about LinkedIn apps.
There are 18 apps currently available. You can choose one or more apps
to help people get to know other aspects about you.

11. Slide 26
Let’s discuss now how LinkedIn can be used for finding a job.
One thing you might be wondering is: How much does a company pay
to have a job listed on LinkedIn. The answer is that it costs $195 for a
30-day listing.
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You can also do an advanced search on LinkedIn when seeking a job.
Here is how it works.
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Let’s say you were interested in the Verizon position in Wilmington,
Delaware. Here’s the information you’d get from LinkedIn about the
job.
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This is only one of several charts LinkedIn provides about the company.
This one compared Verizon’s annual growth to employees at similar
companies.

12. Slide 30
On LinkedIn, you can do a people search. Note in the navigation bar
that you can also do a reference search.
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Let’s say I wanted to do a search for people who have a specialty in
social media. Here are the results of that people search.
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With groups on LinkedIn, you can participate in discussions, read or add
news items, and develop contacts for jobs. Or, you can create your own
group.
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Another feature of LinkedIn is “Answers.” Here you can post a question,
a chances are, someone who is an expert on the site will answer. Or,
you may want to use your expertise and answer someone’s question,
because it’s a great way to help build a personal brand.
Slide 34
What Are Some Tips for Getting More Out of LinkedIn?

13. 1. Find out events that others are attending. This can be very helpful
for networking when seeking employment as well as for talking
with others with similar interests and problems.
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2. Start a group to share information and generate more contacts
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3. Do status updates, share your knowledge, and provide tips.
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4. Link your profile to Facebook and Twitter to promote yourself.
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5. You can establish yourself as an expert in your field on LinkedIn.
How? By showing yourself by way of your profile, by participating
in groups and answering questions, by answering questions in the
Answer section of LinkedIn, and getting great recommendations,
by linking to your work by way of Google Doc or SlideShare, and
by linking to your own website.
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6. If you want to prepare for an encounter with a person, such as at
a convention or at a meeting at a company or organization, search
“People” on LinkedIn.
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7. Use LinkedIn via mobile phone.