This post is part of a series reviewing, and in a very un-manly fashion, actually following the instructions in Sams Teach Yourself LinkedIn in 10 Minutes by Patrice-Anne Rutledge. In order to do this, I deleted my old, ineffective LinkedIn profile, and following Ms. Rutledge’s advice am creating a brand new one, one chapter at a time. The goal is to make a profile that is both effective and generates results, as well as to learn how to use LinkedIn effectively. So on with the show!

Creating My LinkedIn Profile

Starting with Chapter 1, I signed up for LI again. The procedure was so painfully simple that I am struggling to figure out how to write a whole paragraph about it. The only thing in this chapter that I think bears repeating here is one peice of sage advice: don’t invite any contacts until after you’re created your profile. This may seem like a simple thing, right until you log into your brand new account, only to find a largish box asking you to invite your contacts staring you in the face. Don’t do it. Instead, move on to chapter 2, and come back to expanding your network when you actualy have a profile to show them.

The book advises you to start with a goal for your profile. For me this means tailoring my profile to help me find a job. For others it might be locating consulting opportunities, clients, or establishing credibility in their field. There is a whole list of different ways that LinkedIn can be used. Just know what you want to get out of the site before you start, and you will be off to a good start.

In Chapter 2 we began to create the profile itself. Again, pretty simple and straight forward. Ms. Rutledge has a variety of tips and advice to help you keep on track with your goals, such as, “A profile isn’t a resume”, and a reminder not to get so caught up in filling out forms that you forget why you’re filling them out. That may seem like a no-brainer, but when you’ve got a little progress bar telling you that your profile is only 70%, complete your priorities may get a little realigned. It happens to everybody. Or so I keep telling myself.

There is one thing that I am wondering about, though: even with no contacts yet, I somehow found myself with no less than 4 invitations to join a group. I imagine that there is a perfectly rational reason for this, jsut like I assume that it happens to all new members. However, signing in to my shiny new profile (that would be the profile that I hadn’t created yet) only to find people inviting me to join things was a little strange. Groups are covered in Chapter 11, so the invites can sit there until I’m ready for them.

Join me next time when I get to the interesting part: Chapter 3, Adding and Managing Connections. If things go well, I may even move on to Chapter 4, Customizing your LinkedIn Settings, but no promises yet.

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Elegant in its simplicity, LinkedIn is the preferred networking site for over 40 million business professionals across the globe. So when I was asked to review a book about LinkedIn, my first question was: given the site’s simplicity, how do you write a whole book on it? The answer lies in Patrice-Anne Rutledge’s book, Sams Teach Yourself LinkedIn in 10 Minutes.

Now, before I get to the review, please allow me to preface this with one small factoid: I have never received much benefit from my participation on the site. As it turns out, there was a very good reason for that. I had no idea how to use LinkedIn effectively. As one who is daily immersed in a complex online world, I have no idea what to do with simplicity. None whatsoever. I found myself constantly looking for some magic button that would reveal the arcane depths that made LI so powerful for so many. Let me state this plainly: after reading the book I have discovered the truth: there is no button. It really is that simple. Continued…