1. Join Groups – and be active in them!

Groups should be chosen based on their relevance to your career (current or intended), skills, and interests.

You will see updates and articles from people in these groups. You can even set your preferences to receive emails whenever a new topic is brought up.

This gives you the opportunity to learn new things about your industry, debate and give your opinion on group topics, and interact with others – which we’ll discuss more later.

As a member of these groups, you will have the opportunity to be seen. Many people make the mistake of only utilizing LinkedIn when they need something.

By being active in your groups, people will begin to recognize you, thus creating bonds that may be useful to one or both of you in the future.

Groups are fantastic tools for Professional Networking. The more people, companies, groups, etc. you are affiliated with on LinkedIn, the higher your search rankings.

Not only will your affiliation with a number of groups help to improve your rankings, but as you interact with others, you can “Connect” with them and grow your network, which will also help to improve your search rankings.

2. Follow Companies, Schools, or People

Another great way to stay informed about your industry and grow your network is to follow important companies, schools, people, news outlets, industry leaders, etc. LinkedIn is pretty user-friendly, so finding and following someone is a simple process, starting from your Edit Profile page (towards the bottom).

If you have companies or people in mind, you can search for them by name. Otherwise, you can just pay attention to the authors of the articles that LinkedIn populates for you. If you read an article and you like it, you can look for the author and Follow them.

3. Interact with Others

 If you haven’t already picked up on it by now, being active and interactive is important on LinkedIn. And it doesn’t have to be a difficult or time-consuming task to complete.

Just be diligent about logging onto LinkedIn once or twice a week, checking in with your groups, and commenting a few times. Then, if you find yourself consistently interacting with the same person or people, consider sending a “Connect” request to grow your network.

4. Request Recommendations

Endorsements are great – I am always appreciative when I receive them from others, and I try hard to give endorsements when I think they are deserved.

Endorsements are not, however, given much weight by recruiters and hiring employers. Recommendations are a much more impressive.

If you haven’t already, try to connect with as many of your current or previous coworkers, supervisors, managers, teachers, etc. as you can.

Of course, be smart about who you choose – you should only connect with people you trust to represent you in a positive and professional way.

If you are connecting with people that you haven’t talked to in a while, it may be smart to work towards re-establishing your connection before you ask for a recommendation. If you ask for a recommendation right away, it can come across as self-serving.

Always be smart and considerate with your interactions.

When you do ask, it may be helpful for you to explain your situation and/or what you are trying to accomplish now in your career, along with why you are asking for a recommendation from them.

I always make it a point to compliment and/or thank the person, because I know that at some point during the time we worked together, I probably gained something from them, and that is important to acknowledge. Be humble, show gratitude.

5. Write Posts

LinkedIn now allows any user to easily write, create, and publish (onto LinkedIn) posts about any professional topic they’d like. Once you are comfortable with how LinkedIn works and you have read several articles and posts from other users, you should consider writing posts of your own.

As I mentioned, these posts should be related to professional topics, and should be written with a professional “voice”.

As a general rule, you should stick to topics related to your industry. Whatever you feel like you have the most expertise in is probably the best place to start. Posts don’t have to be terribly lengthy, but they should cover a specific topic enough to come to a resolution.

If you’re not sure how to present or format your post, one easy way to get started is to write a List post. “5 Ways to Increase Sales”, “Top 10 Strategies for Gaining Higher Market Share”, etc.

These are sometimes easier to write for beginners, because they automatically organize your thoughts into an easy-to-present way.

However you decide to write and format your post, be sure to include a picture. You want your post to be eye-catching so more people are drawn to reading it.

You can find pictures online related to your topic, and you can even go so far as to create a meme out of them.

When searching for photos, be sure to search for “free stock photos” so as not to encounter any copyrighting issues.