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You’re probably on Facebook by now — heck, you might have even deleted your Facebook account by now. Been there, done that? Well I’m not saying you should or shouldn’t, but if you’ve got time to post updates on your social day, why not take the time to do it for your career? LinkedIn is the professional’s Facebook. It operates in much the same fashion, except instead of personal interests you might post career interests. For example...

Interests (Facebook):
Guys with piercings, Eminem, Bieber hair, Ed Hardy jeans.

Interests (LinkedIn):
Sales analysis, big picture thinking, environmental impacts, Web 3.0.
 
The difference is a shift in focus from your social ambitions to your career ambitions. LinkedIn is about making connections and building a strong portfolio of work experience as opposed to stalking connections and building a portfolio of pictures of you in carnal alcoholia. Ever hear of those people that shouldn’t have put their boss on their Facebook? Probably should have kept them on their LinkedIn instead.
 

First, build and post your resume (or a shortened version thereof).
As I mentioned earlier, you want to build a profile on LinkedIn drastically different from what you portray on Facebook. On LinkedIn, you can limit your profile to a quick hit - Name, Occupation — or you can shoot for the moon. Don’t worry, privacy settings can limit who accesses what, but for me, my profile is my resume. It shows people what I do and who I am in my job and my career. This way that Director of Marketing I met at the convention last weekend, or that Vice-president of HR I met at the BBQ can see more of me than I would have had a chance to tell them about over lemonade and chicken. They can see the whole picture for that key position they’ve been trying to fill, and I don’t even have to apply.
 

Next, start your network by connecting with your friends… then your coworkers, and your clients, customers, etc.
You don’t want to invite people you have a professional relationship with before you have a good foundation of connections — believe me they’ll look. (Wouldn’t you?) Start with your friends and then you’ll have a broad range of connections with different experiences before you start inviting colleagues and clients. They won’t necessarily know that a friend is just friend; sell the fact that you know people and are career-popular — that is, you don’t have one million friends you’ve never met that just appreciate your “assets” (see Tila Tequila @ Facebook).
 

Now you can showcase your abilities by connecting your LinkedIn with your Twitter, your Blog, or a media presentation.
LinkedIn has applications you can add to your profile page that are a little more useful than your Farmville or your MafiaWars career. The surefire way to let people know you are a professional in your industry is to talk about it in an intelligent way — so open a Twitter account and let people know you were at the conference, or saw the talk by so-and-so, but keep it professional, and hook it in to post automatically on your LinkedIn, or write a blog and do the same. Each time you write an entry it will be automatically updated on your profile page as well.
 
Another great opportunity here, particularly if you create powerpoint presentations on a regular basis, or make media for marketing and/or education, is to post those on your profile so a broader audience gets to see what you do, and you don’t have to bother inundating people with requests or emails to “tune-in” or “check out.” LinkedIn updates most of its members (you can opt out) with what people in your network have been doing on a regular basis. It’s all a part of staying “linked in.”
 

Finally, collect some recommendations from your connections.
They are the best testament to your abilities and your work ethic, and once you have them, you don’t need to go looking for them every time you apply for a job. LinkedIn lets you ask for recommendations, and in return you can give them too. (Just don’t think your boss needs a reference from you — they’d probably prefer one from their own boss.) I’ve given phone references and I’ve written letters of reference. Letters are the easiest and best because once you hand them to an employer, they get an instant picture, and they don’t have to worry about tracking down all those old associates of yours (and neither do you!). You may not want to print off the recommendations you receive on LinkedIn to bring to an interview, but you can always refer an employer to your LinkedIn profile. There’s also the potential that a prospective employer might find you and read them — it’s always better to be offered a job than to ask for one!