Linkedin Social Networking Guide for Techies

If you’re like most technical professionals, especially those in the trenches working day in day out and hands on with hardware and/or software, who has the time to network in the professional sense, right?  Moreover, you made a good first step in setting up a basic profile on Linkedin so that should be enough, you say. But, it’s not. It is only the first in many steps you should take to build a professional network of friends and associates for your career in information technology. Fortunately, there is help out there to make the process of professional social networking a lot easier, and it’s in the form of a book titled, How to REALLY use Linkedin. 

In the book, the authors Jan Vermeiren and Bert Verdonck, not only set out to simplify the process of correctly setting up a Linkedin profile, but cover a multitude of other features or functionality in the social networking site that might otherwise be overlooked by busy IT professionals. The book also has excellent tips and tricks as well as, dos and don’ts that will allow you leverage nearly every aspect of Linkedin and avoid pitfalls, respectively. The book also provides practical tips on networking in the real world or face to face as well.   

In addition, if you’re a tech entrepreneur,  the book offers extensive tips on how to build a company profile for your business and/or personal branding, which in turn ties to your own Linkedin profile to help market your company’s services or products. So whether you’re an independent contractor or have a small business, either of these Linkedin features can help market your business in a passive manner on the leading business social network. Likewise, the authors also give some tips on how NOT to market your company on Linkedin, which could damage your reputation if not done properly (e.g. spamming, connecting to people you don’t know). 

So, if you’re constantly busy putting our fires and working through your trouble tickets as an IT pro, you can have Linkedin working for you in the background provided you spare some time up front and use this definitive guide to Linkedin. The book is now in its second edition and is available in both print and e-book. The e-book version is free and all royalties from the print version goes to charity, according to the authors. To download the book, visit http://www.how-to-really-use-linkedin.com.