LinkedIn For Dummies
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The good news is that you don’t need to install anything or pay to use many of the LinkedIn features that will help you keep up regular communication with your network. You may have to adjust settings to get some automatic notifications.

One of the easiest ways to get started with good communication is to share a LinkedIn update, as follows:

  1. Pull up the home page and click in the update text box, in the middle of the screen, where the prompt reads Share an article, photo, video, or idea.

    The update box transforms into a more full-featured post box.

    LinkedIn status updates Post updates to stay in touch with your network.
  2. Start writing your update in the box provided, where it says Write here or use @ to mention someone.

    You can also click the Images button to add one or more pictures to your update, or the Video button to upload a video file to your update.

  3. To link to someone while typing your update:
    1. Type the @ symbol and begin typing the person’s name.

      LinkedIn starts prompting you for potential matches, starting with first-degree connections, and then potential second- or third-degree network members.

      tag people LinkedIn You can tag people in your status update by using the @ sign.
    2. Select the name you want to mention.

      The name is highlighted and becomes part of your update. You can link to more than one person.

      When your update is posted, that person will receive a notification that he or she was mentioned in your post and will be able to go straight to the post to see what you wrote.

  4. When you’ve finished writing your update, you can choose privacy settings for this post by clicking the drop-down arrow next to the Post Settings button, in the bottom-right corner, and making your selection.

    status privacy LinkedIn Determine the privacy level for your update post.

    Your privacy choices for your post are as follows:

    • Public: Anyone on LinkedIn and non-members of LinkedIn can see the post.
    • Public + Twitter: Anyone on or off LinkedIn or Twitter can see the post.
    • Connections: Only LinkedIn members who are connected to you will see this post on their news feed.
  5. If you want to disallow comments on your post, deselect the Allow Comment on This Post option in the Post Setting drop-down list.This option is set to Yes by default.

    You can alter this setting later, after the post has been made, in case you forget to turn off (or on) the comments feature at this stage.

  6. To make your update live on LinkedIn, click the blue Post button.The post is added to the top of your news feed and a message appears telling you that the post was successful. You might also see a notification pop-up in your notifications feed.

    live update LinkedIn Your update post is live on LinkedIn!

About This Article

This article is from the book:

About the book author:

Aaron Nicholson is an interactive media designer/developer who has developed online properties for Fox, Warner Brothers, and Disney.

Joel Elad covers online store sales for Entrepreneur Magazine and contributes to Smartbiz.com.

Damien Stolarz has written books on technology topics from video blogging to car hacks.

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