Getting Connected on LinkedIn

Are you linked in? Or is this foreign territory in the great land of social media for you? To bring you up to speed a bit, LinkedIn is the leading social networking directory for professionals and companies. While your fans might not be found here, your colleagues certainly will. More than 120 million people connect regularly on this site to find job opportunities and network with others.

You can easily create an online account to share your résumé, writing history, upcoming books, and more about you.

Link Up to Your Advantage
This great social networking tool is a great approach to connecting with other authors, editors, agents, researchers, and others in the publishing world. You never know when you might need a contact at a publishing house and LinkedIn® professional networking services is the place to find it.

Don’t feel you have to restrict yourself to only those in your industry, however. Link up with your friends, family, former colleagues, and anyone and everyone. You never know who might have the connection you’re looking for!

Dos and Don’ts of the LinkedIn Universe
There are many opportunities to utilize this site, but don’t fall prey to social media etiquette failure.

Do: Utilize the status update, but choose your updates wisely. Be sure they match your professional persona and think carefully about your audience.

Don’t: Link up your account to Twitter or post updates about what you had for dinner or how cute your puppy is. LinkedIn®  is for professional use. Keep it a bit more formal and save the personal stuff for Twitter.

Do: Join a group. Or five. LinkedIn® professional networking services provide some great groups for various careers and professional interests. Find a few that interest you, connect, and join in the conversation.

Don’t: Waste time on groups that have nothing to do with your professional interests. If you’re not writing a book on why the new Bachelorette episode is causing scandal, then you shouldn’t be in a group about it.

Do: Recommend trusted colleagues and individuals. Maybe they’ll do the same for you. A good recommendation can help you out later down the line when you may need to find an expert in a particular field.

Don’t: Recommend your mom, your bestie, or your cousin’s girlfriend’s sister just because they wrote a rec for you.

Do: Fill out your profile to the max! Include your résumé, link to your blog and other social networking sites, and add a few photos. Give your connections a feel of who you are and what you do.

Don’t: Group photos are not appropriate. Be sure your photos are of you only — and try to stay away from pictures of you on that winery tour last year. This also isn’t the place to share how cute your cats are or pics of your adorable niece. That stuff belongs on Facebook instead.

Now Get Out There!

We hope these tips and tricks haven’t scared you off and instead are encouraging you to join this helpful site and start making connections.

Already on LinkedIn? Good for you — you’re ahead of the game! Tell us in the comments how it’s helped you professionally. Got a good story about a connection you’ve made? We want to hear about it!

Tags: connecting, publishing, Socia Media for authors, writers and linkedIn