{"id":11744,"date":"2015-04-24T19:46:56","date_gmt":"2015-04-24T19:46:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sandler.dsstaging2.com\/case-study\/how-to-get-started-on-linkedin\/"},"modified":"2022-10-18T16:00:24","modified_gmt":"2022-10-18T16:00:24","slug":"how-to-get-started-on-linkedin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/how-to-get-started-on-linkedin\/","title":{"rendered":"How to get started on LinkedIn"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>No matter your age or experience level, LinkedIn is the platform for social networking when it comes to business. Today, there are more than 300 million registered LinkedIn users with 100 million of those users residing in the United States. And while that statistic makes it seem like everyone is already on LinkedIn, that\u2019s not entirely true. More people are joining every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For years Sandler Training has impressed the importance of networking in order to expand your connections and your horizons. Today, that same notion is applied to social networking. If you\u2019ve been considering joining LinkedIn, here are some terms you should know before you get started:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Profile<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2013 A page that describes you and your professional experience. You can customize your profile to include a variety of information about your professional life, including work experience, education, skills, certifications and projects that speak to your professional portfolio.<\/li><li><strong>Connections<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2013 Your network of contacts on LinkedIn. To start you should send invitations to connect with contacts you know on a professional level while also accepting incoming connections from people you know. Connections come in a variety of levels:<ul><li><strong>1st degree<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2013 Those who you are directly connected with on LinkedIn, you can send and receive messages from these connections and view their full profile.<\/li><li><strong>2nd degree<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2013 Those who are connected to your 1st degree connections, but not directly connected to you. You can send them an invitation to connect or request an introduction from your 1st degree connection. You can also use InMail to send them a message.<\/li><li><strong>3rd degree<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2013 Those who are connected to your 2nd degree connections. You will only be able to see a limited view of their profile. And depending on their personal settings you may or may not be able to send an invitation to connect with them.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><strong>Groups<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2013 A place to connect with professionals in certain industries or that have specific interests. LinkedIn Groups allow professionals to post questions and engage in discussions relevant to a specific industry. Some groups are public and anyone can join, others are private and require an administrator\u2019s approval to join.<\/li><li><strong>Company Pages<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2013 These are pages used by organizations to create brand awareness and share news and helpful tips with followers<\/li><li><strong>InMail<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2013 The LinkedIn messaging platform that can be used to contact users on LinkedIn that are not in your current list of connections. This is a paid function of LinkedIn, so you must have a Premium account to use InMail.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Now that you\u2019ve been informed of the key terms, you\u2019re ready to move forward and start making \u201cconnections\u201d on LinkedIn. Use the following steps to optimize your efforts and get the most out of your newest business development tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Set up your profile<\/strong>. Your profile is your foundation to success on LinkedIn. At the very least you should include a summary (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sandler.com\/blog\/how-to-prepare-your-thirty-second-commercial\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">refer to your thirty-second commercial for this<\/a>), detailed information about your work experience and a professional quality headshot.<\/li><li><strong>Connect with people you already know<\/strong>. Build your base of connections with professional contacts you know and trust. LinkedIn can access your address book to help you find contacts. This will expand your network of 2<sup>nd<\/sup>&nbsp;degree connections that you can reach out to in the future with an introduction from someone you already know or if you have a premium profile connect with through InMail.<\/li><li><strong>Join groups.<\/strong>&nbsp;Engage will others in your industry by asking questions or joining in discussions on groups.<\/li><li><strong>Post relevant and interesting content<\/strong>. Share articles related to your industry or business. Providing valuable information to your network of connections is one way to&nbsp;showcase your expertise and thought leadership.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Once you\u2019ve set up a profile with a solid foundation, LinkedIn can be a great tool for&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/reports.sandler.com\/linkedin-prospecting\/?utm_source=blog&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=howtolinkedin&amp;utm_content=linkedinprospect\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">prospecting<\/a>. Do you have any tips for first-time LinkedIn users? Share your suggestions in the comments below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>No matter your age or experience level, LinkedIn is the platform for social networking when it comes to business. Today, there are more than 300 million registered LinkedIn users with 100 million of those users residing in the United States. And while that statistic makes it seem like everyone is already on LinkedIn, that\u2019s not&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":167,"featured_media":11745,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1120],"tags":[1186,1169,1026,1115],"class_list":["post-11744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-online-networking","tag-online-prospecting","tag-prospecting","tag-qualifying"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How to Get Started on LinkedIn | Sandler Training<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"No matter your age or experience level, LinkedIn is the platform for social networking when it comes to business. Today, there are more than 300 million registered LinkedIn users with 100 million of those users residing in the United States.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/how-to-get-started-on-linkedin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Get Started on LinkedIn | Sandler Training\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"No matter your age or experience level, LinkedIn is the platform for social networking when it comes to business. Today, there are more than 300 million registered LinkedIn users with 100 million of those users residing in the United States.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/how-to-get-started-on-linkedin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sandler\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-04-24T19:46:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-10-18T16:00:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/How-to-get-started-on-LinkedIn.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"697\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"465\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Alexa Ray\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Alexa Ray\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/how-to-get-started-on-linkedin\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/how-to-get-started-on-linkedin\/\",\"name\":\"How to Get Started on LinkedIn | Sandler Training\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/how-to-get-started-on-linkedin\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/how-to-get-started-on-linkedin\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/How-to-get-started-on-LinkedIn.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-04-24T19:46:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-10-18T16:00:24+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sandler.com\/#\/schema\/person\/018700f8e289bef3875442b2b77d16a9\"},\"description\":\"No matter your age or experience level, LinkedIn is the platform for social networking when it comes to business. 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