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A good friend of mine asked me for some tips on how to use LinkedIn.  I sent him a long email and figure that I should share my thoughts on this with all of you.  I’m not an investor in LinkedIn, but think it’s a great service.  Here’s the scoop.

Editor’s note: After you read Mark’s guide below, check out all of our LinkedIn coverage and join our LinkedIn networking group.

Why you should use LinkedIn:

1. The service allows you to see who your contacts know - something that is virtually impossible to do sufficiently through normal social interactions.  LinkedIn takes the coincidence out of networking.
2. It enables you to passively keep up to date contact information for all of your contacts.
3. It facilitates introductions through your broader network.
4. It enables people to find you based upon your background and who you know.
5. It is a professional network that excludes unnecessary personal information.

Why You Should Expand Your LinkedIn Network

I find that a lot of people define ‘using’ LinkedIn as having a profile, but not a lot of connections. As a result, I think it’s worth pointing out that the more you expand your network the more valuable the service will be for you.

As you add more contacts:

1. You will have a larger database of people to search through when you are looking for a contact.  When you search for a person or a background you can only see contacts in your three degrees or contacts - more contacts means more people in your searchable pool.
2. More people will be able to find you when they search for someone with your background.

LinkedIn Best Practices

Here’s my short list of LinkedIn best practices (and how you do them):

1. Customize your LinkedIn profile page URL name.  Go to ‘edit my profile’ in your LinkedIn account and click on ‘edit’ next to ‘Public Profile’ a little way down the page.
2. Add your LinkedIn profile page to your email signature.  For gmail click on ’settings’ in the upper right hand corner and in the text box half way down the page labeled ’signature’ enter a custom signature including your new Public Profile URL.
3. Connect with your existing contacts.  Click on ‘add connections’ on the left side of the screen and follow the process of letting LinkedIn scan your gmail, outlook or other contact lists.  By doing so you will be able to invite your contacts to connect using the very easy process provided on the site.  Note that you will not automatically invite everyone in your gmail or outlook contact list.
4. Use the Browser Toolbar.  The most important feature of the browser toolbar is that it adds a LinkedIn icon next to email addresses in your gmail.  This icon enables you to see a LinkedIn summary (job title, position in your network, number of contacts, etc) of any person who emails you.  It also enables you to invite people to LinkedIn from your gmail account - making it easier to connect with people.
5. Use the Outlook Toolbar.  This application integrates into your outlook as is useful in a few ways.  First, it adds a LinkedIn icon that is similar to the one described in the browser toolbar.  Second, it enables you to update your outlook contacts based upon changes that people make to their LinkedIn profiles - keeping your contacts up to date.
6. Add a picture.  It’s always helpful for other people to be able to associate your face with your background, making it easier for people to introduce themselves at social events.

LinkedIn Etiquette

Standard for connecting.  When I first started using LinkedIn I viewed a connection as an endorsement.  I no longer see it that way, because I realized that my connections do not have direct access to each other - I have to approve introductions.  At this point, I am willing to connect with anyone with which I would normally exchange contact information (e.g., a business card).

Appropriate use of the name field.  Some folks insert additional information into the name field on their profile.  The most often additions are a title or an email address.  I understand that they do this because in some forms of search on the site the name field is the only thing that shows up.  However, I don’t like it.  Not only does it seem aggressive in general, but also it screws up their contact information for everyone that uses the outlook toolbar. 

It’s OK not to forward an intro:  People can request that you introduce them to someone else in your network.  While it’s a bit awkward to say ‘no’, I think that it’s appropriate to do so if it makes you uncomfortable.

This column was provided by Mark Davis, the author of Get Venture, a column designed to help entrepreneurs raise venture capital. In addition to his column, Mark is active in the venture community as an entrepreneur, advisor and venture capitalist. He currently works at DFJ Gotham Ventures, a leading early-stage IT venture capital fund based in NYC. Mark has also setup a variety of regional venture communities on LinkedIn.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, May 8th, 2008 at 11:42 am and is filed under LinkedIn, Insights, Mark Davis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.