❷ Establish a strategy for handling networking, contacts and endorsing /recommendations

LinkedIn is a site for establishing contacts along with building networks.  So it is important that you have a LinkedIn Networking Strategy. The strategy will determine how fast you build your network, the size of your network as well as the quality of the network. Ultimately it will answer the following question for you - How useful or valuable is your LinkedIn network?

In his blog the Undercover Recruiter Jorgen Sundberg details the 3 most popular LinkedIn Networking Strategies

LION

Professional Networker

This is what I believe LinkedIn was intended for, professionals connecting up to further each other's' careers. This would be the most typical LinkedIn user. A salesperson would connect to his or her clients, the client would connect to their suppliers etc. You don't actually have to have met the other person but you will have dealt with them and deem there is a value being connected for both your careers. Professional networkers will normally have anything from 200 to one thousand connections.

Exclusive Networker

This category of people will only ever connect to people they know well, trust and respect. This type of networker is likely to be very selective and can be drawn upon for passing on introductions and recommendations. You could say that the exclusive networker is actually not increasing their connections, merely storing them digitally on LinkedIn. There can be several reasons for wanting to be an exclusive networker, keeping your connections and activities confidential are certainly a major one. Exclusive networkers will rarely have more than 200 connections; remember that these are tight relationships formed over the years.

❸ Complete your LinkedIn profile to 100%

Before you start "tinkering" with your LinkedIn profile (or hiring a professional to enhance your profile), please take a minute to do the following:

·       From the drop-down menu next to your name on the right side of the Home page, choose Settings.

·       On the bottom left of the Settings page is a column titled Privacy Controls. Immediately under that heading is a hyperlink that reads "Turn on/off your activity broadcasts."

·       Click on the activity broadcasts link and a dialog box will open giving you an option to choose who will see your activity updates. This will allow you make changes without the world know what you are doing. 

·       If the box is checked to "Let people know when you change your profile, make recommendations, or follow companies," uncheck it.   Again this is to keep the changes secrete until you are finished will all the changes. 

·       Add a good quality professional picture

·       Use the headline to deliver a basic sales pitch about yourself

❹ Endorsement Mondays │ Recommendation Weekly

Every Monday, take 10 minutes out of your morning to pay-it-forward by endorsing 10 people in your LinkedIn network. Imagine how you would feel if in your inbox on a Monday (a.k.a the day of the week when even the most cheerful people struggle to get going), you found endorsements of your skill sets from your peers. 

Recommendations are essential to you. Seek them proactively and seek them passively. Proactive recommendation seeking involves reaching out and asking someone to recommend

you. Passive recommendation seeking involves recommending someone, at which point LinkedIn asks them to recommend you back. The latter is actually a bit more effective.