A good number of people use LinkedIn to “get to someone” sequentially to make a sale, form a partnership, or get a job. It works fine for this since it is an online network of more than 8.5 million skilled professionals from around the world on behalf of 130 industries. However, it is a device that is under-utilized, so I’ve compiled a top-ten list of conduct to intensify the value of LinkedIn.

1. Increase your visibility.

By adding up connections, you rise the likelihood that people will see your profile first when they’re searching for somebody to employ or do business with. In addition to appearing at the highest of search results (which is a major plus if you’re one of the 52,000 product managers on LinkedIn), people would much quite work with people who their friends understand and trust.

2. Improve your connectability.

The majorityof new users put merely their present company in their profile. By doing so, they strictly control their capability to attach with people. You should fill out your profile like it’s an administrative bio, so incorporate past companies, education, affiliations, and activities.
You can also incorporate a link to your profile as element of an email signature. The added advantage is that the link allows people to see all your qualifications, which would be unwieldy if not downright strange, as an addition.

3. Improve your Google PageRank.

LinkedIn permits you to make your profile information obtainable for search engines to index. Since LinkedIn profiles obtain a quite high PageRank in Google, this is a decent way to manipulate what people see when they search for you.
To do this, develop a public profile and select “Full View.” Also, in place of using the default URL, customize your public profile’s URL to be your real name. To make stronger the visibility of this page in search engines, use this connection in numerous places on the web> For instance, when you remark in a blog, incorporate a link to your profile in your signature.

4. Improve your search engine results.

In supplement to your name, you can also advance your blog or website to search engines like Google and Yahoo! Your Linked In profile permits you to expose websites. There are a few pre-selected categories like “My Website,” “My Company,” etc.
If you choose “Other” you can alter the name of the link. If you’re linking to your personal blog, comprise your name or expressive terms in the link, and voila! instant search-engine optimization for your site. To make this work, be sure your public profile setting is set to “Full View.

 
5. Perform blind, “reverse,” and company reference checks.

LinkedIn’s oriented check tool to enter a company name and the years the person worked at the company to search for references. Your search will discover the people who worked at the company throughout the same time period. As references provided by a candidate will usually be lustrous, this is a decent way to get more fair data.

Companies will characteristically test your references before hiring you, but have you ever considerof inspecting your prospective manager’s references? Most interviewees don’t have the boldness to ask a probable boss for references, but with LinkedIn you have a means to range her out.
You can also test up on the company itself by searching the person who used to have the job that you’re interviewing for. Do this by searching for job title and company, but be certain to uncheck “Current titles only.” By contacting people who used to possess the position, you can get the within scrape on the job, manager and growth potential

By the way, if using LinkedIn in these ways becomes a general practice, we’re appropriate to see more honest resumes. There’s nothing more funny than to find out that the candidate who claims to have caused some enormous success was a total bozo who was just along for the ride.
Increase the relevancy of your job search.

Use LinkedIn’s advanced search to find people with educational and work experience like yours to see where they work. For example, a programmer would use search keywords such as “Ruby on Rails,” “C++,” “Python,” “Java,” and “evangelist” to find out where other programmers with these skills work.

6. Make your interview go smoother.

You can make use of LinkedIn to locate the people that you’re meeting. Knowing that you go to the same school, plays hockey, or shares connections is a lot better than a tricky silence after, “I’m doing fine, thank you.”

7. Gauge the health of a company.

Carry out an advanced search for company name and uncheck the “Current Companies Only” box. This will allow you to inspect the rate of turnover and whether important people are abandoning ship. Previous employees generally give more frank opinions about a company’s prospects than someone who’s even now on board.

8. Gauge the health of an industry.

If you’re considering of investing or functioning in a sector, use LinkedIn to search people who worked for competitors—or even better, companies who are unsuccessful. For instance, presume you wanted to build a next generation online pet store, you’d most likely learn a lot from speaking with former Pets.com or WebVan employees.

9. Track startups.

You can see people in your network who are starting latest startups by doing an advanced search for a range of keywords such as “stealth” or “new startup.” Put on the “Sort By” filter to “Degrees away from you” in order to see the people adjoining to you first.

10. Ask for advice.

LinkedIn’s latest product, LinkedIn Answers , aims to allow this online. The product permits you to publicize your business-related questions to both your network and the better LinkedIn network. The principle is that you will get more high-value responses from the people in your network than extra open forums.
For example, here are some questions an entrepreneur might ask when the associates of a venture capital firm come up blank:
o Who’s a good, fast, and cheap patent lawyer?
o What should we pay a vp of biz dev?
o Is going to Demo worth it?
o How much traffic does a TechCrunch plug generate?